1980
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Alain Guillerm, « Le système de l'iconographie galante », Dix-Huitième Siècle, ID : 10.3406/dhs.1980.1275
Alain Guillerm : The system of 18th-century love engravings. An attempt to decipher 18th-century French engravings which enter into the vague category of «galant », although this term is not easy to define. In order to discover their symbolic system, this article considers, by way of comparison, a series of erotic engravings at the Bibliothèque nationale, in which the meaning of the symbols is clearly indicated. These examples, and the relationship between different engravings, enable the author to throw light on certain allusions and signs. He emphasizes the impossibility of providing a rigid system of interpretation, and insists that the symbols are above all light-hearted ; they do not express the subconscious, but form a deliberate system of enunciation, which is on occasion subversive.