Artist and Patrons: Court Art and Revolution in Brussels at the end of the Ancien Regime

Abstract

This article will consider certain art objects and underlying acts of patronage in the waning days of the ancien regime in Europe, partly through a trifecta of personalities who either produced or consumed art. Michel-Paul-Joseph Dewez (1742–1804) was a Brussels goldsmith and bronze caster; James Lockhart (1727–1790) was a Scottish military officer in the Austrian service and a court official; and Prince Charles Alexandre of Lorraine (1712–1780) was the governor general of the Austrian Netherlands from 1744 until his death in 1780. The works by Dewez that form the focus of this study include a pair of silver candlesticks that he made and Lockhart bought in about 1778, a rare survival from an age that ended in chaos and catastrophe as the ancien regime fell and revolutions erupted across Europe. Dewez also produced massive quantities of gilt bronze (ormolu) ornaments for a new Audience Chamber and Grand Salon commissioned by Prince Charles Alexandre of Lorraine for his Winter Palace in Brussels. While they lasted these rooms were among the most extraordinary courtly interiors in Europe. They have not survived, and with a few exceptions their sumptuous furnishings were also consumed in the fires of the French and Brabanconne Revolutions and their aftermaths. By assembling these stories of persons, things and their interrelationships into a single narrative, it is hoped that a soupçon more of light will be cast on a tumultuous time and its art, during the twilight years of the old Europe before the advent of the modern age.