Enfilade

From Yale UP:

James Davey, Tempest: The Royal Navy and the Age of Revolutions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023), 448 pages, ISBN: ‎ 978-0300238273, $35.

The French Revolutionary Wars catapulted Britain into a conflict against a new enemy: Republican France. Britain relied on the Royal Navy to protect its shores and empire, but as radical ideas about rights and liberty spread across the globe, it could not prevent the spirit of revolution from reaching its ships. In this insightful history, James Davey tells the story of Britain’s Royal Navy across the turbulent 1790s. As resistance and rebellion swept through the fleets, the navy itself became a political battleground. This was a conflict fought for principles as well as power. Sailors organized riots, strikes, petitions, and mutinies to achieve their goals. These shocking events dominated public discussion, prompting cynical—and sometimes brutal—responses from the government. Tempest uncovers the voices of ordinary sailors to shed new light on Britain’s war with France, as the age of revolution played out at every level of society.

James Davey teaches at the University of Exeter. He was formerly curator of naval history at the National Maritime Museum and is the author of In Nelson’s Wake: The Navy and the Napoleonic Wars.

c o n t e n t s

List of Illustration and Maps
Acknowledgments
Note on Conventions

Prologue
Introduction
1  Lawless Mobs and a Gore of Blood: Naval Mobilisation and Impressment
2  War of Principle: Naval Conflict in Europe, 1793–5
3  ‘We the Seamen’: Protest and Resistance at Sea
4  Tides, Currents, and Winds: Navy and Empire, 1793–7
5  Splintering the Wooden Walls: The Threat of Invasion, 1796–8
6  The Delegates in Council: The Naval Mutinies of 1797
7  A Tale of Two Sailors: Camperdown and Naval Propaganda
8  Bad Luck to the British Navy! Mutiny and Naval Warfare, 1798–1801
Epilogue
Conclusion

Notes on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index

From the Getty:

Norman Bryson, Hersilia’s Sisters: Jacques-Louis David, Women, and the Emergence of Civil Society in Post-Revolution France (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023), 352 pages, ISBN 978-1606067710, $75.

Political and cultural history and the arts combine in this engaging account of 1790s France.

In 1799, when the French artist Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) exhibited his Intervention of the Sabines, a history painting featuring the ancient heroine Hersilia, he added portraits of two contemporary women on either side of her—Henriette de Verninac, daughter of Charles-François Delacroix, minister of foreign affairs, and Juliette Récamier, a well-known and admired socialite. Drawing on many disciplines, Norman Bryson explains how such a combination of paintings could reveal the underlying nature of the Directoire, the period between the vicious and near-dictatorial Reign of Terror (1793–94) and the coup in 1799 that brought Napoleon to power. Hersilia’s Sisters illuminates ways that cultural life and civil society were rebuilt during these years through an extraordinary efflorescence of women pioneers in every cultural domain—literature, the stage, opera, moral philosophy, political theory, painting, popular journalism, and fashion. Through a close examination of David’s work between The Intervention of the Sabines (begun in 1796) and Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (begun in 1800), Bryson explores how the flowering of women’s culture under the Directoire became a decisive influence on David’s art.

Norman Bryson is a professor of art history at the University of California, San Diego. He has published widely in the areas of eighteenth-century art history, critical theory, and contemporary art.

c o n t e n t s

Acknowledgments

Introduction
1  The Festival of the Sabine Women
2  David in the Louvre in 1800
3  The Portrait of Henriette de Verninac
4  The Portrait of Juliette Récamier
5  Ancient Liberty, Modern Freedom
6  Aspasia, the Merveilleuse
7  Hersilia’s Accomplished Sisters
8  Salonnières
9  Brumaire

Bibliography
About the Author
Illustration Credits
Index

From Yale UP:

Ashli White, Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and Politics in the Late Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023), 392 pages, ISBN: 978-0300259018, $50.

