COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
MIA_.P.3,007
AMICA Library Year:
2003
Object Type:
Prints
Creator Name:
Mèryon Charles
Creator Name:
Delâtre Auguste
Creator Name:
Mèryon Charles
Creator Name:
Delâtre Auguste
Creator Nationality:
France
Creator Nationality:
French
Creator Nationality:
France
Creator Nationality:
French
Creator Role:
Artist
Creator Role:
Printer
Creator Role:
Artist
Creator Role:
Printer
Creator Dates/Places:
1821 - 1868
Creator Dates/Places:
1822 - 1907
Creator Dates/Places:
1821 - 1868
Creator Dates/Places:
1822 - 1907
Gender:
M
Gender:
M
Creator Name-CRT:
Charles Mèryon
Creator Name-CRT:
Auguste Delâtre
Creator Name-CRT:
Charles Mèryon
Creator Name-CRT:
Auguste Delâtre
Title:
Le Styrge
View:
Front
Creation Date:
1853
Creation Start Date:
1853
Creation End Date:
1853
Materials and Techniques:
Etching
Classification Term:
Print
State:
5th state
Dimensions:
6 3/16 x 4 5/8 in. (15.72 x 11.75 cm) (plate)15 1/8 x 12 5/8 in. (38.42 x 32.07 cm) (sheet)
AMICA Contributor:
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Owner Location:
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
ID Number:
P.3,007
Credit Line:
The William M. Ladd CollectionGift of Herschel V. Jones, 1916
Inscriptions:
Inscribed:Inscription and watermarkInscription: [tiré par moi/ sur la presse de l'ami Mèryon/ Aug. Delâtre]
Context:
This print offers a close-up view of one of the stone gargoyles added during the restoration to the Cathedral of Notre Dame by the architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. For Meryon, this mostrous figure symbolized stupidity, cruelty, lust, and hypocrisy. On earlier states of this etching Meryon had written the couplet, "The insatiable Vampire, eternal lust forever coveting its food in the great city." This was eventually taken off the print for the final state, but an ominous presence of evil in the city still pervades this print. Figuring prominently in the background of the image is the recently refurbished square steeple of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. Meryon was said to have seen, "an enemy behind each battlement and arms through each loophole,' and to have expected "to have the boiling oil and the molten lead poured down." This particular sheet is annotated as a particularily fine impression by the master printer Auguste Delâtre, who pulled the work from Meryon's own press.
Related Image Identifier Link:
MIA_.26320c.tif
Link To Source
