Les masques de l’animalité : violence et métaphores dans le décor sculpté des jardins de La Granja de San Ildefonso (1721-1746)

Abstract

In the gardens of La Granja de San Ildefonso, a former hunting lodge transformed into a royal domain in the 18th century, wild animals stand side by side with animals sculpted in marble or lead. Whether real or legendary, these representations serve to demonstrate power by illustrating man’s domination over nature in a variety of ways. Behind the masks of childhood, mythology, or animals, often lurk sovereigns and their political adversaries. Placed at the service of a rhetoric of the struggle between good and evil, these confrontations stage a diversion, or a justification of the violence exerted on the animalised being, portrayed as ferocious or even diabolical.

Keywords

• Philip V
• gardens of La Granja de San Ildefonso
• 18th century
• sculpture
• animals