A mitred bishop, cope embroidered with red crosses and crozier in hand, pours the baptismal water over a kneeling, bearded king, while a crowned queen stands close by with her hand extended in sponsorship. An acolyte reads the rite from an open book, a young deacon in a white dalmatic kneels with the basin, a servant brings the cruets of holy chrism, and soldiers and courtiers press in behind, cherubs looking down from the clouds where a cross-topped column appears as a sign from heaven. The subject is the conversion of the Frankish world: Clovis, King of the Franks, baptised by Saint Remigius at Reims in the presence of Queen Clotilde, whose faith had won her husband to the Church.
The composition, warm in its olive greens, russets and blues, derives from a Baroque prototype and is painted with a provincial tenderness that points to Italy or Spain in the eighteenth century. Executed on paper and later laid to canvas, it carries some staining and old restoration commensurate with age. An appealing and richly peopled devotional scene.
