# The Mass of Saint Basil [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SUBLEYRAS, Pierre]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 137 x 79 cm ## Commentary This is a highly finished proposal, or modello, for Subleyras's most important commission: the full-scale design for a mosaic altarpiece for Saint Peter's in Rome. It depicts Saint Basil the Great \(ca. 330–379\) celebrating the Mass in the presence of the Emperor Valens, a heretical Arian. Surrounded by priests, Basil receives the wine for consecration. Valens's required gifts of bread are presented by figures at the left while to the right the emperor swoons, moved by the solemnity of the Mass. The painter seems to have retained the modello for himself. It is recorded in his posthumous inventory, and remains in its original frame. Having completed the portrait of Pope Benedict XIV in 1741, Subleyras was granted in 1743 the major papal commission for St. Peters Basilica of "Saint Basile Celebrating Mass in front of Emperor Valens." The canvas, finished in 1747, was briefly displayed in St. Peter's in Rome in 1748. The work was translated into mosaic, and designated for display not far away from the mosaic after Poussin of The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus. In 1752 the monumental painting was moved to an altar in Santa Maria degli Angeli, where it can still be seen today. Three works showing the full composition are usually accepted as autograph: a modello in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; another in the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg; and one in the Metropolitan. The latter picture is probably the one kept by the artist and reproduced in his painting <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/s/subleyra/studio.html'\)" href="/html/s/subleyra/studio.html">The Atelier</a> \(now in the Akademie, Vienna\). The Atelier shows the original "Marata" frame, which is still on the present work, although enlarged and transformed in the nineteenth century. <p> <table align=left cellpadding=5 border=1 width=320 bgcolor="\#99cccc"> <tr valign=middle><td><img src="/support/gif/listen.gif" border=0 valign=middle> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 2 minutes\):<br><a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/18\_cent/werner\_vesperae.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><b>Gregor Joseph Werner: Vesperae de Confessoris - Iste confessor</b></a> </td></tr></table> ## Related artworks - [Charon Ferrying the Shades]() - [Christ at the House of Simon the Pharisee]() - [Don Cesare Benvenuti]() - [Investing with Insignia]() - [Mass of St Basil]() - [Portrait of a Man]() - [Portrait of a Man]() - [Self-Portrait before the Easel]() - [St Ambrose Converting Theodosius]() - [The Feast in the House of Simon]() - [The Marriage of St Catherine]() - [The Mass of Saint Basil]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()