Jean NAURISSART (1658 1733)

Allegory of Military
Architecture White marble medallion
44 x 35 cm
Signed on the back: Naurissart. F Annotated on the column: PLUS ARTE QUAM MARTE In a molded and gilded wooden frame Related
literature:
-Stanislas Lami, Dictionary of French sculptors under the reign of Louis XIV, Paris, Honoré Champion, 1906.
Pages 389 and 390.
-Virginie Bar and Dominique Brême, Dictionnaire iconologique, Les allégories et les symboles de Cesare Ripa et Jean
Baudouin, Faton éditions, Paris, 1999. Pages 188 and 189.
Note:
César Rippa in his "Iconology" published in 1644 informs us about the subject of this important bas-relief: Military
architecture:"(...) a serious Lady, and in whose face can be seen I don't know what manly.
(...) With her right hand she holds an instrument to draw the planes, and with her left a painting representing a fort of hexagonal shape, which is usually used in the structure of the most regular fortresses (...)".
Jean Naurissart was an active sculptor during the reign of Louis XIV. Very little information has been received about it. At most, Stanislas Lami in his dictionary of sculptors tells us that the artist resided in Paris in the early years of the 18th century and that he is mentioned in the Comptes des bâtiments du roi as having worked on the decoration of the chapel of the Château de Versailles. He also seems to have practiced his art in Rouen in 1722.
Few works are known to him: the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans preserves two marble medallions signed and dated 1710, including a beautiful profile of Diane (inv.1757). This is all we can find on this beautiful artist who offers us here an example of his talent in the purest Louis XIV style. The drapes are sculpted with refinement, the shortcuts are clever, the faces and hands of both figures are of a beautiful elegance. The artist enriches this classic iconography by adding to his allegory a Latin adage: "Plus
Arte Quam Marte" which can be translated as: "Rather art than war, or rather spirit than force" in the sense that competence in the art of military architecture can be a deterrent.