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Last modified: 2023-06-10 by ivan sache
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Flag of FACE - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 11 September 2021
FACE (in French, Fédération des associations de chasse et conservation de la faune sauvage de l'UE; website), established in 1977, is an "international advocacy" (that is, lobbying) organization officially registered with the EU in Brussels.
FACE "actively represents the interests, values and needs of Europe's national hunting associations, composed of 7 million hunters".
Membership extends beyond the borders of EU, covering 37 European countries.
The flag of FACE (photo is green with the organization's logo, which is derived from a marble statue shown in the Louvre Museum in Paris (room 214).
A comprehensive description of the statue is given by Alexandre Lenoir (Description historique et chronologique des monuments de sculpture réunis au Musée de monuments français, 1806).
N. 467. A group of white marble, representing Diane de Poitiers portrayed as the goddess of hunting. Diane, leaning on a deer and surrounded by her dogs Procion and Syrius, lies on a kind of marble vessel, decorated with crayfish and crabs, with Diane de Poitiers and Henry II's cypher, and with most gallant emblems, the whole composed and executed with much talent. The vessel was originally grouped by four bronze greyhounds that were subsequently cast out, supported by a white marble support, ornamented with small arches decorated with small bronze lion's heads on Goujon's model. A vigorous design, of the greatest style and a firm execution, contributes to the whole of this magnificent piece that is believed to have been totally sculpted by Jean Goujon, who composed it to be used as a fountain in the park of Diane de Poitiers in Anet.
The medievalist Alesandre Lenoir (1761-1839) attempted to prevent the destruction of historical monuments by fanatics during the French Revolution; he coined the world "vandalism". Lenoir obtained in 1795 the establishment of the Museum of French Monuments, as the second national revolutionary museum after the Louvre Museum. Lenoir served as the curator of "his" museum until its suppression in 1816 during the Restoration. Most pieces were given back to their private owners or transferred to the Louvre Museum, as it was the case for the Diane statue.
Diane de Poitiers (1500-1566), favorite of King Henry II (1519-1559; r. 1547-1559), commissioned the royal architect Philibert de l'Orme (1514-1570) to build a castle in Anet, a village located 80 km west of Paris. The statue honoring Diane de Poitiers (as goddess Diane) and the king (as the deer) originally decorated in a nympheum (fountain complex) located in the park of the castle.
The statue is stylistically connected with the First School of Fontainebleau, of Italian mannerism inspiration. Several scholars have blindly accepted Lenoir's attribution to Jean Goujon (1510-1567), omitting the original "it is believed that". Other have pointed out similarity with nymphs designed by the Italian master Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) or with works by the French master Germain Pilon (1528-1590). There is no evidence of a personal contribution by Jean Goujon, so the conservative hypothesis is that the group was sculpted in Goujon's workshop.
The records of the Louvre Museum now credits the group to Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet (1750-1818), who heavily "restored" the original work, adding a bronze bow in Diane's hand and antlers over the deer's head.
A copy of the statue is displayed behind the chapel of the castle of Anet (website). Yet another copy is displayed in the park of the castle of Rambouillet (photos).
Tomislav&x0160;ipek & Ivan Sache, 18 September 2021
