bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Terres cuites de Grande Grèce au musée de l’université de Nancy II
Authors: Caré Pietro
Published: June 2021

Terra cottas of the Greek world held at the Museum of the University of Nancy.

The study of six terra cottas dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. and held today by the Museum of the University of Nancy II, allowed us to identify their origins and to reveal the complexity of the activities of their producers in Medma and Taranto. For a long time they did copies of or variations on types imported from various regions of mainland Greece : Eastern Greece, Paros and Boeotia.
Georges Rouault : écrire comme peindre
Authors: Zucchelu Anne-Marie
Published: June 2021

Georges Rouault : writing like painting.

Georges Rouault’s writings are little known.

A systematic list of them is appended to this article, showing them to be numerous and varied : poems, articles, prefaces, letters and unpublished texts. Most accompany his experience as a creator. Rouault does not talk about painting, but with painting. He prefers subjective commentary to critical analysis. His paintings and his texts originate from the same internal odyssey. The artist’s predilection for an almost chidlike naivety, in the face of the powerful world which inhabits him, acheives its most personal expression in his songs, rooted in popular culture.
Six pièces d’orfèvrerie chinoise du musée Guimet
Authors: Bayou Hélène
Published: June 2021

From the Sui to the Song dynasties : six pieces of Chinese goldsmith ’s art at the Musée Guimet.

Throughout Antiquity, bronze was the principal metal used in Chinese art and it was only during the Tang dynasty (618-907) that the working of gold developed. The growth of the Empire towards central Asia encouraged an influx of gold, whilst trade exchanges with the West helped introduce new techniques (soldering, embossing, stamping, etc.) along with new forms (cups with stems or handles) and a new decorative repertory. The objects held by the Musée Guimet and studied in the present article illustrate this evolution. They are a perfume flask dating from the Sui period (581-618), three pieces dating from the reign of the Tang emperors, a guilded silver cup from the second Tang period (after the An Lushan revolt of 756) and, finally, a gold cup from the Song period.

This last piece illustrates the withdrawal of China after the tenth-century recession, and the development of specifically Chinese aesthetic forms.
Cubisme, décor et tradition vers 1912
Authors: Amano Chika
Published: June 2021

Cubism, decoration and tradition around 1912.

The generation of artists who were active in France during the 1880s was particularly interested in promoting the value of the decorative arts and several painters were involved in the creation of decorative ensembles. The influence of William Morris and of Ruskin was strong, and the aesthetics of the new style were linked to the idea of a social art. Towards 1900, Germany’s new industrial power had an influence on the decorative aesthetics of this country. In France, from the time of the Universal Exhibition of 1900, anti-German nationalism grew more marked. German success seemed all the more threatening since the French decorative arts were still unable to forge links with industry. The quest for a new style is marked by the ideology of French tradition. The decorative style seen as modern by the new generation of artists-decorators around 1910 tends towards geometric simplicity, but the dominant ideology remains hostile to any notion of volume production. The cubist house presented at the 1912 Paris Salon d’ Automne provides a good example of the contradictions and ambiguities of modernism. The notion of a French tradition still inspires a certain number of artists-decorators and cubist painters at the very moment when Picasso and Braque, on the one hand, and Marcel Duchamp, on the other, were raising the question of the materials of art.
Une « Soirée de Paris » du comte Étienne de Beaumont en 1924
Authors: Bertrand Anne
Published: June 2021

One of the comte de Beaumont’s « Soirées de Paris » in 1924. This article is an account of the « Soirées » organized by the comte Etienne de Beaumont during the season of May-June 1924. The evening of Sunday 15 June at the Cigale theatre (Paris) is chosen as an example, on account of the avant-garde event held that night : Mercure, Picasso’s « plastic poses », with music by Satie. Etienne de Beaumont drew on the experience of his predecessors, Serge de Diaghilev and Rolf de Maré, but combined music hall and theatre with ballet. One of the figures of society life in Paris, famous for his balls, the count commissioned decors and costumes from Marie Laurencin, Picasso, Braque and Derain. He hired Massine as choreographer and former ballet-dancers from the « Ballets russes ». Loïe Fuller was in charge of lighting. The count was aided in his venture by the American, Walter Berry and by the « Association franco-américaine d’exposition de peintures et de sculptures » ; Marc Allégret was employed as secretary. On 15 June 1924, the future surrealists greeted the first performance of Mercure by organizing one of their famous « chahuts », rowdily disapproving of Satie’s music, the better to draw attention to the provocation of Picasso’s « poses plastiques », of which they approved in a tract published by several newspapers. The « ballet » had absolutely no success, even when it was repeated, in 1927, by Diaghilev ’s troupe.
La Chronique universelle d’Orléans : un manuscrit d’histoire enluminé
Authors: Hurel Nathalie
Published: June 2021

The Universal Chronicle of Orleans : an illuminated historical manuscript.

