La vue d’optique, vecteur de diffusion du mythe versaillais dans la culture visuelle du xviiie siècle ?

Abstract

Vues d'optique (optical views) were highly popular in eighteenth-century Europe, and contributed to the dissemination and entrenchment of a shared imaginary visual conception of urban spaces. These topographical prints, intended to be viewed in an optical device that accentuated the perspectival effect of the engraved landscape, were both a form of entertainment in salons and a street attraction circulated by itinerant showmen. This article examines the way in which the palace and gardens of Versailles were represented in this particular genre of prints, by first questioning the specific production methods of the vues d'optique, particularly in their economic and formal dimensions. Many iconographic tropes used in these seem to have been borrowed from other sources, such as earlier engraved compositions created by the Perelle, Pierre Aveline and Jacques Rigaud. Documentary reliability does not appear to have been a determining criterion in the selection of sources, with authors favouring visual and spectacular effects. Rather than creating a new or original representation of Versailles, vues d'optique crystallized a stereotypical and canonical image of the palace and its gardens, leading to a standardised vision.

Keywords

• Versailles
• print
• visual culture
• optical view
• topographic representation
• landscape