Academic literature on the topic 'Louis XIV Equestrian Statue'

The image of a horse appears in many spheres of the British culture and in each case it has a special symbolic meaning. It is important to notice that the symbolic meaning is more essential in the British mentality than the material one. Festivals can be one of the spheres where we can observe the versatility and historical meaning of the horse image. On the one hand, horses as real animals play a significant role in various events: horse competitions, horse shows, parades, royal ceremonies, etc. On the other hand, there is also personification of fancy images of horses at British festivals. Different types of horse figures (hobby horses) take part at certain events. Each of them has its own history and is strongly connected to the location. The most famous horse event is horseracing taking place all over the country. There are 60 race tracks in Great Britain for this occasion. Horseracing appeared here in the XIV century. Soon the British worked out the rules for this event and they are current even today. Horseracing is not just sport for this nation, but a real holiday. Long ago Edward VII marked that it is “a garden party with racing tacked on”. So, for some people horseracing is a week of competitions among the best thoroughbred horses and for the others (ladies mostly) it is the opportunity to compete with each other in hat and dress design. It is significant to understand the difference between the notions “horseracing”, “horse competitions”, “horse show”. The first means classic racing which we have just discussed. Horse competitions are 10 international types of games approved by the International Federation of Equestrian Sports. A horse show is a festival holding the exhibition of the best breeds of horses and some types of competitions (e.g., show jumping, working hunter). One of the best known events is the Royal Windsor Horse Show which takes place every year in Windsor Home Park. It is always attended by the Royal Family. Another example is the Hyde Park festival aiming at choosing the Horse of the Year. Also, January 1 is the Day of Thoroughbred horses in Great Britain. It is a real holiday with the most unusual dishes for these animals (e.g. a Cheltenham pie 2018 made of hay, apples and carrots). At a number of British events horses play an important role, though they are not in the limelight. These are royal weddings, parades and a coronation. The Queen carriage is always carried by the Windsor Greys. There is even a statue to honour them in Windsor. These horses are also pictured at the Royal mail stamp. Personification of fancy images of horses can be seen at various British Festivals (16 in England, 3 in Wales, 1 on the Isle of Man): Padstow Hobby Horse Festival, Banbury Hobby Horse Festival, Minehead Hobby Horse Festival, Dunster Hobby Horse Festival, Hoodening, The Hunting of the Earl of Rone, Morris Dance, etc. The majority of them take place in the days of national holidays including Christmas, New Year, May Day, Halloween. Moreover, some pagan rites that deal with the image of a horse still exist in Great Britain. There is the festival to honour Epona who is a Celtic horse goddess (December, 18). The Welsh horse goddess Rhiannon is connected with the image of Mari Lwyd appearing in New Year events. The Irish horse goddess Macha is honoured at the festivals Lughnasa (August, 1) and Samhain (November, 1). Significantly, a horse is presented at festivals as a funny hero of a performance endowed with human traits, a friend to a person, and it is far from being a work animal. The image of a horse is more of a cultural value than a natural phenomenon.

Devenu soudainement roi de France en 1498, Louis XII entreprend de reconstruire le château familial de Blois. L'aile Louis XII du château royal présente un programme iconographique sculpté exceptionnel réalisé de 1498 à 1503 environ, qui comporte plus de deux cents culots, gargouilles, masques grotesques, rosaces, monogrammes et emblèmes, entourant la figure équestre du roi et le décor de l'escalier. Les sources manuscrites relatives à la réalisation du décor sculpté ayant disparu presque en totalité, le parti pris a été de considérer dans la première partie les événements qui, du cadre historique aux restaurations des XIXe et XXe siècles, ont forgé l’identité actuelle du château. L'étude iconographique est abordée en seconde partie, incluant le décor sculpté du château de Blois, les enjeux ignorés du décor du grand escalier et de la voûte en relation avec la figure équestre, l'emblématique royale de Louis XII. La troisième partie permet d’insérer le décor sculpté dans le contexte de création de la sculpture dans les chantiers et ateliers de 1450 à 1520. De la seconde moitié du XVe siècle à 1520
As soon as he become king of France in 1498, Louis XII undertake to rebuild the family castle of Blois. The Louis XII wing of the royal castle of Blois shows an exceptional iconographic and carved program done from 1498 to about 1503, which consists of more than two hundred culots, gargoyles, grotesques, masks, medallions, monograms, and emblems, surrounding the equestrian statue of the king and the staircase. As the manuscript archives relating to the carvings have almost completely disappeared, the objective has been to consider firstly the historical events up until the restorations of the 19th and 20th century that have contribued to the current identity of the château. An iconographic study is approached in the second part, including the sculpted decoration of the château, the relationship between the decoration of the grand staircase and the vault with the equestrian statue. The third part relate to the role of the carved decoration within the artistic context of buiding sites and workshops between 1450 to 1520

Issu d’une dynastie de sculpteurs parisiens, formé sous la Régence, en plein triomphe du style « rocaille », Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1704-1778) construit sa renommée sur la faveur que lui accorde Louis XV. Des années 1730 aux années 1750 Lemoyne s’illustre dans le genre colossal. À moins de dix ans d’intervalle, en 1743 et 1754, le sculpteur inaugure à Bordeaux puis à Rennes deux monuments à la gloire de Louis XV, prouesse artistique et technologique jamais égalée jusqu’alors. À partir des années 1750, le sculpteur recentre sa production sur l’art du portrait, devenant, avant Houdon, le sculpteur des grands hommes. Célébré de son vivant, Lemoyne connut une destinée posthume tragique : la plupart de ses monuments religieux et royaux furent détruits sous la Révolution et le sculpteur tomba dans l’oubli, victime du mépris de la génération néoclassique. L’artiste est demeuré longtemps méconnu, éclipsé par la renommée de Bouchardon puis de Houdon. Cette étude se propose de reconsidérer l’une des figures majeures de la sculpture française du XVIIIe siècle, en mettant l’accent sur son héritage familial et esthétique, l’influence de son atelier et le rôle que la « sociabilité » des Lumières a joué dans la réussite de sa carrière et le succès de ses portraits
Born in a family of Parisian sculptors, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne was trained under the Régence period when the rocaille style triumphed. His fame then was rooted in Louis XV’s favor. From the 1730s to the 1750s, Lemoyne became renowned for his colossal sculptures. In less than ten years, between 1743 and 1754, he erected in Bordeaux and Rennes two monuments to glorify the King, thus achieving a unique artistic as well as technological performance. From the 1750s on, Lemoyne focused on sculpting portraits, thus preceding Houdon in being the sculptor of illustrious men. Although he was a celebrated and well-known artist during his lifetime, Lemoyne’s fame vanished after he died. Most of his religious and royal monuments were destroyed during the French Revolution. His work, despised by the néoclassique generation, fell into oblivion. Unlike his rivals Bouchardon and Houdon, he remained unstudied for a long time. My dissertation proposes to reconsider one of the leading figures of eighteenth-century French sculpture. I particularly focus on three points: the aesthetic heritage Lemoyne received from his family, his influential workshop, and the key role played by enlightened networks and societies in his successful career as a portraitist