During the reign of Charles VII, after the one hundred years’ War, the production of works of history witnessed a considerable revival. Between 1457 and 1520-21, some twenty Universal Chronicles on scrolls were written and illuminated. The manuscript no. 470 at the Orleans Municipal Library is representative of such historical compilations of the period. It may be dated from the third quarter of the fifteenth century and probably comes from northern France, but we know nothing about who commissioned it, who produced it or who owned it. The chronicle deals first of all with the Old Testament, Ancient History and the life of Christ and then goes on to the succession of Popes, emperors of Rome, French kings, Breton kings and kings of Great Britain. Sixty-four miniatures in the form of medallions feature in the text at its articulations, sometimes in direct illustration of the text itself, sometimes adding information which is not to be found in the text. The illuminator uses the technique of « pourtraits », which allows him to use physionomies, backgrounds and costumes which are practically identical, repeating scenes and character types with only slight variations. Several of the medallions are analysed here : a representation of the infant Jesus with a cross announcing the Redemption, the murder of the Giants by Bruit (the origin of the foundation of Great Britain), the construction of different cities... The Universal Chronicle of Orleans allows for an in-depth study of the relations between image and text. It also raises the problem of the didactic or propagandist role of such texts. The genealogies and the description of the birth of nations are by no means innocent at this time when memories of the Anglo-French conflict were still fresh. Finally, the narrative confirms an idea of history which is still medieval, that is to say the facts and personalities — even contemporary ones — are always compared with the events and figures of Bible history.
Le grand établissement thermal de Vichy (1894-1903)
Authors: Morillon Cécile
Published: June 2021

The thermal waters establishment at Vichy.

A rudimentary watering establishment already existed at Vichy during the seventeenth century. This small establishment was considerably modified and enlarged during the nineteenth century. A neo-classical building designed by the architect Rose-Beauvais was opened in 1831. The resort witnessed considerable growth during the mid nineteenth century, under the patronage of the emperor Napoleon III and the influence of the company founded in 1853 to exploit the state monopoly on the waters. During the Third Republic, this company tried to meet the competition coming from German and Austrian spas by building a new, first-class watering establishment. The architect Charles Lecœur was commissioned for the project in 1892. Studies on hygiene were carried out at the same time, concluding that Rose-Beauvais’s building was ill-conceived.

The new building shows a rational design, symetrically organised around horizontal and vertical centre-lines. The pavilions built in 1900 show the influence of the kind of architecture prevalent at the Universal Exhibitions of the time. The external decoration, designed to be noticed from afar, is an eclectic mixture with elements typical of the « picturesque » styles then in fashion. The natural lighting was given particularly close attention : zenithal lighting, bull’s eye windows or light wells. Inside, the decoration shows the influence of the Art Nouveau and orientalist movements. The whole is designed to give an impression of exoticism and luxury, used to mask technical devices of considerable sophistication.
Les gestes du Christ dans les représentations sculptées de l’Entrée à Jérusalem du IVe au VIe siècle
Authors: Schweitzer Florence
Published: June 2021

Christ’s gestures in sculpted representations of the Entry to Jerusalem, between the fourth and sixth centuries.

The gestures of Christ as he enters Jerusalem, in sculpted representations of the scene, allow us to underline three aspects of this episode recounted in the Gospels, and to suggest three different readings of it between the fourth and sixth centuries. During the fourth century the traditional gesture for speech — the index and middle fingers of the right hand outstretched, the forearm raised to chest level — gives way to a more ample gesture closer to that found in the imperial adventus ; during the sixth century, a specific gesture of benediction emerges.

These gestural modifications reflect the evolution of Christian doctrine during this same period, evolutions which are partially connected to the changing political situation. The emphasis moves successively from a salutation of a personal nature (the conversation with Zacchaeus) to one that represents the proclamation of a faith, seen to be triumphant (over arianism), to one that is intended for the multitude.
Porcelaine et collectionnisme en France au XVIIIe siècle
Authors: Lahaussois Christine
Published: June 2021

Porcelain and collections in France during the eighteenth century (according to some auction catalogues).

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, there were many different types of porcelain in France ; coming from the Far East or from the West, hard paste or soft paste, with « coloured decoration » or monochrome designs. The examination of a series of eighteenth-century auction catalogues shows that such porcelain objects were not only functional. Old pieces of porcelain, often with modern gilded bronze rims or handles, were not merely the necessary complement for any major decorative ensemble, but also collectable art objects in their own right. The collections include « celestial blue porcelain », « China porcelain », pieces from Saxony, from Sèvres and from other origins. During the second half of the century, blue decoration on a white background seems to have gone out of fashion, whilst the taste for Japanese porcelain reached its apogee in 1720.
Les antiquités péruviennes et la curiosité américaine en France sous l’Ancien Régime
Authors: Riviale Pascal
Published: June 2021

Peruvian antiquities and curiosity for America in France during the Ancien Regime.

