bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
L’agence centrale de la Société Générale à Paris (1908-1912)
Authors: Kozak Thierry
Published: June 2021

Central Agency of the bank Société Générale in Paris.

The Central Agency of the Société Générale is the last Parisian palace of finance (designed in 1906-1908 ; built in 1908-1912). Commissioned to set it among a group of profit buildings drawn by Rohault de Fleury in 1865 in the vicinity of the Opéra, Jacques Hermant’s sources were the Crédit Lyonnais and the Comptoir d’Escompte, but he innovated by using a reinforced concrete structure, by the choice of a round counter, the arrangement of the safe boxes rooms, copied on the American safe rooms, and by building it on an unprecedented scale, all richly decorated in polychromy.
Sur la date du cratère Borghèse
Authors: Truszkowski Élisabeth
Published: June 2021

On the date of the Borghese krater.

The Borghese krater, a vase in Pentelica marble, in the Musée du Louvre, has been the subject of several attempts to date it, all of them questionable. In the light of a very precise analysis of the style and the iconography of its carved ornementation and by comparing it with other vases such as those from Mahdia, it must be considered as a basic work of the neo-attic style. The carved relief of the Borghese krater is particularly homogeneous and is reminiscent of the models of the 2nd C. B.C. deriving themselves from works the 4th C. B.C. For reasons of style and political context, the author proposes a date of the 1rst C. B.C.
Robert Morris : des pièces minimales aux Feutres
Authors: Coëllier Sylvie
Published: June 2021

Robert Morris : from the Minimal works to the Felts.

Robert Morris’s very diversified activity possesses a unity if one considers it from the point of view of its relationship to the human body. From this point of view, the minimalist works from 1964 to 1967 appear particularly expressive of Morris’s theories of the perception of space and the situation of the work of art in relationship with the beholder. Their implicit system is paradoxical : on one hand, an “anthropomorphism” linked to the human proportions, on the other hand, a geometric formalism which tends to dematerialize sculpture. In 1967, the felt-sculptures suggest a new form of analogy with the human body ; they also clearly question the relationship of art with the norms of industrial production.
Le décor peint du XIVe siècle dans le chœur de la cathédrale de Rodez
Authors: Fayel Nicole
Published: June 2021

The 14th C. painted decoration in the choir of Rodez cathedral.

During the last ten years, three groups of mural paintings have been brought to light in Rodez cathedral : in Saint Catherine Chapel (Christ in Majesty and saints), in Saint Agnes Chapel (prophets and saints), and in the axis chapel (Christ in Majesty surrounded by the Tetramorph). Their state of preservation doesn’t permit to identify all the figures and the scenes. Their style and a few external elements allow a datation around the middle of the 14th C. They have been executed by a single worshop, which worked for the cathedral. The influence of the “italo-avignonnaise” painting is noticeable, as well as the one of french illumination.
Les panneaux historiés du château de La Mothe-Saint-Héray
Authors: Stievenard-Billère Brigitte
Published: June 2021

The historiated panels of the La Mothe Saint-Heray castle.

Since 1842 the Niort Museum preserves a series of historiated panels from the chapel of La Mothe Saint-Héray castle, which had been redecorated by Jean de Baudéan at the beginning of the 17th C. and destroyed in the middle of the 19th C. The painted scenes are illustrations of the Bible. They show the mark of a deep flemish influence. The artist, probably an itinerant painter, has been inspired for part of them by Peter Van der Bocht’s prints for the Images et figures de la Bible, a book published in Antwerp around 1585. Other secondary sources can also be identified. The choices of the scenes and their treatment show a protestant aspiration, which allows the attribution of the patronage to Jean de Baudéan, who died in 1631.
Unité et cohérence de quelques « imprese » farnésiennes du XVIe siècle
Authors: Bajard Sophie
Published: June 2021

Unity and Coherence of some of the Famese Devices from the 16th C.

The absence of documents concerning the heraldic devices which decorate the palace of the Farnese family have led the author to establish a corpus of these devices, to describe them, and to define their meaning. The devices of Paul III (1468-1549) and of the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese both in Caprarola and in Rome have been selected. The author attributes the devices to each member of the Farnese family and proposes to see in the capricorn not only an ornament but an additional device in its own right. Erudites close to the Farnese (Orsini, Caro and Panvino) certainly played a role in the selection and the attribution of the devices. Medieval bestiaries provide an obvious source but antique influence should not be neglected, especially that of medals, which were collected in the 16th C.

Some of the devices originate from Augustan medals. The body of the Farnese devices was not meant to create original motifs but to form a unity around the theme of the family’s social and political power.
Artisanat du bronze et grande sculpture : de la Grèce archaïque à la Grèce classique
Authors: Rolley Claude
Published: June 2021

C. Rolley : Bronze Craft and Great Sculpture : From Archaic to Classical Greece.

In the 5th century, bronze hydrias underwent an essential technical change. The handles, till then made by lost wax technique and devoted to an original and coherent motif, are more often executed in high relief hammered in a mould Unique and specific decoration is replaced by a more repetitive element chosen more randomly from a stock of varied models. The independent art of the bronze craftsmen is replaced by a small-scale artisanal style, which is nothing more than an echo of great statuary. The hydria from Aineia, executed around 430, is the best example of these changes and allows us to propose new marks for the crisis of the cities and the passage from the archaic to the classical period.
Hans Hartung, peintre cubiste ?
Authors: Moret-Martingay Véronique
Published: June 2021

V. Moret-Martingay : Hans Hartung, Cubist Painter ?

Descriptions such as «lyrical abstraction» or «abstract expressionism» are too vague and restrictive, and also fail to account for Hartung’s years of maturation and the different sources of his inspiration. The years 1926-1934 were particularly important for him. His discovery of French painting at the Universal Exhibition in Dresden (1926) was followed by numerous stays in Paris, the South of France, and Norway. The painter started using Cubist technique and renewed his art through the play of interlocking surfaces in imaginary articulations, an interest in the Golden Number, a refinement of color, and a light graphic technique. The return to full originality in 1934 is the result of these decisive years.
Les vitraux en dalle de verre en France, des origines à 1940
Authors: Loire Natalie
Published: June 2021

The stained-glass windows in glass-slab in France, from their beginning to 1940.

The technique of stained-glass window as a glass-slab, which consists in setting thick glasses in reinforced concrete and coloring them in the block, was created in France about 1929, in Jean Gaudin’s workshop, who was soon followed by Auguste Labouret and Charles Lorin ; all collaborated with the glass-master J. Albertini. Herein are set out some outstanding creations using this technique, which did not spread outside of France before 1940. Two other but related techniques have been practised by E Décorchemont and P. Dindeleux, a specialist of translucid concrete. Among the 60 or so stain-glass windows in glass-slab created
Esquisse d’une typologie des villes fortifiées de l’Égypte pharaonique
Authors: Soulié Daniel
Published: June 2021

Outlines of a typology of fortified towns of Pharaonic Egypt.

Recent excavations allow to consider more acutely a little studied aspect of the civilisation of Pharaonic Egypt : the morphology of the towns. The nature of their fortifications allow a distinction between two types of urban areas. Some of them, protected by a wall, often double during the Middle Empire, are generaly situated in the borders (Bouhen) ; they present a chequered plan, with a very obvious division into zones, sometimes materialized by a wall. The others (El Kab, Kahoub), are religious or administrative centers which present only a very simple wall, without walls or bastions, of variable thickness. None of the cities about which we learn they endured long sieges has been yet excavated.
Le manoir en Haute-Normandie (XIIe-XIVe siècle)
Authors: Benoît-Cattin Renaud
Published: June 2021

Manors in Upper Normandy, 12th to 14th centuries.

A survey located 25 manors of the period, most of them considerably modified inside and some of them now completely destroyed. The civil manors are generally to be found near a church, the chapel of the squire of the manor, whilst ecclesiastical ones are isolated in the middle of their grounds. Traces of the environment sometimes survive : a moat, a pigeon-tower, one or two chapels and the remains of a tithe barn. The manor-house is generally a two storey rectangular construction, with two gables and walls a meter thick, sometimes buttressed. Some have cellars, but no trace of vaulting has been identified. On the upper floor, where one might expects to find a hall and a bed room, only one manor-house had traces of a partition wall. Either these partitions were of wood, or else the upper floor was composed of only one room. The original chimney is situated on one of the long walls, with an outside shaft. The original staircase was presumably of wood and was situated outside the building : it is only traceable by a door on the upper floor which gives outside. The windows on the ground floor are small and not very numerous ; on the upper floor the windows opened in the wall opposite the chimney, are more numerous and larger.
Le manoir d’après les aveux à la Chambre des comptes de Normandie (XVIe-XVIIe siècles)
Authors: Etienne Claire
Published: June 2021

The manor studied in the recognitions presented to the Norman Roll Chamber (16th-17th centuries).

The archives of the Norman Roll Chamber suggest that a manor is to be identified by the presence of certain outbuildings. The archives examined concern 277 recognitions mentioning a fief (17 %) or — because of estate division — a half (8 9c), a quarter (21 %), or an eighth (18 %). The texts speak not only of the manor itself, but also of its outbuildings. Nine manors have kept a fortified building, and fourteen a moated site within their grounds. The outbuildings scattered around the courtyard are for agricultural uses : barns (40 %), cow-houses (30 %), stables (18 %), press-houses (30 %). The pigeon-tower is, of course, the characteristic mark of the manor (80 %), whilst chapels (24 mentions) are associated with certain fiefs only. Gates and doors are mentioned seven times each. The estate may also include orchards, gardens, woods, fish ponds and mills. The presence of a pigeon-tower enables us to separate manors from ordinary farms, in much the same way as a distinct courtyard for agricultural functions allows us to distinguish a castle from a manor.
La maison en ciment armé de François Hennebique à Bourg-la-Reine
Authors: Delhumeau Gwenaël
Published: June 2021

The reinforced concrete house by François Hennebique in Bourg-la-Reine.

