Getty Buys a French Baroque Discovery
Philippe de Champaigne, Saint Augustine in his Study Trampling the Heretics , about 1642. 39-3/16 × 31-11/16 in. J. Paul Getty Museum The Getty Museum has acquired Philippe de Champaigne's Saint Augustine in his Study Trampling the Heretics , a rediscovery that has been in French private collections for all of its known history. Éric Coatalem showed the painting at TEFAF 2023 , and his Paris gallery sold it to the Getty. The painting may look familiar. It's a larger version of Champaigne's Saint Augustine in his Study, a picture in LACMA's collection . Both paintings present Augustine holding a flaming heart as he receives divine truth. The Getty version shows the saint trampling four heretics caught in the coils of Satan. In the LACMA version Augustine merely tramples books. The heretics in the Getty painting have a portrait-like quality and were likely studied from life models. At right, the wide-eyed man pulli...
