Jacques Rigaud-Ros

JACQUES RIGAUD-ROS, (Puyloubier, Provence, France, ca. 1680-Paris, 1754).
"Siege of the city of Barcelona" (series of the Siege of Barcelona 1714).
Etching on paper.
Signed in plate.
Referenced in the Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona, inv. no. 4789.
Measurements: 25 x 45 cm, 48 x 67 cm (frame).

Jacques Rigaud-Ros was a prestigious French engraver trained in Provence, installed in Paris since 1724 as a publisher and independent engraver. He is especially known for his figurative views and architectural engravings, including a didactic series of six prints on the siege of Barcelona in 1714.

In his series dedicated to Barcelona, Rigaud-Ros portrays sequences of the final assault carried out by the Franco-Spanish forces commanded by the Duke of Berwick during September 1714. The plates show the phases of the military advance in the perimeter between the bastions of Llevant and the Portal Nou, highlighting the bastion of Santa Clara (identified in some traditional studies, although recent research reassigns it to the Portal Nou).

These prints were conceived as didactic material to show the siege and defense tactics of the time. Attributed to Jacques Rigaud-Ros as the inventor and printed in Paris in the context of the eighteenth century, they have been the subject of recent studies that suggest that they may have been originally inspired by the siege of 1697, not 1714. Even so, they remain a valuable reference for understanding the iconography of the setge barceloní.