Fireworks Display Presented to the Dauphin on his Sixth Birthday on September 3 by Charles-Nicolas Cochin II

Fireworks Display Presented to the Dauphin on his Sixth Birthday on September 3 1736

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print, etching, engraving

baroque

print

etching

landscape

france

cityscape

genre-painting

history-painting

engraving

Dimensions: 15 7/8 x 19 7/16 in. (40.32 x 49.37 cm) (plate)16 3/4 x 2n0 1/4 in. (42.55 x 51.44 cm) (sheet)

This print by Charles-Nicolas Cochin II captures a fireworks display presented to the Dauphin of France in 1735. Cochin made this artwork with the engraving technique, which involves meticulously incising lines into a metal plate, inking it, and pressing it onto paper. Consider the labor embedded in this print; the highly skilled craftsmanship required to create the intricate details of the fireworks, architecture and figures. This stands in contrast to the ephemeral nature of the depicted event, a fleeting celebration of royal power. The print wasn't just an artwork, but a record, meant to extend the moment of celebration for posterity. Engraving, like many printmaking processes, allowed for the mass production of images, and the dissemination of visual propaganda. By understanding the materials, and the making of this artwork, we can see the intersection of art, power, and social context in 18th-century France.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart over 1 year ago

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For the sixth birthday of young prince Louis, King Louis XV's heir, an extravagant party was given at the royal chateau of Meudon, five miles from Paris. The royal gardens were transformed into the mythical Garden of Hesperides, and before the small party (of mostly grownups), a colossal Hercules slays the dragons that protect the golden apples in Hera's garden, which confer immortality on all who partake. Behind this spectacle, fireworks burst forth to resemble the sun, a theme also reflected in the trimmed shrubbery, where two faces of Apollo, atop the lyre, similarly seem to burst with light. An official bureaucratic department of the king's household oversaw the planning and execution of such festivities, the Menus Plaisirs du Roi, which was administered by a number of high-ranking officials, and employed a small army of artists, architects, and craftsman, some of whom are credited in the inscription for planning the Dauphin's party.