The Arrest of Saint John the Baptist

A remarkable representative of the A classical painter in Provence, Reynaud Levieux is a singular figure in 17th-century French art.
The son of a Protestant stained-glass artist from Uzès, who settled in Nîmes around 1612, he was born on January 6, 1613. After initial training in his father's workshop, from whom he would always retain a taste for smooth, contrasting painting with impeccable technique, he left for Rome in 1635.
There, he perfected his skills under the tutelage of the Old Masters and began to make a name for himself. Under the tutelage of Poussin, he copied Raphael—two painters who, moreover, would profoundly influence him.
Returning to France, he settled in Avignon, where he completed numerous commissions, notably for the Carthusian monks of Villeneuve.
He left the city only in 1669, accompanied by several assistants, to settle in Rome, where he died in 1699. The Confraternity of Florentine Black Penitents was established in the garden of the Grands Augustins convent in Avignon. Reynaud Levieux, who had become a member, was commissioned to create a cycle of seven paintings depicting the life of Saint John the Baptist, the confraternity's patron saint. The creation of this cycle lasted approximately forty years, from the first work in 1656 to the last in 1694. Of this collection, which was dispersed during the French Revolution, the museum now holds three paintings.