bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Le guide, la curiosité et la galerie du Palais-Royal
Authors: Madrus Françoise
Published: June 2021

Guidebooks, curiosities and the Palais Royal Gallery.

Germain Brice’s Description of Paris, first published in 1706 (several subsequent editions, slightly modified, up to 1752), gives a brief description of the collection of paintings belonging to Philippe d’Orléans. A more detailed description is to be found in 1719 in the Curiosités de Paris by Georges-Louis Le Rouge. The subsequent editions of this book, in 1733, 1742, 1771 and 1778, even give an authentic catalogue of this collection.

The interest in this collection is confirmed by the guides published by J.-A. Piganiol de La Force (1742) and by A.-N. Dezallier d’Argenville (1749). The succeeding editions of these books allow us to follow the evolution of the contents of the collection and its disposition. The collection witnessed several periods : before and after the acquisition of the paintings belonging to Queen Christine of Sweden ; after the death of the Regent in 1723 ; and, finally, after the modifications undertaken by Philippe-Egalité.

This collection of the Duc d’Orléans emerges as a real private museum, which the guides present as an abridged history of painting for art amateurs.

This history does not deal with aesthetic issues however, centred, during the eighteenth century, on the question of the « sublime in art ». The author of the present article examines the similarities and differences from one guidebook to another, noting that only one of them actually calls itself a «guide » in its title.
Le thème de la souffrance au XVIIe siècle : l’exemple du carmel de Lyon
Authors: Gautier-Rivat Claire
Published: June 2021

The theme of suffering during the seventeenth century : the example of the Carmel at Lyons.

The Carmelite convent at Lyons, dedicated to

Our Lady of Compassion, was founded in

1616 by Jacqueline du Harlay, under the direction

of Magdeleine de Saint-Joseph. The spirituality of

the latter is visible in the convent’s

iconographical programme, even though she was not

the direct commissioner of the work. The

study of the seventeenth-century works kept at the

convent — a sculpture and seven paintings —

shows the importance of the theme of

suffering throughout the order as a whole and in this

centre at Lyons in particular. Each of the works

examined is analysed and commented on in the light of

pious texts and quotations from the Carmelite

milieu of the period. Other comparisons are

made with the works of Le Brun and Murillo.
Le graphisme dans l’art grec
Authors: Holtzmann Bernard
Published: June 2021

Graphic aspects of Greek art.

The importance of the graphic aspects of Greek art has been largely underestimated, partly because of modern terminology, which is of inadequate precision. The practice of drawing, in the form of engraving rather than as simple drawing, and whether on stone (inscriptions, sculpture and architecture), on metal (toreutics) or on ceramics, was fundamental to the history of Greek art and to the elaboration of « classic » aesthetics.
L’artificialisme de Štyrský et Toyen : affinités et divergences
Authors: Caille Françoise
Published: June 2021

Styrsky and Toyen and their artificialism ; affinities and divergences.

In Paris in 1926 the Czech painters Styrsky and Toyen founded a movement which they baptised « artificialism », setting out their objectives in a manifesto published in Prague in 1927 in the review ReD. This review was an emanation of the Devetsil group, founded in 1920, and bringing together poets and painters. According to the manifesto, art it an artifice and not a copy of reality ; it is based entirely on the imagination which is itself subordinated to remembered perceptions. The pictorial practices of Styrsky and Troyen were original. To begin with they were based on the use of stencils, objects being used as the stencils. Subsequently the materials employed developed, sand being mixed with the pigments, and so on.

The author gives a detailed study of the careers of the two artists between 1927 and 1931, both of them returning to Prague in 1929. The affinities of the 1920s are gradually replaced by creations of a more personal nature. Styrsky and Troyen did not join the surrealist movement until 1934.

Nethertheless, the author considers the year 1931 as marking the end of the practices and aesthetics of the artificialist movement. In 1932 both artists participated in the organisation at Prague of an International Exhibition where Breton’s surrealism was much to the fore.
Les monuments d’Isamu Noguchi pendant la période du New Deal
Authors: Ha-Van Ha-Hong-Van
Published: June 2021

Isamu Noguchi’s monuments during the New Deal period.

During the New Deal period of reforms and economic planning under President Roosevelt, the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi began to participate in the system of public competitions, particularly for monumental sculptures. Although Noguchi’s autobiography skates over this period in his career, it is possible to reconstitute a chronological account of his participation in various types of competition. The high proportion of failure leads us to ask how well his projects were suited to the clients’ wishes. His project for a Monument to Ben Franklin was refused in 1933. His Monument to the Plough, for the Public Works of Arts Project, was similarly refused, as was the Carl Mackley Memorial (c. 1934) for the Public Works Administration. His participation in the competition organised by the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture met with no more success.

