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The festival of Love and Bacchus…
(Les Festes de L'Amour et de Bacchus...)
1678
plate 2 from Relation de la feste de Versailles du 18 juillet 1668 (An account of the festival given in Versailles on 18 July 1668) (1679)
Medium
etching and engraving
Measurements
26.8 × 41.0 cm (image) 30.1 × 41.5 cm (plate) 45.7 × 59.2 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Mr George Collins Levey, 1879
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Produced a decade after the festivities took place, Jean Le Pautre’s engravings of the 1668 court festival prioritised shaping Louis XIV’s image as an absolute monarch over strict factual accuracy. In this plate, Le Pautre depicts a performance of a new comedy-ballet by Molière, which was staged in a temporary pavilion in the gardens of Versailles. The King is seated prominently in the centre foreground of Le Pautre’s stylised, symmetrical composition, emphasising his position at the apex of power.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Paris, France
Catalogue/s Raisonné
IFF 929
Inscription
printed in ink l.l.: Les Festes de l’Amour et de Bacchus, Comedie en Musique / representée dans le petit Parc de Versailles
printed in ink l.c.: II
printed in ink l.r.: Festum Cupidinis et Bacchi…
printed in ink l.r.: le Pautre Sculps. 1678
Accession Number
p.183.82-1
Departments
International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest