The Attributes of Music

Two paintings, The Attributes of civilian music and The Attribute of Military music (1767) by Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) were recently given to the Louvre.

The paintings were supraporti ordered for the château de Bellevue in Meudon. Bellevue was given by Louis XV to his mistress Madame de Pompadour. She died in 1764, leaving the chateau to her brother, Abel François Poisson de Vandières, Marquis de Marigny (1727-1781).

Provenience : Coll. Eudoxe Marcille up to 1890, kept by his descendants until 2010.
RF2010-12 et RF2010-13.

These two paintings are companion pieces to The Attributes of music (INV.3200) and The attributes of the arts (INV.3199) (1765) already part of the Louvre collection.

Cygnus Musicus

Swans and a sistrum,
A beautiful wallpaper by Jacquemart (1803)

Since Antiquity the swan is associated with music. It is connected to Apollo, the Great God of Music, and an attribute of Erato, the Muse presiding over Love Poetry, Hymns and Wedding songs.

Swans play en important part in the birth of Apollo. The Greek mythology tells that when Apollo was born, sacred swans came and fled over the island of Delos seven times. Then, they took the baby to Hyperborea, the region ruled by Boreas, the God of the North Wind, where the baby stayed one year. Hellenes used to believe that Apollo was spending every Winter in Hyperborea.(***)

Another myth, still related to Apollo, connects the swan to music and singing : the myth of Kyknos, King of Liguria and friend to Phaeton. While he lamented his friend's tragic death, Apollo gave Kyknos a melodious voice and metamorphosed him into a swan.

The link between swan and music has certainly much to do with the North swan called cygnus musicus or ferus, because of his whistling ressembling the sound of a violin. This peculiar sound probably gave origin to the ancient belief that the mute swan (cygnus olor or mansuetus) is completely mute during its lifetime but sings beautifully just before he dies.

Sistrum is a percussion instrument merely associated with ancient Egypt. We find it used during all the ancien regime to symbolise music. At the same time simple, easy to recognise and meaningful, the sistrum had obvious decorative qualities, which may explain it became one of the recurring symbols in the neo-classic decorative arts.

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(***)Rameau's last opera, Les Boréades (1763-64), was based on the myth connecting Apollo to Boreas.
Plot : the tradition, for the queens of Bactria, is to marry descendants of Boreas, but Alphise is in love with Abaris, a man of unknown descent, brought up by Adamas, the high priest of Apollo... The whole opera shows the struggle between the 'Boréades', descendants of Boreas, Calisis and Borileas, the two suitors competing to be chosen by Alphise and to impose their right and the tradition upon her, and the resistance of Alphise and Abaris struggling for their love...
It was, long before Mozart's Enchanted Flute, a masonic opera about the fight between light and darkness, close, in the themes and in its approach, to Rameau's previous opera, Zoroastre (1756).

Some observations upon 'The French Parnassus' - I

Du Tillet's Parnassus combined elements from two traditions. While the title refers to mount Parnassus, the monument shows Pegasus strinking the earth with his hoof and causing the Hippocrene to well forth. The myth of Pegasus and the Hippocrene are related to mount Helicon, not to mount Parnassus.

Mingling details or symbols from various proveniences was common at that time. The symbols were the words of an allegorical language. They were used to deliver a powerful contemporary message, they were not meant to be a faithfull illustration of the myths of Ancient Greece.

Gardens of Versailles - The Maze

Map of the Maze

The maze was imagined by Le Nôtre, Le Brun, Perrault and La Fontaine, in the years 1660-1661, for the Superintendent of Finance Fouquet. After Fouquet was arrested, Le Nôtre, Le Brun and Perrault were hired by Louis XIV and revived in Versailles some works they had originally planned for Vaux. La Fontaine, who had remained faithful to Fouquet, fell into disgrace.The maze was among the first bosquets designed in Versailles. The works began in 1664, and the fountains, on the theme of Aesop's fables, were installed in the years 1672-1681.

A Fountain : 'The fox and the Crane'
from Jacques Bailly's Le Labyrinthe de Versailles, (ca. 1675)

The sculptures of animals were very realistic. They were made of painted lead, and arranged in graceful compositions. The idea of fountains illustrating the fables is generally attributed to Bossuet, tutor to the dauphin, but, it seems that Le Brun had already proposed them in the time of Fouquet. The fountains were made after models designed by Le Brun, though he was not involved in the new project, which can be seen as an evidence he had designed them for Vaux. As La Fontaine was still persona non grata in Versailles, Benserade composed verses to introduce each fountain.
The verses, in the form of enigmas, were contributing to turn the labyrinth into an allegory for life, and to make of it a moral and initiatic journey where only the "honnête homme" (gentleman) could find the right way - a bit the same as the 'Map of Tenderness', designed by Mademoiselle de Scudéry and published in 1654 in her novel Clélie, was depicting love as the happy end of a hard journey into the land of feelings.

