"The Political Mythology" of Paul Hadol: figures of power as Greek mythological characters in caricature at the beginning of the Third Republic (1871-1872)
Sylvain Nicolle
Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines / Paris-Saclay, CHCSC , Francehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7082-1774
Abstract
Between 1871 and 1872, the cartoonist Paul Hadol published in the satirical weekly Le Charivari, eleven loaded portraits forming a series entitled La Mythologie politique. This article first places the series against the backdrop of the pre-existing tradition of iconographic parody of antiquity that began in England at the end of the 18th century, before being adopted in France during the July Monarchy. We then question the biographical criteria for the selection of the caricatured celebrities, and the potential thematic coherence of the series based on the typology of mythological filters – the cycle of Troy, the Olympian deities, heroes, monsters. Finally, the more specifically semiotic analysis of the caricatures highlights the resumption of the process associating big-head and versified legend with the two series of the Charivaric Pantheon (1838-1841 and 1866-1867), the dimension of political rebus, and the game of artistic, literary and even musical quotes. The conclusion shows that the scope of the series can be considered from a political and artistic point of view, but also intellectually in relation to the time which it concerns.
Keywords:
political caricature, mythology, antiquity, Paul Hadol, Le CharivariReferences
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Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines / Paris-Saclay, CHCSC https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7082-1774
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