(b Aix-en-Provence, 17 Aug 1739; d Aix-en-Provence, 23 Dec 1813). French painter, draughtsman, sculptor, medallist and writer. He first trained under Claude Arnulphy at Aix, leaving for Rome c. 1761. He remained in Italy for ten years, studying the works of Raphael and other Old Masters (see fig. ) as well as Polidoro da Caravaggio, whose monochrome frescoes Gibelin later imitated in France. In 1768 he won a prize at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Parma, with his Achilles Fighting the River Scamander (in situ; preparatory drawing in Stockholm, Nmus.). On his return to Paris in 1771 he was commissioned to execute a large number of monochrome frescoes as well as two paintings, The Blood-letting (1777; preparatory drawing at Poitiers, Mus. B.-A.) and Childbirth, for the new Ecole de Chirurgie, now the Faculté de Médecine (in situ). His works made over the next few years include the Genius of War and Mars for the pediments of the two south wings of the Ecole Militaire, Paris, and a painting of St Francis Preaching, which he donated to the Capuchin Monastery (now the church of St Louis d’Antin) on the Chaussée d’Antin (in situ).

• Gibelin, Esprit-Antoine