Grand Miniatures

Notre-Dame de Reims was built on the site of the basilica where, in 496 CE, Saint Remi baptized Clovis I, founder of the kingdom of the Francs, precursor to modern France. Although its construction spanned several hundred years during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the building possesses an unusual unity of design. The west façade of Reims Cathedral is considered one of the great architectural masterpieces of the Middle Ages and is rivaled only by the Chartres Cathedral for quality and quantity of statuary. The “gallery of the kings” along the front depicts the baptism of Clovis and statues of his successors, who were also crowned at Reims Cathedral.

The Pantheon, an architectural masterpiece designed by Emperor Hadrian in the second century CE, is one of the world’s most famous buildings and one of the best-preserved structures of classical Rome. Its perfectly spherical dome—142 feet tall from floor to ceiling and 142 feet wide—is the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome, a marvel of engineering not replicated until the Renaissance. The building’s only source of external light is an opening at the top originally intended to vent smoke from sacrifices in the center of the building. The pagan temple was abandoned for some time after Rome’s conversion to Christianity, and was consecrated as a church in 609.

Nelson’s Column is the focal point of Trafalgar Square in central London. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to commemorate the death of Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, in which both the French and Spanish fleets were defeated.

A sandstone sculpture of Nelson tops a granite column decorated with bronze acanthus leaves cast from British cannon. The column’s square pedestal features bronze relief panels representing Nelson’s four great victories—the battles of Trafalgar, the Nile, Copenhagen, and Cape Saint Vincent.

W. F. Woodington, the artist who produced one of the bronze relief panels on the base of the monument, produced this scale miniature for The Art Union of London. The organization’s mission was to foster “among all classes of the community that great and important feeling, a love of the fine arts.” Subscribing members were given an opportunity to win engravings, lithographs, photographs, and bronze sculptures “fitted for a drawing room table.”

The Arc de Triomphe is one of the world’s most famous monuments and is located on an axis of twelve major avenues in the center of Paris. Inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus, Napoleon commissioned the monument at the pinnacle of his power in 1806 to honor those who fought for France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The monument’s attic contains thirty shields engraved with the names of major victories during the two wars. Below is an elaborately sculptured frieze depicting French soldiers and cavalrymen. France’s major academic sculptors produced four monumental bronze reliefs for the arc’s pillars: Jean–Pierre Cortot’s Triumph of 1810, Antoine Étex’s Resistance and Peace, and FranÇois Rude’s Departure of the Volunteers of 1792, commonly called La Marseillaise. Frères LeBlanc, well–known foundry that produced a variety of extraordinary decorative arts and desk–top objects in the late 1800s, made this finely detailed miniature as a box for personal effects.

The Colonne du Congrès commemorates the formation of the Belgian state as a sovereign, constitutional monarchy following independence from the Netherlands in 1830. Inspired by Trajan’s Column in Rome, its eighty–foot column contains a spiral staircase that leads to a platform surrounding the statue of King Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians. The monument’s pedestal is engraved with important dates in the nation’s struggle for independence and passages from its liberal constitution. Four statues at each corner represent the major constitutional liberties: Union, Press, Education, and Worship.

The level of craftsmanship and extensive detail indicate an object probably made for one of King Leopold’s friends or a high–ranking official at the time of the monument’s dedication in 1859.

Construction on Pisa’s Baptistery of Saint John began in 1152 and was completed in 1363. At 180 feet tall and with a circumference of 350 feet, it is the largest baptistery in Italy. Like its neighboring buildings in the celebrated plaza—the Leaning Tower and the cathedral—the baptistery is constructed of white marble. Its exterior reveals a transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style—the rounded arches of architect Diotisalvi’s lower sections contrasting with sculptor Nicola Pisano’s pointed arches above. Pisano completed Diotsalvi’s work on the dome between 1260 and 1264, increasing its height by topping the hemispherical dome with a smaller truncated dome. Nicola’s son Giovanni Pisano added the two rows of decorative gables between 1277 and 1284.

“We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris which was until now intact, to protest with all our strength and all our indignation, in the name of the underestimated taste of the French, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the erection in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower.”

Jointly–signed “Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel” in Le Temps, February 14, 1887.

Before it became a symbol of France and one of the most famous structures in the world, Gustave Eiffel’s daring proposal for the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris was fiercely scorned by many of the country’s most prominent figures. Eiffel’s massive 1,000–foot–tall structure was supported by network of steel girders, while its tapered form and massive concrete foundation allowed it to withstand the forces of wind. Semicircular arches between the tower’s legs were strictly decorative and served two purposes—to assure nervous fairgoers of the tower’s structural integrity and to frame the views of the surrounding architecture.

This souvenir clock was produced before the tower’s construction and features elements from one of Eiffel’s early proposals, which included trumpeting angels and decorative scrollwork on the façade of the structure.

Sculptor Casare Zocchi’s Monument to Dante in northern Italy exemplifies the potent symbolism of nationalistic monuments. At the time of its dedication in 1896, Trento belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italian pan-nationalists rallied for Trento’s independence and embraced the fourteenth-century poet—credited with standardizing the Italian vernacular in published works—a s a symbol of Italian nationalism.

Although technically a scale model of the actual monument, sculptor Cesare Zocchi’s impressive bronze can hardly be called a miniature. The work was presented on a beautifully carved four-foot tall marble pedestal with a rotating base for easier viewing, and was probably made to convince sponsors to commission the full-size monument. Scenes from Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy decorate the entire monument. At its lowest level, Minos sits atop a dragon and judges the dead entering the Inferno (Hell). The lost souls of Purgatory reside on the second level, the front of which depicts Dante and his guide, the Roman poet Virgil, meeting Sordello, a thirteenth-century troubadour. On the third level, Beatrice (Dante’s final guide) and a choir of angels await those ascending to heaven. The top of the monument depicts Dante holding a book and reaching out "to protect and inspire his children," in the words of Zocchi.