Silhouette (pronounced sil-oo-et)
(1) A two-dimensional representation of the outline of an
object, as a cutout or representation drawing, uniformly filled in with black,
especially a black-paper, miniature cutout of the outlines of a person's face
in profile.
(2) The outline or general shape of something.
(3) Any dark image outlined against a lighter background;
the outline of a solid figure as cast by its shadow.
(4) To show in or as if in a silhouette; to cause to
appear in silhouette.
(5) In printing, to remove the background details from (a
halftone cut) so as to produce an outline effect.
(6) In motorsport, a category which limits modifications which
change a vehicle’s side-silhouette.
1759: From the French à la silhouette, named after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), controller general (1759) in the French government. The surname was a gallicized form from Biarritz in the French Basque country and the southern Basque spelling would be Zuloeta, Zulueta, Ziloeta or Zilhoeta, the construct being zulo (hole, cave) + the suffix -eta (abundance of). The word came widely to be applied to the artwork (which had existed since 1743 and sometimes called figure d'ombre (shadow figure) in 1859. The rare alternative spelling is silhouet and the verb dates from 1876, derived from the noun. Silhouette is a noun & verb and silhouetted & silhouetting are verbs; the noun plural is silhouettes.
Jeanne Antoinette
Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721–1764 and usually referred to as Madame de
Pompadour), was a member of the French court of Louis XV (1710–1774; King of
France 1715-1774) and the king’s official chief mistress (that how things then
were done) between 1745-1751 and a court favorite until her death. One way the estimable Madame de Pompadour used
her influence was in appointments to government offices. While some of this was little more than
nepotism and the spreading around of sinecures, one substantive position in the
Ancien Régime was Controller-General (the
treasurer or finance minister) and to this, de Silhouette, long recognized in
France as something of a “wizz kid” in economics, was appointed early in 1759 with
the concubine’s support. The powers of
controller-general made whoever held the job powerful but also vulnerable, the
task of limiting the expenditure of the king not one likely to be popular in
the Palace of Versailles but given the state of the royal exchequer after years
of war, the need for reform was urgent. Modern
economic historians seem to regard the job he did as competent and orthodox example
of rationalizing public finances and he managed both to reduce expenditure and
institute a system of taxation which was both simpler to administer and more
effective although probably more far-reaching were the long-overdue efficiencies
he introduced in internal trade.
Silhouette of the Manhattan skyline.
Despite his success however, his budget for 1760
projected a huge deficit and a rising cost in debt servicing. Seeing no alternative, he suggested adopting
some of the methods of the detested English which involved collecting some tax
from the previously exempt aristocracy, landed gentry and the richest of the
clergy (of which there were a remarkable number. That was his downfall and after less than
nine months as controller general, De Silhouette retired to the country
although, such was the urgency of things, his later successors were compelled
to follow much the same course.
Why his name endures to
describe the two-dimensional black-on-white images we know as silhouettes is
obscure but there are two competing theories. One is that his methods in finance and
administration were all about simplifying what had over the centuries become a
system of labyrinthian complexity so, a silhouette being about the simplest form
of visual art, the association stuck. A
less sympathetic view is that he was thought an austere and parsimonious fellow
so his name was linked to the simple, cheap black & white portraits which
had since 1843 been popular with those unable to afford more elaborate forms
such as an oil painting. There’s also
the suggestion the minimalist art was named as an allusion to his brief tenure
as controller-general and finally, although there’s no evidence, some maintain de
Silhouette decorated his office with such portraits. Whatever the reason, the portraits gained
their name in 1859, the year of de Silhouette brief ministerial career.
Silhouette of Mercedes Benz SLC (C107; 1972-1981, left) and 1979 450 SLC 5.0 in competition under the FIA’s silhouette rules (right).
Silhouette racing was introduced essentially because it
was simple to administer. There had been
a variety of classes for “modified production” cars which permitted changes to
bodywork to improve aerodynamic or allow wider wheels & tyres to be used but
formulating and enforcing the rules was difficult; the regulations becoming increasingly
precise, subject to variations in interpretation and cheating was rife. What the introduction of a baseline
silhouette for each competing vehicle did was provide a simple, literal template:
if the car fitted through, it was lawful and if manufacturers wished to change
a silhouette and produce a sufficient number of identical models to homologate the
car for whatever competition was involved, that was fine. Sometimes with variations, the silhouette formula
has been widely adopted from classes as varied as series production to quite
radical constructions with space frames or carbon-fibre monocoques and drive-trains
unrelated to road-cars, the attraction always that the external skin continues
to bear more than a superficial resemblance to a production model, something important
to both manufacturers wishing to maintain a tangible link to their consumer offerings
and an audience prepared willingly to suspend disbelief.
1972 Lamborghini P250 Uracco (left), 1977 Lamborghini Silhouette (centre) & 1984 Lamborghini Jalpa (right).
Despite the name, the Lamborghini P300 Silhouette (1976-1979)
wasn’t designed with competition in mind.
Instead, it was an attempt to produce an open-top model which could be
certified for sale in the lucrative US market, then a place in which the
factory had no offering. The Silhouette
was thus Lamborghini’s first targa-top, based on the P300 Uracco (1972-1979), a
mid-engined V8-powered 2+2 which was intended to compete with the Porsche 911
and Ferrari’s Dinos. Neither the Uracco
nor the Silhouette went close to matching the volume of either of its
competitors and only 54 of the latter were made but both contributed to the
company’s survival in the difficult 1970s, something which at times seemed improbable. The Silhouette’s successor was the P350 Jalpa
(1981-1988), the final evolution of the Uracco.
Lamborghini was now more stable, the Jalpa was much improved and sold
both in reasonable volume and, more importantly, was profitable.
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