Le déménagement de la censure (BM 1987,0516.37)

Satire celebrating the abolition of censorship; a devil drives a cart pulled by a struggling donkey, carrying an assortment of figures and symbolicobjects, representing censors, away from their headquarters which are now available for rent (indicated by the sign "MAISON A LOUER" nailed over the doorway); winged scissors (symbols of censorship) rise in the air; the identity of the censors is indirectly provided by a key: Marie-Joseph Pain as a sugar-loaf ('Pain-de-Sucre') figure standing on a chair ('La Chaise') representing Lachaize; F.A.J. Mazure as a ruined shack ('Une Masure'); Abbé Barthélémy-Philibert Picon d'Andrezel as 'extreme zeal' ("d'Outre-zèle"); the Academician Rousselle as the popular character 'Cadet-Roussel'; the poet V.A.Vieillard as an old man ('un Viellard' [sic]) wearing a cap and dark glasses; the Ultra journalist of the 'La Gazette de France' and President of the Paris censorship bureau, Jacques-Honoré de Lourdoueix as a heavy goose ("Lourde-Oye") perched on the back of the donkey ('Anonyme' - ie. 'âne'); published in 'Le Miroir' on 11 February 1822
Lithograph