COLOMBEL, Nicolas

(b. 1644 Sotteville-les-Rouen, d. 1717 Paris)

French painter. After studying under Pierre de Sève (1623-1695) in Paris, he travelled before 1680 to Rome, where he was profoundly influenced by Raphael and, above all, by Poussin, whose drawings and paintings he copied. In 1682 he sent to Paris four paintings of subjects taken from the life of Christ, which are his first surviving works. They are Christ Expelling the Money-changers from the Temple and Christ Healing the Blind Man (both Art Museum, Saint Louis), Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen) and Mary Magdalen Brought before Christ (Museum and Picture Gallery, Vadodara).

Elected to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1686, he was back in Paris by 1693 at the latest. Colombel, supported by Pierre Mignard, was approved (agréé) and then received as a full member (reçu) by the Académie Royale in 1694. There he became an associate professor (1701) and then professor (1705). He exhibited at the Salons of 1699 and 1704.

He was much employed by Louis XIV both at Versailles and at Meudon. Many of his works have been engraved.

Atalanta and Hippomenes

In the Boeotian version of the legend, followed by Ovid (Met. 10:560-707), Atalanta was an athletic huntress. Her way with her suitors was to challenge them to a race in which the loser was punished with death. She remained unbeaten and a virgin until Hippomenes (elsewhere named Melanion) took her on. As they ran he dropped three golden apples, given to him by Venus, and since Atalanta could not resist stopping to pick them up she lost the race. They later made love in a temple of Cybele, which offended the goddess so much that she turned them both into lions.

In the picture Atalanta is shown in the act of stooping to pick up an apple as Hippomenes overtakes her. Colombel’s Atalanta is clearly inspired by the woman in Guido Reni’s famous painting of the same subject in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Both are shown in profile with their athletic right arms reaching out for the apple. Less frantic, however, Colombel’s stately figure is more decidedly Poussinesque.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 12 minutes):

George Frideric Handel: Atalanta, Act 3 (excerpts)

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Christ Healing the Blind

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Diana Returning from the Hunt

Colombel travelled before 1680 to Rome, where he was profoundly influenced by Poussin, whose drawings and paintings he copied.

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