This lavishly-illustrated book is a survey of the Getty Museum's seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French textiles--one of the world's finest collections. Featuring twenty-five extraordinary tapestries woven at the Gobelins and Beauvais manufacturies, the catalogue also highlights three carpets, two knotted-pile screens, and two sets of embroidered bed hangings, one of which is the only complete lit á la duchesse surviving from the period. Each entry includes complete historical and physical information on the piece and an accompanying commentary provides information on the literary, historical, and visual source of design imagery as well as the context of each textile's commission and production. For lovers of French decorative arts and connoisseurs of textiles, this beautiful book is must reading.

French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Arts & Photography

Bremer-David, Charissa

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

J.paul Getty Museum

These lavish volumes feature highlights of five of the collections in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Each volume contains between seventy-five and one hundred objects, handsomely reproduced in full color and described by members of the curatorial staff.

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Decorative Arts

J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

The exceptional collection of French decorative arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum contains more than four hundred objects, most of them dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This gorgeously illustrated volume brings together forty-four objects from the Baroque and Régence periods, roughly corresponding to the reign of Louis XIV and the years immediately following his death in 1715. The selection includes richly veneered cabinets, commodes, and desks; carved tables and chairs; and gilt-bronze light fixtures and firedogs that exemplify the superior craftsmanship and elaborate design characteristic of the Baroque style. Each object is described and analyzed in terms of its style, use, provenance and published history, as well as its construction and alterations, materials, and conservation. With its painstaking attention to detail, this sumptuous volume is the definitive catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collection of French Baroque furniture and will be of interest to scholars, conservators, and all students of the French decorative arts.

French Furniture and Gilt Bronzes: Baroque and Régence (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)

Wilson, Gillian

Weaver, Jeffrey

Considine, Brian

Heginbotham, Arlen

The whimsical imagery of four tapestries in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and currently on display at the Getty Center is perplexing. Created in France at the Beauvais manufactory between 1690 and 1730, these charming hangings, unlike most French tapestries of the period, appear to be purely decorative, with no narrative thread, no theological moral, and no allegorical symbolism. They belong to a series called the Grotesques, inspired by ancient frescos discovered during the excavation of the Roman emperor Nero’s Domus Aurea, or Golden House, but the origins of their mysterious subject matter have long eluded art historians. Based on seven years of research, Conundrum: Puzzles in the Grotesques Tapestry Series reveals for the first time that the artist responsible for these designs, Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636–1699), actually incorporated dozens of motifs and vignettes from a surprising range of sources: antique statuary, Renaissance prints, Mannerist tapestry, and Baroque art, as well as contemporary seventeenth century urban festivals, court spectacle, and theater. Conundrum illustrates the most interesting of these sources alongside full-color details and overall views of the four tapestries. The book’s informative and engaging essay identifies and decodes the tapestries’ intriguing visual puzzles, enlightening our understanding and appreciation of the series’ unexpectedly rich intellectual underpinnings.

Conundrum: Puzzles in the Grotesques Tapestry Series

Meticulously woven by hand with wool, silk, and gilt-metal thread, the tapestry collection of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, represents the highest achievements of the art form. Intended to enhance the king’s reputation by visualizing his manifest glory and to promote the kingdom’s nascent mercantile economy, the royal collection of tapestries included antique and contemporary sets that followed the designs of the greatest artists of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, including Raphael, Giulio Romano, Rubens, Vouet, and Le Brun. Ranging in date from about 1540 to 1715 and coming from weaving workshops across northern Europe, these remarkable works portray scenes from the bible, history, and mythology. As treasured textiles, the works were traditionally displayed in the royal palaces when the court was in residence and in public on special occasions and feast days. They are still little known, even in France, as they are mostly reserved for the decoration of elite state residences and ministerial offices. This catalogue accompanies an exhibition of fourteen marvelous examples of the former royal collection that will be displayed exclusively at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from December 15, 2015, to May 1, 2016. Lavishly illustrated, the volume presents for the first time in English the latest scholarship of the foremost authorities working in the field.

Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV

Vividly illustrated, this is the first comprehensive catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s celebrated collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French silver.\nThe 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.\nThe 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.\nThe free online edition of this open-access publication is available at getty.edu/publications/french-silver/ and includes 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.

French Silver in the J. Paul Getty Museum

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Books by Bremer-David, Charissa

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bremer-David, Charissa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Decorative Arts

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Decorative Arts

French Furniture and Gilt Bronzes: Baroque and Régence (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)

Conundrum: Puzzles in the Grotesques Tapestry Series

Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV

French Silver in the J. Paul Getty Museum