The intriguing presence of snakes, carved on the benches of the National Square has been the subject of multiple hypotheses until the explanation given by the architect Rémi Papillault during the inauguration.
Placed at the last moments, the benches surrounding the water mirror of the Place Nationale in Montauban aroused curiosity due to the presence of reptiles wrapped around them. During the inauguration on July 8, the architect behind the project, Rémi Papillault, was able to explain the symbolic details that adorn one of the most beautiful squares in France.
The opportunity therefore to explain these snakes, the animal not being a symbol of the city of Montauban. However, it is the artist who is no longer named in the city, Ingres, who inspired the architect. In the multiple drawings by the artist exhibited on the second floor of the Ingres Bourdelle Museum (MIB), the snake returns, as if wrapped around a container. The nod to Ingres is therefore subtle but notable.
Raising questions from the curious
However, this explanation is not yet known to all passers-by, who try to explain the presence of these snakes in several ways. Some wonder if this is not a roundabout way to prevent the homeless from lying on it, an assumption that they then counter-argue by pointing out that the ground all around would be more comfortable. that it happens, if will to lie down there was.
Others have echoed what was said at the inauguration, or at least have asked the question before since even if not everyone names Ingres, they are able to explain that it is a reference to a artist dear to the city.
Objects of discussion, these frozen reptiles manage to create links for a moment among passers-by.
In line with the rest of the place
In cast iron, the snakes are both the legs of the bench, but also an ornament that embraces the bench, without touching the upper surface. The stone of which the bench is made is the same as that of the National Square, in an idea of unification.
Attention was also placed on the unity between the benches and the pots. In cast iron, the basins, these large decorative cups, are also visited by snakes which wrap around before descending. The most attentive will even have noticed the coat of arms of Montauban printed in the silhouette of the pots: the pollarded golden willow with six leafless branches and the three fleur-de-lys.
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