How objects associated with the American, French, and Haitian revolutions drew diverse people throughout the Atlantic world into debates over revolutionary ideals

Historian Ashli White explores the circulation of material culture during the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, arguing that in the late eighteenth century, radical ideals were contested through objects as well as in texts. She considers how revolutionary things, as they moved throughout the Atlantic, brought people into contact with these transformative political movements in visceral, multiple, and provocative ways. Focusing on a range of objects—ceramics and furniture, garments and accessories, prints, maps, and public amusements—White shows how material culture held political meaning for diverse populations. Enslaved and free, women and men, poor and elite—all turned to things as a means to realize their varied and sometimes competing visions of revolutionary change.

Ashli White is associate professor of history at the University of Miami. She is the author of Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic.

From Arthena:

Marie Fournier, with a preface by Christine Gouzi, Nicolas-Guy Brenet (1728–1792) (Paris: Arthena, 2023), 360 pages, ISBN: 978-2903239718, €110.

Peintre emblématique du renouveau de la peinture d’Histoire avant la Révolution française, Nicolas-Guy Brenet fut l’élève de Charles Antoine Coypel, de François Boucher et de Carle Vanloo. Sa brillante carrière académique illustre l’ascension sociale et institutionnelle d’un homme issu d’un milieu modeste de graveurs. Après sa participation au cycle de l’histoire de Saint Louis pour la chapelle de l’École militaire en 1773, le succès des Honneurs rendus au connétable Du Guesclin par la Ville de Randon exposé au Salon de 1777 (Paris, musée du Louvre) fit de lui l’artiste le plus sollicité pour les commandes destinées à encourager la peinture d’Histoire sous le règne de Louis XVI. Ses nombreux retables peints pour les églises de province illustrent le dynamisme encore trop méconnu des commandes du clergé jusqu’à la Révolution. Professeur reconnu, il forma de nombreux élèves, dont le baron Gérard et Jean-Germain Drouais, mais demeura sans véritable postérité artistique et la critique du XIXe siècle lui reprocha d’incarner le “goût de son époque, répandu dans ses tableaux.” La découverte d’oeuvres inédites et de nouveaux documents d’archives permet d’éclairer la production d’un peintre talentueux, témoin des évolutions artistiques de la fin du siècle des Lumières.

Diplômée de l’École du Louvre et docteur en histoire de l’art de Sorbonne-Université où elle a été chargée de cours, Marie Fournier a soutenu sa thèse sur le peintre Nicolas-Guy Brenet en janvier 2022. Chercheuse indépendante, elle rédige des catalogues pour des collectionneurs et collabore scientifiquement à des projets d’expositions avec des galeries et des musées.

From the Getty:

Charissa Bremer-David, with contributions by Jessica Chasen, Arlen Heginbotham, and Julie Wolfe, French Silver in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2023), 178 pages, ISBN: 978-1606068281, $55, with digital copies available free.

Vividly illustrated, this is the first comprehensive catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s celebrated collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French silver.

The collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French silver at the J. Paul Getty Museum is of exceptional quality and state of preservation. Each piece is remarkable for its beauty, inventive form, skillful execution, illustrious provenance, and the renown of its maker. This volume is the first complete study of these exquisite objects, with more than 250 color photographs bringing into focus extraordinary details such as minuscule makers’ marks, inscriptions, and heraldic armorials. The publication details the formation of the Museum’s collection of French silver, several pieces of which were selected by J. Paul Getty himself, and discusses the regulations of the historic Parisian guild of gold- and silversmiths that set quality controls and consumer protections. Comprehensive entries catalogue a total of thirty-three pieces with descriptions, provenance, exhibition history, and technical information. The related commentaries shed light on the function of these objects and the roles they played in the daily lives of their prosperous owners. The book also includes maker biographies and a full bibliography.

Reflecting Getty’s commitment to open content, the free online edition of this publication is available here, with 360-degree views and zoomable high-resolution photography. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book, and JPG downloads of the main catalogue images. For readers who wish to have a bound reference copy, this paperback edition is available for sale.

