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Marc Arcis was born in 1652 in Mouzens, Dordogne, and died in 1739 in Toulouse. Son of a mason, he settled in Toulouse, where he likely trained under the painter and architect Jean-Pierre Rivalz and the sculptor Gervais Drouet. In 1678, Arcis left southwestern France for Paris. He honed his skills at the Academy, where he was admitted in 1684 and he worked on projects such as the Château de Versailles. During his years in Paris, he continued to sculpt for patrons from Toulouse and its region.
Marc Arcis ultimately left Paris at the end of the 1680s and became the most prominent sculptor in Toulouse’s artistic scene. He returned with a classical vocabulary shaped by the Academy and the grand royal projects. He fulfilled numerous commissions. His mastery of terracotta and stucco allowed him to propose spectacular, high-quality solutions that were less costly than marble. This addressed the limited budgets allocated to artists, whether for royal projects or more local commissions.
This terracotta piece depicts a Saint in Prayer before a crucifix. Its size and format are similar to the Shepherds of Arcadia, a terracotta bas-relief preserved at the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse. As for the composition, it draws on a model developed by El Greco : the saint, kneeling, adopts an attitude of intense devotion, his long and delicate hands placed flat over his heart. His sober and introspective expression invites prayer and meditation. The detailed crucifix is slightly tilted to create a sense of depth.
The treatment of the alb’s drapery describes a heavy fabric with tight, parallel folds in a reduced volume. The same type of pleating is visible in the modello of Saint Athanasius – a maquette for a statue on the façade of Montauban Cathedral – which conveys the same introspection. This rather distinctive style allows us to date the execution of both works relatively closely within Marc Arcis’s rich body of work. Perhaps this is a modello for Montauban Cathedral, for which Arcis provided numerous projects and completed works.
