Portrait of the painter Barbault as standard-bearer during the Turkish Masquerade of 1748

The painter Jean Barbault, portrayed here posing as a model in Oriental costume, was a resident at the French Academy in Rome when, on the occasion of the carnival of 1748, the students of the Academy organized a sumptuous celebration entitled the Caravanne du Sultan à la Mecque. The twelve residents of the Academy participated in the masquerade themselves and also depicted the various characters in elaborate costumes. According to the director of the Academy, Jean-François de Troy, ‘each [of the artists] made separate drawings that could serve as studies for the costumes of the Orientals, which conformed to all the characteristics of the characters they represented with great accuracy’ (A. de Montaiglon and J. Guiffrey, Correspondance des Directeurs de l'Académie de France à Rome, Paris, 1910, X, p. 146, March 27, 1748). A large number of drawings, paintings and engravings by the different residents survive. Indeed, at least five series of drawings depicting characters from the Caravanne have now been identified, including those by Joseph-Marie Vien, who also made engravings, and those by Jean Barbault himself, who also created paintings after the masquerade (de Los Llanos, op. cit., p. 42 ). It is difficult to distinguish the hands of the authors of the other three drawn series, which are therefore currently designated as series A, B, and C (see Volle and Rosenberg, op. cit.).

The present drawing belongs to series B and depicts Barbault in the costume of a Standard bearer. The same character is portrayed in a drawing by Joseph-Marie Vien at the Petit Palais (inv. Dut. 1071; T. Gaehtgens, J. Lugand, Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809), Paris, 1988, no. 21), in an engraving by Vien (ibid., p. 282, no. 6), and in a drawing from Series A at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (inv. 62.619; Volle and Rosenberg, op. cit., no. 17) which was at one time attributed to Guillaume Voiriot. There are several differences between the versions of the same figure. In the present drawing, for example, the figure holds a short sabre while in the others he has a long standard.