Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
A siege in the title, a horse in the file
The title names a ruler and a military operation, the taking of Besancon, and the record files the work under Animal Art and Animal Art > Horse without any portrait heading. That filing is a fair description of what campaign pictures of this type do. The named man is present, but the picture is organised around movement across ground, and the animals are the means by which anyone in it gets anywhere at all.
What the record holds
The date of creation is 1674 and the location is the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The dimensions are not recorded. Baroque is the style term on the record and Flemish the nationality; the measured colour family of the image is brown.
One hand, one reign, five records
This catalogue holds 5 works by this painter, and 4 of them name Louis XIV in the title. The pattern is in the records themselves, a hand associated with campaign subjects across a single reign. What the catalogue does not hold is any account of how the association came about: no appointment, no commission and no payment is recorded for any of them.
Sources
3 references- Meulen, Adam Frans van der — Getty ULAN
Flemish painter, draftsman, born 1631 or 1632, died 1690, also active in France
- Louis XIV at the Taking of Besancon (Wikidata Q21723103)
description: painting by Adam-Frans van der Meulen; inception: 1674-01-01; dimensions: +55 × +67 cm; collection: Hermitage Museum
- hermitagemuseum.org — record for "Louis XIV at the Taking of Besancon"
Primary source record for this work (hermitagemuseum.org).