Up until its independence in 1821, Peru was officially closed to all Europeans except the Spanish. The country was nonetheless the destination for many maritime expeditions, and numerous French travellers, traders and adventurers stayed in Peru, setting up a trade in Peruvian objects dating from before the Spanish conquest. The study of how this trade developed, and of how curiosity in France evolved with regards such objects allows us to identify the main centres of interest of the French in the Americas, from 1534 (discovery of Canada by Cartier). From the end of the seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth, maritime exchanges between France and the New World witnessed remarkable growth, but it is only during the eighteenth

century that we begin to find mentions of pre-Colombian antiquities in French collections. Antiquities from Peru are more frequently to be found than those from Mexico, a phenomenon which the author of the present article explains by the importance of trade between Peru and France, consequence of the decline in the power of the Spanish from the end of the seventeenth century. The scientific expeditions of the eighteenth century also contributed to these commercial exchanges.

Many objects found in Peruvian excavations of pre-Spanish sites find their way directly into the hands of French personalities close to the central state authorities or belonging to the world of science. Otherwise the collections seem to be constituted through public auctions, and it is possible to surmise than many objects circulate by this channel from one collection to another. In 1793, the French Revolution seized many complete collections belonging to nobles who had emigrated, along with the collection at the Jardin du Roi.

These collections are today held by the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. The private collections, however, are far more difficult to identify.
Feliks Manggha Jasieński, un collectionneur polonais au tournant du siècle
Authors: Kluczewska-Wójcik Agnieszka
Published: June 2021

Feliks Manggha Jasieński, a Polish collector at the turn of the century.

Feliks Jasieński (1861-1921) was first of all a great traveller. He was well acquainted with the literary, musical and artistic circles of Berlin and Paris, where he stayed during the 1880s. He returned to Poland in 1890, settling in Cracow in 1902. It was there that he installed his museum-residence, constantly enriched with purchases of works of art from Europe and Japan. His collections were extensive and significant, covering several fields : contemporary western engravings, ukiyo-é, paintings by young Polish artists (the Zacopane school in particular), popular Polish art, rare books, etc. Jasieński was also a leading member of artistic associations in Poland helping young artists, running a review, giving lectures and publishing articles. As well as a collector, he was also a promoter of new Polish engraving ; he also played a major part in reviving interest in the popular culture of Poland. Finally, his collection of Japanese prints was one of the largest in the world.

After some twenty years of difficult negotiations, he bequeathed his whole collection to the city of Cracow in 1920, stipulating that this collection should never be broken up but presented as an ensemble. This wish was not respected, and even today the origin of works exhibited in the Cracow Museum and coming from Jasieński’s collection is not mentioned. An inventory of his collection has still to be made, and there is no monographic study of the collector himself. Let us hope that such a study will soon be undertaken, and that it will help present to the public the collection of one of the principal donators to Poland’s museums.
De Pékin à Paris (1900-1904) : les tribulations d’une collection de peintures chinoises
Authors: Gyss-Vermande Caroline
Published: June 2021

From Peking to Paris, 1900-1904 : the tribulations of a collection of Chinese paintings.

The French School of the Far East (Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, E.F.E.O.) was founded on 20 January 1900 in Saigon. One of its principal missions was to build up a collection of intellectual tools (a library, a museum) for the archaeological and philological study of the Indonesian peninsula and of its nearby civilisations : China, India and Malaya. One of the earliest young students sent from France was Paul Pelliot, who, in 1900, was despatched to Peking where he collected a considerable number of books, manuscripts and art objects for the school. In 1902, the school moved to Hanoi, the collections being stored in a building of the Exhibition pavilion. This building was severely damaged during a cyclone on 7 June 1903, and, since the projected museum had not yet been realised, in 1904 the collections were sent to Paris, to the Louvre and to the National Library. Ten of the Chinese paintings from the Pelliot collection were exhibited to the public at the Louvre. The comments of the contemporary specialists are indicative of the difference between that time and our own with regards to our appreciation and understanding of Chinese painting. Furthermore, the common Chinese custom of copying paintings led to many errors in attribution and dating. Only one inventory register, apparently drawn up on two separate occasions, survives today. In 1922, the Chinese paintings from the Pelliot collection were transferred from the Louvre to the Musée Guimet. They are 125 scrolls, representing three incomplete series of liturgical paintings. These paintings are presently being restored. According to the author of the present article, some of the mould on them date from the cyclone damage of 1903. A new appraisal of these works is also under way. They have long been underestimated, and their interest for the study of Buddhist and Taoist ritual is considerable.
Les Commentaires de Lorenzo Ghiberti dans la culture florentine du Quattrocento
Authors: Dubourg-Glatigny Pascal
Published: June 2021

The Commentaries of Ghiberti in the Florentine culture of the Quattrocento.

