Epoch Louis XV.
Fan Mount—Unfolded.
Hommages offered at the Altar of Madame de Pompadour
by Church and State,—Literature, Art, Music, Etc.
| Hommages Offered to Madame de Pompadour. | Mrs Bruce Johnston. |
A story, the source of which is not given,[4] is told of Goldoni, who, being one evening the guest of a Venetian lady, was complimented by her upon the productions of his genius.
‘Why, my lady,’ he replied, ‘anything provides a subject for a comedy.’
‘Anything?’ replied the lady.
‘Anything,’ emphatically replied the dramatist.
‘Even this fan?’ insisted the Beauty.
‘I shall be indebted to you for life,’ exclaimed Goldoni, struck with a happy thought. ‘You have suggested to me my best comedy; in a week you will read it.’[5]
Many and manifold are the uses of the fan. What device, for example, could better display the beauty of a rounded arm, or the ivory whiteness of tapered fingers? Such an instrument provides graceful and often much-needed employment to those same delicate fingers; it supplies that necessary sense of completeness to the tout ensemble of the picture. And the comedy actress, desiring some trifle to emphasise a movement, to give point and expression to some particular action—what more effective instrument than a fan, the use of which, on the stage, has almost been elevated into a fine art!