(b ?Dijon, c. 1600; d Dijon, 1636). French painter. His reputation has survived through a possibly apocryphal story concerning Nicolas Poussin, who c. 1622, on his way to Italy, is said to have admired a painting of Christ Giving St Catherine of Siena the Holy Communion (Dijon, Mus. B.-A.) in the Jacobin convent at Dijon, saying 'This painter doesn't know what's best for him! Why doesn't he go to Italy? There, he would surely find his fortune!' Later research has shed some light on Quantin's work, but little is known about the artist himself. In 1635 Quantin signed the triptych of The Circumcision (Dijon, Mus. B.-A.), his only known dated work. In 1636 he became Peintre Ordinaire to Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Cond?, governor of Burgundy, and it seems to have been mostly for Burgundian patrons that he worked. They included S?bastien Zamet (1588-1655/65), Bishop of Langres, for whom he executed decorations (destr.) for the ch?teau of Mussy-sur-Seine, Aube; Charles-Henry de Clermont-Tonnerre (1578-1640), for whom he painted the Cabinet du Pastor Fido at the ch?teau of Ancy-le-Franc, Yonne (in situ); and Jean-Baptiste Legoux de la Berch?re, who commissioned a triptych of The Entombment (La Rochep?t, C?te-d'Or, parish church).
See the Abbreviations for further details.