Ghiberti’s Commentaries have so far been little considered in the studies of this artist, but they deserve a closer look in the context of Quattrocento writings. The text presents considerable difficulties both in interpretation and in translation. The author of the present article attempts to deal with some of these difficulties, putting forward some hypotheses about the obscure circumstances in which the text was written, and underlining some other outstanding points. Ghiberti draws attention to the importance of the multi-disciplinarity which is necessary for the training of artists, and also stresses the fact that it is the mastery of theoretical texts on art which distinguishes the artist from the mere artisan-practitioner. Dealing with art history from Antiquity, Ghiberti more or less follows the model of Pliny, paying closer attention to the works which have might actually have been able to see. He attempts to built up a real critical discourse around these works. As for other humanists of his time, classical Antiquity remains for Ghiberti a major reference, both in the writings conserved and in the actual works of art. Ghiberti himself possessed a real private collection of such classical works. As for the contemporary works of his period, Ghiberti paints a broad panorama, based on geographical schools and following a chronological scheme inspired by the notions of the progress, the death and the rebirth of art. He also puts forward some personal preferences, based on the subjective value of the works considered.

Ghiberti’s Commentaries also throw much light on the artist’s own career, giving details which are useful for the history of art in general. The Commentaries, however do not represent an autobiography but a critical text mainly devoted to works of art in their material reality.
Le lycée Louis-le-Grand à Paris : chronique d’une reconstruction différée (1841-1881)
Authors: Le Cœur Marc
Published: June 2021

The Lycée Louis-Le-Grand in Paris ; chronicle of a delayed reconstruction (1841-1881).

This article sets out ot explain how one of the most prestigious secondary educational establishments in France, the Lycée Louis-Le-Grand, heir to the Clermont College founded by the Jesuits in 1563, had to function in dilapidated and insanitary buildings for over fifty years. Between 1841 and 1885 no fewer than fourteen rebuilding projects, signed by nine different architects, were drawn up, all of them prevented from being put into effect either by political events or by the disagreements between the two authorities on which the school depended, the State and the City of Paris. This paradoxical situation came to an endonly with the new impetus given to school building by Jules Ferry.

Charles Le Cœur’s ambitious project, realised between 1885 and 1898, left precious little of the earlier buildings and marked the apogee of school architecture under the Third French Republic. The country’s leading lycée was also the most expensive one ever built.
Ibn Ġaṭṭūs : une famille de copistes-enlumineurs à Valence (Espagne)
Authors: Dandel Elisabeth
Published: June 2021

Ibn-Ġaṭṭūs : a family of copyists and illuminators in Valencia, Spain.

The production of a family of copyists and illuminators, active in Valencia during the second half of the twelfth century (seventh century of the Hegira), reveals the work of several different hands.

Ibn Ġaṭṭūs the elder is the author of the following Korans : Sotheby 336, Cairo MS 196 and Tunis MS 1879. Ibn-Ġaṭṭūs, the son, is responsible for the Tunis MS 13727 and Istanbul BU A 6754 Korans. Furthermore, each of these artists had a brother who also contributed to the reputation of the atelier, one of the best known in Al-Andalus, as its influence on other manuscripts clearly demonstrates.
Le graveur Jacob Matham et les chambres de rhétorique à Haarlem
Authors: Widerkehr Léna
Published: June 2021

The engraver Jacob Matham and the debating chambers of Harlem.

The engraver Jacob Matham (Harlem, 1571-1631) took over the Harlem atelier of his father by adoption, Hendrick Goltzius, in 1598. His rapid and successful integration into the town’s circles of notables and intellectuals is attested by several emblems, often inspired by motifs of Goltzius or Karel van Mander. These emblems were commissioned by the town’s leading debating chambers — De Witte Angierken, the Pelicanists and the Wijngaarddranken — or were festive engravings for the Christmas guilds of Saint Hubert and Saint Jacques. These pious, allegorical compositions, along with a curious, unpublished religious engraving made up of pictographic signs, are characteristic of the social and emblematic life of Holland during the first third of the seventeenth century.
Miró et ses collaborateurs en gravure
Authors: Novarina-Raslovleff Françoise
Published: June 2021

Miro the engraver and his collaborators.

From 1929 on, the work of Miro as an engraver developed without any major interruption. In the period after the Second World War, Miro decided to concentrate even more on engraving, and he was to become one of the most prolific artists of the twentieth century in this field. His researches where engraving is concerned cannot be isolated from his other work, but have their own particularities. From 1945 Miro developed a new vocabulary, experimenting in particular with complex engraving methods which often called on haphazard and even light-hearted effects. He preferred engraving on metal to lithography, the latter being less open to technical novelties.

The author of this article draws on the unpublished recollections of three engravers who counted amongst Miro’s closest collaborators : Louis Dutrou in France and Torralba and Barbara in Spain.