This period in Noguchi’s creative career is also interesting as an example of the changing status of the artist. Up till then, artists had been little respected, but this was beginning to change in the United States, where the artist was coming to be viewed as an educator, his vocation being to identify the meaning of democracy and to propagate its values. In terms of Noguchi’s ideas, furthermore, the large number of competitions which introduced the question of the relations between a sculpted work and a building also brought the artist to work on this theme of the adequation of a figure to a particular site and its space. These constraints within the competition programmes seem to have had a profound effect on the development of his work. The author of this article examines the creative conditions of a number of monuments, whether these have been lost, destroyed or even if they were never realised. They include the projects for the Apex building at Washington (1937), for the Ministry of War in Washington (1940-1941) and for the State building at the New York World Fair of 1939. The article also looks at some of Noguchi’s projects put forward outside this context of government competitions, notably the Chassis Fountain (1939) for the Ford pavilion at the 1939 World Fair.
Les « places » de Giacometti ou le « monumental à rebours »
Authors: Dufrêne Thierry
Published: June 2021

Giacometti ’s public squares, or « monuments in reverse ».

Giacometti’s first project for a monumental sculpture — Projet pour une place, 1931 — is certainly to be related to the artist’s meeting with the surrealists. From the outset, De Chirico’s paintings had an influence on the surrealists’ conception of the public square and statues.

Giacometti accentuates the dialectical relationship between private and public space. Le palais à quatre heures du matin (The palace at four in the morning) of 1923, is a miniature memorial accompanied by the artist’s own commentaries inspired by his personal fantasies. Giacometti also wanted to realise sculptures on a monumental scale, as the examination of his projects, the notes in his sketchbooks and his letters to Pierre Matisse all prove. A work of reflection on the dimensions and the function of the pedestal preoccupied him for several years.

His studies for an « immense pedestal » led to a transfer of monumentality from the figure to its surrounding space, the whole public square becoming one monumental pedestal. The author of this article defines two types of public « place » in Giacometti’s work.

Giacometti’s projects after the last war did not come to anything, but his project for the Plaza of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York drew the admiration of the minimalist American sculptor Donald Judd. The author sees Giacometti’s projects as models for the « oriented itineraries » or the « personal museums » of today.
La chapelle Saint-Hubert à Chauvirey-Le-Châtel
Authors: Roser Sandrine
Published: June 2021

The chapel of Saint Hubert at Chauvirey-Le-Châtel.

The chapel of Saint Hubert at the Chauvirey-Le-Châtel castle in the Haute-Saône department was built between about 1474 and 1484. The fortified castle belonged to Pierre de Haraucourt. The chapel was designed to house a relic, the hunting horn supposedly belonging to Saint Hubert and probably given by Charles the Bold of Burgundy. This relic, which became the object of an important local pilgrimage, was sold in 1872 and is today at the National Gallery in London. The Western parts of the two-storey chapel have disappeared.

This chapel is one of a series of chapels influenced by the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

Its architectural conception corresponds with the various functions of a castle chapel, at one and the same time a private building and a place of public pilgrimage. The lower chapel, simple and somewhat cramped, was intended for the servants and the soldiers, whilst the upper chapel, much larger and ornately decorated, was for the lord and his circle. To the north, a stair turret gave access to both levels. This element, usually only found in civil architecture, features in this religious building as a mark of the owner’s power.

The Saint-Hubert chapel is an exceptional monument in the Franche-Comté region, remarkable for its architectural organisation
Anticléricalisme et naturalisme au Panthéon : le décor de Jean-Paul Laurens
Authors: Vergnette François de
Published: June 2021

Anti-clericalism and naturalism in the Panthéon : the decor of Jean-Paul Laurens.

Commissioned by Philippe de Chennevières, Jean-Paul Laurens did the paintings for the Sainte-Geneviève church in Paris between 1874 and 1885. This was the period in France when the young Third Republic was taking root and seeking to secularise the state
Fonctions du profane et du « ridiculum » dans l’enluminure médiévale
Authors: Müller Markus
Published: June 2021

Recent studies by Randall and Camille have thrown new light on the meaning of the medieval illuminations «at the bottom of the page ». The present article follows on from these studies to look at several examples taken from fourteenth-century religious manuscripts. It attempts to measure how autonomous these illuminations are and to analyse their humour. The first two examples examined act as «visual annotations », offering an ironic reversal of the text to serve as a foreword, a clerical vituperatio. The satire resides in a scene taken from daily life, put in the place of a traditional allegorical representation. Two other examples establish a thematic link between the illustration and the text of a psalm ; representations of loving couples create a relationship between the religious world and the world of profane love. This transposition of verses of the psalm into a profane register opens up an interpretative system of the religious text, based on humour. Another example suggests how to interpret a visual circumlocution based on the distinctio. It is a play on words which reverses the original meaning.

The analogies between religious theatre and these «footnote » illustrations confirm our hypothesis on the clerical function in this iconographical tradition.

In both fields it is a question of legitimating the ridiculum in the service of the per suas w : the church’s intentions are translated by means of humour and amusement and in a mixture of stylistic registers that medieval literature inherited from late Antiquity.
La formation d’un mythe : K. F. Schinkel dans les discours de Cari Boetticher
Authors: Samuel-Gohin Véronique
Published: June 2021

During the twentieth century, the architect Schinkel has been held up as a model by architects as different as Peter Behrens and Giorgio Grassi.

