NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN?

Sitting a relaxed guard with its front paws uncharacteristically crossed and sporting a rather original coif of turrets is one of two sphinges at the sumptuous baroque 17th-century Parisian mansion, l'Hôtel Salé. The word sphinge is the French way to indicate the female gender of a sphinx. This sphinge and her twin were among the first to set the lavish trend in Paris, which was borrowed from Italy by François I at Fontainebleau, of sphinxes being used as ornamental sculptures. The Hôtel Salé houses the national Picasso museum and is located in the Marais at 5 rue de Thorigny.

Vocabulary
une tourelle:  a turret, a castle tower


©2016 P.B. Lecron

THE FRENCH SPHINX

Most definitely female 

A 19th-century example of the "French sphinx" arrogantly sits guard, reinterpreting antiquity in the Parc de Bagatelle, Paris. The fabulous mythical creature was first introduced in France from Italy as an ornamental sculpture in the 16th century when king and mécène, François I, had the steps leading to the Cour des Fontaines from the Château de Fontainebleau adorned with a pair of sphinxes or sphinges. (They unfortunately did not survive the French Revolution, however there are others in the château's garden.) The French Renaissance sculptures were highly Mannerist revivals of ancient Greek and Egyptian sphinges. They often had elaborate coiffures, and were either clothed or unclothed with luxuriant accoutrements and pearls, like the sphinx we caught from behind in Nancy, below. During the 18th and 19th centuries the French-style sphinx became an important decorative piece in royal palaces and gardens throughout Europe. 

Sphinx or sphinge? The human part of the Egyptian sphinx was typically masculine, while the Greek sphinx was feminine; the French therefore use sphinge to indicate a female sphinx.

©2012 P.B. Lecron