A State Partizan by Jean Berain for a Royal Wedding

A. V. B. NORMAN

T HE DESCRIPTION of the marriage of Marie- Louise d'Orleans in 1679, given in the Mercure galant for October of that year, includes the

information that the "Hoquetons" of the Brigadiers and Sous-brigadiers of the Garde du Corps du Roy and their partizans were specially designed for the cere- mony by "Mr. Berrin."' Given his position as principal designer to the king, it is hardly surprising that Jean Berain (1640-1711) was entrusted with redesigning the State Dress surcoats and the ceremonial spears of the Royal Guard for such an important occasion. These partizans would have been carried by the Garde de la Manche, the guard closest to the French kings. It consisted of about twenty men chosen from the First Company of the Gardes du Corps, originally raised as a bodyguard of archers by Charles VII of France in 1445, long known as the Garde Ecossais, was for many years recruited only from Scotsmen (Figure 1).

What is perhaps much more surprising is that the design for these partizans is actually reproduced as a gatefold plate in the Mercure galant and is fully described in its text (Figure 2). This fact was first pointed out by Roger-Armand Weigart, the cataloguer of Berain's engraved works, although he did not reproduce the plate.2 The main part of the design con- sists of a young hero seated in a chariot drawn by four horses in front of a trophy of arms and flags. One might expect the charioteer to be the Sun God, Apollo, patron of the Roi Solel, but in the text he is specifically called Mars. Above his head flies a winged figure, symbolizing Fame, who is crowning him with a laurel wreath. The two horses at the right are tram- pling a fallen lion, and the two at the left are trampling an eagle. Above all this, within an oval cartouche flanked by sprays of laurels, is the Sun in Splendor, the personal device of Louis XIV. On top of this cartouche is a scroll inscribed NEC PLVRIBVS IMPAR, the motto adopted by Louis. The motto was first recorded on a medal of the king dated 1662, which was illustrated by Claude-Francois Menestrier in La devise du Roy justifiie

? The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1997 METROPOLITAN MUSEUMJOURNAL 32

(Paris, 1679, p. 30). No actual medal of this type and date appears to have survived, but a medal of the same design in the British Museum is dated 1663 and others are known dated 1664.3 The blade of the partizan springs from a spherical knob representing, according to the Mercure galant, the world, over which the chariot of Mars is flying. The image of the world is charged with the fleur-de-lis of France, and its lower half is clasped by a calyx of lily petals. Although it is nowhere stated, Mars surely must represent Louis himself dom- inating the world in his chariot and overthrowing his mortal enemies, England and Austria, represented respectively by the lion and the eagle.

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Figure 1. An engraving after Le Sacre de Louis XV... (Paris, 1722), showing the costume of the Garde de la Manche and their partizans

The notes for this article begin on page 144.

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Figure 2. Jean Berain (French, 1640-1711). Design for a partizan, published in Mercure galant (October 1679)

Among the many surviving richly decorated parti- zans bearing French royal devices, two patterns stand out particularly, because of the complexity of their designs and because they are pierced and chiseled in relief and encrusted with gold instead of being merely

Figure 3. Partizan for the Garde de la Manche. French, ca. 1660. London, Wallace Collection, no. A. 1009 (photo: Wallace Collection)

engraved, heat-blued, and fire-gilded. In one type, represented by an example in the Wallace Collection, London (Figure 3), the centerpiece of the design is the figure of Hercules with a pair of captives at his feet.4 This design has been attributed to Jean le

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Figure 4. Partizan for the Garde de la Manche, based on the design ofJean Berain. French, 1679. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William H. Riggs, 1913, 14.25.454

Pautre, (1618-1682), but on what grounds is not clear.5 The Garde de la Manche was given the club of Hercules as its badge by Henri IV of France and Navarre (1589- 161o),6 and it was replaced by the new royal device and motto only in or after 1662. It is clear

that this partizan must have been made before the new badge was adopted. Judging from what is said in the Mercure galant about the ancient designs of both the hoquetons and the partizans being changed for the Spanish wedding, it is just possible that this was the occasion on which the new badge of the corps was adopted.