The Hennebique firm was at the beginning of the century the most important of French firms specialized in reinforced concrete building. After having achieved the building of the rue Danton in Paris, for the plans of which he asked the architect Arnaud, François Hennebique, his owner, built himself, from 1901 to 1903, a villa in Bourg-la-Reine. This villa, the aspect of which is entirely new, demonstrates the possibilities offered by the reinforced concrete in all its forms ; but it constitutes also an exceptional success by the laying-out of the exterior and the conception of the inner spaces. A manifest of the new material, a real work of propaganda, it is also the fruit of an elaborate reflexion on the problems of living conditions.
Les villas « mexicaines » de Barcelonnette (1860-1930)
Authors: Homps-Brousse Hélène
Published: June 2021

The « Mexican » villas in Barcelonnette 1860-1930.

« Barcelonnettes » is the name given to the emigrants who, during the Second Empire, following in the Arnaud brothers’ footsteps, left the Valley of the Ubaye for the Mexican Eldorado. Their economic success was quick in the textile sector. Having made their fortune, these businessmen called « Mexicans », back in their country, become landowners again and placed architectural orders which contrast strongly with the local practices. The author distinguishes between three building phases (1860-1890, 1890-1914, 1918-1939), the last being characterized by the decline of prestige orders. Several villas are studied. It is interesting to notice that from 1890 onwards the builders resort more to architects. The patrons give importance to comfort and space, but also to the decoration (glass walls). The archives of these buildings have remained in the majority of cases the propriety of the families. The recent « Valley Museum », settled in one of these villas, today gathers a documentation on this original heritage.
Ingénuité et paradoxe : Bonnard et Vallotton illustrateurs de Peter Nansen et de Jules Renard
Authors: Vernois Solange
Published: June 2021

Two novels apparently without any connection, apart from the proximity of their publishing date, are herein analysed as far as their illustration and their thematic are concerned : The Mistress by the French Jules Renard, illustrated by Félix Vallotton (1896) and Marie by the Danish Peter Nansen, illustrated by Pierre Bonnard (1898). The two novels have in common the fact that they deal with the relationships between men and women, and ask the question of sincerity in love, though they propose different solutions. The illustrators Bonnard and Vallotton were friends, belonged to the same artistic world and were associated in the Nabi movement. The style of their illustrations (drawings reproduced in the technique of the «cliché-trait » in both cases) can appear radically different. Nevertheless it is interesting to show how each of them dealt with light and melodramatic themes, close to serials and theater. In Vallotton’s illustrations features of press caricature can be found, and comparisons with the «shadow theater » then fashionable are necessary. Bonnard, as far as he is concerned, adapts his
Les frères Vera et l’art des jardins entre les deux guerres
Authors: Gueissaz Catherine
Published: June 2021

The Vera brothers and the art of gardens during the inter-war period.

André Vera (1881-1971) was a self-educated man, of considerable erudition, who developed, from 1910, a theory of the art of gardens. He held that they should belong to the tradition of the French spirit whilst satisfying the demands of the modern world. His brother, Paul Vera (1882-1957), a painter and decorator, illustrated these ideas between the two wars by many projects which are held today, along with the artist’s archives, by the Municipal Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He also realized several gardens, in particular the ones designed with his brother in 1924 for the Vicomte de Noailles, or with the architect J.-C. Moreux in 1930 for Jacques Rouché. Inspired by Cubism and by the Art Deco movement, these gardens play on the contrast of coloured surfaces set in a strictly laid-out design. The decorative elements are more important than the vegetation, and the gardens, composed just like a picture, belong to the general evolution of art.
Collard, photographe des Ponts et Chaussées
Authors: Le Mée Isabelle-Cécile
Published: June 2021

Collard, a photographer of the Ponts et Chaussées.

The first part of this paper constitutes the first biographical enquiry, based on archives, on Auguste-Hippolyte Collard. Known as a gilder on wood in Poitiers where he settled in 1839, Collard has perhaps been initiated to photography in 1842 by Niepce’s nephew. In 1850, he exhibits in Poitiers his first framed daguerreotypes. Then he goes to Paris, where he opens a familial photography studio. His first successes are due to his skillness in reproducing paintings. At the end of the 1850s, he turns to photography of building sites and offers his services to engineers. Not only a witness, he gives to his photographies of bridges, viaducts, etc., a personal mark : he tries to restitute the modern forms of iron works executed under his eyes ; and such a result is achieved partly thanks to light effects. The author analyses certain formal characteristics of these photographies. The whole set of albums containing Collard’s photographies of building sites (from 1857 to 1886) is recorded and localized in an appendix to the article.
L’église de Saint-Thibault-des-Vignes et son décor sculpté
Authors: Didier Marie-Hélène
Published: June 2021

The church of Saint-Thibault-des-Vignes and its sculpted decoration.

The church of Saint-Thibault is little known, and deserves better recognition in the historical context of the building and decoration of romanesque churches in the Ile-de-France region. Its construction dates back to the pilgrimages which began after the return of the relics of Saint Thibault, a saint born at Provins around 1030, who died in Italy in 1066 and was canonized by Pope Alexander II. The church underwent several modifications between the late eleventh century and the Revolution.