Charissa Bremer-David retired in 2020 from her role as curator in the Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Jessica Chasen is an associate objects conservator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Previously, she was an assistant conservator in Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum and in Science at the Getty Conservation Institute.
Arlen Heginbotham is conservator of decorative arts and sculpture at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Julie Wolfe is conservator of decorative arts and sculpture at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

c o n t e n t s

Foreword by Timothy Potts
Acknowledgments

Introduction: J. Paul Getty as a Silver Collector and the Formation of the Museum’s French Silver Collection
Note to the Reader I: Stamps and Marks
Note to the Reader II: Historic Units of Measure and Currency

Catalogue
1  Water Fountain (Fontaine), transformed from a Water Flagon (Buire), with Technical Summary by Jessica Chasen
2  Lidded Bowl (Écuelle couverte)
3  Pair of Tureens, Liners, and Stands (Paire de terrines, doublures et plateaux)
4  Pair of Decorative Bronzes: Sugar Casters in the Form of Cane Field Laborers (Sucriers à poudre en forme d’ouvriers des champs de canne)
5  Two Sugar Casters (Deux sucriers à poudre)
6  Pair of Lidded Tureens, Liners, and Stands (Paire de pots à oille couverts, doublures et plateaux)
7  Tray for Lidded Beakers (Gantière pour gobelets couverts)
8  La Machine d’Argent, or Centerpiece for a Table (Surtout de table)
9  Sauceboat on Stand (Saucière sur support)
10  Two Girandoles (Deux girandoles)

• Maker Biographies
• Appendix: Silver Alloy Analysis by X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy — Jessica Chasen, Arlen Heginbotham, and Julie Wolfe

Bibliography
About the Authors

From Yale UP:

David Gwyn, The Coming of the Railway: A New Global History, 1750–1850 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023), 416 pages, ISBN: ‎ 978-0300267891, $35.

The first global history of the epic early days of the iron railway.

Railways, in simple wooden or stone form, have existed since prehistory. But from the 1750s onward the introduction of iron rails led to a dramatic technological evolution—one that would truly change the world. In this rich new history, David Gwyn tells the neglected story of the early iron railway from a global perspective. Driven by a combination of ruthless enterprise, brilliant experimenters, and international cooperation, railway construction began to expand across the world with astonishing rapidity. From Britain to Australia, Russia to America, railways would bind together cities, nations, and entire continents. Rail was a tool of industry and empire as well as, eventually, passenger transport, and developments in technology occurred at breakneck speed—even if the first locomotive in America could muster only 6 mph. The Coming of the Railway explores these fascinating developments, documenting the early railway’s outsize social, political, and economic impact—carving out the shape of the global economy as we know it today.

David Gwyn is a historian of the industrial and modern period. He is actively involved in the railway heritage movement, serving as a trustee of the Ffestiniog Railway and as chairman of the Bala Lake Railway Company.

c o n t e n t s

List of Illustration and Maps
Acknowledgments

Introduction
1  Trade, Transport, and Coal, 1767–1815
2  ‘Rails Best Adapted to the Road’: Cast-iron Rails and Their Alternatives in Britain, 1762–1832
3  Canal Feeders, Quarry Railways, and Construction Sites
4  ‘Art Has Supplied the Place of Horses’: Traction, 1767–1815
5  War and Peace, 1814–1834
6  ‘Geometrical Precision: Wrought-Iron Rails, 1808–1834
7  ‘Most Suitable for Hilly Countries’: Rope and Chain Haulage, 1815–1834
8  ‘That Truly Astonishing Machine’: Locomotives, 1815–1834
9  Coal Carriers, 1815–1834
10  Internal Communications, 1815–1834
11  The First Main Lines, 1824–1834
12  Coming of Age: The Public Railway, 1830–1834
13  ‘The New Avenues of Iron Road’, 1834–1850
14  ‘You Can’t Hinder the Railroad’

A Note on Sources and Terminology
Notes
Bibliography
Index

From Brill, with the ebook available for free as an open-access publication:

Chet Van Duzer, Frames that Speak: Cartouches on Early Modern Maps (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-9004505186, $144.

