The Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus

The Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus

Simon Julien

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Originally from Toulon, Simon Julien studied first with Michel-François Dandré-Bardon in Marseille before traveling to Paris and winning a first place at the Royal Academy, allowing him to enroll in the affiliated school directed by Carle Vanloo. At this very early stage of his career, before he had studied in Rome, Julien received an important commission from Jean de Jullienne to paint the Martyrdom of Saint Hippolyte. This sheet appears to be an early study for that painting, intended for the Church of Saint Hippolyte in Paris. Completed in 1762, the painting was later removed from the church in 1791 and is today in the cathedral Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Lyon. The drawing differs from the final composition in format and many details, although the rarity of the subject as well as the stylistic debt of the draftsmanship to the style of Julien’s teacher at the time, Carle Vanloo, support the attribution.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Martyrdom of Saint HippolytusThe Martyrdom of Saint HippolytusThe Martyrdom of Saint HippolytusThe Martyrdom of Saint HippolytusThe Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.