03 — ARTWORK
The Death of St Scholastica
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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THIS REPRODUCTION
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CURRENT LOCATION · Musée des Beaux-Arts (Tours)
- FILE
- 755 × 1400 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Jean Restout had a tremendously successful career and he exercised an influence, through a long life, which links him to the revival of history paintingPainting concerned with the representation of scenes from the Bible, history (usually classical history), and classical literature. From the Renaissance to the 19th century it was considered the highest form of painting, its subjects considered morally elevating. 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 monasterythe complex of buildings used by a community of monks. Among the main elements of the complex are the church, cloister, chapter house (used by the governing body), refectory (dining room) and dormitory (sleeping quarters). 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 St Bruno. 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 masterpieceA term now loosely applied to the finest work by a particular artist or to any work of art of acknowledged greatness or of preeminence in its field. Originally it meant the piece of work by which a craftsman, having finished his training, gained the rank of'master' in his guild..
Most of Restout's contemporaries had to execute at least some religious paintings but, apart from Subleyras, none equalled his intense, artistic conviction.
OTHER WORKS BY JEAN II RESTOUT
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r5c0dabcaf82ade,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {The Death of St Scholastica by RESTOUT, Jean II},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-14},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/restout-jean-ii-re512d9ad364a70/the-death-of-st-scholastica-r5c0dabcaf82ade},
urldate = {2026-09-14},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-14. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.