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View Image(s): Chantilly, 1773, Compare
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Image Description:
Taking his lead from the lyrics of the song, which sets the scene in the studio of ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles (4th century BCE), Le Bouteau depicts that space, and dresses his figures in classical garb. The depiction of the sculptor’s studio takes some liberties with historical accuracy, including the famous Hellenistic marble group, Laocöon and his sons, discovered in Rome in the early fifteenth century, and attributed since that time to artists of the first century CE following a description of the work by Pliny the elder in his Historia Naturalis. That is not the only liberty taken here, as the architecture, while classical in character, is far closer to that of French classicism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than any of the truly ancient buildings that surrounded Le Bouteux at the Académie de France à Rome in the Palazzo Mancini, where he designed this print.
Le Bouteux depicts the denouement of the song where after that young patron has commissioned the artist to make her a statue of ‘Friendship’ she rejects the work as too formal and stiff, choosing instead a statue of cupid, to which the sculptor responds; “De l’amitié, dans ce jour/Vous demandiés la Statuë,/Et vous emportés l’amour!” [you ordered a statue of Friendship this day and you carry away love!]. The tale aims to show the fine line between love and friendship, presumably in relationships between the sexes in this case.
The statue of Friendship on a pedestal before the sculptor recalls Jean-Baptiste Pigalle’s l’Amitié commissioned by the Marquise de Pompadour in 1750. Both Pigalle’s work, and the group depicted in the print executed by François-Denis Née in Paris that very faithfully follows Le Bouteux’s original design show a draped female figure, with one breast exposed in a contrapposto stance. The one difference between them being that the statue in the print holds a heart-shaped object, where Pigalle’s figure simply gestures towards the heart in her chest.
Scholars have long noted that Pompidou’s commissions of works of art on the theme of friendship coincide with the famous Maîtresse-en-titre’s changing relationship with Louis XV. By 1750, the two were no longer physically lovers, but Pompidou managed to retain the king’s interest, and his loyalty, by positioning herself as his closest friend. Pompidou would commission Pigalle to create another sculptural group on the subject of Friendship in 1753 for her garden at the château de Belleville. That later piece, L’Amour embrassant l’Amitié, unites the ‘love’ and ‘friendship’ in the depiction of a putto embracing the female personification – bringing together the two virtues made distinct in this song from Laborde’s publication.
Plate Signature: “Le Bouteux inv. / D. Née Scup.”
Artist: Le Bouteux, Joseph Barthélemy
Engraver: Née, François Denis
Year:
Inscription: “De l’amitié, dans ce jour / Vous demandiés la statuë, / Et vous emportés l’amour.”
Keywords: Amitié, barrel ceilings, bas-reliefs (sculpture), breast, busts (sculpture), chairs (furniture forms), chitons, Civilization, Classical, columns (architectural elements), Cupid (Roman deity), cushions, doorways, footrests, interior, Laocoön (Greco-Roman character), mallets (striking tools), peploses, plinths, sandals, sculpting, sculptors, sculpture (visual works), seating furniture, statues, Tuscan order, windows
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Other works of art quoted in this image: Laocoon Group, 1st century BC. Vatican, 1059.
General Metadata:
Group Page Range: Vol. 2, 61-67
Title Page Inscription: “LA STATUE DE L’AMITIE”
Published Notes:
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View Score(s): 1773
Song 1 recording: Amitié, ma voix t’implore
Song 2 recording: Si c’est le mot d’Amour
Credit: Paul McMahon, tenor
Amy Moore, soprano
Erin Helyard, harpsichord (French double by Carey Beebe after Blanchet, 1991)
Temperament: Jean-Henri Lambert, 1774, A:392
Song 1 diction recording:
Song 2 diction recording:
Credit: Eighteenth-century diction prepared and declaimed by Linda Barcan with the assistance of Erin Helyard and Veronique Duche
Music Metadata:
Song 1 Description:
This pleasant and agreeable chanson avoids all extremes of emotion and is elegant, unforced, poised, and symmetrical. There is only one accidental in the whole song, reinforcing the purity of the chosen tonality of C major. This “classic” setting, in which all excesses of sentiment are avoided, complements perfectly Le Prieur’s deferential tone of homage.
Song 1 Composer: [Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de]
Song 1 Key Signature: C
Song 1 Time Signature: 2
Song 1 Expression Marks: Andantino
Song 1 Tessitura of Voice: e1-g2
Song 1 Tessitura of Instrument: c-g2
Song 1 Strophic: Strophic
Song 1 Related Compositions:
Song 2 Description:
Song 2 Composer: [Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de]
Song 2 Key Signature: c
Song 2 Time Signature: 6^8
Song 2 Expression Marks: Allegretto
Song 2 Tessitura of Voice: g1-bb2
Song 2 Tessitura of Instrument: G-f2
Song 2 Strophic: Non-strophic
Song 2 Related Compositions:
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Song 1 Transcription:
I
Amitié ma voix t’implore
l’amour peut il t’égaler:
comme La vermeille aurore
tu brilles sans nous bruler
sur tes pas je m’abandonne
tu ne promets pas en vain,
l’aimable paix t’environne
le bonheur naît sous ta main
le bonheur naît sous ta main.
II
Ainsi parloit Cleonice,
Elle n’avait que quinse ans;
Douce erreur d’une Novice
Qui fait ses premiers sermens:
A L’idole qui l’Enchante
En petit temple est dressé,
Par la belle indiférente
Soir et matin encensé.
III
Mais il lui faut une image
Qui lui rapelle ses traits:
Les Arts pour ce digne ouvrage
Seront ils assés parfaits?
Elle court chés Praxitele;
Veut un chef d’œuvre à l’instant:
Sa chimére etoit si belle…..
Son buste sera charmant.
IV
L’artiste expose à sa vuë
L’amitié, mais comme elle est,
Simple, mâle, retenuë,
Sans graces, et sans aprêt.
L’art n’a point rendu, dit elle,
Ses traits, son air enchanteur;
Voulés vous un sur modéle,
Il est emprient dans mon cœur.
V
Non loin, sur un lit d’albatre
Repose un aimable Enfant:
Voila ce que j’idolatre
Dit elle, en s’en emparant:
Eh! quoi donc, belle ingénuë,
De l’amitié, dans ce jour
Vous demandiés la Statuë,
Et vous emportés l’amour!
Song 2 Transcription:
Si c’est le mot d’amour qui cause vôtre peine
nous pouvons bien sans lui nous aimer désormais,
nous aimer désormais,
aimons nous donc toujours mon aimable Climene
servons ce Dieu sans le nommer jamais
sans le nommer jamais
Servons ce dieu sans le nom[m]er jamais,
sans le nommer jamais
Text Metadata:
Song 1 Text Description:
Song 1 Incipit: Amitié, ma voix t’implore
Song 1 Author: “Le Prieur, M.”
Song 1 Text Keywords:
Sources that refer to song 1 text:
Sources that song 1 text refers to:
Song 2 Text Description:
Song 2 Incipit: Si c’est le mot d’Amour
Song 2 Author: “Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de”
Song 2 Keywords:
Sources that refer to song 2 text:
