So-called "Jeu révolutionnaire"

Philippe

In order not to interfere with the other researchers I've decided to submit a new thread about this fascinating deck very improperly called "Jeu révolutionnaire" as it rather emanates from counter-revolutionnary circles.

We have already discovered that the card 66 concerns the battles fought in the russo-turkish war (1768-1774) and that the man on the card 3 is François-Emmanuel Guignard de Saint-Priest ambassador in Constantinople at that time and later Ministre de l'intérieur (1789-1791).

So, let's continue to explore the cards, for instance the 59

Soliman by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

The 9th of April 1761 at the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris there was a production of Soliman II or Les Sultanes, comedy of Favart after Marmontel, music by Gilbert. For the first time in France, real turkish costumes made in Constantinople were used for the production and they will be used again for the Francoeur & Rebel's Scanderberg in Fontainebleau 1763 (in presence of the king) and until 1803 for the Comédie Française's Trois Sultanes. Paintings and drawings remind us of these expensive and magnificent productions :

YooniqImages_100616942 by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Actor in oriental costume in the role of Suleiman, character from an opera comique by Charles Simon Favart (1710-1792) entitled The Three Sultans.
The fur-trimmed pelisse and above all the shape of the scepter with the crescent moon match well our little card.

Other costumes :

162278638 by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

btv1b8454840z by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

For the other mythological or historical cards I found this :

Hercule by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Hercule Marmontel & Dauvergne 1761 too

Achille by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Achille in Sciro Paisiello St Petersbourg 1780
Sarti Florence 1781
Lugnani 1785 Turin

Jason by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Jason Andreozzi St Petersbourg 1784

César by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Morte di Cesare Andreozzi 1779
Bianchi 1789
Robuschi 1790
Zingarelli 1791
Cesare in Egitto Paganini 1790

Sémiramis by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Semiramide Too many to mention but among them :
Paisiello Rome 1773
Salieri 1784
Prati 1785

Ulisse by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Ritorno d'Ulisse Gazzaniga 1781
Giordani 1782
Alessandri 1790
 

Philippe

Another interesting card, albeit insignificant in itself :

Calomnie caquets by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Caquets, commérages, calomnies. We'll find it again as the 7♢ of the Grandville's sybille des salons 1827 :

20 (2) by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

The bird is alone and in a cage now. But in the British Museum's deck that card is associated with the 10♠.

AN1613053868_l by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr
Card n°27 in the last row

So, 7♦ or 10♠ ?
In another parlour deck of the early Restauration we can note that the cards are very similar :

aei by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Birds in both cards, only the meanings differ (caution or the night for 10♠)
 

Philippe

After having read Guignard's memoirs I'm definitively convinced that he can't be neither the inspirator of the deck nor its dedicatee. I will therefore introduce a new french name and I'm going to explain in this post and the following ones how I came upon it.

I came back to the card 66. The battles are after all russian (and not french) victories and I thought the officer in the card 29 must be a russian one :

Officier décoré by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

I could have chosen Prince Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Rumyantsev) or Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mikhailovich_Golitsyn) -by the way Guignard's son Armand-Emmanuel will marry a princess Golitsyn in 1804- but I prefer a third one : Prince Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Saltykov)

Saltykov_Nikolay_Ivanovich by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

He took Chotyn (Chotczim on the card 66) in 1769. It seems like the card is mirroring the portrait : costume, colours, posture !
In 1798 the Saltykov allied themselves with a french family the De Raimond de Moirmoiron Comte de Modène (Modène in Vaucluse -or Comtat Venaissin- France, not Modena Italy). François-Charles de Raimond Comte de Modène 1734-1799, father of Gabriel de Raimond-Modène (1774-1833 married to Elizabeth Saltykov 1798), is particularly interesting...

to be continued...
 

Philippe

Card 37 :

HR Courtisane parvenue by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

There are two different writings in the deck :

- a cursive writing that gives their title to most of the cards

- a writing with block letters belonging to a cultivated person somehow less familiar with french language and comitting little mistakes. It's that writing we find here

La cortisanne parvenue for la courtisane parvenue (the upstart courtier)
I can't decipher the first word (maybe hargneuse fractious but I'm not sure), egoite for égoïste selfish, ingrate ungrateful, dissimulée or rather dissimulatrice secretive, impudique et dévote indecent and devout. Curious juxtaposition of the two last words. On the whole a rather hateful description of the character.

