DOI Heft:
No. 83 (February, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Nolhac, Pierre de: The early fountains at Versailles
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19784#0039
The Early Fountains at Versailles
raised above the level of the basin, and surrounded
by reeds. Of recent years an attempt has been
made to reproduce, by means of "industrial gold,"
the old effect produced originally by simple
painting.
The Alice d'Eau was a decoration of a novel sort,
devised from the imagination of Claude Perrault,
the doctor-architect, brother of the writer of the
world-famed fairy tales. The groups were placed
in position in the spring of 1670, and the orna-
mentation of the two big fountains followed
quickly. The Alice was bordered by pine trees
and by a hundred and four copper vases containing
yews. Le Brun designed all the sculpture. The
groups of children, placed two by two in such a
manner as not to be monotonous to the eye,
demanded a great number of preliminary sketches,
and among the great artist's papers may be found
numerous "ideas," treating the subject from various
standpoints. The King chose the design which
most happily suggested the suppleness of the
youthful forms and the grace of their several
attitudes. The groups were divided among Le
(Iros, Lerambert, and Le Hongre. To the last-
named, with Benoit Massou, were entrusted the
fruits and flowers. All that remains to us now of
this decoration is the series of seven plates of the
Alice d'Eau engraved by. Le Pautre in 1672 by
command of the King.
These delightful works, wherein the graces of
childhood are shown in so lively and supple a
fashion, have a curiously complicated history, as the
accounts in connection with their payment reveal.
In the first place, their number was soon increased
when the vast lateral groves were reformed and the
Alice d'Eau was extended in semi-circular form.
Le Gros, Massou, and Madeline were called on to
furnish models for the two new sets of four groups,
eight groups in all. f or these the first payments
were made to the sculptors in May, 1678. All the
groups in the lower part of the Alike appear to be
inferior to the older figures ; but what the accounts
clearly reveal is this : neither in the first nor the
second series are these the original works. The
originals were done in a metail—an amalgam of
lead and tin— painted from time to time, as we
have already seen, with a golden bronze ; the
plinths and the basins themselves were of the same
material, painted bronze colour. Not till a later
period, when real bronze was introduced into
Versailles in the famous castings of the Parterre
d'Eau, do the documents contain aught to excite
LB BASSIN DE FI.ORE
26
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
raised above the level of the basin, and surrounded
by reeds. Of recent years an attempt has been
made to reproduce, by means of "industrial gold,"
the old effect produced originally by simple
painting.
The Alice d'Eau was a decoration of a novel sort,
devised from the imagination of Claude Perrault,
the doctor-architect, brother of the writer of the
world-famed fairy tales. The groups were placed
in position in the spring of 1670, and the orna-
mentation of the two big fountains followed
quickly. The Alice was bordered by pine trees
and by a hundred and four copper vases containing
yews. Le Brun designed all the sculpture. The
groups of children, placed two by two in such a
manner as not to be monotonous to the eye,
demanded a great number of preliminary sketches,
and among the great artist's papers may be found
numerous "ideas," treating the subject from various
standpoints. The King chose the design which
most happily suggested the suppleness of the
youthful forms and the grace of their several
attitudes. The groups were divided among Le
(Iros, Lerambert, and Le Hongre. To the last-
named, with Benoit Massou, were entrusted the
fruits and flowers. All that remains to us now of
this decoration is the series of seven plates of the
Alice d'Eau engraved by. Le Pautre in 1672 by
command of the King.
These delightful works, wherein the graces of
childhood are shown in so lively and supple a
fashion, have a curiously complicated history, as the
accounts in connection with their payment reveal.
In the first place, their number was soon increased
when the vast lateral groves were reformed and the
Alice d'Eau was extended in semi-circular form.
Le Gros, Massou, and Madeline were called on to
furnish models for the two new sets of four groups,
eight groups in all. f or these the first payments
were made to the sculptors in May, 1678. All the
groups in the lower part of the Alike appear to be
inferior to the older figures ; but what the accounts
clearly reveal is this : neither in the first nor the
second series are these the original works. The
originals were done in a metail—an amalgam of
lead and tin— painted from time to time, as we
have already seen, with a golden bronze ; the
plinths and the basins themselves were of the same
material, painted bronze colour. Not till a later
period, when real bronze was introduced into
Versailles in the famous castings of the Parterre
d'Eau, do the documents contain aught to excite
LB BASSIN DE FI.ORE
26
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH