Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

18
FRANCE
Model for an armchair
Modèle pour un fauteuil
c. 1792–93
painted and gilt Beech (Fagus sp.), silk
Les Arts Décoratifs,
musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris
Gift of Mr. Mamelsdorf, 1951 inv. 36333
The lictors of ancient Rome were civil servants
who acted as bodyguards for magistrates.
The fasces that they carried, bundles of
wooden sticks tied together with leather
straps, symbolised strength through unity
(one rod could be broken, but not many joined
together). During the Revolutionary era, the
fasces became a popular symbol of the new
power of the common people. They appear
constantly in art and architecture from the
Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods –
here, for example, forming the arms and legs
of an armchair.
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