Description
Book SynopsisAntiquarianism and the Visual Histories of Louis XIV: Artifacts for a Future Past provides a new interpretation of objects and images commissioned by Louis XIV (1638-1715) to document his reign for posterity. The Sun King''s image-makers based their prediction of how future historians would interpret the material remains of their culture on contemporary antiquarian methods, creating new works of art as artifacts for a future time. The need for such items to function as historical evidence led to many pictorial developments, and medals played a central role in this. Coin-like in form but not currency, the medal was the consummate antiquarian object, made in imitation of ancient coins used to study the past. Yet medals are often elided from the narrative of the arts of ancient règime France, their neglect wholly disproportionate to the cultural status that they once held. This revisionary study uncovers a numismatic sensibility throughout the iconography of Louis XIV, and in the
Trade Review'Antiquarianism and the Visual Histories of Louis XIV is carefully researched and well-written. Robert Wellington explores the significance of medals created during the reign of Louis XIV, which are often dismissed as mere vehicles of royal propaganda. Instead, he asserts medals played an active, pervasive, and complex role not only in the crafting of the regal image of the king, but also in the projection of his legacy into the future. Wellington's thorough examination of the elite practice and practitioners of antiquarianism, the institutional body of the Petite Acad e that was responsible for the design and inscriptions of medals, the collecting and display of the medals in the Cabinet des M illes at Versailles, and the various engraved reproductions of numismatic collections, makes this study an important contribution to the scholarship of the artistic, cultural, institutional and intellectual history of the France of Louis XIV.' Julie Anne Plax, University of Arizona, USA
'Placing medals, antiquaries and posterity at the centre of his story, Robert Wellington approaches the public image of Louis XIV from a new angle.' Peter Burke, Emmanuel College Cambridge
'Robert Wellington's fascinating and comprehensive account of the great programme of visual commemoration undertaken by Louis XIV and his government throws new light on this complex and revealing portrait of an extraordinary reign.' Mark Jones, Master of St Cross College, Oxford, UK
'Archival sources and rare publications from the time are mined in this important scholarly account, which mounts a strong argument for the cultural importance of the medals and the centrality of a 'numismatic sensibility' throughout Louis' iconography.' The Medal, no 67, Autumn 2015
"What is particularly significant in Antiquarianism and the Visual Histories of Louis XIV is that the majority of the book is about numismatics as science and source, little
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction: medals and the material turn in the king’s history; Antiquarianism at court; The Petite Académie and the histoire métallique of Louis XIV; The Cabinet des Médailles at Versailles; Images inscribed and described by the Petite Académie; The antiquarian origins of Louis XIV’s medals books; Portraiture, physiognomy, and the numismatic sensibility; Numismatic resonances: Le Brun’s cycle for the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.
