The Ménage de Pressigny panels, like all of the artist’s early
works, are indebted to Dutch 17th-century flower paintings by
artists such as Jan Breughel the Elder, Ambrosius Bosschaert
the Elder and Roelandt Savery.
However, in place of the blue
and white porcelain urns which so often appear in these
paintings, in the Ménage de Pressigny panels, Parent has
selected a basket type vase and urn adorned with medallions
with portraits of Louis XIV and Henri IV.
Both vessels have
provided Parent with the opportunity to show off his virtuosity
as a wood carver: in the countless overlapping leaves in the
former and the scrolling vines of paradise of portrait reliefs
in the latter.
The prominent inclusion of an image of Louis
XIV in the latter panel is designed to remind the view of
Parent’s artistic patronage, as well as Ménage de Pressigny’s
important role in the French royal court.
The subtle addition
of a smaller medallion with Henri IV, the founding member
of the Bourbon royal family, is a symbol of the longevity and
stability of the ill-fated French monarchy.
The Ménage de
Pressigny family is explicitly linked to the Bourbon dynasty
by the inclusion of their arms beneath the royal portraits.
These arms are surmounted by a coronet, which Ménage de
Pressigny was entitled to use by virtue of his rank as a comte.
The escutcheon is flanked by cornucopiae, which symbolise
abundance, whilst mating birds to the right represent fertility.
To the left of the coat of arms, the presence of volumes by
Rousseau and Pope, a portrait bust (possibly of Voltaire)
and an oil painting, characterise François Marie Ménage de
Pressigny as a contemporary Maecenas, a great patron of
the sciences and fine arts, as Parent’s dedicatory description
makes explicit.
The corresponding panel with basket type urn
and Ménage de Pressigny elegant cursive cypher, includes
more rustic imagery.
Here, a bird feeds its young chicks within
a remarkably conceived nest of twigs.
The escutcheon with
cipher is bordered by a wheatsheaf and scythe, whilst bees
swarm from a hive.
The ultimate focal point of each relief is, of course, the
remarkable array of beautiful flowers.
Tulips, roses,
sunflowers, jasmines and hyacinths are arranged in elegant
sprays and entwined with vines, oak and ivy leaves.
The flowers
are in different states of bloom, and some are turned away
from the viewer, adding a sense of depth and enhancing the
overall trompe l’oeil effect.
In 1795 Parent would carve a memorial relief for Louis
XIV which again would show a medallion with a portrait
of the deceased king resting against a sarcophagus and
surrounded by lilies.
The panel is inscribed: LUD XVI
OCCIDIT 21 J 1793 (Louis XVI killed 21 January 1793) and
MORS IMMORTALITAS (Death Immortality).
The panel is a
touching reminder of Parent’s loyalty to his first a greatest
patron.
Despite the fall of the ancien régime, the sculptor
nevertheless advertised his former royal position with
pride referring to himself in 1793 as ‘Sieur Aubert Parent,
Sculptor, Designer, Academician and former pensioner of
his late Majesty, Louis XVI, King of France, resident of Bâle,
Switzerland’ (as quoted in Streeter, op.
cit., p. 64)
Aubert Parent’s Ménage de Pressigny panels embody the
visual language of the French court under Louis XVI.
With their
abundance of virtuoso carved flowers, decorative motifs and
royal symbols, they are the quintessence of French taste in the
middle of the 18th century.
It is fitting that they probably once
hung in the same Paris hôtel particulier as the most famous
exemplar of the world of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI:
Fragonard’s The Swing.
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