Translated Print Title:
[The Sun Setting into the Sea …]
Series/Book Title:
Description de la Grotte de Versailles
Date(s):
1673
Engraver:
Resource Link:
Le Soleil qui se couche dans la mer…
This relief occupied the top center of the façade. It was surrounded by reliefs of mythological sea creatures frolicking in the sunset: Tritons and Nereids playing instruments, and cupids riding dolphins.
Six disks representing the parts of the globe decorated the gates and illustrated the universal reach of the sun’s beneficial action.
Graphic Arts Collection. Acquired by Princeton in 1886 in an exchange with the Bibliothèque nationale (Paris). John S. Pierson, Class of 1840, effected the exchange, recorded by the BN as “Double échangé” no. 907.