Mosaics

A craftsman working on the top of an enormous head of Brahma.

An Assyrian sculpts a winged bull. A slave driver brandishing a whip and a stick presides over Egyptian slaves struggling to move a colossal sphinx covered with hieroglyphs.

A painter is decorating a mummy. An ibis stands close to the first steps of a pyramid, while further away, a temple is surrounded by palm trees.

Workers are busy constructing a temple, and break off their work to listen to songs by the poet Hesiod, while at the feet of a statue of Zeus, the sculptor Phidias, holding a hammer, reads a papyrus.

On the other side of the deity, a group of young people dances to the sound of an aulos, a double pipe. A painter decorates a libation cup; he is seated close to other painted vases, either household items or funeral urns. Two masks, comic and tragic, evoke Aeschylus and Aristophane. In the corner, a sculptor holding a frail figure of Tanagra symbolises Attic elegance. Above, the Acropolis and the Parthenon can both be seen.

Craftsmen work under the supervision of the architect. A sculptor chisels away at a marble bust while a learned senator scrutinises medals in front of the statue of an emperor who has been deified.

On the ground, in the middle are artefacts testifying to the art of Pompeii: gold tripod, marble table, gladiator’s helmet and shoulder guard; in the background the Arch of Titus can be seen. This is followed by Christian Art, represented by a sculpted sarcophagus bearing the inscription “Fabius in pace” with the monogram of Christ. In the background, Byzantine characters are poring over some Oriental figured silk with gold embellishments. One is holding a sculpted ivory diptych. Finally, a monk, a mosaic artist, is working on the pendentive of a basilica.

In a motif from Hispano-Moorish architecture, a Moor is standing next to the Alhambra vase.

Rugs, faience and weapons evoke the rich artistic output of the Orient. In the background you can pick out the minarets of a mosque.

A goldsmith and enameller is putting the finishing touches to a gold crown heavily encrusted with large cabochons.

The main artistic output of the period is represented by a reliquary, a heavy candlestick, an enamelled cup, and an evangeliarium, laid out around the artist.

A sculptor is working on a Gothic representation of the virgin mother. Close by, a miniaturist illuminator is embellishing a manuscript with elaborate characters. We then see a sculptor working on ivory, carrying a triptych, a crosier and an oliphant. In the foreground two goldsmiths are carrying a shrine.

In the background is the Sainte-Chapelle, and further back a draughtsman is reproducing a holly branch to instructions from a glass painter seated, brush in hand, before the window he is finishing. Beneath the arcades of a Gothic cloister, a young minstrel is playing the harp. In front of him, a blazoned herald of arms is standing close to a knight’s crowned helmet and holds the knight’s heavy damascened sword. Through the cloisters can be seen the crenellated turrets of a fortress. In the foreground, the features of a gallant knight in a coat of armour, hands joined in prayer, are set in marble.

The Italian Renaissance is represented by the Dome and Campanile of Florence, and by Michelangelo’s Moses.

In the foreground, two contemporary artists are seen against the panel of a virgin evoking Raphael. In the middle of a terrace, where Chambord castle can be glimpsed, a painter in sixteenth century costume is working on a cartoon close to Germain Pilon’s group representing the Three Graces. He is surrounded by a breastplate, weapons, and fabrics. A choirmaster is playing the organ, a jeweller is examining a necklace and at his feet are a ewer and enamelled dishes by Bernard Palissy.

The seventeenth century painter, richly dressed in silk and lace, is holding a palette, his handing rests on an armchair covered with a sumptuous fabric.

Behind him is a sculpted garden vase, and a Gobelins tapestry; this figure represents the art of Mignard, Poussin and Rigaud. In the foreground is a white marble sculpture of a river with an infant spirit of the waters. A cartouche contains the names of celebrated artists from both centuries. To the right an eighteenth century painter is completing a portrait. Behind his easel, an engraver is examining some of his work: this evokes La Tour, Watteau and Marillier.

They are surrounded by Sèvres vases, Saxe porcelains, a scale model of the Pantheon and Bouchardon’s statue of Love, on a pedestal that rounds off the foreground decoration. In the background, beyond a huge perron, stands the castle at Marly and the gardens of Versailles with their fountains and the colonnade of Diana’s baths.

For a period so close to the construction of the Grand Palais, the painter Fournier had to be cautious.

He simply represented it in the form of a woman with wings spread, carrying a golden branch, symbolising immortal art advancing in its ceaseless quest before a motif of contemporary architecture, a sort of frontispiece and frame in which the names of artists already deceased and time-honoured are engraved: David, Prudhon, Percier, Géricault, Duban, Pradier, Ingres, Delacroix, Rude, Berlioz, Carpeaux, Baudry, Garnier, and Puvis de Chavannes.