The Horn in seventeenth and eighteenth century France: iconography related to performances and musical works

International audienceAn analysis of French visual documents from different medium is presented here. Starting about 1650 it begins with horns as symbol of entertainment and hunting pleasure. After its settlement in Versailles, the French Royal Court offers one century long several important evidences of updated practices in the art of hunting. The Influence of the Marquis de Dampierre is then sensible in monumental decorations by official painters giving "reports" of the "Chasses royales". Onwards the mid XVIIIth century, the orchestral horns are represented in several contexts mainly focused on house music and still lifes, allowing us to try a morphological analysis of the instruments and a social approach of the French Horn