The Entrance to the Labyrinth
by Jean Cotelle dit Le Jeune (1642-1708)

On the left Cupid/Love and on the right Aesop
In the middle, the fountain of 'The Owl and the Birds"

Cupid/Love : "Yes, now I can close my eyes and laugh
With that bowl of string I'll know how to find my way"
Aesop : "Love, this weak string could mislead you
The slightest shock could snap it".

The maze didn't survive and was replaced by the Bosquet de la Reine.

'The French Parnassus' - History and Description

The French Parnassus - etching by Tardieu

Du Tillet wanted to celebrate the great poets and musicians of the time of Louis XIV. What he had in mind was a huge monument, with larger-than-life statues, that he would place in the middle of a garden or in a square.

The monument would represent mount Parnassus with laurels and palm trees, and feature Louis XIV/Apollo on the top and, below him, the Graces, madame de la Suze, madame des Houllières and mademoiselle Scudéry, holding garlands of flowers.

On a lower level, the Muses : Corneille, Molière, Racan, Segrais, La Fontaine, Chapelle, Racine, Boileau, and Lully holding a portrait of Quinault. Other artists would appear on medallions hanging on the trees or held by winged Genies : Marin Marais, Campra, Michel de La Lande, Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, André Destouches, J.B. de Lully (Lully's son), and Colin de Blamont...

Some other 160 names of writers and musiciens would appear on six phylacteries. One would be entirely dedicated to the musicians : the Gaultier, Chambonnière, Cambert, Henri Dumont, Michel Lambert, Pierre Gautier, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Pascal Colasse, Guillaume Minoret, J.-B. de Bousset, Théobalde, Jean-François Lalouette, Sébastien Brossard, J.-B. Senaille, Salomon, J.-L. Marchand, François Couperin, J.-B. Moreau, Nicolas Bernier, Michel de Monteclair, Jean-Joseph Mouret, Jean-François Dandrieu, Henri des Marets, Michel de La Barre, Charles Gervais, Jean Matho, Jean-Fery Rebel, Forqueray, Bertin, Lacoste, Nicolas Clérambault, Th.-Louis Bourgeois, Grenet, Jacques Aubert, Joseph-Nicolas Royer, Antoine Calvière, Joseph de Boismortier, J.-B. Stuck....
A phylactery would name past and present sponsors and music lovers, like Charlemagne, François 1er, Louis XIII, Philippe d'Orléans, Emperor Charles VI, Charles-Armand-René de la Trémouille, marquis de Brassac, comte d'Eu, Madame Adélaïde (as a violin player), Madame Victoire (as a harpsichord player).... One would be dedicated to women famous in the art of singing : Hilaire, Saint Christophe, Rochois, Le Froid, Chappe, De Lalande... and another one to the famous female harpsichord players : Certain, Perron, Guyot, La Plante, du Hallai & Dandrieu...

Du Tillet, helped by Nicolas de Largillière as artistic advisor for the portraits, contracted the sculptor Louis Garnier to built up the monument. In 1718, an intermediate-sized model was cast in bronze, but building the full-size monument was very costly and Du Tillet had to find sponsors. To promote his project and raise founds, he commissioned an etching (see the illustration above).

In 1727, as he hasn't yet managed to get enough money and thought maybe he would unable to bring his project to a successful conclusion, he published a Description du Parnasse françois, exécuté en bronze, followed by a Liste alphabétique des Poètes et Musiciens rassemblés sur ce monument.
In 1732 there was a second edition titled Le Parnasse françois, enlarged with notes on the life of various musicians and poets. Additional notes were published in 1743 and 1755.

Titon du Tillet died in 1762 without having seen his dream come true. The bronze model was given to Louis XV by Du Tillet's heir and nephew. During the 19th century it was kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale but, as it was taking too much place, they decided to send it to Versailles where it was dismantled and neglected for a long time. Many of the small pieces (medallions and phylacteries) disappeared. The work is now part of the collection of the Musée de l'Histoire of the Château de Versailles where it can be seen.

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From June 30 to September 27, 2009, 'The French Parnassus' will be in Los Angeles, still part of the exhibition Cast in Bronze : French Scultptures from Renaissance to Revolution, at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Corporal Violet's Secret

A bit off-topic but I wanted to share it.
Corporal Violet (le 'Caporal La Violette') is how they nicknamed Napoleon, and that 1815 colour print by Jean-Dominique Etienne Canu, titled Le Secret du Caporal La Violette, is about him.

Can you see Napoleon, his wife and his son in the bunch of violets ?