Lot n° 202
Estimation :
1500 - 2000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 9 016EUR
Robertson's Fantasmagories
Magic Lantern... - Lot 202 - Coutau-Bégarie
Robertson's Fantasmagories
Magic Lantern Views
Attributed to Etienne-Gaspard Robert, known as Robertson, after 1797/before 1830
Gentlemen, what is going to happen in a moment before your eyes is not a frivolous spectacle. It is made for the man who thinks, for the philosopher who likes to wander for a moment among the tombs.
Robertson, Mémoires récréatifs, scientifiques et anecdotiques, Paris, 1831.
We are in the presence of a set of 25 views painted on glass plates mounted on a wood support; 6 of which are system views (by print or articulation).
Intended to be projected by the cat's eye phantascope*, on a percale veil -the phantasmagoras' mirror-, some of them are illustrative, but most of them represent demons, ghosts, we are in the middle of necromancy, as the author justifies at length in his memoirs. Moreover, one of these mechanical images representing a skull and crossbones with mobile wings is illustrated in the frontispiece of our projectionist's work.
No doubt to let his audience catch their breath, Robertson interspersed lighter views: Diogenes and his lantern, exotic characters: the Chinese man, or the man in French dress, a few mythological views, a scatological scene, and portraits of politicians, with here the presence of the portrait of Charles X, in coronation costume... Projection apparatus which is an improvement of Athanasius Kircher's lantern, equipped with English optics and the powerful Argand lamp. The cat's eye is a kind of shutter with flaps, which forms an ogival opening, from which it takes its name.
Dimensions
Approx. 250 x 140 mm
Conditions
Overall in good condition, some paint chipped, mechanisms to be reviewed.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Etienne-Gaspard Robert, known as Robertson (1763-1837) was very much a part of his time. Like many of his fellow citizens in the second half of the 18th century, he was as interested in the arts as in science; and although he began a career as a draughtsman to make a living, it was his passion for physics that took him around Europe.
This contradiction is particularly noticeable, while a fervent admirer of the spirit of the Enlightenment and a popularizer of the new sciences, he claimed to want to enlighten the public, but began by plunging it into the darkness of his phantasmagorias...
Then, by way of defiance against archaisms and supernatural interpretations, he begins his shows with a speech that contributes more to mystifying the spectator than to making him understand the nature of the phenomena he provokes, and often, to strike a final blow, [he] ends the sessions with this address:
I have gone through all the phenomena of phantasmagoria; I have revealed to you the secrets of the priests of Memphis and of the illuminated; I have tried to show you what physics has of the most occult, those effects which appeared supernatural in the centuries of credulity; but it remains for me to offer you one which is only too real. You who have perhaps smiled at my experiments, beauties who have experienced a few moments of terror, here is the only truly terrible spectacle, truly to be feared: strong men, weak men, powerful men, and subjects, credulous or atheists, beautiful or ugly, this is the fate that is reserved for you, this is what you will be one day; remember the phantasmagoria
Here the light reappeared, and a skeleton of a young woman standing on a pedestal could be seen in the middle of the room.
Robertson, Mémoires récréatifs, scientifiques et anecdotiques, Paris, 1831, tome I, p. 284
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