Portraits à l'Essai: Iconographie de Montaigne (review)

No portrait of Montaigne has ever been conclusively documented as authentic, as the author of this volume is quick to point out in the preface. There have, however, been hundreds of images purported to depict this icon of French philosophical writing, in a wide variety of genres that includes paintings, drawings, engravings, statues, medals, and even stamps. These portraits imagine Montaigne as a figure of genius and intellect in ways that reveal more about the artists' cultural and creative intentions than about their presumed subject. As Philippe Desan states: "We are interested in the imaginary iconography of Montaigne, rather than the search for an authentic portrait that would allow us to find the 'true Montaigne.' We are not seeking the face or the physical characteristics of Montaigne, but rather we are giving primacy to the diverse evocations —realistic, imaginary, allegorical, even caricatural —of the writer across time" (9, reviewer's translation). The result is a meticulously researched and beautifully produced catalogue of 331 representations of Montaigne, dating from 1550 to 2005, assembled by Philippe Desan with the assistance of Béatrice Le Cour Grandmaison. The term catalogue does not do justice, however, to the depth of contextual research and critical interpretation that Desan provides.

The work begins with an introduction, "Portraits of a Gentleman Traveller," that reflects upon the genre of portraiture and its ambiguous relationship to the true nature of the human subject. The distinction between the public and private portrait finds an echo in Montaigne's own duality of experience, as the public citizen and mayor of Bordeaux as well as the private essayist. Desan meditates upon Montaigne's resistance to physical description in favor of movement and existence, and finds this impressionist quality of the Essays to be consistent with Montaigne's stated disinterest in leaving behind a concrete image of himself, preferring to remain masked despite his claims of self-revelation. As a result, we are left only with the many historical reconstructions of his appearance, none of which can capture his true likeness. But as Desan maintains, the Essays themselves are fluid in nature, changing over the course of many readings, and it is fitting that the portraits of their author should be variable as well, not offering a fixed historical truth, but rather an ephemeral perception of reality. The catalogue itself is divided into three sections: paintings and drawings; engravings and lithographs; and sculptures, monuments, objects, and medals. The items in each section are presented chronologically, enabling the author to recognize previous influences. Each entry includes extensive detail concerning the portrait's medium, dimensions, and provenance, with biographical details of the artist if known. Desan further situates each portrait within a visual taxonomy, such as "Montaigne the traveler" or "Montaigne with a hat," and analyzes the artist's representation of the subject: for example, a profile portrait in an engraving suggestive of a medal is described as "within the tradition of the portraits of antiquity. Montaigne has regained his title and his belonging to the nobility clearly no longer poses a problem" (196).

The book concludes with a series of useful appendices, including a glossary of terms referring to the portraits' technical composition (for example, distinguishing between "eau-forte" and "gravure"); a chronological cross-index of all catalogue entries; an interesting selection of entries grouped by specific topic; and an index of artists. There is also a brief preface describing the techniques of image reproduction from the sixteenth century to the present day, with implications for interpreting the portraits' meaning for their contemporary viewers. Finally, this volume is also thought-provoking as a study of artistic genres across time and in different cultures. The breadth of these portraits expands far beyond the frontispieces of French editions of the Essays to incorporate English engravers seeking to appeal to the well-educated nobleman of the eighteenth century, lithographs by Salvador Dali from 1947, and caricatures by...