By the time of his death, in 1841, Schinkel

had already become a cult figure in Berlin,

and, from 1844, an annual celebration was organised in

his honour. The first speeches at this

celebration were made by Boetticher, a teacher

at the School of Architecture who thus

acquired a reputation as the master’s most faithful

disciple and the transmitter of his inheritance.

A close analysis of these speeches, however,

shows that Boetticher in fact used the

example of Schinkel in order to impose his own ideas,

deliberately ignoring or hiding everything in

Schinkel’s work that did not correspond

with the strict classicism that Boetticher defended.
À l’aube de l’art gothique comtois : Saint-Hilaire de Pesmes
Authors: Bouchard Maria
Published: June 2021

Saint-Hilaire de Pesmes, early gothic art in Franche-Comté.

The Saint-Hilaire de Pesmes church, in the Haute-Saône department, dates from the first third of the thirteenth century. The church seems to have been constructed fairly rapidly, probably built from east to west. It underwent various transformations, mainly affecting its western and eastern ends, during the fourteenth century and again, more importandy, in the sixteenth century. The nave, which is four bays long, survives today as the principal vestige of the thirteenth-century church. The high central nave is vaulted with four intersecting quadripartite ribs forming an oblong plan. The side aisles have groined vaults of square plan form. The interior two-level elevation of the nave makes wall surfaces more important than vertical rhythms. In the first three bays, the supports are cruciform piers, with cylindrical piers in the eastern bay. This choice of cylindrical piers, to be found at the same time in many churches in the Ile-de-France region around Paris, after the construction of Notre-Dame, is to be explained perhaps by the existence of a screen for the liturgical choir. The moulding presents remarkable unity. The profile of the nave piers and the decoration of their capitals and bases with carved crockets, leaves and balls all suggest a date of around 1220 to 1230. Thus this nave of the church of Saint-Hilaire de Pesmes is a good example of the characteristic features of early gothic architecture in the Franche-Comté region, marked by a quest for austerity and modesty, still much under the influence of the Cistercian ideals of the preceding century.
En restaurant le Torse de Milet : de la technique à l’histoire
Authors: Braunstein Danièle
Published: June 2021

Observations on the restoration of the Torso from Miletus passing from technical considerations to history.

Within the perspective of a new presentation at the Louvre of the Torso from Miletus, a major piece of Greek sculpture dating from the early 5th century, a thorough restoration was carried out that provided an insight into the history of this sculpture. The irregular striations that score the surface of the marble are the result of a cleaning that took place during the classical period, most likely at the time when the statue was re-employed as part of the decoration of the Theater of Miletus during the Imperial Age. At the same time, the fitting of a new left arm is confirmed by the presence of a socket for its bedding in the stone and the traces of a chisel and a pointed hammer under the arm.

Further, the traces of a pointed hammer behind the right buttock and thigh correspond to the placement of a strut made necessary because the legs had been broken off before the re-emplacement of the statue in the Theater. However, the traces of a saw, visible between the buttocks and under the right buttock, have proven highly enigmatic : they probably do not stem from the original sculpting of the statue ; they were not necessary to its re-employment in the Theater of Miletus ; and, it is highly unlikely that they were done after the torso entered into the collection of the Louvre at the end of 1873.

In order to soften or hide the spalls that occurred during its transport, the statue was given a coat of patina in 1934-36, prior to a new presentation at the Louvre.
Histoire et iconographie du tympan roman de Saint-Pierre-Le-Puellier
Authors: Boursier Hubert
Published: June 2021

History and Iconography of the Romanesque Tympanum of Saint-Pierre-Le-Puellier.

As a result of vandalism, the tympanum of Saint-Pierre-Le-Puellier (Cher), which is consecrated to the life of the Virgin, was reduced to a number of individual blocks of stone. A more complete reading of its iconography (the Miracle of the Skeletal Hands) and the restitution of the Latin text has been made possible by the thorough restoration of the tympanum. The presence of oriental characters would suggest a comparison of this piece with an arch stone from the Musée des beaux-arts in Lyons. The representation of a church, in the center of the tympanum, may be that of the cathedral of Bourges. The defacing of the tympanum that occurred before 1791 should, in all probability, be attributed to the Iconoclast movement during the Wars of Religion.
À propos des « Amants de la nature ». Les architectes et l’aquarelle à la fin du XIXe siècle
Authors: Thomine Alice
Published: June 2021

Alice Thomine : The « Amants de la Nature » (Nature Lovers) : architects and watercolors (1880-1910).

