January 20-April 21

Design for a Paneled Wall (Boiserie)

"Chinese Decorative Design
(Chinoierie), 1736

The Skeletons from the Grotteschi, 1750

"She took one of her serpents..."
in Le Temple de Gnide, 1772

 

PIERRE-GABRIEL BERTAUT, French, 1737 - 1831
Design for a Paneled Wall (Boiserie)
with Floral Design and Hunting Trophy
etching
The William A. Whitaker Foundation Art Fund, 80.42.2

Architecture, the pastoral and the arabesque collide in this imaginative decorative motif. The artist uses hunting as the subject of rococo ornament. The birds, trophy and rabbit are all images associated with the hunt, and the image is composed so that the eye moves through the composition in a curvilinear fashion. This serpentine movement is known as the arabesque.

The composition of this piece is reminiscent of the type of interior decoration seen in aristocratic homes during the first part of the eighteenth century. Walls were often lined with rococo ornament like this. The paneling is an architectural reference to the interior and within its frame the decorative rococo element is apparent.

This image is inventive in its transformation of nature into ornament. By flipping some of the birds upside down, the artist has shown some birds to be alive while others have become victim to the hunt. The artful composition has turned the sport of hunting into ornament.