Miro’s approach to engraving depended on complete confidence in these engravers. With Dutrou, the emphasis was placed on the apprenticeship in all sorts of non-traditional techniques, with halo or print effects. They were also interested in « objets trouvés », incorporated in various ways into the engraving. One of their favourite ploys was also the re-use of old plates, re-etched in a new context. With Torralba and Perralbà, Miro appreciated the possibility of experimenting with large-scale engraving. With these two also, Miro often went in for the re-use of old plates. The style developed with Barbarà is recognisable in the use of craquelure, of resins and of cut copper plates.

To conclude, the author looks at the episode of the unfinished book about the Valley of the Marvels, clear evidence of Miro’s evolution towards the book as an autonomous art object. Indeed, through his engravings, Miro aimed to bring together several different art forms, including sculpture and even music.
La composition comme symbole politique : David, Winckelmann et Carlo Fea
Authors: Martens Didier
Published: June 2021

Composition as a political symbol : David,

Winckelmann and Carlo Fea.

During the years 1770 to 1780, the painter David moved from a diagonal organisation of his works to a composition based on horizontal lines, and from a principle of the reciprocal subordination of Figures to their juxtaposition. The present article examines this evolution, from the earliest works of the artist (the paintings done for the Prix de Rome competitions of 1770 and 1772) up to the Serment des Horaces and including the crucial work of 1774, Antiochus. The article then goes on to offer an explanation for this evolution.

This change is characteristic of a « return to Antiquity » and shows certain affinities with the ideas of Winckelmann who, as early as 1767, had praised isocephaly and the horizontal composition used in the art of Antiquity. For this author, these features were characteristic of the liberty of an artist working in a democratic society. For David too, this aesthetic principle may perhaps have corresponded with an ideal of modernity, parallel to the ideal of equality of rights in the new social order. After 1800, when David became the official painter of the imperial regime, the principles of a hierarchical, diagonal composition reappeared, used to exalt the personality of the Emperor. This does not mean to say, however, that he turned his back on the lessons of the art of Antiquity : from 1783 Carlo Fea, the Italian translator of Winckelmann, maintained that, contrary to what the German author had supposed, this type of hierarchical composition had indeed existed in Greek and Roman art.
L’asile public des aliénées de Bordeaux : hygiénisme en psychiatrie et rationalisme architectural
Authors: Lecler Liliane
Published: June 2021

The public lunatic asylum at Bordeaux ; psychiatric hygiemsm and architectural rationalism.

In 1885, the board of commissioners of the Saint-Jean lunatic asylum at Bordeaux recognised the degradation of the conditions in which the mentally sick were confined in this hospital, and decided to transfer the institution to another property, on the outskirts of the city, the Château Picon. The Château itself was set aside for the wealthy patients whilst an entirely new asylum was constructed for the poor. The architect chosen was Jean-Jacques Valleton (1841-1916), a pupil of Abadie. This architect had studied the theories of his time on mental health and was particularly inspired by a text written in 1818 by J. Esquirol, head doctor at the Charenton asylum.

He also studied asylums built in France and England. The construction work started in 1887 and was completed in 1890. The article describes the new buildings and the way they were arranged in isolated pavilions, each one corresponding with a defined category of mental illness : slight, tranquil convalescent, semi-tranquil, semi-agitated, agitated, furious, epileptic. A circulation gallery ran through the ensemble, with the pavilions branching off it like teeth from a pair of combs. The decoration, of Gothic inspiration, is very muted, in keeping with theories on mental health at the time which had long since denounced the pernicious influence of sculpted motifs on the mentally deranged.
Les arcs de triomphe d’Arles
Authors: Fornasier Bruno
Published: June 2021

The triumphal arches of Arles.

The author of this article takes a new look at a question which has been much debated over the last century, concerning the three Roman arches at Arles. The only documentation on these arches consists in a few ancient texts and some membra disjecta which authorise several different restitutions. For the present author, the « Arc Admirable » to the north of the town is probably a quadrifons, dating from the era of Augustus. The municipal arch, located on the road to Italy, is probably a single arch structure dating from the end of the reign of Augustus (5-14 A.D.). The « Arc du Rhône », marking the passage of the river Rhone, is probably the oldest arch.

Its structure and ornamentation allow it to be dated to the beginning of the principate of Augustus, around the year 25 B.C.
L’invention d’un monument : le manoir normand selon Gabriel Ruprich-Robert
Authors: Rouffignac Aude de
Published: June 2021

The invention of a monument : the Normandy manor according to Gabriel Ruprich-Robert.

