VOLTAIRE NU (LE)

SÉRIE "ENQUÊTE D'ART"

of CARO Sam

FRANCE, 2006, 00:26:00

Production : ECLECTIC PRODUCTION, FRANCE 5, MUSEE DU LOUVRE
Collection : Musée du Louvre
Genre : Documentary
Keyword : Sculpture, History of art, Pedagogy

Summary :
Shortly before 1789, a group of prominent writers and philosophers of the Enlightenment led by Diderot ordered to Pigalle, a sculptor very famous in his time, a statue of Voltaire. The nude, scrawny, as a foreshadowing of death, causes a huge scandal. Pigalle has broken a centuries-old tradition of ancient statuary that was idealizing body, but also, according to his detractors, he has turned ugly the very person of Voltaire, figure as feared as respected.

"The "Enquête d'art " series questions nine artworks of the museum: what are the contexts and conditions of manufacture? Which characters have shaped their destinies? How these artworks have been designed? How did they enter the Louvre? A didactic voiceover offers a precious light on the technical terms used by specialists in their description of art. Each film is a survey in form of travel, aiming at following the course of an artwork and to reconnect with its roots."

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