Antoine Ranc (–1716) was a French painter.

Life

Antoine Ranc was born at

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

around 1634 to a modest family. He became a student of the Flemish artist Jean Zueil, nicknamed "le français" (the Frenchman), who probably brought the north European painting style to that city in the Languedoc. Ranc is also known to have been apprenticed to Zueil's brother in law, the

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the Classicism, classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and ...

ist Samuel Boissière (1620–1703). Ranc then travelled to Rome around 1654 with François Bertrand, another painter from Montpellier, who became godfather to Ranc's third son in 1677. From 1667, Ranc was back in his birthplace, where he received the prestigious commission for a major painting for the high altar of th
église Notre-Dame-des-Tables
In 1671, the young

Hyacinthe Rigaud Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra (; 18 July 1659 – 29 December 1743), known in French as Hyacinthe Rigaud (), was a Catalan-French baroque painter most famous for his portraits of Louis XIV and other members of the French nobility. Biography Rigau ...

joined his studio and copied the

van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealt ...

s which Ranc owned. Ranc then became associated with Jean de Troy (1638–1691), an artist from Toulouse who had just set up in

and who would later become director of the newly created Académie des Arts. Antoine's first two sons,

Jean Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * J ...

and Guillaume (born 1684) both became painters. In 1685 two more sons followed, one of whom was Jean-baptiste, later a royal engineer. On Jean de Troy's death, Ranc was in even greater demand for religious paintings. The canons of

Montpellier Cathedral Montpellier Cathedral () is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Peter and located in the city of Montpellier, France. It is the seat of the Archbishops of Montpellier. The cathedral, built in the Gothic style, is a national monument ...

commissioned de Troy to paint a ''Curing of the Paralytic'' and ''Jesus giving the keys to St Peter'' to be placed either side of Bourdon's painting, on the condition Ranc worked from Poussin's two drawings. De Troy completed the first of these vast canvases, but the second remained unfinished on his death and it was completed by Ranc (main image) and the landscape artist Charmeton (background landscape)

Selected works

The bishop of Montpellier Colbert granted Ranc a number of chapel and church commissions: * a ''Calvary'' (1701) * a ''Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and Saint Léonce'' (1701) * ''Saint Charles Borromeus'' (1702) * a ''Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and Saint John'' (1703) * a ''Descent from the cross'' (1707) * another ''Saint Charles Borromeus'' (1710). Other undated works include eight ''heads of apostles'' painted in

grisaille Grisaille ( or ; , from ''gris'' 'grey') means in general any European painting that is painted in grey. History Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua () and Robert Campin, Jan van Ey ...

for the chapelle des Pénitents Blanc at

, ''The Apparition of the angel to Saint Joseph'' inspired by Mignard in the église Saint-Mathieu, ''The Apparition of Jesus to the three Maries after his Resurrection'', formerly in the église des Matelles, and various portraits.

References

* Ponsonailhé, « Les deux Ranc, peintres de Montpellier » dans Réunion de la Société des Beaux-arts des départements, XI, 1887.

External links

The Ranc family

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranc, Antoine 1630s births 1716 deaths 17th-century French painters French male painters 18th-century French painters Artists from Montpellier Painters from Occitania (administrative region) 18th-century French male artists

Life

See also

Selected works

References

External links