Isaac Moillon (8 July 1614,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

- 26 May 1673, Paris) was a French Baroque painter of scenes from mythology and the Bible. He also designed

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

. His work was forgotten after his death, until interest was revived in the 1980s.

Biography

His father, the painter Nicolas Moillon (1555-1619), died when he was only five years old. Shortly after, his mother married another painter, , who specialized in

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, book ...

s. His sister,

Louise Moillon Louise Moillon (1610–1696) was a French still life painter in the Baroque era. It is recorded that she became known as one of the best still life painters of her time, as her work was purchased by King Charles I of England, as well as French nob ...

, would become one of the best known still-life painters of that period. Despite the intense religious situation at that time, both he and his sister remained Protestants. His first works date from 1634 to 1637. Between 1638 and 1640, he created decorations, mostly of a military nature, in the Hôtel Bautru, an

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...

, under the direction of its architect,

Louis Le Vau Louis Le Vau (1612 – 11 October 1670) was a French Baroque architect, who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was an architect that helped develop the French Classical style in the 17th Century.''Encyclopedia of World Biography''"Louis Le Vau", ...

and the Master Builder Michel Villedo, in the Rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs. It was demolished in 1823 to make way for the new Galerie Vivienne. His fame at the time rested largely on murals depicting Christ as a healer, made at the Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune (now the

Hospices de Beaune The Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune is a former charitable almshouse in Beaune, France. It was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, as a hospital for the poor. The original hospital building, the Hôtel-Dieu, one o ...

) in 1646. He was named a member of the

Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture The Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (; en, "Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture") was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abol ...

in 1655. As a painter to the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...

, he created several designs for tapestries, including a few on the history of

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pe ...

, that were woven at the Aubusson manufactory. Some are kept at the Hospices de Beaune, along with miniatures depicting scenes from the life of Christ. A series on Ulysses may be seen at the . The in Aubusson has nine pieces on

Dido Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...

and

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both ...

. Seven on the "Illustrious Women of Antiquity" are at the in

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label=Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.(online)
* Jacques Wilhelm, "Un peintre oublié: Isaac Moillon de l'Académie royale. Ses œuvres à l'hôtel-Dieu de Beaune". in: ''Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de l'art français'', 1973, pgs. 113–132.

External links

More works by Moillon
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Moillon, Isaac 1614 births 1673 deaths French artists French muralists French tapestry artists Artists from Paris