SUVÉE, Joseph-Benoit

A number of Bruges painters earned international renown during the neoclassical period, forming what might justly be called a Bruges school of Neoclassicism. Joseph B. Suv�e even won the Prix de Rome, beating Jacques-Louis David into second place. He later became a member of the Acad�mie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris and director of the Acad�mie de France in Rome. It was largely thanks to his efforts as a teacher in Paris and Rome that a succession of former pupils of the Bruges Academy were able to embark on international careers.

In the painting traditionally titled The invention of the Art of Drawing, Suv�e tells the well-known story of the daughter of the Greek potter Butades, who draws the shadow silhouette of her lover. This rational, balanced composition can be seen as a symbolic illustration of the Platonic aesthetic theory that underpinned classical art - art as shade of reality.

Milo (or Milon) of Croton was a legendary Greek wrestler from the Greek settlement of Croton in southern Italy. He won the wrestling contest at five successive Olympic Games, and swept the board at all other festivals. A man of huge stature, he boasted that no one had ever brought him to his knees. It is said that he carried a live ox upon his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia, then ate it all in a single day. Tradition has it that in his old age, on seeing an oak tree partly split open with a wedge he tried to wrench it apart, but only succeeded in causing the wedge to fall out, thereby trapping his hands. He was left a helpless prey to the wild beast who soon finished him off. He is usually depicted in Baroque art as a partly naked muscular figure, his hands imprisoned by a tree trunk, and attacked by a lion.

The undated, but still baroque Milo of Croton shows the Greek athlete being devoured by wolves, his hand caught in a cleft tree trunk. Milon’s pose was borrowed from the famous Hellenistic statue of Laoco�n. It is an early work and a copy after the Frenchman Jean Jacques Bachelier.

You can view other depictions of Milo of Croton in the Web Gallery of Art.

In 1771 Suv�e’s The Combat of Mars and Minerva was the first-prize winner in the competition for the Prix de Rome. Jacques-Louis David came second with his painting of the same subject. Suv�e’s painting was more balanced and elegant than David’s unconvincing effort.