Death and Dynasty in the Bouillon Tomb Commissions

Abstract

For the French aristocracy in the seventeenth century, an elaborately carved tomb monument could be a potent propaganda device in the endless competition for position and prestige inside and outside the court. The ambitious Cardinal de Bouillon appreciated the value of highly charged sculptural images when he commissioned such tombs for his uncle, the Maréchal de Turenne and, two decades later, for his parents. Whether by veiled allusion or by bold assertion, the cardinal deployed these monuments in an aggressive program of dynastic advancement and political power-grabbing so pretentious that Louis XIV himself would retaliate, cutting down both the patron and his project.

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Notes on contributors

Mary Jackson Harvey

Mary Jackson Harvey, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, has contributed to various catalogues and published in the Gazette des beaux-arts. She is currently at work on a study of the meanings and functions of French Baroque tomb sculpture [7746 Columbia Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60631].