In 1881, the former architectural students of the atelier of Coquart at the Ecole des beaux-arts formed a group, Amants de la nature (an idea borrowed from Lecoq de Boisbaudran), to exhibit their alfresco watercolors. They were followed by other ateliers, notably that of Vaudremer, Arc-en-ciel (Rainbow), which soon became the most active and the most enduring atelier. Among the thirty-seven exhibitors of the Arc-en-ciel and the fifty-one of the Amants de la nature, are several well-known modernists, attached to the Art Nouveau movement, for example J. Binet, C. Genuys, T. Gamier, L. Bonnier, F. Jourdain, L. Woog, etc., as well as the future « greats » of regionalism, Letrosne and de Rutté. Working with watercolors was encouraged because it took the architect away from the picturesque effects of his architectural projects, effects that became out of fashion. The outdoors and its requisite spontaneity is also a learning experience in honesty, on which the rationalist architects based their «artistic morality ». Thus, the use of watercolors laid the basis for a systematic analysis of sites.
Les surréalistes au Canada ou le loup dans la bergerie : l’exposition de Toronto en 1938
Authors: Larocque Yves
Published: June 2021

Yves M. Larocque : Surrealism in Canada or the Fox in the Hen-house : the Toronto exhibition of 1938.

Canada first learned of Surrealism through periodical publications, books, conferences and exhibitions. Each of those «dispositifs véhiculaires » (Régis Debray) conveyed a different idea of the movement depending on their own perception of it, for example, surrealism is essential to the opening up of Canadian society according to the Canadian Forum, yet it is denounced as fascism in the pages of the Saturday Night. Dating from the first manifestation of surrealism in Canada at the Canadian National Exhibition of 1938 (Toronto), the idea of Surrealism has been subject to English Canadian patriotism. Yet, at the same time, it is also free from it due to favorable conditions resulting from the temporary renunciation of the dominating ideology of nationalism. The dispersion of surrealism in Canada may, also, be related to the two waves of immigration that the country experienced at the beginning of the twentieth century. Moreover, Protestantism, which is linked to the burgeoning of industrialization and to the temperance of the senses, may be seen as responsible for the delay in the acceptance of Surrealism by English speaking Canadians.
Portraits composites : la photographie des types physionomiques à la fin du XIXe siècle
Authors: Saurisse Pierre
Published: June 2021

Composite Portraits : the photography of physiognomical models at the end of the 19th century.

The goal of the Englishman, Francis Galton, after he perfected the composite portrait, was to represent the physical type of different groups of the population. By associating a facial type with a behavioral one, he aspired, at once, to attach a scientific pretext to social inequalities. The method, which was exhibited in 1878, consisted of the superimposition of photographic portraits of several individuals on a single sensitive plate, in order to obtain a unique facial transparency. Galton applied this process to delinquents or to the sick, in order to demonstrate the hereditary nature of the loss of values that impedes social progress. Arthur Batut used this technique in photographing the inhabitants of a French village, without, however, the eugenistic approach of its inventor. The Americans, on the other hand, chose to superimpose the faces of eminent scientific researchers, and the images of their skulls. Beyond physiognomical appearance and its links with hevavior, both the question of intelligence and that of the observation of the « cradle of thought » are posed.
La faïence fine à Toulouse et la Maison Fouque et Arnoux
Authors: Roqué Emmanuelle
Published: June 2021

Toulousian White Earthenware and the Maison Fouque et Arnoux.

The white earthenware, introduced in France at the end of the 18th century, based on the technique used in the production English Wedgewood, enjoyed great success among the French middle class during the first half of the 19th century. Originally from Moustier, Fouque and Arnoux settled in Montpellier where they manufactured moulded forms (of which few presently exist) and, especially, numerous series of plates with decorative patterns (21 series are known today).

From 1820 to 1855, they produced white (and, less frequently, yellow) backgrounds and black decorative patterns, with rare touches of color.

In general, the manufacture chose scenes representing current military events (the Independence of Greece), Parisian cityscapes, figures (knights, apostles), scenes taken from the fables of LaFontaine, representations of the months and other scenes closely linked to those used by porcelain manufacturers in the Parisian region (Creil, Montereau, Choisy-Le-Roi). The views of Toulouse and Bordeaux (where Fouque and Arnoux had a major clientele and, from where, the earthenware was exported to Spain), scenes of the history of Toulouse, based on 17th century models, and borders employing the cross of Languedoc typify the Toulousian production of Fouque and Arnoux.
Mussolini bâtisseur ou les leçons de Rome d’Auguste Perret
Authors: Maak Niklas
Published: June 2021

Mussolini bâtisseur or the Lessons from Rome by Auguste Perret.

In 1940, the art critic Léandre Vaillat and the architect Auguste Perret accepted to write a book entitled Mussolini bâtisseur for the Editions Grasset. Although the text was not published, the Institut français d’architecture (I.F.A.) has, in its library, a typed script of 140 pages ready to be published that recent publications, dedicated to the works of Perret, have overlooked.

The authors describe the rise to power of Mussolini and the urban architectural projects in large Italian cities, especially Rome. The text underscores the profound admiration of the authors for the Du ce and his totalitarian urban concept ; the constructive undertakings of the Fascists are seen as positive acts of socio-urban re-animation. Furthermore, the ideological implications of the text clarify the paradox that haunted the concept of regionalism, as Vaillat perceived it — a concept that tended toward a fusion of local and national identity, authority and individualism.
Photographie autochrome et impressionnisme : le paradigme de la couleur-lumière
Authors: Boulouch Nathalie
Published: June 2021

Autochrome Photography and Impressionism : the paradigm of color and light.