The initial construction was apparently the result of a single building campaign ; this is confirmed by the decoration of the capitals of the columns. Two of them are sculpted with geometrical motifs whilst a second group, in the nave, has embellished storied representations or plant motifs. A third group in the apse has capitals which are exclusively carved with plant motifs. The main interest of these capitals lies in the sculpted representations of biblical scenes. Some of these, for example the resurrection of Lazarus, have been mutilated and require better identification.

There were probably two sculptors, perhaps three.

A comparison with the storied capitals of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris is revealing. Despite the slightness of the affinities, the author of this article believes that the sculptor of the main group of storied capitals at Saint-Thibault-des-Vignes could well be the sculptor of the four capitals of Sainte-Geneviève, held today by the Cluny Museum in Paris and probably dating from the late eleventh or early twelfth century.
L’artisanat du meuble à Paris au XVIIIe siècle : Étienne Avril
Authors: Vétois Isabelle
Published: June 2021

Furniture-making in Paris during the eighteenth century : Etienne Avril.

Etienne Avril, known as Avril l’Aîné (the elder) was a Parisian cabinet-maker. During his lifetime (1748-1791) he acquired a considerable reputation, but he was subsequendy forgotten. In 1774 he was received as master in the cabinet-makers’ guild. In his subsequent career he witnessed ail the legislative measures which attempted to regulate the craft professions, from Turgot’s edict of 1776 up to the law of 17 March 1791 which finally abolished the guild system, replacing it with the « patente », a licence to exercise a trade or a profession. Hitherto unpublished documents from the French national archives and from those

of the Seine department (a record of the placing of seals on his belongings at the time of his death, the claims of his creditors registered with a justice of the peace) allow the author of this article to reconstitute something of the craftsmen’s milieu in which Etienne Avril worked, and to analyse the relationships between suppliers and creators in furniture production.
Les photographies de la « Grande fouille » de Delphes
Authors: Réveillac
Published: June 2021

The photographs of the «major excavation » at Delphi.

This year is the centenary of the French archaeological excavations at Delphi, and this anniversary is the occasion for the author of the present article to present the sizeable collection of photographs taken during the excavation and held today by the Photo Library of the French School in Athens. These photographs provide a wealth of hitherto unpublished documentation not only on the material conditions of this major undertaking and on the techniques of archaeological photography at the end of the nineteenth century, but also on life in the humble village of Kastri, and on the construction of the new village of Delphi.
Les agrandissements en sculpture : l’exemple de Rodin
Authors: Martinez Rose-marie
Published: June 2021

Enlarging sculptures : the example of Rodin.

During the nineteenth century, several new techniques for reproducing sculptures were developed, in particular techniques for their enlargment. Rodin enlarged several of his works, and had his own special enlarger, Henri Lebossé (1845-1922). The author describes the processes used and analyses the technical and aesthetic problems that Lebossé was faced with. Under the sculptor’s control, Lebossé had in fact to engage in a real interpretation of the work, on account of the change in scale. Despite this, his status remained that of a simple technician. The author then examines the reasons that led Rodin to enlarge certain of his works, and identifies the relationship between the enlargments of small fragments and the directions of Rodin’s own aesthetics towards the end of his career.
De Rome au Louvre, les avatars du musée Campana entre 1857 et 1862
Authors: Nadalini Gianpaolo
Published: June 2021

From Rome to the Louvre, the fate of the Campana Museum between 1857 and 1862.

In 1857, the bankruptcy of the Marquis Campana, the result of his inability to reimburse the loans he had granted himself whilst director of the Rome Mont-de-Piété (pawnshop), led to the sequestration of his private Museum. After a few vain efforts by Campana himself to sell the Museum, it became the property of the papal government which was itself, at this date, on the look out for fresh capital. The projects which tried to keep the Campana collections in Rome turned out to be impracticable, and they were finally put up for auction, allowing the museums of the Russian and French Empires to engage in some massive acquisitions of art works. Most of the collection came to France, the Emperor Napoleon III himself negotiating the acquisition at a diplomatic level, followed through telegraphic despatches. These Campana collections, along with the objects brought back from the archaeological missions in Italy supported by the Emperor, entered the Musée Napoléon III, a short-lived showcase for the dynamic cultural policies pursued by the Second Empire.
Le quartier des États-Unis à Lyon : la fin du purgatoire ?
Authors: Berthet Françoise
Published: June 2021

The Etats-Unis neighbourhood at Lyons : the end of purgatory ?

In comparison with his « Cité Industrielle », seen as an anticipation of the town-planning theories of the Modern Movement, Tony Garnier’s realisations in the Etats-Unis neighbourhood in Lyons have always been seen as something of secondary importance, the result of a compromise.

For many years the area was neglected, and it is only since 1985 that a renewal programme has been undertaken, based on the ideal model that the architect had set forth in the « Cité Industrielle ». After a detailed historical and stylistic study, the author of this article questions the relations between the real Etats-Unis quarter and the imaginary « Cité Industrielle », and shows how the restoration programme has modified the original architecture, the specific qualities of which may be more correctly evaluated today.
Les campagnes photographiques de Martens en Suisse et en Savoie
Authors: Savale Christophe
Published: June 2021

The photographic campaigns of Martens in Switzerland and Savoy.

Between 1859 and 1864, under the title La Suisse et la Savoie, the Goupil & Cie publishing house produced a set of lithographic prints based on the photographs of Frédéric Martens (1806-1885). This photographer has been largely forgotten today but during his lifetime he had a considerable reputation. The article studies the aesthetic aspects of these views of the Alps, taken in the perspective of a picturesque tradition going back to the late eighteenth century. Their critical reception by contemporaries is also examined, underlining the ambiguous nature of these images, somewhere between scientific documentation and works of art. The article concludes with an analysis of the relations between photography and lithography at this period, the latter process still being a more reliable and cheaper form of image reproduction.
De l’élément industriel au monument
Authors: Bonhôte Jérôme
Published: June 2021

Making monuments out of industrial elements.

The chimney of the Hoffmann-type kiln of a long-abandoned late nineteenth-century brickworks at Castelnau-d’Estretefonds (Haute-Garonne) was given particular architectural and decorative attention.

This chimney occupies a key position in the landscape, next to a sixteenth-century château and the bell-tower of a church built in the nineteenth century. The chimney has recently been floodlit, giving it the same patrimonial importance as the two other elements of the site.

Similarly, the early twentieth-century mining headstocks and winding gear, in the commune of Blaye-Les-Mines (Tarn), were dismantled a few years ago to be rebuilt in front of the new town hall. This is a particularly symbolic element of mining activity, conceived here too as a memorial to the lives lost in a mining disaster. It is to take its place in an even larger monumental complex.

The isolation and monumentalisation of a particular industrial element is to be found in other parts of France than the Midi-Pyrénées region. The author examines this region but also cites the steam hammer at Le Creusot (Saône-et-Loire), dating from 1876 and erected as a monument at a cross-roads at the entrance to the town in 1969. The steam hammer at Saint-Juéry (Tarn), made in the United States around 1890, has similarly been put up as a monument at the entrance to that town.
La sculpture dans la « querelle de l’Art Sacré » (1950-1960)
Authors: Rinuy Paul-Louis
Published: June 2021

Sculpture in the « quarrel of Sacred Art » (1950-1960).

The renewal of sacred art in France after 1945 is marked by a major quarrel between the partisans of modernism and the upholders of tradition (1950-1952). Sculpture plays a significant part in this quarrel.

But this art did not enjoy more than a modest influence at the time : only a small number of sculptures were realised, and these sculptures were mostly small in size. Contemporary historical studies pay but litde attention to them. Several of these sculptures, however, realised in a modern idiom, gave rise to lively scandals which are examined in this article as an ensemble : Richier’s Christ at Assy,

V. Székely’s Calvary at Fossé, Gilioli’s Christ at Mulhouse and Chavignier’s at Neuilly. All these examples lead to forms of iconoclasm (destruction or removal of the works) which neither the painting nor the architecture of the time witnessed.

The particular fate reserved for sculpture is to be explained by the religious character generally recognised fot this art form during our century, and by the history of sculpture between the two wars, a history which hardly prepared sensibilities to welcome modern sculptures. These difficulties also help us understand the prudence of sculptors in the world of sacred art after 1960.
Marius Vachon, un militant pour les « industries d’art »
Authors: Laurent Stéphane
Published: June 2021

Marius Vachon (1858-1928) was a journalist

who played an important part in the late

nineteenth-century French debates about the art

industries. His positions were at first

liberal ones but he moved on to a defence of the

French industrial arts that finished up as a

blind nationalism, insensitive to modernistic

tendencies. His positions are indicative

of the polemics that surrounded the promotion of the

decorative arts at this period. Between

1885 and 1889 he accomplished several official

missions, in the French provinces and abroad, to carry

out an enquiry into the art industries and the

teaching of applied arts. The propositions he put

forward on these themes had but little effect.

He was also involved in the conflict

between the «chambres syndicales » — the employers’

associations — and the Union centrale des

arts décoratifs, founded in 1879. The members of the

latter were more favourable to creative

«Art Nouveau » tendencies than to traditions of

French craftsmanship. Nonetheless, Vachon’s career

is not entirely without positive results,

in particular his initiatives in reforming applied art

teaching in certain provincial French cities

(Besançon, Marseilles, Toulouse, etc.),

sometimes, as at Lyons and Saint-Etienne, in

association with local art and industry museums.
Un Art nouveau pour le peuple. De « l’art dans tout » à « l’art pour tous »
Authors: La Chapelle Alix de
Published: June 2021

During the period of the blossoming of Art Nouveau, France, like Great Britain and Belgium, witnessed a lively development of social art. In intellectual circles, the leading personalities militating for an art for the people were the architects Frantz Jourdain, Charles Plumet, Louis Sorel,

Léon Bénouville and Henri Sauvage along with the writers Octave Mirbeau, Henri Cazalis (alias Jean Lahor) and Roger Marx. Associated in groups such as the «Groupe des cinq » or «L’Art dans tout », these architects tried in vain to participate in the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, presenting models of workers’ housing which were both salubrious and elegant. In 1903, at the Exposition de l’habitation, Bénouville, Lavirotte and Plumet, associated with Selmersheim, presented some housing pavilions, organised around a central hall, according to English conceptions, built out of industrial materials and furnished by the architects. No orders were forthcoming from workers’ associations, and Plumet ’s model finished up as a holiday home. Bénouville built houses at Beauvais, Epinal and Bogny, all of them equipped with a workshop for family handicraft work, and based on the idea of popular education through art, under the guidance of the family head, the father. This same crusade, organised in the Société nationale de l’art à l’école, a society for the teaching of art in schools, also invited teachers to join in the mission.
Un tableau signé de Pierre Brébiette
Authors: Cortet Odile , Coural Natalie , Haviland Catherine , Mallet Robert , Martin Elisabeth , Ravaux Jean-Pierre
Published: June 2021

A painting signed by Pierre Brébiette.