This lavishly illustrated book is the first systematic exploration of cartographic cartouches, the decorated frames that surround the title, or other text or imagery, on historic maps. It addresses the history of their development, the sources cartographers used in creating them, and the political, economic, historical, and philosophical messages their symbols convey. Cartouches are the most visually appealing parts of maps, and also spaces where the cartographer uses decoration to express his or her interests—so they are key to interpreting maps. The book discusses thirty-three cartouches in detail, which range from 1569 to 1821, and were chosen for the richness of their imagery. The book will open your eyes to a new way of looking at maps.

Chet Van Duzer is a leading historian of cartography and manages the projects involving maps and globes for the Lazarus Project at the University of Rochester, which brings multispectral imaging to cultural institutions around the world.

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments
List of Figures

Introduction
• Definition of ‘Cartouche’
• Names for Cartouches
• Two Ornamental Motifs of Sixteenth-Century Cartouches
• Early Cartouches, and Some Cartouche Firsts
• The Sources of Cartouches
• The Development of the Cartouche, Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries
• The Decline of Cartouches
• The Ontology of Cartouches
• Cartouches and Emblems: Two Distinct Genres
• The Cartouches in the Body of This Book
• The Hand-Coloring of Cartouches
• The Theatricality of Cartouches

1  Covering Emptiness with a Hope for Peace: Gerard Mercator, Nova et aucta orbis terrae descriptio ad usum navigantium, 1569
2  The Gaze of the Sea Monster: Ignazio Danti’s map of Sardinia in the Galleria delle carte geografiche, 1580–82
3  An Exotic Medicine from the Tombs of Egypt Daniel Cellarius, Asiae nova descriptio, c.1590
4  New Personifications of the Continents: Jodocus Hondius, Nova et exacta totius orbis terrarum descriptio, 1608
5  Cosmographers in the Southern Ocean: Pieter van den Keere, Nova totius orbis mappa, c.1611
6  Ingratitude Bites Kindness: Jodocus Hondius, Novissima ac exactissima totius orbis terrarum descriptio, 1611 / 1634
7  Eurocentrism on Display: Arnold Floris van Langren, terrestrial globe, 1630–32
8  The Giddy Pleasures of Mise en Abyme: Willem Hondius, Nova totius Brasiliae et locorum a Societate Indiae Occidentalis captorum descriptio, 1635
9  The Cartographer’s Self-Portrait: Georg Vischer, Archiducatus Austriae inferioris, 1670 / 1697
10  Scheming for Control in the New World: Claude Bernou, Carte de l’Amerique septentrionale et partie de la meridionale, c.1682
11  Unveiling Text, Interpreting Allegory: Vincenzo Coronelli, terrestrial globe, 1688
12  Concealing and Revealing the Source of the Nile: Vincenzo Coronelli, L’Africa divisa nelle sue parti, 1689
13  Propaganda in a Cartouche: Vincenzo Coronelli, Paralello geografico dell’antico col moderno archipelago, 1692
14  If It Bleeds, It Leads: David Funck, Infelicis regni Siciliae tabula, c.1693
15  Celebrating a Triumph of Engineering: Jean-Baptiste Nolin, Le canal royal de Languedoc, 1697
16  The Battle between Light and Darkness: Heinrich Scherer, Repraesentatio totius Africae, 1703
17  A Map in the Map as Prophesy: Nicolas Sanson and Antoine de Winter, Geographiae Sacrae Tabula, 1705
18  ‘One of the Most Singular Stories of Extreme Hardships’: Pieter van der Aa, Scheeps togt van Iamaica gedaan na Panuco en Rio de las Palmas, 1706
19  Crimson Splendor: Nicolas Sanson, Téatre de la Guerre en Flandre & Brabant, c.1710
20  Generals Presenting Maps to the Emperor: Johann Baptist Homann, Leopoldi Magni Filio Iosepho I. Augusto Romanorum & Hungariae Regi …, c.1705–11
21  How to Build a Giant Cartouche: Nicolas de Fer, Carte de la mer du Sud et de la mer du Nord, 1713
22  Advertising Makes Its Entrance: George Willdey, Map of North America, 1715
23  The Collapse of the Mississippi Bubble: Matthäus Seutter, Accurata delineatio Ludovicianae vel Gallice Louisiane, c.1728
24  ‘The Link of the Human Race for Both Utility and Pleasure’: Matthäus Seutter, Postarum seu cursorum publicorum diverticula en mansiones per Germaniam, c.1731
25  Kill the Cannibals and Convert the Rest: Jean-Baptiste Nolin, II, L’Amerique dressée sur les relations les plus recentes, 1740
26  The Cartographer and the Shogun: Matthäus Seutter, Regni Japoniae nova mappa geographica, c.1745
27  The Illusionistic Roll of the Cartouche: Gilles and Didier Robert de Vaugondy, Carte de la terre des Hebreux ou Israelites, 1745
28  A Cartographic Balancing Act: Matthäus Seutter, Partie orientale de la Nouvelle France ou du Canada, c.1756
29  Impartial Border, Partisan Cartouche: Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, Mapa geográfico de America Meridional, 1775
30  A Tactile Illusion That Legitimates the Map: Henry Pelham, A Plan of Boston in New England with its Environs, 1777
31  Fighting Back against Colonial Cartography: José Joaquim da Rocha, Mappa da Comarca do Sabará pertencente a Capitania de Minas Gerais, c.1778
32  The Actors Begin to Leave the Stage: Jean Janvier, Maps of 1761, 1769, and 1774; Robert de Vaugondy, Map of 1778; John Purdy, Map of 1809
33  A Map on a Map on a Map: John Randel, Jr., The City of New York as Laid Out by the Commissioners, 1821

