Henri Gissey

Henri Gissey (* 1621 in Paris ; † 1673 ibid) was a French draftsman and costume designer . During the period of greatest splendor of the reign of Louis XIV , he made an essential contribution to the courtly pomp.

Germain Gissey, who was in contact with the painter Simon Vouet in his younger days and then worked as a sculptor at the royal court, was Henri's father. He probably received training as a draftsman from him and ended up in an environment that was conducive to his entry into the service of the king around 1655. At first he was able to distinguish himself with designs of ballet costumes.

Cavaliers de la quadrille du roi. Carrousel de 1662. Work by several people: Henri Gissey recorded the two participants on the left with pen and ink, François Chauveau made an engraving and Jacques I. Bailly colored it.

The reason for admission to the Académie royale de peinture were the splendid sets for the Grand Carrousel , which he came up with in 1662. Jacques Ducreux supplied the masks for Gissey's costumes. Hardly any other designer of the Menus Plaisirs belonged to the Académie, and so was Gissey, who was offered the position of royal chamber draftsman.

He had to provide costumes for the ballet comedies by Molière and Lully , as well as for the great festivals held in Versailles in 1664 and 1668 . The baptism of the heir to the throne in Saint-Germain-en-Laye required his help, as did the funeral procession for François de Bourbon-Vendôme in Notre-Dame de Paris and Henrietta of England in Saint-Denis . Gissey's contemporaries praised him for his talent, and indeed the work he left behind is characterized by originality and quality.

Gissey's work for Menus Plaisirs came late for him. Since he died at the age of 51, it was relatively short, and yet he became one of the most important artists in this branch of administration in the 17th century. He was succeeded by Jean Bérain .

literature

• Jérôme de La Gorce (ed.): Dans l'atelier des Menus Plaisirs du roi. Spectacles, fêtes et cérémonies aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles , Archives nationales, Paris 2010, Éditions Artlys, Versailles 2010, ISBN 978-2-85495-439-5 , pp. 54, 186 u. 222.