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Lunettes dont usa francois premier pour dormir a la bataille de marignan.

(Glasses that François I used in order to sleep at the battle of Marignan.)

Not on display

Artist or maker

Saint-Aubin, Charles-Germain de (b.1721, d.1786)

Additional handwriting by Pierre-Antoine Tardieu (b.c 1784, d.1869)

Date

1757?

1822-1869 {One inscription by Tardieu}

Artist's inscription refers to Soubise's defeat in the battle of Rossbach (1757)

Place of production

Paris, France

Medium

ink, watercolour and graphite on paper

Type of object

drawings

Accession number

675.243

One of a set, see others ▸

A pince-nez with shaded lenses contained in gold droplet-shaped frames is depicted centrally on the page. It is angled slightly towards the left.

Commentary

Curatorial commentary

The caption inserts eye-glasses into a well-known episode in French history. The battle of Marignan (13-15 September 1515) marked a key battle in the Italian Wars (1494-1559), most of which were fought in the Italian peninsula and which pitched France against the Habsburg house which ruled the Holy Roman Empire. The battle was a brilliant victory for Francis I, who had just acceded to the French throne. He was to reign between 1515 and 1547. The battle led to a period in which France dominated northern Italy. There is no record of the king sleeping during the battle.
Pierre de Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, known as the chevalier de Bayard, was one of the greatest warriors in French history. Viewed as an idealised form of the loyal, brave, chivalrous knight, he was by the eighteenth century habitually classified as one of the country’s Great Men (Bell, 2001). Legend had it that in 1515 Francis I did indeed confer on Bayard an order of chivalry before the assembled French army.
The drawing and captions seem to have been prompted – as Pierre-Antoine Tardieu’s later inscription makes clear – by the battle of Rossbach in 1757 which represented one of the darkest days in French military history, and which was a turning point in the Seven Years’ War (1756-63). The French army was routed by Frederick the Great’s Prussian forces. Much blame for the defeat was attached to the prince de Soubise, one of Madame de Pompadour’s favourites, who is the clear target of this particular drawing (Cf. 675.309). If Francis I did not sleep at Marignan, the implication appears to be, Soubise was certainly caught napping at Rossbach.

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

187 x 132

Inscriptions

Lunettes dont usa francois premier pour dormir a la bataille / de marignan, il les donna au chevalier Bayard qui en fit / un ordre de chevalerie.
Inscription
Inscribed by Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin, below image, in ink

que ne les donna til à Soubise .. 1757.
Inscription
Inscribed, possibly by Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin, below first inscription, in ink

Le Prince de Soubise commandant les français à Rosbach se laisse tromper / et battre par Frederic le Grand. Il se conduisit avec ineptie et lâcheté.
Inscription
Inscribed by Pierre-Antoine Tardieu, below second inscription, in ink

24
Pagination
Top right corner, in ink; last digit truncated by page's edge

243
Pagination
Top right, in ink

Translation of inscription

Glasses that François I used in order to sleep at the battle of Marignan. He gave them to the chevalier Bayard, who made an order of chivalry out of them.
If only he had given them to Soubise, 1757
The prince de Soubise, commander of the French at Rossbach, let himself be tricked and beaten by Frederick the Great. He behaved ineptly and with cowardice.

Underdrawing

Underdrawing, centre of page, in graphite; a man, facing obliquely towards the left is depicted with his hands on his hips. He kicks his right leg out in front of him, as if in a dance with the woman depicted in an underdrawing on the opposite page (675.242). His feathered hat, which is worn at an angle, partly obscures his smiling face.

Language

French

History

Part of

Livre de Caricatures tant bonnes que mauvaises. 675.1-389

Collection

Waddesdon (National Trust)
Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957

Bibliography

Katie Scott; Saint-Aubin's jokes and their relation to...; Colin Jones, Juliet Carey, Emily Richardson, The Saint-Aubin Livre de caricatures: drawing satire in eighteenth-century Paris, Oxford, SVEC, 2012; 349-403; p. 397n
Julian Swann; Politics and religion; Colin Jones, Juliet Carey, Emily Richardson, The Saint-Aubin Livre de caricatures: drawing satire in eighteenth-century Paris, Oxford, SVEC, 2012; 117-150; p. 140

Related literature

Richard Waddington; La guerre de sept ans: histoire diplomatique et militaire; Paris; Firmin-Didot et Cie; 1899-1914
David Bell; The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800; Cambridge; Harvard University Press; 2001
Stéphane Gal; Bayard: histoires croisées du chevalier; Grenoble; Presses universitaires de Grenoble; 2007

Other details

Subject person and role

François I of France, Named in text
Pierre Terrail, Chevalier de Bayard, Named in text
Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise, Named in text
Frederick the Great, Named in text

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