The Service de Restauration of the Museums of France undertook, in 1993, the restoration of several paintings for an exhibit devoted to the work of Claude Vignon. Among these paintings was the Abduction of Proserpine by Pluto, which attracted the attention of one restorer because of stylistic differences with the other paintings. After the surface of the painting was cleaned, the signature of Pierre Brébiette, until then invisible, was discovered, identifying him as the unquestioned author of this work. This is the first known, signed painting by this artist, who, until recently, has been known solely as a drawer and engraver. Further, certain comparisons may be made between the script of the graphic works of Brébiette and this painting, the technical character of which would situate it in the early years of the 17th century.
L’art grec dans l’Histoire naturelle de Pline l’Ancien
Authors: Naas Valérie
Published: June 2021

Valérie Naas : Greek art in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History.

Because the majority of original Greek works of art, as well as the writings of the artists and those of Greek critics have disappeared, Pliny’s Natural History has become our primary ancient source for the understanding of this art. It is, therefore, important to determine both the contributions and the limits of Pliny’s work. Although source research (Quellenforschung ) has clarified the origins of the material compiled by Pliny, both the method of classification of this material and the specifically Roman tastes of the encyclopaedist have received less attention. The suite of the mimesis serves as a chronological axis, strengthened by the accounts of personal relationships between artists that illustrate various anecdotes.

Pliny’s text, which targeted the Roman public, treated only the most beautiful Greek works of art exhibited in Rome. Mention is made of some fifty bronze statues, some one hundred marble statues and some thirty paintings in public collections (private collections were condemned as a display of individual vanity). Both his ethical and civic approach to art places Pliny the Elder within the Roman tradition, torn between a fascination with and a reserve towards Greek art.
Quelques réflexions sur le nombre des couleurs et la composition du blanc aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles
Authors: Blay Michel
Published: June 2021

Some Notes on the Number of Colors and Composition of White during the 17th and 18th Centuries.

This article attempts to show us, by studying the genesis of colors and their enumeration, the confusion that arose among specialists in color, after Newton’s treatise was published in 1672 — a confusion that continued until the middle of the 19th century. To the undefined number of colored Newtonian lights were opposed the persistent objections of the trichromist and the anti-Newtonian observations of J.-P. Marat and the Père L. B. Castel.
Le cycle peint de la cathédrale d’Angers. Remarques sur l’emploi des couleurs au XIIIe siècle
Authors: Subes Marie-Pasquine
Published: June 2021

The Painted Cycle in the Cathedral of Angers : Remarks on the Use of Colors in the 13th century.

The wall painting in the apse of the cathedral of Angers, dated ca. 1255, is composed of a single register of 20 scenes of the life of Saint Maurille, bishop of Angers in the 4th century. A highly elaborate painting technique was employed : oil and resin-based paints and numerous pigments (white lead, red oxide of lead, azurite, green copper, cinnabar, charcoal, red and yellow ochre). This wall painting provides us with insights into the pictorial techniques, the analysis of form and the iconography. Based on the interplay of the latter, a new interpretation of the use of colors in this cycle may be proposed — that they were most likely used as both a narrative and spiritual instrument.
La fabrication et le traitement des couleurs dans la peinture traditionnelle chinoise de paysage
Authors: Schmitt Camille
Published: June 2021

The Fabrication and Treatment of Color in Traditional Chinese Landscape Painting.

Beginning under the Tang Dynasty (618-907), an important development in landscape painting took place — an evolution in which the dichotomy between monochrome landscapes, painted in ink, and highly colored landscapes was underscored. Landscape styles « in blue and green » and « in gold and green », whose creation is traditionally attributed to Li Sixun (651-716) or Li Zhaodao (active between 713 and 741) found strong support among painters until the 19th century. Dominant among the colors were those derived from minerals (azurite, malachite and cinnabar pigments) — the fabrication of which will be studied in this article. Under the Yuan dynasty (1277-1368), the first of these styles gave birth to a landscape « in light blue and green », at once seen as archaism and in a strongly literate perspective, in which the same colors were employed but applied in a lighter wash.

At that time, another style of landscape painting (« in light ochre ») came into being where the structuring with ink predominated. In this style — taken up by Huang Gongwang — 1269-1354), Wang Meng (1308-1385) and a number of other orthodox master painters of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) — ochre and organic colors (indigo, gum and safflower) that were lighter and more easily applicable than colors derived from minerals were used.
Sources et principes de la polychromie monumentale selon Paul Sédille (1836-1900)
Authors: Girveau Bruno
Published: June 2021

The Sources and Principles of Monumental Polychrome according to Paul Sédille.

