Nicolas Dipre

Not to be confused with Nicholas of Amiens.

The painting Jacob's Ladder' displays the patriarch Jacob when he laid down to rest beside a road and saw in a dream a ladder that connects earth to heaven.

Nicolas Dipre (sometimes also Nicolas d'Amiens, Nicolas d'Ypres, fl. c. 1495-1532) was a French early Renaissance painter. Among the Avignon artists of the late 15th and early 16th century, the name Nicola Dipre is among the most famous.

Life and works

Nicolas Dipre was born in Paris and probably came from a family of artists. The first written record of his existence dates from 1495 when he lived in Avignon, having lived and worked there his whole life, often working for the city government. In May 1508 he married Honorée Bigle, the daughter of joiner Jean Bigle, with whom he executed orders for the church and painted many pictures, the vast majority of which did not survive.

Apart from commissions to design numerous altarpieces, Dipre also was hired to execute other forms of decorations, like processional banners and heraldry. An altarpiece executed for the Carpentras Cathedral, for which Dipre was paid 115 florins, has survived in fragments and with it as a basis, other works have been identified as having the same originator. Two of his most famous works are Jacob's Ladder, which symbolizes the epitome of the covenant of Abraham, the restoration of peace and communion between heaven and earth, and Gideon's Fleece, which illustrates the Old Testament story of Gideon, who called on the people of Israel to be their judge. He doubted his own abilities, by the Lord fulfilled his request.

Selected works

• Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (c. 1500)
• The Nativity of the Virgin
• Scenes from the Life of Mary
• Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate (1499)
• The Adoration of the Shepherds

External links

• Works in the Louvre Museum, Paris
• Works in the Kress Foundation, New York
• Crucifixion in the Detroit Institute of Arts