The monument to Louis XIV at the Place Vendôme (1699) as a technical achievement: a question of interest

• Etienne Jollet ^[1]
  1. [1] Pantheon-Sorbonne University

     Pantheon-Sorbonne University

     París, Francia

     
• Localización: Art history: journal of the Association of Art Historians, ISSN 0141-6790, Vol. 39, Nº. 2, 2016, págs. 318-339
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The painter René-Antoine Houasse, then the engraver Charles Simonneau using the former's painting as a model, have represented the monument to Louis XIV at the place Vendôme, before its completion, in a very strange way: on rollers, as though being pulled on its way to the square, but still in the place where the statue was cast. This essay tries to understand how such a representation was possible or, in other words, what sort of interest was behind such an official project. The valorization of technical achievement is considered first through the representation of a cast without any precedent, but also through the insistence on the play of static forces (the rollers). It is suggested that the king is always more than his representations -mere material artefacts; simultaneously, technological virtuosity appears to be part of his grandeur.