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IG_273: Pl. 40 41. Palais du Bey. Fermeture des fenêtres en plâtre découpé à jour et vitrail
(IG_Normand_1870_IG_273)

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Title

Palais du Bey. Fermeture des fenêtres en plâtre découpé à jour et vitrail

Type of Object
Artist / Producer
Studio
Dating
1870

Iconography

Description

Pl. 38–39, a colour plate in Alfred Normand's L'architecture des nations étrangères. Études sur les principales constructions du parc à l’Exposition Universelle de Paris (1867), published in 1870 in Paris by A. Morel, éditeur-libraire, shows two fragmented depictions of stucco and glass windows of the Tunisian pavilion at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris.
The window on the right has a polylobed arch that rests on engaged columns. The spandrels are carved showing a band with repeating rhombus shapes that surrounds a field with a tendril and foliage. The main lattice has perforations of geometric design. It is constructed around big sixteen-pointed star and smaller eight-pointed stars.
The window on the left has an ogee arch that rests on engaged columns. The spandrels are carved showing foliage on a tendril. The main lattice has perforations of geometric design. It is constructed around one central big sixteen-pointed star and smaller eight-pointed stars.
The pieces of coloured glass of both windows are yellow, blue, green, and red. The illustration also shows the three-dimensionality of the stucco lattice by depicting the angled stucco perforations by means of shading.
In addition to the frontal view, pl. 40–41 includes cross-sections of the windows. Underneath the illustration, a scale shows that each of the windows is around 80cm high.
The caption defines the stucco and glass window as ‘fermeture des fenêtres en plâtre découpé à jour et vitrail’.

Iconclass Code
48A981 · ornament ~ geometric motifs
48A9815 · ornament ~ starforms
Iconclass Keywords

Technique / State

History

Research

The caption to the illustration mentions the name of Alfred Normand. This leads us to the assumption that he was the creator of the original drawing which was reproduced through chromolithography by Walter and the Parisian firm Lemercier & Cie. In his text however, Normand informs the reader that some of the plates depicting the Tunisian pavilion reproduce drawings made by Arabs and sent to Paris (Normand, 1870, p. 11).

It is notable that stucco and glass windows of this typology are a very consistent feature of Tunisian representations at world’s fairs. Already at the first world’s fair, the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, Tunis exhibited a stucco window with an arch resting on engaged columns, with carved spandrels and perforations in the central stucco field forming a geometric pattern around pointed stars (IG_410). The same typology can be found at the International Colonial Exhibition in Amsterdam in 1883 (Victoria and Albert Museum, 1277-1883). At the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, the Tunisian pavilion included windows of this typology again, as photographs show (IG_92).
In addition to the window from the Amsterdam Colonial Exhibition preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, several windows of this typology that entered the collection of the Orientalische Museum in the 19th century (now in the MAK Vienna: IG_362, IG_363, IG_364, IG_365, IG_366, IG_367, IG_368) demonstrate the availability of this type of stucco and glass window in 19th-century Europe.

The publication does not give any information as to exactly where the stucco and glass windows depicted were positioned in the Tunisian pavilion, nor could the windows depicted in pl. 40–41 be clearly identified in a photograph of the pavilion (IG_452).

Dating
1870
Related Locations
Place of Manufacture

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Normand, A. (1870). L'architecture des nations étrangères. Études sur les principales constructions du parc à l’Exposition Universelle de Paris (1867), A. Morel, éditeur-libraire.

Exhibitions

1867: Exposition Universelle, Paris.
18.5.2024–1.9.2024: Luminosité de l’Orient, Vitromusée Romont

Image Information

Name of Image
IG_Normand_1870_IG_273
Credits
Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF

Inventory

Reference Number
IG_273
Author and Date of Entry
Franziska Niemand 2024

Linked Objects and Images

Linked Objects
L'architecture des nations étrangères