Description
This cross-section of a building allows a unique view into a French royal wedding. The partiers are dressed in costume and dance in the Parisian town hall. No expense was spared in the lavish celebration, from flowers to drinks to the elaborate false ceiling painted to look like the sky.
Provenance
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Cross Section of the Hôtel de Ville Seen in Perspective Showing the Decoration and Illumination of the Courtyard and Rooms Created on the Occasion of the Ball Given the Night of August 30 and 31, 1739
1739–1740
Accession Number
2008.408
Medium
pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, and watercolor with gouache, over graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 42.9 x 69.5 cm (16 7/8 x 27 3/8 in.); Secondary Support: 53.9 x 89.6 cm (21 1/4 x 35 1/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Bequest of Muriel Butkin
Tags
Drawing Baroque (1600–1750) Watercolor Ink Graphite & Pencil Gouache French
Background & Context
Background Story
Jacques-Francois Blondel (1705-1774) was a French architect and engraver known for the precisely observed, elegantly composed architectural engravings that make him one of the most important architectural writers of the 18th century. Cross Section of the Hotel de Ville from 1739-40 depicts the cross section of the Hotel de Ville showing the decoration and illumination of the courtyard in the precisely observed, elegantly composed manner that distinguishes Blondel's best work. Blondel was the most important architectural writer of the 18th century, and his precisely observed, elegantly composed engravings of architecture represent one of the most accomplished traditions in architectural illustration.
Cultural Impact
Cross Section of the Hotel de Ville is important in the history of architectural illustration because it demonstrates the precisely observed, elegantly composed manner that Blondel—the most important architectural writer of the 18th century—brought to architectural engraving. Blondel's precisely observed, elegantly composed engravings of architecture—representing one of the most accomplished traditions in architectural illustration—were enormously influential in the development of 18th-century architecture, and the 1739-40 engraving shows this tradition at its most precisely observed.
Why It Matters
Cross Section of the Hotel de Ville is Blondel's precisely observed architectural engraving: the Hotel de Ville rendered in the elegantly composed manner of the most important architectural writer of the 18th century. The 1739-40 engraving shows the precisely observed tradition of architectural illustration at its most elegantly composed.
