De "Re delle Alpi" à "Roi des Marmottes" : les Alpes dans la représentation de la Maison de Savoie (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles).

International audienceThe House of Savoy – the Alpine dynasty par excellence – has been closely associated with the mountains for centuries, as witnessed by expressions like “king of the Alps” and “king of the Marmots” that were used with reference to Sabaudian rulers. These two metaphors, however, had radically different implications : “king of the Alps”, mostly used in the seventeenth century, had a positive connotation and was welcomed by the House of Savoy, whereas “king of the Marmots” was an ironic and sarcastic sobriquet that issued from France under the House of Bourbon and became widespread during the Revolution. Nevertheless, both were by somewhat ambiguous, so that the former could take on negative overtones, especially in France, while the latter was open to various interpretations. While the Alps were indisputably one of the symbols that defined the House of Savoy, they were in fact regarded quite differently in Italy, where they evoked a poetic bond between the dynasty and the mountains, and in France, where the nuances were decidedly less flattering.L'image de la Maison de Savoie, dynastie alpine par excellence, a été longtemps liée strictement à la montagne, comme le témoignent les expressions "roi des Alpes" ou "roi des Marmottes", utilisées pendant plusieurs siècles pour désigner les souverains de cette lignée. [Dans ce texte] je chercherai à reconstruire l'évolution de ces représentations, en m'arrêtant notamment sur leur caractère politique. Ces deux épithètes apparaissent radicalement différentes, voire opposées : alors que l'expression "roi des Alpes" possède un caractère positif et fut voulue par la cour de Savoie, "roi des Marmottes" avait de toute évidence une signification ironique. D'ailleurs ce n'est pas un hasard si elle fut créée dans la France des Bourbons et utilisée surtout à l'époque révolutionnaire. Cela dit, une certaine ambiguïté plana toujours -surtout en France- sur ces deux appellations, à tel point que la première prit quelquefois un accent péjoratif et la seconde s'adapta à des situations très différentes les unes des autres.Dinastia alpine per eccellenza, I Savoia hanno visto epr secoli la lora imagine strettamente legata alla montagna. Espressioni come “re delle Alpi” e “re delle marmotte”, con cui furono indicate I sovrani sabaudi, sono strettamente connessi ad essa. Le due metafore erano, però, radicalmente diverse : « re delle Alpi », in uso soprattutto nel Seicento, aveva un carattere positivo e fu voluta dalla stessa corte di Savoia ; « re delle Marmotte », invece, ebbe un significato ironico e sarcastico : non a caso, nacque nella Francia dei Borboni per esser usata soprattutto in quella rivoluzionaria. Entrambe, però, presentarono una certa ambiguità, per cui la prima poté – specie in Francia – assumere un connotato negativo ; e la seconda prestarsi anche ad usi assai diversi. Se le Alpi furono quindi uno dei principali simboli usati per definire i Savoia, esse furono lette in modo assai diverso in Italia e in Francia : nella prima la tradizione lirica diede al legame tra dinastia e montagne un valore positivo, nella seconda esso fu usato soprattutto in chiave negativa