Antoine Rivalz was a French painter. The son of Jean-Pierre Rivalz

Jean-Pierre Rivalz

Jean-Pierre Rivalz was a French painter.Rivalz was born at Labastide-d'Anjou, in the diocese of Saint-Papoul. A pupil of Ambroise Frédeau, in 1667 he was made an architect to the city of Toulouse. In 1666 he married Perette de Caillavel, by whom he had ten children, including the painter Antoine...

 (who painted and designed the city's hôtel de ville), Antoine was the official painter to the town of Toulouse, a talented portraitist of the society of the city in the 18th century. He also produced a large number of drawings.

Life

Antoine Rivalz began his training in the studios of his father Jean-Pierre, the sculptor Marc Arcis

Marc Arcis

Marc Arcis was a French sculptor. He trained the painter Antoine Rivalz. He produced busts for a galerie des Illustres in Toulouse between 1674 and 1677. In Paris, he took part in the interior decoration of the église de la Sorbonne and produced works for Versailles...

 and the artist Raymond Lafage

Raymond Lafage

Raymond Lafage was a Baroque French artist, notable for his mythological prints and drawings.-Biography:...

. In his training, he was particularly interested in studying classical works and the Baroque Italian masters. From 1685 to 1687 he trained at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris. On his return to Toulouse he received his first two commissions. In 1687 he set out for Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, where he stayed for more than ten years. In 1694 he won second prize at the Accademia di San Luca

Accademia di San Luca

The Accademia di San Luca, was founded in 1577 as an association of artists in Rome, under the directorship of Federico Zuccari, with the purpose of elevating the work of "artists", which included painters, sculptors and architects, above that of mere craftsmen. Other founders included Girolamo...

 with a drawing of The fall of the giants, with first prize going to Antonio Balestra

Antonio Balestra

Antonio Balestra was an Italian painter of the Rococo period.Born in Verona, he first apprenticed there with Giovanni Zeffio. By 1690 he moved to Venice, where he worked for three years under Antonio Bellucci, then moved to Bologna and then to paint in Carlo Maratta's workshop in Rome. In 1694, he...

 and Felice Nardi. In Rome he became friends with other artists such as Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta or Maratti was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition stemming from Raphael, he was not exempt from the influence of Baroque painting...

, Luigi Garzi

Luigi Garzi

Luigi Garzi was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Born in Pistoia, and died in Rome, where he was one of the main pupils of Andrea Sacchi. He is also often referred to as Ludovico Garzi. In 1680 Garzi was appointed Regent of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon, the papal honor...

 and Benedetto Luti

Benedetto Luti

Benedetto Luti was an Italian painter.-Biography:Luti was born in Florence. He moved to Rome in 1691 where he was patronized by Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, an enthusiast for the pastel portrait. Luti was one of the first artists to work in pastels as the final composition as...

, and was more and more in demand for commissions from families in both Rome and Toulouse.

In 1703, he returned to Toulouse and was made painter of the city's hôtel de ville, a post he held until his death. Supported by an important studio, he received a large number of commissions - commemorative paintings, paintings of ordinance and armour, architectural projects, restorations. This post, however, allowed him above all to forge productive relations with the city's upper classes and benefit from a near-monopoly on public, religious and private commissions in the city.

He married his first cousin Louise Rivalz, with whom he had six children, including the future artist Pierre Rivalz, known as the "chevalier Rivalz". In 1726 he set up Toulouse's first art school and in 1750 letters patent from Louis XV turned it into the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture de Toulouse, the only one in France (after that in Paris) to be allowed to bear that title.

His œuvre

Rich from the varied training he had received in Toulouse, Paris and Rome, he created an original and varied style influenced by Baroque painting, classical art, 17th century painting styles and the inheritance of the Italian masters. For instance, his work on the door of a Pharmacy presentes the same subject of the Italian "Pestapepe", usually referred to Melozzo da Forlì

Melozzo da Forlì

Melozzo da Forlì was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. His fresco paintings are notable for the use of foreshortening. He was the most important member of the Forlì painting school.- Biography :...

. He produced a brilliant personal synethesis of them and revived the artistic life of Toulouse, choosing an aesthetic that was resolutely turned towards the 17th century and resisted the innovations of Parisian painting. His influence and his official position allowed him to influence a whole generation of 18th century artists, creating an artistic unity which left a mark on the Toulouse painting school. After his death, his work and style was perpetuated by students such as Guillaume Cammas

Guillaume Cammas

Guillaume Cammas was a French painter and architect.-Life:He studied under the painter Antoine Rivalz and designed the façade of the Capitole de Toulouse, built between 1750 and 1759. He was one of the founders of Académie royale de peinture de Toulouse, where he taught...

 and Pierre Subleyras

Pierre Subleyras

Pierre Subleyras was a French painter, active during the late-Baroque and early-Neoclassic period, mainly in Italy....

, but at the start of the 19th century his work became fell out of fashion for over a hundred years, only being fully rediscovered from the 1940s onwards.

Selected works

• Six monumental canvases from a grand history cycle on the history of Toulouse
  • King Antiochus defeated by the Tectosages
  • Raymond of Saint-Gilles taking the cross
  • Defeat of Henry Plantagenet
    Henry II of England
    Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
    
    before the walls of Toulouse
  • Expulsion of the huguenots
• Two landscapes :
  • Birth of the duke of Brittany
  • Foundation of Ancyre
• Two views
  • La Naissance du duc de Bretagne
  • Foundation of Ankara

Sources

Thesis on the maps school by Valérie Néouze

External links

• Antoine Rivalz on Artcyclopedia