Samuel Anointing Saul

This depiction of the Old Testament episode of Samuel anointing Saul is set in a bizarre landscape, surrounded by decrepit ruins, in an indeterminate place. Painted in a murky grisaille (shades of gray), the monochromic effect makes it difficult to establish a time of day, while the stretched perspective of the receding city walls complicates the sense of space, raising the question of what lies within the walls. A structure that at first glance appears to be a Roman triumphal arch on closer inspection depicts scenes that seem more Christian than pagan. By building up the sculptural figures with dense layers of white paint, the artist invites the beholder to question what is real (tactile) as opposed to depicted (seen). François de Nomé’s dreamlike architectural fantasies anticipated capriccio painting — a genre of architectural fantasy — in the next century. His work also appealed to the surrealists in the twentieth century.