Based on research by psycho-physiologists, the scientific theories of color that came into being during the second half of the 19th century, nurtured the new concepts of visual culture that were established at the turn of the century. In 1907, the invention of the first industrial color photography process, autochromy, lead to direct comparisons between photography and painting : photography demonstrates the scientific validity of Impressionism and Pointillism and painting, also, offers a legitimate aesthetic to the new-born process of autochromy. The relationship of these two mediums, based their heritage in the scientific theory of color — and not that of iconography — then, allowed the ties which bonded scientific, technical and aesthetic achievements to be examined.
Architecture, topographie et séquences du récit dans un rouleau illustré japonais du XIIIe siècle, le Taima mandata engi emaki
Authors: Leggeri-Bauer Estelle
Published: June 2021

Architecture, Topography and Sequences of the Narrative on a 13th century Japanese scroll, the Taima mandata engi emaki.

In the mid-13th century, a method of composition appeared in Japanese narrative painting on scrolls : a large architectural complex, in which is situated a residential estate where a sequence of events takes place. The unfolding of the narrative, in which the successive events could have taken place at very different times, is organized both in the interior and the exterior of the residence, which assures both a spatial and topographical painted narrative. The Taima mandata engi emaki (« The Wonderful Story of the Origins of the Image of the Monastery of Taima ») is one of the first works which successfully presents this type of narrative. After proving the originality of this work, compared to earlier works which also incorporate architectural images, this article will examine the role that architecture plays in the elaboration of the narrative. In fact, the architecture assures the topographical unity of the narrative, its compositional organization and the isolation of successive events that follow one another. The architecture also distinguishes space and, further, when associated with other configurations, such as the representation of dress, it facilitates the identification of the individuals based on their situation within the complex.
Les vicissitudes du marché des laques à Paris au XVIIe siècle
Authors: Wolvesperges Thibaut
Published: June 2021

The vicissitudes of the Market for Lacquer work in Paris during the 17th century.

The commerce of lacquer work illustrates the passionate aspect of the artistic exchange established between the Far East, especially China and Japan, and the West, mainly Holland, England and France. Although England and Holland, rapidly, developed and intense trade with these two Asian countries, at the beginning of the 17th century, unfortunately, owing largely to the warlike comportment of these two European countries,

France was obliged to wait more than a century before establishing direct trading with China. Japan was definitively closed to the West, except for Holland, from 1853.

At the beginning of the 17th century, chinoiserie developed in Paris, where pieces of little worth were imported through Portuguese merchants and sold at fairs, namely that of Saint-Germain. On the other hand, in order to obtain the most beautiful pieces of art, and, especially Japanese lacquer work that was reputed to be, indeed, the most beautiful of this period (and, therefore, extremely expensive),

Parisian merchants, as noted in numerous documentary archives, were obliged to go to markets in Amsterdam. This considerably augmented the cost of the objects and it was for this reason, that only the rich (the King of France and the Nobles) were able to obtain these works.

There existed a double market : on one side, the important high scale merchants, the only ones who were able to propose pieces of quality to their clients, and on the other, the merchants of curiosities, whose prices were considerably lower.
Les agoras grecques d’après les recherches récentes
Authors: Marc Jean-Yves
Published: June 2021

The grecian agoras according to recent researches.

The multiplication of new data concerning hitherto badly known periods (archaism or imperial era) or areas (Macedonia or Far East), as well as the renewed problematics allow for the reconsideration of probably the most emblematic element of the grecian city : the agora. These recent researches deprive the modern concept of the agora of its previous simplicity.

On the one hand it is recognized that the word presented a very strong polysemy for the Ancients.

On the other hand, it is proven that the agoras specificity was less definite and less ancient than one wished to believe, that they were not directly identified with the political center, that they did not concentrate everywhere the totality of the civic buildings, and that, as soon as their architectural and functional personality was finalized, they were integrated into a complex of monuments so that their functions became manifold.
Repentirs de Klee. La fonction autocritique du collage dans les oeuvres découpées et recomposées
Authors: Mari Kōmoto
Published: June 2021

Klee’s pentimenti. The self-critical function of the collages in his cut-out and recomposed works.

Through a « destructive-creative » process, Paul Klee created some collages of a distinctive type. The specificity of these « sectile » works (about a hundred) lies in the scission, or cutting-out of a pre-existing work followed by a recomposition which transforms it. These works originate in a self-critical look, the artist being led to consider his initial composition as too «harmonious», full of illusions, or over elaborate. Therefore, the cutting-out function is, for Klee, basically corrective.

