Two vues d'optique prints celebrating the marriage of Philip, Infante of Spain, to Madame Elisabeth, daughter of King Louis XV. [after 1740]

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Servandoni, Jean-Nicolas, 1695-1766. Two vues d'optique prints celebrating the marriage of Philip, Infante of Spain, to Madame Elisabeth, daughter of King Louis XV.

Two vues d'optique prints celebrating the marriage of Philip, Infante of Spain, to Madame Elisabeth, daughter of King Louis XV. [after 1740]

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84403463

The first print depicts the makeshift construction of the Temple of Hymen erected on the Seine at the end of the Isle du Palais, in front of the Pont Neuf bridge. The royal monogram surmounted by a crown dominates its colonnaded facade. A few small boats with sails marked by lines of illumination devices, and a couple of dragons are afloat around the bridge which also is decorated with lanterns. The descriptive text under the image explains that 600 firecrackers "des plus belles et des plus violentes" will explode at once on the top of the temple, while 250 small boats carrying 500 lanterns each and several dragons spitting fire will add their lights to the six million lanterns decorating the bridge. The show was to take place in the presence of the royal family and the Court on August 29, 1739.

1 print: etching, hand col. ; image 21.3 x 32 cm., plate mark 25 x 34 cm. on paper 27.5 x 44 cm.1 print : etching, hand col. ; image 25.2 x 37.5 cm., plate mark 29 x 40.5 cm., on paper 33.5 x 50 cm.

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