Master of Saint Gilles

( fl Paris, c. 1490–1510).

French painter. He is named after two small panel paintings depicting episodes from the Life of St Giles, the reverses of which are painted in grisaille and show figures in niches: St Peter on the reverse of the Mass of St Giles and a Bishop Saint (perhaps St Loup) on the back of St Giles Protecting a Hind (both London, N.G.). Two further panels of similar character and format, also originally with grisaille figures on the reverses (apparently separated in recent times and now untraced), are evidently by the same artist. On the reverse of the Baptism of King Clovis by St Rémi (also identified as the Baptism of the Nobleman Lisbius by St Denis) was formerly St Denis, and on the reverse of an Episode from the Life of a Bishop Saint (identified either as St Loup Curing the Children, or, more probably, as St Rémi Converting the Arian Bishop Genebaut) was St Giles (both Washington, DC, N.G.A.). The costumes depicted in all four panels provide some basis for dating them. Certain Italianate details in the dress imply a date after 1495, when Charles VIII returned from his Italian campaign, while the bulky garments worn by the men and their long hair suggest a date close to 1500.