The pythonisse of Andor - French school of the late 18th century, Circle of Fulchran Jean Harriet (1776–1805)

Circle of Fulchran Jean HARRIET (Paris, 1776 – Rome, 1805)

Saul asks the pythonisse of Andor to call the ghost of Samuel

Oil on canvas
31 x 42 cm
Around 1800

The episode is taken from the Bible (Books of Samuel). At the end of his reign, Saul, abandoned by Yahweh, trembles before the advance of the Philistines allied with his rival David. While he himself had proscribed sorcerers and other soothsayers, he secretly went to a palmist from the village of Andor who held a talisman. Eager for advice, he asks him to summon the prophet Samuel, who recently disappeared. Samuel appears to the pythonissa, but Saul, who is prostrating himself, cannot see him. The ghost first refuses to answer Saul's questions, then predicts his fall and that of his dynasty. Saul will die the next day.

Stylistically, our model can be compared to the neoclassical productions of Fulchran Jean Harriet, Grand Prix de Rome in 1793 and in particular to his painting Hero discovering the body of Léandre dated 1796. The physiognomy of the faces, the expressions and postures of the characters and the colors used by the artist who remained anonymous suggests that he knew this work well.

Rarely treated, this dark biblical subject also inspired a British artist contemporary with Harriet and inclined to the fantastic: William Blake. Another lover of the subject, Gustave Doré also dabbled in it but fifty years later…