By the sword and the plow: Theodore Chasseriau's Cour des Comptes murals and Algeria

Chasseriau painted the entwined pair of limbs that joins the two bodies and marks the nucleus of the cycle attached to the tawny mane of a lion. The way the three figures fit together, the lion providing a seat for, but also subdued by, the two monumental bodies above him, suggests a degree of compositional tension between them. The lion, long an attribute of allegorical representations of Force, was also widely identified as the symbol of Barbary, an embodiment of the savage state of Algeria before the arrival of civilization with the Romans. It was the "ferocious beast" trapped and shipped to the capital for bloody spectacles staged in the Colosseum and other arenas. Contemporary variations of this kind of sport were seized on by Horace Vernet, who depicted lion hunts showing French officers and indigenous Arab cavaliers performing acts of equestrian derring-do locked in combat with carnivorous beasts. (198) Victor Adam framed his lithograph La chasse a la lionne with the decapitated heads of male lions, hung in the upper corners like hunting trophies (Fig. 15): these bear a striking resemblance to the disembodied and strangely one-dimensional lion's head in Force and Order. The African resonance of Chasseriau's lion was also encouraged by the publication of Gautier's poem "Le lion de l'Atlas" in the Revue des Deux Mondes in August 1846. (199)

[FIGURE 15 OMITTED]

To a Parisian audience lions and the lion hunt signaled that the French were following in the footsteps of their Roman predecessors in the Maghrib. Bavoux captured the aspects of the beast synonymous with North Africa that Chasseriau surely had in mind: "The lion established in Africa, as he has elsewhere, his royal superiority; magnanimous, noble in his commanding presence and character, he parades his majestic authority in vast deserts and forests." (200) There is a certain amount of give and take in the compositional rapport between Force and Order and their leonine companion. On the one hand, the lion lends greater clout to their controlling air. On the other, he is subdued, kept under control by the weight of their bodies and their clasped hands entwined in his luxuriant mane. Chasseriau thus allegorizes the French predicament in Algeria in about 1847 as it was presented in Bugeaud's speech. Having conquered, although just, a vast, virgin territory full of intransigent local inhabitants, French forces had a firm although not completely secure foothold, requiring constant vigilance and renewed investment. At the same time, the lion, momentarily restrained by his captors, lends them some of his majesty, in the same way that the rich natural resources and commercially viable ports of Algeria provided France with much-needed prestige at a crucial juncture.

Even the placement of Force and Order high above the stairwell, suspended in the bright expanse of the upper story of the Cour des Comptes, points to a monument decorated with lions associated with the port of Algiers that Chasseriau might have heard or read about. J.-A. Bolle, in his Souvenirs de l'Algerie published in 1839, noted that the entrance into Algiers through the Porte de la Marine was decorated with a "crude fresco" depicting "two chained lions." At the time of Bolle's voyage in 1838, the fresco had already been painted over by an overzealous mayor, so it certainly no longer existed when Chasseriau arrived in Algiers in 1846. (201) Nonetheless, the link between this historic and multivalent symbol of the Barbary Coast, at once noble, ferocious, and evocative of an ancient heritage, and the rough fresco painting decorating a public monument is suggestive of Chasseriau's own project at the Cour des Comptes. Moreover, the location of the chained lions in the space over the archway leading into the city of Algiers from the harbor may be evoked in Chasseriau's placement of Force and Order high above the viewer entering the Cour des Comptes. Like the chained lions standing sentry over the entrance to the city of Algiers. Chasseriau's mural guarded, as it were, the entry to the precincts of the government offices. The medium of the lost fresco, too, was recalled by Chasseriau's distinctive frescolike style and its historical allusions.