Vignon painted portraits, genre scenes and religious works. Claude Vignon was a very versatile artist who assimilated elements of various styles from
Mannerism to Venetian, Dutch and German art. Important influences on his style were the works of the Venetian
Caravaggesque painter
Domenico Fetti, the German
Adam Elsheimer, and the Dutchmen
Jacob Pynas,
Pieter Lastman and many others. His style likely owes most to the eccentric style of
Leonaert Bramer except that Vignon worked on a much grander scale than typically found in Bramer's paintings. By the 1620s his work had started to reflect elements of both Venetian colouring and
Jacques Bellange's Northern Mannerist conventions. In the mid-1620s he vacillated between various styles, in some paintings showing a more Caravaggist bent such as in the
Christ among the doctors (1623,
Museum of Grenoble) or the
Vision of St Jerome (1616,
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm). Other works are more reserved, while some have a clear
Baroque vigor such as the
Triumph of St Ignatius (1628,
Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans). A pivotal work from this period is the
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (1624,
Louvre), which displays his taste for the exotic and for theatrical arrangements and uses a thick, encrusted impasto, shot through with golden highlights and an unusual combination of colours. It was by relying on this technique that Vignon was able to establish a great reputation for the speed at which he painted. It also allowed him to produce the great number of paintings for which he is known. The paintings of this period still hold reminiscences of Vignon's Caravaggesque period but are overlaid with a new decorative sensuality, which reflects a new sensibility emerging in Paris at that time. An example of a work of this period is the
Banquet Scene (At Sotheby's on 22 June 2010 in Paris, lot 19). His works of the period 1640–50 are characterised by their rich coloring, bejeweled surface and theatrical mannerism. His compositions are bathed in a strange, sepulchral moonlight and executed in shimmering, encrusted paint which sometimes takes on the appearance of intricately chased silver. It is for these characteristics that Vignon has sometimes been called a 'pre-Rembrandtist' painter. Vignon was active as an etcher throughout his career. He showed the same high level of technical skill in his printed works as in his paintings. He was one of the most prominent printmakers in 17th century France. He also produced illustrations for publications by the French writers of the
précieuses literary circle. ==Notes==