Conclusions

Index

From Bloomsbury Publishing:

Carole Biggam and Kirsten Wolf, eds., A Cultural History of Color in the Age of Enlightenment (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), 288 pages, ISBN: 978-1474273725, $110. Volume 4 in the Cultural History of Color set.

A Cultural History of Color in the Age of Enlightenment covers the period 1650 to 1800. From the Baroque to the Neo-classical, color transformed art, architecture, ceramics, jewelry, and glass. Newton, using a prism, demonstrated the seven separate hues, which encouraged the development of color wheels and tables, and the increased standardization of color names. Technological advances in color printing resulted in superb maps and anatomical and botanical images. Identity and wealth were signalled with color, in uniforms, flags, and fashion. And the growth of empires, trade, and slavery encouraged new ideas about color.

Color shapes an individual’s experience of the world and also how society gives particular spaces, objects, and moments meaning. The 6-volume set of the Cultural History of Color examines how color has been created, traded, used, and interpreted over the last 5000 years. The themes covered in each volume are color philosophy and science; color technology and trade; power and identity; religion and ritual; body and clothing; language and psychology; literature and the performing arts; art; architecture and interiors; and artefacts.

Carole P. Biggam is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Glasgow. Kirsten Wolf is Professor of Old Norse and Scandinavian Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

c o n t e n t s

1  Philosophy and Science — Anna Marie Roos
2  Technology and Trade — Alexander Engel
3  Power and Identity — Monika Barget
4  Religion and Ritual — Felicity Loughlin
5  Body and Clothing — Mechthild Fend and Amelia Rauser
6  Language and Psychology — João Paulo Silvestre
7  Literature and the Performing Arts — Timothy Campbell
8  Art — Karin Leonhard
9  Architecture and Interiors — Basile Baudez
10  Artefacts — Clive Edwards