Arts graphiques

This rather un-Academic artist brings together two of his favourite subjects here: religious scenes and bacchanalia. To the scene of idolatry, Lafage adds a reference to a drinking spree in the foreground, while at the top of the page, Moses, tablets in hand, is in conversation with God.

Lafage never showed any interest in rendering depth or distance. Skilled in pen and ink drawing, he took great care in depicting the body of model, a result of his detailed training in morphology. His representation of objects and elements of nature is more cursory, achieved through a rather special system of parallel lines. His style owes less to 17^th century French art than to Annibale Carrache and Michelangelo (the venerable ancient figure on the right seems to have come out of an Italian Renaissance painting).