Oil Painting-oscar Gué-le Pain Béni-bordeaux

THE BLESSED BREAD Painting by Jean-Marie Oscar Gué Bordeaux 1809-1877 This work (1 mx 0.83 m) is presented in a very beautiful 19th century frame in gilded wood with floral decorations (1.10 mx 1.28 m ). Some gilding touch-ups were made. Jean-Marie Oscar Gué, like his brother Julien-Michel Gué, is a major, unfortunately little-known, figure in Bordeaux romantic painting. Born in Bordeaux in 1809, Oscar Gué was sent to Paris to study law, but he preferred to learn painting from his uncle Julien-Michel. In 1833, during a visit to Italy, he painted a Triumphal Arch of Titus in Rome which he sent to the Salon where he won a medal. Then, Jean-Alaux (brother of Jean-Pierre and Jean-Paul), grand prix de Rome, nicknamed "the Roman", chose him to help him for several years in his major commissions for the Louis-Philippe museum in Versailles . At the same time, Oscar Gué regularly exhibits historical paintings at the Salon. In 1858, he was appointed director of the school of drawing and painting in the city of Bordeaux. In 1859, he succeeded Pierre Lacour father and Pierre Lacour son and became the third curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in the same city, a position he held until 1877. He participated in the Salon des Amis des Arts de Bordeaux until in 1864, where he presented “Le Pain Blessed”, undoubtedly one of his masterpieces. Mass is celebrated. We are probably in one of the naves of the Bordeaux churches. Romanesque columns in white sandstone serve as a background against which the characters stand out. The scene takes place in the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the costumes. Nobles, or at least notables, attended the religious service. This scene would be banal if it were not disturbed by another scene which takes place at the crossing of the nave in front of the faithful. An altar boy draped in white, with a toga that reaches mid-calf, holds a silver dish in his hand. He looks at another boy, younger than him, who reaches out his hand to grab a slice of blessed bread contained in this dish. He himself, humbly dressed in blue tights and beige hose, as if hypnotized, keeps his eyes riveted on a young girl aged at most twelve, dressed in a green velvet dress and white stockings, who is lowering the head. A woman, dressed in a black and orange dress and headdress, undoubtedly his mother, supports his arm. Blessed bread, also called antidoron (of Greek origin), is a Catholic tradition considered a sacramental. Breads or cakes are brought by the faithful, then cut into pieces. These pieces are blessed by the priest, then distributed after mass and taken back to their home. The blessed bread is distinguished from the host which symbolizes the body of Christ. It refers rather to the dismemberment of the Unity which must be rebuilt by the gathering of the faithful in the Faith. This is also the path that every Christian must follow to recover Unity. “I am the way”, says Christ, implying “follow my teaching and you will be saved”. This is what this young boy, placed at the center of the painting by Jean-Marie Oscar Gué, will have to face. Will love conquer temptation? It is in this sense that the blessed bread acts as a protector and, in a certain way, symbolizes the Archangel Saint Michael who will always be present at his side to defeat Satan.