During the second half of the 19th century, monumental polychrome was the grande cause defended by the French architect, Paul Sédille. Following Hittorf, Sédille undertook the crusade in favor of color combined with architecture, going so far as to state, in 1886, that monochrome architecture flaunted nature.

To support his cause, Sédille called on all possible sources, from Asian antiquity to contemporary ceramic artists. Antique and medieval polychromy, the della Robbias, Arab art — all of these influences appeared to cross one another and to lead Sédille to an original syncretism, in which he recommends that simple tones and non-figural forms be applied to architecture, while, at the same time, leaving the structure of the building apparent. The renaissance of architectural ceramics, as they were extolled by Sédille, opened the way to the innovations of Art Nouveau.
La Passion de Turin : un séjour de Memling à la cour de Savoie en 1476 ?
Authors: Elsig Frédéric
Published: June 2021

The Passion in Turin : Hans Mending’s sojourning at the Court of Savoy ?

Hans Memling’s painting The Passion, presently in the Galleria Sabauda in Turin, has, since the middle of the 19th century, been thought to have been painted at the request of the Florentin banker Tommaso Portinari ca. 1470-71. In 1843,

Passavant, an expert in Flemish painting, suggested the comparison of The Passion with a small painting in the Portinari chapel in Santa Maria Nuova, which is mentioned by Vasari as being part of the Medici collection. This comparison was supported by the majority of specialists in the field. However, it is interesting to note that Weale finds Passavant’s proposition unacceptable and feels that it does not fit correctly within the evolution of Memling’s works. The Passion appears to be linked to folio 210 of the Saluce Hours, is it possible that it never left the Piedmonte and is the product of a sojourn by Hans Memling at the court of Savoy ? This hypothesis is supported by comparisons with the portrait of Jacques de Savoie (most certainly painted by Memling ca. 1476) and the diptych panels in New York and Rotterdam which are very evidently related to The Passion, the left panel of which originated in Turin.
Quelques travaux inédits de Derand dans la chapelle des jésuites de La Flèche
Authors: Le Boeuf François
Published: June 2021

The Discovery of Unknown Works by François Derand in the Jesuit Collegial in La Flèche.

A study of the 17th century campaigns of construction of the Jesuit collegial in La Flèche (founded in 1603 by Henri IV and converted into a military school in the 19th century) has brought to light the works of certain well-known French artists, long associated with this building.

The collegial was constructed, based on plans drawn up by Louis Métézeau (1559-1615), royal architect. He was succeded by the prominent Jesuit architect, Etienne Martellange (1562-1641), who slightly modified the original plans. In the chapel of the collegial, the reredos of the principle altar was completed between 1633 and 1636. The recent discovery of the contract for the reredos confirms the presence at La Flèche of another equally well-known Jesuit architect, the Père François Derand (1588-1644), who designed it and confided its execution to Pierre Corbineau, one of the most important artisans from the Lavallois.

The confirmation of Derand’s presence at La Flèche has, also, permitted other attributions to be made to him (i.e., the organ in the tribune). Also, this confirmation may clarify the appearance in the 1640’s of two treatises on stereometry — (the first known) — one by Derand and the other by Mathurin Jousse, another artisan at La Flèche.
Un tableau d’Abraham Hondius dans une église de Bordeaux
Authors: Maisonnave Jean-Philippe
Published: June 2021

A Painting by Abraham Hondius in a Church in Bordeaux.

The discovery of a newly restored painting in the church of Sainte-Croix in Bordeaux confirms the importance of religious inspiration in the work of the Dutch artist, Abraham Hondius, an artist known for his hunting and animal scenes. This painting,

The Annunciation, signed and dated 1663-64, presently in the collection of the National Museum of Krakow, incorporates a sketch or a reduced copy on wood, completed during the painter’s stay in Amsterdam, most likely after his visit to Italy and before he established himself permanently in London. This work, painted in a Baroque style like that of The Annunciation to the Shepherds (1664) in Utrecht, bears witness to the seductive eclecticism of Hondius’ work and offers (despite the uncertainty concerning its provenance ) a new proof of the interest shown by the cosmopolitan elite of Bordeaux in Northern painting.
À la recherche d’une architecture nationale en Corée du Sud : Kim Sugun (1931-1986) et le groupe Espace (Konggan)
Authors: Delissen Alain
Published: June 2021

In Search of a National Architecture : Kim Sugtin (1931-1986) and the group « Space » (Konggan ).

The written history of contemporary architecture in Asia is not particularly satisfying, especially when it deals with research on how this architecture attempts to express the national identity. This article will attempt to go beyond the juxtaposition between tradition and modernism which dominates the debate that is reduced to visual citations, using a South Korean example. The architect, Kim Sugifn (1931-1986), and the cultural group that the founded and baptized « Space » (Konggan) have approached the question of national identity from two points of view. An architectural analysis of the group’s center shows how the references that animate the analysis may be ambivalent in the complexity of the genealogy of architecture.