Our analysis of two sectile works, Hammamet with its Mosque (1914.199) and Anatomy of Aphrodite (1915.45), shows how the pictorial space is transfigured through interventions such as the scission, the shifting of cut-out strips, the center-edge reversal, or the insertion of an empty space. These transformations attest a deliberate choice highlighting the discontinuity. In these pentimenti one can read a question about the « fini » of the art work, and a permanent reminder of its genesis. If it is true that the collages never extend beyond the « given-space » (the rectangular frame), time, for Klee, remains conceived as an extension, an evolution. One might interpret the artist’s wish to document the evolution in his Oeuvrekatalog as the persistence of the utopie idea of Gesamtkunstwerk.
Le destin du musée national d’Art moderne occidental de Moscou (1918-1948)
Authors: Robert Carole
Published: June 2021

The destiny of the National Museum, of Western Modern Art in Moscow (1918-1948).

The National Museum of Western Modern (« new ») Art (N.M.W.M.A.) of Moscow was born in 1918, thanks to the nationalization of two moscovite collections, Chtchoukine’s and Morosov’s. In 1928, the N.M.W.M.A.’s two national collections are brought together in a single place under the supervision of Ternovets. With the culural politicization imposed by the Soviet régime during the thirties, the N.M.W.M.A. has to justify the stylistic variety' of its french collections, which might be considered « bourgeois ». Ternovets intercedes in order to save the Museum in its genuine original state. Although its collections are preserved, the N.M.W.M.A.’s survival around the forties is difficult within a hostile, anti-occidental official artistic environment.

Eventually, in 1948, the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party' arbitrarily votes the Museum’s supression. The disappearence of the N.M.W.M.A. really attests the closing down of cultural life under Stalin.
À propos des copies d’art byzantin à Istanbul : les artistes russes émigrés et l’Institut byzantin d’Amérique
Authors: Podzemskaia Nadia , Ismaïlovitch Dimitrij
Published: June 2021

Concerning the byzantine art copies in Istanbul. The Russian émigré artists and the Byzantine institute of America.

Created in 1930 by the american archaeologist Thomas Whittemore, the Byzantine Institute of America was, in the thirties, in charge of the tracing, restoration and publication of St Sophia of Constantinople’s mosaics. This Institute’s history nevertheless dates back to the early twenties, since its destiny is closely linked with the presence in Istanbul of a large colony of émigrés, including some artists haring fled the Bolshevist Revolution. Owing to their artistic practise attached to the traditional values of the orthodox world, they wished to pass on a special sensibility, in order to clear the ground towards Byzantium’s reception in Occident. The present article is devoted to some of these artists, especially Izmailovitch and Kluge who, working as copyists, played a significant part in Byzantium’s reception in Occident. Through their skills, the Americans were able to appropriate the RAIK’s experience (Russian Archaeological Institute of Konstantinoupolis, closed in 1914 because of Turkey’s joining in the First World War) and build their activities in direct continuation with their illustrious predecessor. The present article is based on the analysis of some unpublished documents preserved in the archives of Bordeaux, Paris, St Petersburg and Moscow, and wishes to contribute to the history of art history.
Le Recueil de Fontaines et de Frises maritimes gravé par Louis de Châtillon d’après Le Brun
Authors: Janand Marie-Caroline
Published: June 2021

About the Recueil de Fontaines et de Frises maritimes engraved by Louis de Châtillon after Le Brun.

Numerous books of etchings devoted to fountains appear since the beginning of the 17th century. The first ones, mostly Roman, represent gardens, or urban views. In France, they tend to become books of standard models. Around 1680, Charles Le Brun suggests the engraving of some of his works to Louis de Châtillon. One of these is a Livre de Fontaines et de Frises maritimes (Book of Fountains and maritime Friezes) in which a group of seven prints stand out in the series. It concerns fountains where sculpture plays a major part. The themes derive from mythological cycles. One can link these etchings with some drawings ascribed to Le Brun, kept in the Louvre. Their conception is close to Bernini’s baroque vision. Even though no source evidences it, it is, in all likelihood an informal commission given to Le Brun for the ornamentation of new watering places in Paris around 1665. But the plan was not carried out. There remains a very beautiful book of prints demonstrating — far from the topographical and typological collections — how Le Brun was concerned with the preservation of the compositions he had created.
Le reliquaire du rosaire d’Eringhem
Authors: Laget Pierre-Louis
Published: June 2021

The reliquary of the Rosary at Eringhem.

The church if Eringhem in northern Flanders exhibits an impressive silver piece composed of a sculpture of the Mother and Child offering a rosarv to saint Dominic, surrounded by fifteen carved medallions depicting the Mysteries of the Rosary, above an enshrined relic of the veil of the Virgin Mary. The sculpture, as well as the medallions, were created by François-Joseph Baudoux, the most famous silversmith master of Lille. This piece was ordered by the parish priest of Eringhem in 1771, most probably to celebrate the victory of Lepanto in 1551, due to the intercession of the Virgin of the Rosary, according to Pope Pius V. The silversmith responsible for the medallions of the Mysteries of the Rosary was greatly inspired by engraved works of French, Italian and Flemish artists. This reliquary, probably unique in France, may, indeed, constitute a particularly early commemorative work.
Le phénomène de la « guise » bretonne : l’exemple bigouden
Authors: Le Guennec Aude
Published: June 2021

