French New Testament

[French New Testament].
Le Nouveau Testament en latin et en français. 
Volume 2 of 5.
Paris: Claude Saugrain, de l’imprimerie de Didot jeune, 1793. (00390)

Jean-Michel Moreau the Younger (1741–1814) was the designer and engraver to King Louis XVI and the most fashionable book illustrator in France during and after the Revolution. Moreau’s numerous Neoclassical engravings of biblical subjects, which reveal close observation of posture and gesture as well as theatrical lighting, appeared in several expensively produced editions of the scriptures. In the exhibited illustration of Mathew 4:10, Moreau used an imbalanced diagonal composition to add drama to the scene of Christ warding off the temptations of Satan. The devil’s bat-like wings, claw-like hands, and monstrous tail prefigure many Romantic visions of Satan in nineteenth-century art. 

THE THOMAS J. HARRISON BIBLE COLLECTION