Allegory of Sculpture and Painting - Oscar-Pierre MATHIEU, attributed to

Title : Allegory of Sculpture and Painting

Artist : Oscar-Pierre MATHIEU, attributed to (1845, Saint-Jean-de-Fos – 1881, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés)

Technique : Oil on canvas

Dimensions : 150 x 114 cm

Circa 1880

This large painting is probably a tapestry project, or a woodwork decoration for a beautiful private mansion, possibly in Plaine Monceau. It is typical of this decorative painting as practiced by artists like Pierre-Victor Galland, François Ehrmann, and Alexis-Joseph Mazerolle.
Two terms with feminine figures, of Mannerist inspiration, frame the central composition, inscribed in a box simulated by a laurel torus forming a two-lobed frame, itself surmounted by a medallion representing a profile of the goddess Athena, protector Arts. Sculpture and Painting are personified here by two young women, each accompanied by the instruments of their art: a hammer and a compass for Sculpture, a palette and a canvas on which a cherub is drawn for Painting. Moreover, in the competition between the two arts, the latter seems to win, as suggested by her upright and dominant pose.
In the corners are inscribed the names of famous artists of Greek antiquity. On the left the sculptors Praxiteles, active in the 4th century BC. BC) and Phidias (spelled, probably in error, PhYdias), active in the 5th century BC. JC. On the right the painter Apelles, active in the 4th century BC. JC, and another unidentifiable: Xeut…?

A student of Tissier, Cabanel and Cogniet, the Hérault resident Oscar-Pierre Mathieu was an academic painter specializing in portraits and subjects of ancient and biblical history, which he exhibited at the Salon between 1864 and 1881, several of which were acquired by the State to be placed in public buildings. His decoration of the ceiling of the wedding hall of the town hall of Clichy can, in its workmanship, be compared to our painting.