Circle of Triomphe Bigot (The Candlelight Master) (1579-1650...

Estimate

€15,000 - €20,000

Circle of Triomphe Bigot (The Candlelight Master) (1579-1650)  

“Angel and the Dead Christ, at Candlelight, c. 1630,”  O.O.P.,  97cms x 136cms  (38” x 53 ½”), in painted and ornate gilt frame.   (1)

Provenance: Purchased in December 1999 Christies - previously in a Private Collection Paris.

While Caravaggio is widely acknowledged as the leading artist of ‘Chiaroscuro’, or ‘Tenebrist’ scenes in Rome in the mid seventeenth century, there were others who produced excellent paintings in this style, including the Dutch artist Gerrit van Honthorst, the French painter Georges de la Tour, and Triomphe Bigot, an artist who hailed from Provence in France. Part of the Tenebrist School, these artists used dramatic lighting, and extremes of light and dark, to focus attention on the drama of what they were portraying. In this painting, an angel raises her hand to draw attention to the body of the dead Christ. Only the angel’s face and arm are illuminated; there is a slight hint of wings but the rest is in darkness. Darkness also surrounds the dead Christ, whose hands are clasped together, and whose face is illuminated by a single candle, the sole source of light in the scene depicted.

The attribution to Triomphe Bigot is convincing. Also known as Théophile Bigot, and ‘The Candlelight Master’ (Maître à la Chandelle), Bigot was born in Arles in 1579 and trained as an artist in that city.  In his forties, he spent a decade in Italy, including Rome, where this work was likely painted. By 1634 he was back in Arles, where he painted altarpieces for local churches, including Saint Laurence Condemned to Torture, and The Assumption of the Virgin. From 1638 he lived in Aix-en-Provence, and returned to Arles four years later. He died in Avignon in 1650 and is buried in that city. Only in relatively recent times has it been confirmed that Triomphe Bigot, painter of conventional altarpieces in Provence and the ‘Maître à la Chandelle’ who produced dramatic candlelit scenes in Rome, were one in the same person.

Peter Murray 2026

Note:  The present work is similar to the copy previously housed at La Salle University Art Museum, Philadelphia and sold at Christies, N.Y. in 2018.

More Information

Please see additional images
- been professionally relined
- some restoration and blemishes