Up to the 1950’s, Brittany was divided into parishes, each of them being characterised by its own dress style. These fashions, geographically confined, are known as «guises ». The Bigouden group, according to the interest it aroused, is the one whose stylistic characteristics are most easily distinguished. Its example underlines the link between the model and its adjustment to individual demands. One can see, as far as the Bigouden guise is concerned, subtle dress variations according to the social position of the wearer, which break with supposed uniformity. The study of Breton guises highlights the complexity of dress display at the heart of the social phenomena.
Des costumes des Ballets suédois (1920-1925) au musée de l’Opéra de Paris
Authors: Bigot Jocelyn
Published: June 2021

The Paris Opera Museum keeps a few stage costumes of the Swedish Ballets created in 1920 by Rolf de Marée, and which called upon famous Paris artists (Jean Cocteau, Jean Hugo, Steinlen, Paul Cohn, Foujita,.etc.) for their scenery. Unfortunately, the lack of interest in the Swedish Ballets led to their early disappearance and the scattering of their costumes, of which only those kept in the Paris Opera remain. However, they have no link with the preparatory drawings kept at the International Museum of dance in Stockholm, or with the photographs of the performances. Some costumes cannot be attached with any precise ballet. The most gorgeous item is the one, in black and white, created by Fernand Léger for Skating Rink, in association with black and green geometrical backcloths.
Architectures animales
Authors: Baratay Eric
Published: June 2021

Building for animals.

If Historians have, for a long time, underlined and studied the plentiful presence of animals in architecture, they paid less attention, at least in France, to the buildings for animals. This article deals with the present state of studies and new possibilities from examples concerning animals : zoological gardens and circus for wild beats, cow-sheds, stud-farms, stables, race courses and slaughter-houses for farm or cart animals, miniature architectures of dog-kennels, cages or funeral monuments for pets. These artefacts have often been used as experiments. It also makes it possible to study the adaptation to animals of social needs and the reaction to representations concerning animals (decision, reception, life of the building) .
Théophile Gautier ou les paradoxes de la modernité
Authors: Junod Philippe
Published: June 2021

Théophile Gautier or the paradox of Modernity

If Baudelaire’s name is today often associated with the conception of modernity, it was not the same in the nineteenth century. Now, it is true that Gautier must have transmitted the word to Baudelaire. The two critics certainly had many common points ; both of them were interested in fashion, and we can say Gavarni is for Gautier what Guys is for Baudelaire. But their conceptions of modernity differ on many points and, if Gautier is reluctant to admit the beauty of a black suit, he will soon become the defender of a representation of the modern world that Baudelaire hated. The analysis of the ambiguities, even of the contradictions of Gautier allows us to put in perspective his vision of history and to place him in the evolution of modernity between Stendhal and the Goncourt brothers.
De la poterie à la sculpture. Aubé, Carriès et Gauguin
Authors: Hirota Haruko
Published: June 2021

From Pottery to Sculpture : Aubé, Carriès and Gauguin.

That Paul Gauguin investigated the possibility of sculptural expression in ceramics was all the bolder in his time because ceramics was considered as industrial art. In order to retrace his process from pottery to sculpture, it is necessary to examine relationship between Gauguin and the sculptors of his time : the academic sculptor Jean-Paul Aubé, also famous as a decorator of vases and Jean Carriès, who shared Gauguin’s preference for stoneware sculpture. These artists had in common the reflection upon the human condition. However, Gauguin had his own wish to renovate the art of sculpture. The passage from pottery to sculpture led in fact to the autonomous sculpture-object.
Un ensemble de peintures françaises postimpressionnistes au musée Bénaki d’Athènes
Authors: Delivorrias Angelos
Published: June 2021

French postimpressionist paintings donated to Athen’s Benaki Museum.

In 1993, the Museum benefited of the donation by Litsa Papaspyrou, in memory of her father, Gustave Boissière, of nineteen items concerning the first half of the twentieth century, thus increasing the number of French modern works of art accessible to the Greek public. It comprises oil paintings and watercolours by Jules Flandrin, Manguin, Signac, Jean Puy, Vlaminck, etc. and an important group of paintings by Pierre Laprade. The Boissière collection was probably acquired between 1920 and 1930. It will soon be studied and exhibited at the Ghika Pinacotheka, with other modern works of art.
Un document rare : le livre de comptes du retable des saintes Eulalie et Julie de la cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Perpignan (1675-1686)
Authors: Lugand Julien
Published: June 2021

A rare document : the book of accounts concerning the altarpiece of St Eulalie and Julie in Perpignan’s St John-the-Baptist Cathedral.

The book, certified by a solicitor and kept in the Pyrénées Orientales Archives concerning St Eulalie and St Julie’s altarpiece gives the detailed accountancy concerning this work of art in three distinct parts : receipts, expenditures and bills.

A valuable evidence for a well preserved altarpiece, the book allows an accurate analysis of its making, bearing numerous testimonies about the cash, as well as the materials, the guilds and the conditions of work.
Transformations et usages d’un motif : la table en panneau
Authors: Titeux Catherine
Published: June 2021

Transformations and uses of a pattern : The panel table.

