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Lot Essay
This dramatic and very moving composition is the work of the Provençal painter Trophime Bigot, who is also sometimes called or merely confused with the Candlelight Master, was a native of Arles, where he received his initial artistic training. However it is not known in which master’s studio he served an apprenticeship. He traveled to Italy around 1620 and resided in Rome, where he fully absorbed the influence of the works of Caravaggio and his followers. He may well have been the Teofilo Bigotti documented in the archives of the Accademia di San Luca in the 1620s. Writers such as the historian Joachim von Sandrart make reference to a painter from Languedoc whom he calls Trufemondi who made a speciality of half-length nocturnal pictures in the manner of Caravaggio. Trophime Bigot returned to Arles only in 1634, and there he painted a number of altarpieces for local churches. He lived in Aix-en-Provence between 1638 and 1642. He resumed his career in Arles, but died in Avignon. He was the author of such pictures as Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop in the British Royal Collection at Hampton Court, St. Sebastien Attended by Irene in the Musée des Beaux-Arts at Bordeaux and the Supper at Emmaus in the Musée Condé at Chantilly.
The subject of this painting was taken from passages in the New Testament that recount the stages of Christ’s Passion, the most relevant being the Gospel according to St. Matthew.
`Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
And then they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew: XXVII, 27-31; see also Mark: XV, 65 and Luke: XXII, 63-65).
The subject of this painting was taken from passages in the New Testament that recount the stages of Christ’s Passion, the most relevant being the Gospel according to St. Matthew.
`Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
And then they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew: XXVII, 27-31; see also Mark: XV, 65 and Luke: XXII, 63-65).