A Tribunal

The precise subject of this charming painting had eluded identification, but it follows in a French tradition of depicting state ceremonial events that includes such paintings as Pierre Dulin's Establishment of the Invalides, Watteau's Louis XIV Bestowing the Cordon Bleu on the Duc de Bourgogne (Warsaw Museum), and Lancret's Lit de Justice at the Majority of Louis XV (Muse du Louvre, Paris). The present painting has been attributed quite reasonably to Franois Octavien, a painter of gallant subjects who was born in Rome to French parents in 1695. On September 30, 1724, he was provisionally accepted in the Acadmie Royale and a year later, on November 24, 1725, he was received as a full member. With Lancret, Pater and Bonaventure de Bar, Octavien became an early master of the fte galante and one of the most appealing and devoted followers of Watteau. His Foire de Bezons in the Muse du Louvre is his best-known work.