History of the FanRhead, G. Woolliscroft (George Woolliscroft)
History
History of the Fan
Rhead, G. Woolliscroft (George Woolliscroft)
Fans
And so on, through the whole gamut of the language of love.
A shorter code has been published in English (duly copyrighted) by
M. J. Duvelleroy. This, although the principle is the same, differs
materially in the details; thus, ‘I love you’ in Spanish is to hide
the eyes behind the opened fan; in English, to draw the fan across
the cheek. ‘I hate you,’ in the former instance, is to raise the shut
fan to the shoulder in the right hand; in the latter, to draw the fan
_through_ the hand: either code being sufficiently expressive and
acquired with tolerable ease.
CHAPTER VII
PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES (FRENCH)
[Illustration: FAN OF RICE STRAW
(From a Fifteenth-Century MS. in the National Library, Paris.)]
The so-called Renaissance of the arts of France in the sixteenth
century was the outcome of an increased knowledge of, and familiarity
with, Italian ideals of life, and the splendours of a more refined
civilisation; it represented the assimilation of the national spirit,
the union of French ‘netteté d’exécution’ with the more sober learning
of Italian tradition. The beginnings of this Italian influence are
to be discovered earlier, in the visit of Jean Foucquet to Italy in
1440-1445; this event being the signal for a general migration of
Italian artists northward.
For the purposes of the fan, however, we are concerned only with the
history of French art from the period when, in 1530, at the invitation
of François I., Le Rosso and Primaticcio repaired to Paris for the
purpose of decorating the palace at Fontainebleau.
At this period architecture was creating Chenonceau and Chambord.
Sculpture, in the hands of Cellini and Jean Goujon, was providing the
decorative details for the château then being built by Philibert de
l’Orme for Diana de Poitiers.
In the sister art of Painting, Jean Cousin and François Clouet,
together with Primaticcio, who continued working until 1570, were the
dominant influences.
[Illustration: Pastorelle, style of Watteau, skin mount, stick mother
of pearl, finely pierced, carved, & embossed with a sacrificial scene
in gold. French. c. 1750.
Wyatt Coll^n. V. & A. Museum.]
Simon Vouet, recalled to Paris after a lengthy sojourn in Rome, was
painting the nobles of the French court, and decorating for Richelieu
the Palais Royal and the Château de Rueil. Poussin, French by birth,
Italian and classic in sympathy, found the artistic atmosphere of Rome
more congenial to him. In 1640, upon a pressing invitation from Louis
XIII., he migrated to Paris, but, on account of court intrigues, the
jealousies of his brother artists, and the malignity of Vouet, under
pretence of bringing his wife from Rome, he left Paris in 1642, never
to return.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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