MEISSONNIER, Juste-Aurèle

The engraving shows a view of a wall elevation with a fireplace in the centre. Over the mantel a large mirror has been placed which reflects part of the room and the half-opened double doors on the opposite end of it.

The engraver was Gabriel Huquier (1695–1772).

Meissonnier was an ornamental decorator who produced almost everything: “plans of houses and salons, church facades and altars, centrepieces, fireworks, salt cellars and sword hilts, designs for wood carving, wind dials, silver objects and even a painted ceiling.”

The designs for centrepieces (one of the is illustrated by this engraving executed by Gabriel Huquier) that Messonnier supplied to goldsmiths displayed a convoluted verve suited to the flourishes of metalwork.

This etching by Gabriel Huquier comes from a volume of plates after Meissonnier’s work. The plates are, for the most part, the only record of Meissonnier’s varied works in painting, sculpture, metalwork, and architecture.

It is a design for a large pendule hung in front of a wall panel. The pendule has a round clock dial placed in a large case built up out of rocaille ornaments. On top a winged female figure holding a garland is seated. On the left the garland is supported by the figure of a small cupid. To the left, part of a door is depicted and on the lower right three arms of a candelabra are visible.

The engraver was Gabriel Huquier (1695–1772).

The eighteenth century in France was an extraordinary period for the European decorative arts. It was characterized by an intense craft activity. There were many orders from the aristocracy and other grand families for interior and exterior ornaments: fireplaces, buffets, oven grates, marble basins, garden vases, braziers, chimney pieces, gilded bronze chandeliers, etc. Gifts of porcelain and objets d’art were presented by the court of France to foreign courts. The eighteenth century teemed with ideas, but it above all entailed promotion of objects.

During the first quarter of the century, when a penchant for the unusual favoured the Rococo style, the goldsmith Juste-Aur�le Meissonnier left Turin for Paris and became famous for a candlestick he made for the king. This was a veritable manifesto of twisting, spiraling metalwork in which the motifs blend into one another.

The clock’s swirling leaves and asymmetrical overall design are typical of the work of Juste-Aur�le Meissonnier, a designer and goldsmith and one of the leading exponents of the Rococo style. Such clocks, also known as pendules d’alcove (alcove clocks), were usually small, suitable for hanging in an alcove above a bed. The repeating mechanisms that chimed the nearest hour and quarter hour when a string was pulled eliminated the need to light a candle to see the dial. They also prevented the constant chiming that would awaken a sleeper. This is the largest known example of the pendule d’alcove, indicating that it was made for an extremely imposing interior.

The figures on this clock represent Love conquering Time, a theme often repeated on mid-eighteenth century French clocks. The two cherubs above carry away the scythe and hourglass, the symbols of Time, while Time himself lies vanquished below with his globe, protractor, and pair of compasses.