PIERRE, Jean-Baptiste-Marie

In this bacchanal scene naked nymphs are decorating a herm (a squared stone pillar with a carved head on top, used in ancient Greece as a boundary marker or a signpost). The high level of finish in the drawing suggests it was intended as a complete work on its own, but Pierre might have made a print after it, as he did of several of his drawings.

Churches in Paris, which were generally accessible to the public, were considered to be worthy sites for notable works. Several churches boasted contemporary paintings that had already become famous. Saint-Roch had a ceiling in the Chapel of the Virgin painted by Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre.

Danaë, the daughter of king Acrisius, who had been foretold peril from the hand of his grandson, was placed in a tower, under the care of her old nurse. Zeus (Jupiter) anamoured of Danaë penetrated to her in the shape of a golden shower of rain.

The theme of Danaë was popular and frequently represented in Renaissance and Baroque painting. You can view other depictions of Danaë in the Web Gallery of Art.

Winner of prize for painting at the Academy in 1734, this success earned Pierre stay at the Academy of France in Rome as a pensioner of the King from 1735 to 1740 under the direction of Nicolas Vleughels then Jean-Francois de Troy. The present painting was executed during the artist’s stay in Rome.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Castor et Pollux, March

The painter treated this subject on several occasions. The present work was a preparatory oil sketch for a tapestry cartoon for the series Amours des Dieux, commissioned by the king as a gift for the marquis de Marigny. The tapestries were woven at the Gobelins manufactory, but Pierre’s cartoon, formerly in the Mus�e d’Arras, was destroyed in World War I.