The second type of pattern is that for which the design was illustrated in the Mercure galant. In 1937 Weigart was able to point out two surviving examples: one in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris,7 and another then in the church of Saint-Vigor at Marly-le-Roi. The sec- ond is now in the Musee Promenade in Marly.8 Three other examples are now known: one formerly in the church of Notre-Dame at Versailles is now in the Musee Lambinet in the same town;9 another from the Czartoryski collection is in the National Museum, Cracow;10 and the last, the subject of this note (Figure 4), is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In 1834 what was probably a partizan of this type was sold with the collection of Bernard Brocas of Wokefield Park, Berkshire, England, but it is not known whether it is the one now in the Metropolitan Museum.12

The main part of the design of these weapons fol- lows very closely the engraving in the Mercure galant. It is only above the figure symbolizing Fame that any major differences are to be seen. The Sun in Splendor has its rays pierced, rather than simply engraved, and is within a kidney-shaped compartment surrounded by a border inscribed with the royal motto. From the lower edge of this compartment hang two swags of fruit and foliage, and above it is a trifoliate ornament shaped like a calyx. The central rib of the blade above this point is wavy. The outline of the blade is identical to that shown in the engraving except near the point, where the edges are convex instead of concave. The Metropolitan's partizan differs from the other exam- ples in having its edges encrusted with gold fleurs-de- lis and laurel branches.

In spite of Berain's fame, only a very few objects sur- vive today that can be identified with certainty as hav- ing been designed by him. The Mercure galant says that these parade partizans "passent tous les Ouvrages que ont este travailler en acier."

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to express his deepest gratitude to his old friends and colleagues the late Colonel Marcel Dugue MacCarthy and Stuart Pyhrr for their help in preparing this note.

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NOTES

1. "Contenant la Relation du Mariage de Mademoiselle avec le Roy d'Espagne," Mercuregalant (Oct. 1679) part 2, pp. 215-216.

2. Roger-Armand Weigart, Jean I Berain dessinateur de la chambre et du cabinet du Roi (i640-1711), part 2: L'Oeuvre grave (Paris, 1937) p. go, cat. no. ioo.

3. MarkJones, A Catalogue of French Medals in the British Museum, (London 1988) cat. no. 237.

4. Not described or illustrated by Christian Aries, Armes blanches militaires francaises, 30 vols. (1966-90); Sir James Mann, European Arms and Armour, Wallace Collection Catalogues, (London, 1962) II, pp. 471-472), cat. no. A 1009, pi. 152, lists further examples; A.V.B. Norman, European Arms and Armour Supplement, Wallace Collection Catalogues, (London, 1986) pp. 199-200, cat. no. A 1oo9, where an attribution to Jean B?rain is tentatively put forward and further examples are listed.

5. Sir Guy F. Laking, A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven Centuries (London, 1921) IV, pp. 344-345, fig. 1414.

6. Aries, Armes blanches, X, caption for pl. x.

7. Mariaux, Le Musee de l'Arme: Armes et armures anciennes et sou- venirs historiques les plus precieux (Paris 1927) II, cat. no. K.496; pl. LXVI; ill. in Aries, Armes blanches, II, figs. 2a, 2b.

8. De Versailles t Paris: le Destin des Collections Royales, exh. cat., Centre Culturel du Pantheon (Paris,1989) cat. no. 166, ill.

9. Ibid.

o1. Inv. no. XIV-362; see Zdzislaw Zygulski, Stara Broh w Polskich Zbiorach (Warsaw, 1982) p. 169, no. 172.

11. Acc. no. 14.25.454; I am very grateful to Stuart Pyhrr, curator of the Department of Arms and Armor, MMA, for pointing out that this example was formerly in the collection of the Parisian dealer Frederic Spitzer and is illustrated in vol. VI in the catalogue of his collection by E. Mollinier (Paris 1892) cat. no. 258, pl. XLI). It was bought by William H. Riggs at the Spitzer sale, held by Petit in Paris onJune 10-14, 1895, lot 123, ill., and passed to the MMA with his collection in 1913.

12. The sale was held by George Robins at the Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, London, beginning March 19, 1834, lot 162.

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