Meekness
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
100.7 × 67 cm (39 7/8 × 26 3/8 in.); Framed: 111.8 × 77.5 cm (44 × 30 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
47159
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Eustache Le Sueur painted the eight Beatitudes, the ideal qualities Jesus identified in his Sermon on the Mount in the Bible, for the private chapel in his patron Guillaume Birssonnet’s Paris home. This personification of meekness was part of that decoration and accompanied an altarpiece of the Annunciation, monochrome scenes of the life of the Virgin Mary, and a ceiling depicting her Assumption. The Beatitudes, with their patterned gold ground, lined the lower story of this elegant ensemble. On...
About the Artist
Eustache Le Sueur · 1616–1655
Called "the Raphael of France." Comment on works: History; Religious; Mythology