In 1888, at the Paris Salon, Gabriel Ruprich-Robert exhibited the architectural renderings of four timber-framed rural houses, situated in the Pays d’Auge in Normandy. These drawings have all the precision characteristic of the works executed for the French Historic Monuments Commission, to which the architect belonged. Up to this date, rural houses had usually been observed only in terms of their picturesqueness. Here, however, they are placed at the beginning of a process of monumentalisation which witnessed two stages. First of all the drawings of the four rural dwellings were adopted by Julien Guadet to serve as models in his teaching and in his treatise on the elements and the theory of architecture (Eléments et théorie de l’architecture, c. 1895) and then for the collection of drawings published by Jean de Bonnefon and Georges Wybo in 1913 : Les maisons des champs au pays de France. The traumatism of the destruction wrought by the First World War on rural architecture completed this process of monumentalisation. Two of the models, henceforth described as « manors » were scheduled as historic monuments in 1921-1922, whilst the two others were given statutory protection on the supplementary list of Historic Monuments in 1927. One of these buildings, the Pipardière Farm, was dismantled and stored for a long time before being reconstructed in another part of France. Its layout and structure were profoundly modified by this reconstruction. The authorisation to move the building dates from 1991-1992, and raises the problem of how the rural heritage is to be recognised in (or outside) its territorial specificity.
Les statuettes funéraires en terre cuite du Mexique occidental
Authors: Servain-Riviale Frédérique
Published: June 2021

Funerary statues in terra cotta from western Mexico.

Even if the archaeological evidence remains scanty, a precise iconographical study of the funerary statues in terra cotta found in the well tombs of the states of Nayarit,

Jalisco and Colima in western Mexico is possible. Beyond different stylistic forms, this study shows that the statues are not mere evocations of the various aspects of daily life, but that they have magic and religious values. They illustrate ritual practice (purification, penitence, prayer), beliefs of a shamanistic nature (purification by breath or suction, ingestion of peyote, tobacco consumption) or of an eschatological nature (access to the beyond, protection from death).
La commande des vitraux de l’église des Bréseux à Manessier
Authors: Caussé Françoise
Published: June 2021

The commission for the stained-glass windows of the Bréseux church by Manessier.

Based on unpublished sources and a numerous oral accounts, this article tells the story of the commission for the new stained-glass windows of the Bréseux church (Doubs), and how these windows were received locally. The story takes place between 1948 and 1950 and is an episode in a series of controversies which emerged in France during the programme of church reconstruction between 1945 and 1954. The idea for the stained-glass window came from François Mathey, closely connected with the Franche-Comté region. The initiative came from canon Lucien Ledeur, secretary of the diocesan commission for sacred art at Besançon, under the authority of the archbishopric of Franche-Comté. The stained-glass window that Manessier proposed drew forth much debate in the local press.

The main criticism, coming essentially from certain members of the Catholic church, was that the design lacked a « subject », whereas the window refers to precise passages in the Bible. An article in favour of Manessier was written by the curator of the Besançon museum in 1949, replying to the artist’s detractors. This commission was carried out in three stages ; the way it was received is an example of a « local battle », won through the combination of several factors. Manessier was supported by milieux in Paris and particularly by Bernard Dorival and the review L’art sacré, in 1950.
Voir le Sacré : perception et visibilité du maître-autel au XVIIe siècle (2e partie)
Authors: Cousinié Frédéric
Published: June 2021

The first article on this topic dealt with ways of seeing the high altar through the example of the altar at the Minim Convent of the Place Royale in Paris. The present article goes on to look at the various treatises on perspective dating from the seventeenth century and touching on the question of altars. The first is the pioneer treatise by Jean Pèlerin, dit Viator (1505), republished by Mathurin Jousse in a new edition in 1635. Next comes the treatise by Hans Vredman de Vries, which contains an engraving dated 1606. Both these texts are essentially designed as exercises for artists or distractions for scholars.

In the treatise bvjean Du Breuil (1642-1649), the number of possible perspective points of view increases. Some of the altar paintings proposed here are formed in a curious manner, with several elements in front of each other, rather like the decors in a stage setting. They allow for more realistic effects than a piece putting all its perspective onto a two dimensional surface. The treatise by Grégoire Huret (1670) is opposed to the thesis of the unique viewpoint on the altar painting, and supposes that the spectator is free to move around in front of the work. This less theoretical perspective seems to be associated with a certain separation between reality and its representation, and, consequently, between the religious image and the sacredness it may contain.
Le Monument à Mickiewicz de Bourdelle et son double commentaire par l’artiste
Authors: Diupero Maria-Teresa
Published: June 2021

A notebook has recently been found at the Bourdelle Museum in Paris, a notebook kept by the sculptor between 1908 and 1929 and concerning his Monument to Mickiewicz. This document gives us the opportunity to analyse several instants and several forms of commentary by the artist on his own work. Bourdelle included in this notebook several extracts from an article he wrote about the monument and which was published in a journal in January 1923. These extracts are stuck opposite ink and wash drawings executed, so the artist says, in 1923, on re-reading his published text. He also wrote extracts from this text on the drawing pages of the notebook, and adds what seem to be titles and captions. Themes dear to the artist emerge here : the unity of the three Polands, the Poet-Pilgrim, creation as the union of calculation and emotion. Some of these themes are in close correlation with symbolist ideas. Similarly, certains motifs in the drawings are also to be found in the works of other symbolist artists, in particular Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon. One of the most remarkable drawings in this series of six is undoubtedly the portrait of Ladislas Mickiewicz, the son of the poet, portrayed as a prophet-like figure.
Lucien Magne : un enseignement de l’architecture à l’École des beaux-arts entre 1892 et 1916
Authors: Talenti Simona
Published: June 2021

The article begins with a reminder of the main orientations of the history of architecture as it was taught at the École des Beaux-Arts after 1819, when the first chair was created at the school.

