no. 2, Francois-Joseph (Emperor Franz Josef), unknown maker from France

Exhibition Label: "Machine in a Void: World War I & the Graphic Arts," Mar-2010, Steve Goddard When Notre Dame was restored in the mid-18th century, artists and photographers were invited to climb the scaffolding and capture images of the new and hopefully improved cathedral. The freestanding stone chimeras in particular caught the popular imagination, with countless images of the statues appearing in prints, drawings, and photographs of Notre Dame. By the early 20th century, the chimeras had come to stand not only for Notre Dame but also Parisian (and to some extent French) identity. Thousands of postcards of the chimera were produced, and during World War I, these immediately identifiable monsters were recast in a series of postcards, this time as German and Austrian heads of state and military leaders. This postcard casts Franz Josef I (1830-1916), Emperor of Austria, as the chimera known as “la Rongeur”-the biter or devourer. The text describes him as “the sinister predator not content with having suffocated Bosnia, Herzegovina, Trent and Trieste he would still devour Serbia.” The imagery of a ferocious monster devouring its prey had long been a staple of political caricature in France even before the renovation of Notre Dame.