The woman is sitting under a tree, reading a book and maybe holding a rosary.
The card has been burnt at the book's place but we can guess the title with the remaining letters Le (mé)tier d'escroc = the con (wo)man's art.
The first time I saw the pic, I thought immediately of Jeanne de Lamotte Valois. Moreover the woman is dressed in white and pink, as was the whore Leguay d'Oliva the evening of the ridiculous scene in Versailles' gardens.
 

Philippe

Tracking the engraver :

Lucine2 by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr Louis XVI acceptant la constitution by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Fortun by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

génies ailés by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

Jacques Dorgez worked for René Janet Rue Saint Jacques in front of the Mathurins,. Janet will be later the editor of le Boston de l'univers, a 52 playing cards deck in which the king of clubs reminds the egyptian style of le jeu de la Princesse. The deck has been published in Great Britain too by Charles Hodges (geographical cards).
 

Huck

Very good work, Philippe ...

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8411431k

http://alde.auction.fr/_fr/lot/le-t...e-sharp-paris-chez-janet-7495231#.VsEFkPnhCUk

http://auction.catawiki.com/kavels/...ions-ou-le-porte-feuille-de-jerome-sharp-1799

http://www.giochidelloca.it/storia/ALDE.pdf

The 3rd I don't find, but ...

g12_thumb1.jpg


g42_thumb1.jpg

"Pierre Mignard (1612-1695) Le Génie de la Peinture c. 1683. Cul-de-lampe de 'Ode à Mr Lebrun premier peintre du Roy. National Gallery."

g16a_thumb1.jpg


All from ...
http://doportoenaoso.blogspot.de/2015/08/o-genio-da-arquitectura-descobre-os.html
... which researches "genie-pictures" (the page has some more examples)

**********

One could also have the opinion, that Sauveur or one of his engravers made the 66-cards-deck.
However, both Dougez and Sauveur's productions have too good qualities to be really suggestive as painters of the 66-cards-deck, I would assume.

The 66-cards-deck picture speaks of "Hymen", not of a "Bon Genie". The idea is proceeded in the POdD.

06.jpg


The Hymenaios is a fixed figure already in the Greek antique with a special function in the wedding, not elsewhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymen_(god)

tumblr_mlg19mtNMB1ruucjho1_1280.jpg
 

Philippe

One could also have the opinion, that Sauveur or one of his engravers made the 66-cards-deck.
However, both Dougez and Sauveur's productions have too good qualities to be really suggestive as painters of the 66-cards-deck, I would assume.

Grasset de Saint-Sauveur : No. It's definitely not his style and I've been unable to find old regime's costumes drawings in his production.
It's precisely because the designer of the deck is not a first rank artist that he must have taken his inspiration from more gifted engravers and, from this perspective, the similarities with Dorgez can't be a pure coincidence.
 

Philippe

An intriguing detail in this card :

3621 by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

The headgear doesn't look french. Instead it reminds us of the helmet worn by the hessian fusiliers who served the king of England and fought american insurgents between 1776 and 1783 :

Hessian_Fusilier_mockup_army.mil-2008-03-20-100346 by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

mitre2 by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

It seems the card existed as early as 1774-1776 in Rowley and co's deck "Monarchs of Europe". It was already the Jack of clubs :

VaTr by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr
 

Huck

Grasset de Saint-Sauveur : No. It's definitely not his style and I've been unable to find old regime's costumes drawings in his production.
It's precisely because the designer of the deck is not a first rank artist that he must have taken his inspiration from more gifted engravers and, from this perspective, the similarities with Dorgez can't be a pure coincidence.

Personally I would think, that a French deck in the style of the Moscow deck preceded the 66-cards deck. About 38 or 39 motifs are already given with that, nearly all from the numbers 1-44 in the 66 cards deck, with very few exceptions. Minestre d'interieure and other ministers, the Ottoman card and the map and perhaps a few others of the then missing cards might run under "private additions".

For the part of the zodiac (really a good finding) we have, that the declaration of the constitution (September 1791) has a relative late date ... actually one might expect the deck a little bit earlier (?). Perhaps we find some other zodiac part use elsewhere?