An analysis of written architectural texts offers a better understanding of why the reference to Korean architecture occurred within a society that was abused by 20th century history and which ignored architecture as art.
Images de l’idéologie royale khmère aux frontons du temple d’Īśvarapura (967 ap. J.-C.). Nouvelles hypothèses (II)
Authors: Alvares Sharon
Published: June 2021

Images of the royal khmer ideology on Isvarapura temple ’s pediments (967 A.D.). New interpretations (II).

The first part of this research appeared in our previous issue. Here the decoration of the third enclosure of Isvarapura temple is examined. Different themes taken from the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics are presented : the duels of Bhima with Duryodhana, and of Valin with Sugriva ; the abduction of Tillotama and the abduction of Sita. These episodes are closely linked by a common set of themes connected with the royal legitimacy. The duels give an opportunity of stating the rules of conduct for the kings according to the rajadharma. Thus, together with the temple’s epigraphy, the whole collection of images in the program of Isvarapura temple exalt the royal personality in the exercise of its various duties. Indeed, although the temple was placed under the authority of Yajnavarah, a chaplain, it really is a royal foundation under the patronage of king Rajendravarman.
Lucienne Florentin ou les ambivalences d’une critique d’art en Suisse romande
Authors: Pallini Stéphanie
Published: June 2021

Lucienne Florentin, art critic in french-speaking Switzerland.

Since the beginning of her career as an art critic in french-speaking Switzerland, Lucienne Florentin was, from 1910 to 1940, set against the modern french artistic trends (e. g. cubism, dadaism, surrealism) , thus seeking to undermine Paris artistic supremacy. She also rejected the Stijl movement, Kandinsky, and the Bauhaus. On the other hand, she stood up for Alexandre Blanchet, the artist, and the French-speaking swiss painters, nurtured on traditions. She was also a fervent defender of « Young Italy »’s fascist painting.

In contact with Alberto Satoris, she took up architecture and decorative art criticism. She then demonstrated a great open-mindedness in choosing to advocate Le Corbusier and in siding with the theories of L’Esprit Nouveau.

During the years of crisis, Lucienne Florentin reverted to her positions in favour of a modern classicism. All things considered, her criticism is characterized by a deep ambivalence.
L’imaginaire scientifique du surréalisme : Max Ernst, les objets mathématiques et la géométrie non euclidienne
Authors: Fortuné Isabelle
Published: June 2021

Surrealism’s scientific imagery : Max Ernst, mathematical objects and non-euclidean geometry.

The surrealists’ interest in the various scientific fields through the theories of the images they generate, arose in the first years of their movement and never failed even up to the post-war period, evolving according to the rediscovery of scientific theories or objects. Max Ernst’s work is particularly representative of science’s appeal in the surrealist milieu. It recurrently appears in various shapes with this artist : diagrams and mathematic equations, rulers and callipers, figures either geometrical or born of cellular biology, cosmological visions... During the thirties, the appropriation of the theories of non-euclidean geometry dominates surrealism’s scientific imagery, together with the rediscovery of mathematical objects. These scientific models, translating mathematical equations in three dimensions, are known through Man Ray’s photographs, and appeared in several surrealist exhibitions. Max Ernst also participated in this collective fancy, by incorporating mathematical objects in his collages and by proposing his personal reading of the theories of non-euclidean geometry.
L’Epitome des roys de France (Lyon, 1546) : un nouveau mode d’illustration
Authors: Leutrat Estelle
Published: June 2021

The Epitome des roys de France (Lyons, 1546) : a new kind of illustration.

The Epitome des roys de France was published in Lyons, in 1546, by Balthazar Arnoullet. It consists in a summary of the lives of the fifty-eight first French sovereigns, accompanied by their effigies in the shape of engraved oval medallions. These are ascribed to the anonymous engraver working in Lyons around 1550 : the Maître CC.

The Epitome des roys de France provides perfect evidence for the evolution of illustrated books in France in the middle of the 16th century, wavering between tradition — as regards illuminated portraits such as those appearing in the various genealogies and universal chronicles — and innovation, especially with the clarity of their lay out as well as with the preference for copperplate rather than wood engraving. This work also allows for an interrogation about the notion of likenesses in the 16th century. The anonymous author of the Epitome indeed maintains that all the Kings portraits are depicted « as true as possible to nature ». At the time, such intentions are frequent, as for instance with Vasari ; nevertheless, be it with one author or the other, iconography and portrait merge together, and the alleged likeness proves to be hypothetical.
Du choléra morbus et de ses représentations dans la peinture du XIXe siècle
Authors: Opinel Annick
Published: June 2021

The Cholera Epidemic as depicted in French paintings of the 19th century.

This article deals with paintings depicting the cholera epidemic in France in the 19th century, as well as with the pathology and the victims’ visible symptoms. Beyond this semiological report, some paintings clearly show or imply how prestigious medicine was during the dramatic 1832 cholera epidemic in Paris. To the courage of the medical profession may be substituted or joined that of the government. It is, therefore, their ability to react or to sympathize that is to be demonstrated : it was often clearly a political challenge. The epidemic is, also, a continuous theme in medical painting which follows the events step by step. In the case of the cholera epidemic, it is, essentially, the painting of events that bears witness to a national disease, a territorial disaster.