After the courses of Huyot (1822 to 1840) and Lebas (1841 to 1863) came those of Albert Lenoir, an assistant professor from 1856, appointed to the chair in 1869 and still teaching in 1891. His teaching course ended with the appearance of ogival architecture in the West. His successor,

Lucien Magne, taught between 1892 and 1916. He introduced rationalism into thinking about architecture, succeeding here at what Viollet-Le-Duc had been unable to do in 1864 at his chair of «history of art and aesthetics ». For the students, the main aim of the courses still remained the «concours d’émulation », a competitive examination which allowed the school to grade them. The sources which have been kept allow us to appreciate something of the innovations brought by Magne to his teaching. Starting out from a documentary plate showing a series of buildings or parts of buildings of the same type, the students had to compose a detailed restitution, combining structural analysis with decoration, and which could be a complete building or a piece of furniture. Magne’s approach to the history of architecture laid particular stress on building structures (the «ossature ») before going on to an analysis of the ornamental systems of each civilisation. If he paid close attention to the thirteenth — and fourteenth — century architecture in France, he also attached particular importance to the buildings of neo-classicism.
La société de construction Heimat : de l’habitation du fonctionnaire au logement de l’employé
Authors: Mengin Christine
Published: June 2021

The Heimat was a building company, involved in public housing in Germany between 1925 and 1933. The author takes the example of this firm to study the evolution of social housing projects designed for German white-collar workers (Angestellte) , a professional category which witnessed considerable growth during this period and was anxious to dissociate itself from workers. Founded by the G.D.A. Union, the Heimat had a preferential policy of awarding dwellings, and concentrated on the construction of blocks of flats to rent, complete with private gardens, and situated for the most part in Berlin. Although it did not have its own full-time architect, the company commissioned half of its Berlin projects from Paul Mebes. Setting out from an individualistic system, invented for housing civil servants, this architect developed his own collective architecture of a more anonymous nature. Thus modern dwellings were designed and mass-produced for a social category which was merging into the middle classes.
Un projet des frères Perret pour l’industrie : l’usine d’alliages légers d’Issoire
Authors: Laurent Christophe
Published: June 2021

In 1939, with a view to doubling production of aluminium articles intended for the war industries, and based on the adaptation of modern American processes for sheet metal production, the French Minister of Defense, Raoul Dautry, launched a project for the construction of a new factory for light alloys.

The site chosen for the factory, at Issoire, was at an equal distance from all of France’s frontiers. A semi-public company, the S.C.A.L., in which the State held 51 per cent of the capital, was created for this factory, the design of which was commissioned from the architectural agency of the Perret brothers. Eight workshop buildings were originally planned, seven of them designed by the Perrets between December 1939 and June 1940. Only two of them were actually built according to these plans. The Occupation scaled down the industrial project and the Perret brothers had nothing more to do with the factory after 1940. Nonetheless, the S.C.A.L. took over and completed the factory in 1950, the new buildings still strongly inspired by the Perret ’s aesthetics. The original brief, drawn up by the S.C.A.L., gave the architects the buildings’ dimensions and heights. Their contribution, from the outset, was therefore primarily concerned with the outer envelope sheltering the machines, and their foundations. The plans produced by the S.C.A.L. show how the industrialists had assimilated the architects’ essential concepts. The constructional system elaborated by the architects found expression, in particular, in a reinforced concrete post and beam structure. At Issoire, the sheet metal rolling shop offers a good illustration of his structure and, in its hierarchy of elements, shows the functional and demonstrative design concept of the Perret brothers at its best. The Issoire factory is a perfect representation of Auguste Perret ’s ideas of how an industrial plant should be monumental, a building conceived more for the machine than for the worker and realising the notion of a «sovereign shelter ».
La polychromie d’une sculpture beauvaisienne en bois du XVIe siècle
Authors: Devos Christine , Gruau Hélène
Published: June 2021

The Polychromy of a Wooden 1 6th Century Statue from Beauvais.

