Topographie pittoresque. Art et technique militaires dans la mise en oeuvre du « Plan-relief du Siège de Rome »

• Main Author: Valentina De Santi
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Centre de Recherches Historiques 2016-12-01
• Series: L'Atelier du CRH
• Subjects: pittoresque; Rome; histoire nationale XIXe siècle; musée; géomètres-XIXe siècle; géologie militaire
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/acrh/7661

The tradition of plans-reliefs, an ancient practice of Fortifications Engineers, whose origin lie in the reign of Louis XIV, was revitalized at the turn of the eighteenth century. This moment is the starting point of our research which tackles in particular the second quarter of the nineteenth century by focusing on two main figures: Adolphe Leon Leymonnerye, topographer artist of the gallery, and Jean- Jacques Augustin Marie Leblanc, a topographe serving the "Places Etrangères du Genie" and a member of the Geological Society of France Both are involved in the construction of the plan-relief du Siege de Rome (1849-1852), which constitutes the case study of our research. We question then the way by which plans-reliefs, a models, exceeding the geometric system, reveal a multiplicity of scales and a mixture of references, which reflect the complexity of approaches of the knowledge of the real. In particular, we will emphasize the continuity and the evolutions of the notion of picturesque within the context of reflections on topographical maps language, of the emergence of geological knowledge and of the appropriation of space by the national history during the nineteenth century. Building on the heuristic role of the image within the analysis of historical geography as well as on the epistemological renewal of the history of cartography, our research lies in the axis of reflexions of the historical approach which proposes to question the method of observation and construction underlying visual devices and their role in the process of knowledge construction