(b. 1692, Rouen, d. 1768, Paris)

The Death of St Scholastica 1730 Oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours

Jean Restout had a tremendously successful career and he exercised an influence, through a long life, which links him to the revival of history painting as a school for morals and virtue in the later years of the eighteenth century.

The Death of St Scholastica, signed and dated 1730 was commissioned for a monastery at Bourgueil, not far from Tours, and is the companion picture to an Ecstasy of St Benedict. These two pictures represent an expressive extreme not often attempted by French art and best paralleled perhaps in some of Michel-Ange Slodtz' sculpture, for example the <A onclick="return OpenOther('/html/s/slodtz/rene_mic/st_bruno.html')" href="/html/s/slodtz/rene_mic/st_bruno.html">St Bruno.</A> Combined with the prominent, hypnotically detailed floorboards and observation of the wood grain of the desk, the collapsed figure of St Scholastica dissolves like a dying flame. Restout created a highly personal masterpiece.

Most of Restout's contemporaries had to execute at least some religious paintings but, apart from Subleyras, none equalled his intense, artistic conviction.

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Author: RESTOUT, Jean II Title: The Death of St Scholastica Time-line: 1701-1750 School: French Form: painting