Slabstone panelling appeared in the decorative vocabulary in France in the 1540s. The patterns are derived from antic inscriptions and imitate the slabs decorating Roman triumphal arches. Around 1555, a new type appears, the large projecting slab stone panel or “ panel table ”, completely different from the table alla’antica because of its size and its lack of ornamentation. Used on the pier or in the middle of the span, it stretches on the wall between the windows. When the facade is organized, it tends to spread all over the space between the horizontal mouldings and the pilasters. The panel table does not seem to go back to Antiquity or to renaissance Italian architecture. Its origin can probable be traced to the decorated façades which appeared in France in the second half of the 15th century. Rarely used in the 16th century, the panel table will be very popular in the 17th. Several characteristic shapes tire used simultanouslv, the one used most frequently being the flat, smooth and sharp-edged one, whose prototyp can be seen at Verneuil. The panel table, a simple and ecomnomic way of making a façade look grand, has its place in the hierarchy of ornaments.
Un nouveau partage des responsabilités patrimoniales
Authors: Balsamo Isabelle
Published: June 2021

A new way of sharing heritage responsibilities.

This paper expounds the new legislation as established in France since 2000 about monumental heritage and particularly the ways of financing and thus the different responsibilities as regards archeology, monument preservation and inventory.

It enhances a new way of sharing responsibilities between the State and local authorities, the Regions as well as the Départements and the towns, for a better public management.
Le siège social du Crédit lyonnais à Lyon (1880-1907)
Authors: Chazelle Marie-Hélène
Published: June 2021

The head, office of the Crédit lyonnais in Lyon (1880-1935).

The head office of the Crédit lyonnais first moved in 1863 into rented premises in the Palais du commerce of the town and then in 1874 into a block of flats in the rue de la République. As early as 1881, when in Paris important works turned the branch into a central office, in Lyon the administration asked architect Gaspard André for a building plan, which was never carried out. It was only in the beginning of the 20th century that the Crédit lyonnais resumed its plans in Lyon and chose architect Victor Cahuzac to conduct the construction works between 1904 and 1908, which considerably modified the inner organization of services as well as the external aspect of the former building. So V. Cahuzac followed the banque procedure as it was then defined in particular in the building of the great Parisian headquarters of the Comptoir national d ’escompte or Crédit lyonnais. This paper underlines the specific features of the Lyonese building finished in 1935.
Une restauration emblématique : le Gros-Horloge de Rouen (1889-1893)
Authors: Nasi Sophie
Published: June 2021

An emblematic restoration : the Gros-Horloge in Rouen (1889-1893).

In 1889 started the restoration of the Gros-Horloge in Rouen under the direction of Louis-Charles Sauvageot (1842-1908), architecte des Monuments historiques, it was constituted of an arch, a Renaissance pavilion to which, from 14th to 18th century, time had adjoined a loggia and a corner fountain next to the town clock tower. Much was at stake for, if the commission des Monuments historiques considered this entreprise as the way of refurbishing one of the key monuments of the Renaissance, on the other hand, for the town it was mainly a political action meant to highlight the emblem of restored town freedom. However, a consensus was found around the propositions of the architect who, for his part, took into account the expectations of each party.
Les musées en plein air d’Ismaïlia (Égypte)
Authors: Meurice Cédric
Published: June 2021

The open-air museums in Ismailia (Egypt).

Ismailia, the town founded in 1863 under Ismail pacha, midway up the Suez Canal, sheltered and exhibited the monuments found in the construction sites when the area was being developed. This paper offers a short history of the laying-out of the gardens where these antiquities, as well as others coming out of archeological excavations, were gathered. These arrangements depended on the Compagnie Universelle du Canal maritime de Suez which organized their setting and maintenance and funded field research from 1904 on together with the Service des Antiquités d’Egypte. After the Second World War, several events punctuated the slow dismantling of these small open-air museums.
La sculpture de la frise équestre du Parthénon : une lecture hippologique
Authors: O'Hare Wilson Maureen
Published: June 2021

The sculpture of the equestrian frieze of the Parthenon : a hippological reading.

The Ionic frieze on the outer wall of the cella of the Parthenon, finished by 438 BC, represented undoubtedly the great procession of the Panathe-naea. What concerns us here is essentially the sculpture of the 70 % equestrian part of the frieze and the way in which the sculptors went about their task to achieve the resulting effect of dynamism and harmony. And how they managed, in low relief, a convincingly realistic rendering of mounted horsemen riding practically seven abreast. Different hands and indeed different sen¬ sitivities are apparent but do nothing to destroy the unity of the whole. Whilst displaying in this work their intimate knowledge of the horse itself — anatomy and character — it is in these very aspects that their mastery of technique is revealed. They have not failed to show that the horses are striving to get out of the bit. The animals’ heads held high in a horizontal position or, on the contrary, pulled in too severely shows not only that the sculptors were depicting the reality around them but also that this frieze was perhaps not such an idealised representation as often imagined.