A portrait of Louis XIV, a single steel hand and a miniature coat of arms occupy different faces of a Parisian watch. Five photographs from The Met reveal how its story unfolds.
Open the lid and a rider appears above the dial. Close it and the portrait disappears. Jacques Goullons gave the two halves of this watch quite different jobs. One tells the hour with a single steel hand. The other gives the eye somewhere to linger long after the time has been read.
A portrait in the palm
The Met dates the watch to about 1645–48 and identifies the rider as the young Louis XIV. It describes the king as the presumed intended recipient. The portrait tells us who is depicted. The stronger claim that Louis owned or carried this watch would require a different kind of evidence.
Seen from the side, the narrow band between the covers has a decorative scheme of its own. It is easily lost in a photograph taken straight down at the dial. A jeweller looking at the watch as a piece of goldwork might start here, at the point where the broad painted surfaces give way to the rim.
What the case keeps inside
Opening the other side changes the register again. The gold and enamel belong to the same object as the partly gilded brass and steel movement, yet they reward quite different kinds of looking. The dial addresses the person who wants the hour. The open back invites a closer inspection of the instrument that supplies it.
The miniature of the arms of France and Navarre, with the Orders of Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit, offers a second way to recognise royal identity. Across the watch, the rider and the arms serve different purposes. One pictures a person, the other identifies the monarchy. Only a sequence of views can bring the two together.
Collection record · Jacques Goullons, Watch, about 1645–48. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.