Vue D'Optique; Bance il vecchio - Prise de la Bastille par le bourgeois et les braves gardes françaises de la bonne ville de Paris

\Artist: Vue D'Optique; Bance il vecchio
Technique: Etching\Signature: Not signed
Original etching on copper matrix, with beautiful coeval colouring. On the plate, underneath the illustrated part, title in French and legend with six references. The work, of typically popular taste, was supposedly designed to be exposed to the artificial light of the instrument called "magic lantern". Among the major production centers of vues d'optique were, in addition to Paris, Bassano del Grappa in Veneto, home of the Remondini printing shop, and Augsburg in southern Germany, and among the Parisian publishers of optical views, in addition to Daumont, the Basset family stands out. The sheet under consideration, “dedicated to the Nation” and a typical example of historical testimony, belongs to Bance -the Elder -, a French engraver, seller of prints during the French Revolution. The plate depicts the taking of the Bastille, July 14, 1789, a historical event of the French Revolution that culminated with the capture of the Bastille (symbol of the Ancien Règime) by the Parisian citizens. The event, although in itself unimportant in practical terms, took on enormous symbolic significance, to such an extent that it was considered the beginning of the Revolution.