page_title: The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian
section_title: Commission
hierarchical_section_title: The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian / Commission
caption_attribution_description: Etudes pour le Martyre de saint Symphorien
context_page_description: The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian is an 1834 painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It shows the death of Saint Symphorian, the first Christian martyr in Gaul. Painted in oil on canvas and measuring 407 x 339 cm, it is now in Autun Cathedral. Although Ingres considered the painting—completed only after ten years of diligent work—one of his crowning achievements, it was criticized harshly when he exhibited it in the Paris Salon of 1834. It subsequently has been considered emblematic of Ingres' misguided ambition to excel as a history painter.
context_section_description: The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian was commissioned in December 1824 by the bishop of Autun, Monsignor de Vichy. It was intended to replace an altarpiece by Fra Bartolomeo (The Marriage of Saint Catherine; 1511) that had been confiscated to Paris during the Revolution. The subject of Ingres' painting was a youth who was beheaded ca. 160–179 by for refusing to worship a pagan idol. Monsignor de Vichy gave Ingres a detailed program to follow in composing his picture, which Ingres followed closely. The painting depicts the Roman proconsul Heraclius and his guards seizing Saint Symphorian and ordering him to prostrate himself in the temple of the pagan goddess Cybele, or be killed. The saint's mother, overlooking the scene from the city wall above, urges him to have faith and face death gladly. He gives her a heartening look.
  Ingres began work on the project with the hope of finishing the painting in time to exhibit it in the Salon of 1827, but the work proceeded slowly.  He prepared the composition in all its details with his usual care, ultimately producing more than 200 preparatory drawings and at least eleven studies in oils. He had not yet resolved the composition by the time of the July Revolution of 1830. Unsettled by the revolution, Ingres abandoned work on the project for a time, but by 1833 had returned to it with renewed vigor. The art historian Susan L. Siegfried contrasts the figure studies datable before 1830 with those made after the July Revolution, such as the two oil studies in the Fogg Art Museum (1833), in which "Ingres incorporated all of the passion of his own reaction to the social upheaval" and gave emphasis to "the energy of the mob, painting a moral lesson for the public he abhorred".
  In addition to numerous drawings from live models, Ingres' research for the painting included much study of Renaissance and Baroque masters (Ingres spoke of "devouring Michelangelo"). He traveled to Autun in 1826 to examine the remnants of the city wall. He had wooden models made of the accessories held or worn by the figures, and painted from them. The painting was completed in time for the March 1 opening date of the 1834 Salon.
caption: Studies for the Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian, oil on canvas, Musée Ingres
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