Before its restoration, two later additions of paint covered the polychrome oak statue of Saint Mary Magdalen (part of the collection of the Musée national du Moyen Age in Paris). Their removal brought to light a remarkably rich layer of polychromy which represents numerous aspects of the techniques and décor from the late Middle Ages that were still in use during the 16th and 17th centuries : water-based or mordant gilding, décors of colored glazes, sgraffito, and applied brocades of an extraordinarily fine quality. The date of 1539, discovered during the restoration, is completely in keeping with the style of the statue. However, an even earlier layer of paint was detected on certain limited areas of the sculpture. This was, most probably, a partial layer, done as a trial, in preparation for the definitive application of the polychromy in 1539 and may be considered unique for this period. The stylistic analysis of the statue showed that the Saint Mary Magdalen, which was thought to belong to the work attributed to Jean Le Pot, was, in fact, executed by an atelier in Beauvais.
Le lit de Valtesse de La Bigne
Authors: Lauwick Béatrice , Nouvel Odile
Published: June 2021

The bed of Valtesse de La Bigne.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris presented, at the beginning of 1995, the bed of Valtesse de La Bigne, Parisian darling of the artistic circle of the Third Republic, as part of the exhibition, Rêves d’ Alcoves. The restoration of this piece of furniture, the work of the Parisian designer, Edouard Lièvre, presented a number of problems. The pierced bronze pieces, heavily recut and applied to the plush which sheathed the wooden frame, had been extensively altered. After the structure of the bed was carefully recorded, it was taken apart and the dates of its construction in 1881 and its re-assemblage, after it was moved in 1902, were discovered. The bronzes were treated with an EDTA tetrasocid solution, polished, and then set in place on the bedding.

The green color of this bedding most surely derives from the 1902 restoration, since the original blue coloring, attested to in the early descriptions of the bed, was not found. This restoration, also, brought to light several inscriptions that negate the long standing attribution of the bronzes to the atelier of Barbedienne.
Naissance d’un quartier de Paris : le lotissement du Nouveau Quartier de l’Europe (1820-1839)
Authors: Térade Annie
Published: June 2021

Annie Térade : Birth of a new Parisian quartier : the development of the Quartier de l’Europe (1820-1939).

The new Quartier de l’Europe was created in 1824 on a piece of land composed of acquisitions made at the end of the Empire. The architect Etienne-Hyppolite Godde set up the new land parceling in the form of a star set around an octagon, for the landlord/speculators, Mignon and Hagerman. The ground plan corresponded to the form of the parceling and the junction with the existing network of thoroughfares was not exact ; the adjustment to the urban context required both the planting of trees and the construction of sidewalks. The parcels of land were laid out in the form of «fish bones » or «zig zags ». Prefiguring the practices of Hausmann, the bills of sale defined the maximum amount of land that would be required for the structure (large dividing courtyards that would be well lighted and open), the beginning of architectural planning (minimum or maximum height, continuity of the string coursing of each floor). The social homogeneity was established : only residences, town houses set on the street (rue de Tivoli) that replaced interior town houses set between courtyard and garden (rue de Londres) and apartment buildings of four stories (rue de Milan and rue d’Amsterdam) would be constructed. Mangot, Van Cleemputte and Godde were the architects in charge of the construction. However, in 1837, the opening of a section of the railroad line from Paris to Saint-Germain up set the original project.
Une histoire de l’art illustrée : l’hémicycle de l’École des beaux-arts par Paul Delaroche
Authors: Bonnet Alain
Published: June 2021

Alain Bonnet : The hémicycle of the Ecole des beaux-arts by Paul Delaroche. A history of illustrated art.

The decoration of the hémicycle of the Ecole des beaux-arts, done between 1836 and 1841 by Paul Delaroche, brought into being a new concept of monumental painting. Setting aside traditional models of allegorical painting that glorified ART, its civilizing mission, its divine heroes and its patrons, Delaroche portrayed in the hémicycle a history of illustrated art in the form of a panorama representing seventy-five artists from Antiquity through the 17th century. This project, supported by Adolphe Thiers, was defined by Félix Duban, architect of the Ecole des beaux-arts, Louis Peisse, curator of the Musée des études and Paul Delaroche. Artistic teaching should no longer be submitted to academic formalities as expressed by the masterpieces of Antique statuary and the paintings of the Italian Renaissance, but should be open to the diversity of styles that constitute the history of art. This eclectic concept of the evolution of the arts was to serve as the basis of artistic pedagogy and of the theories that Hyppolite Taine postulated at the end of the 19th century in the art history courses he gave at the Ecole des beaux-arts.
Photographie florale et arts décoratifs dans la IIe moitié du XIXe siècle
Authors: Forestier Philippe
Published: June 2021

Philippe Forestier : Floral photography and the decorative arts in the second half of the 19th century.

Throughout Europe, beginning in 1850, botanical subjects furnished new models for the decorative arts and, from that time, the photography of flowers and plants took on an importance that has been, thus far, undervalued. The photographs of Adolphe Braun or Charles Aubry were the first to be offered for textile design, wall paper and embroidery. Between 1885 and 1900, the photographic albums of Plauszewski, published in Paris, focused attention on the structure of plants. This fitted well with the ideas associated with Art Nouveau, to the extent that Emile Gallé himself photographed plants. This « herbal photography » spread throughout Europe, especially to Berlin, Vienna and London. Hence, botanical photography contributed to the renewal of decorative vocabulary, and based on the exacting study of the forms within nature, it further contributed to a new understanding of the problems of structure, function and the adaptation of ornament.