History of the FanRhead, G. Woolliscroft (George Woolliscroft)
History
History of the Fan
Rhead, G. Woolliscroft (George Woolliscroft)
Fans
The symbolical marriage of Louis XV. with Marie Leczinska on Mount
Olympus is depicted on a fine mount of vellum in the possession of M.
Voisin, with portraits of the king and princess surrounded by Genii;
figures of Jupiter, Juno, and Apollo _en cartouche_, musicians, etc.,
in rose camaïeu, surrounded by the arms of France and Poland; the
reverse, a figure subject in blue camaïeu on silver ground. Stick,
‘Vernis Martin’ on ivory; guards, incrustations of mother-of-pearl.
The fan in the collection of the Dowager-Marchioness of Bristol
refers to the improvements made in Paris during the reign of Louis
XV.; it shows in the distance the fine square (Place de Louis XV.)
which adjoined the Palace of the Tuileries, with the bronze equestrian
statue of the king on a pedestal supported by four statues representing
Strength, Peace, Prudence, and Justice. The group, destroyed during the
Revolution, gave occasion to the following epigram:
‘O la belle Statue! O le beau piédestal!
Les vertus sont à pied, le vice est à cheval!’
The king, attended by Minerva, who holds her ægis over his head, is
giving directions as to the building to a kneeling figure whose cloak
and shield are ornamented with the fleurs de lys of France. A seated
winged genius is holding a large open book, Cupids are playing musical
instruments and supporting a trophy of arms and a medallion portrait of
Louis XIV. The square will remain for ever memorable as the scene of
the execution of Louis XVI. It was renamed Place de la Révolution.
The stick is of ivory, carved with allegorical subjects, variegated
gold enrichments, the imbricated ornament painted blue, the guards
inlaid with mother-of-pearl; on the reverse a tent, with soldiers
drinking and smoking at a table. Jewelled pin.
Of the fans referring to the courtship and marriage of the dauphin (son
of Louis XV.) we have the royal courtships in two medallions on either
side of the sun in full splendour (emblem of the king), decorated with
spangles; the mount of skin, the stick ivory, carved in open work with
appropriate figures.
In the centre cartouche of another fan, similar in treatment and
evidently by the same hand, the dauphin and dauphine bring floral
offerings to Hymen, the field of the fan being occupied by two smaller
medallions of Cupids, miniatures of the royal pair, and marriage
emblems at intervals, the cartouches connected by spangles; the stick
ivory, carved in open work with figures emblematic of the marriage.
[Illustration: Building of the Place Louis XV.
The Dowager Marchioness of Bristol.]
[Illustration: Dido & Æneas, Louis XV, gouache on skin, stick mother of
pearl carved à jour, painted & gilt, 22-1/2 x 11-1/2.
Mrs Bischoffsheim.]
[Illustration: Dido & Æneas. (reverse)
Mrs Bischoffsheim.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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