The Captive V pp 444-501

La Tour

p 454 | Casser le pot à quelqu'un: "le sodomiser" (Dictionnaire de l'argot, Larousse, 1990). This is the only mention of by Albertine of anal sex. Although the explanation that follows suggests that the expression may have been used by lesbians to denote penetrative sex in general. (Clark note) 

p 470| Maurice de La Tour (1704-88) was a French Rococo portraitist who worked primarily with pastels. Among his most famous subjects were Voltaire, Rousseau, Madame de Pompadour, and Louis XV.

p 485 | "... mediaeval Last Judgments..."; logarithmic tables.

p 487 | Albert I, Prince of Monaco, 1848-1922; Théophile Delcassé (French foreign minister, 1898-1905; hated Germany).

p 497 | Treaty of Utrecht 1713 (King Louis XIV); Pont-aux-Choux silver designs... maybe something like this:

Bakst

p 497 | Jacques Roettiers, 18-century French gold/ silversmith; Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (1743-93) was the mistress of King Louis XV. Josep Maria Sert (also José María Sert y Badía, Catalan painter, 1874-1945); Léon Bakst, Russian painter & set designer, 1866–1924; Alexandre Benois, Russian painter & ballet designer, 1870–1960.

p 501 | Winged Victory of Samothrace (ancient Greek sculpture in the Louvre).

Winged Victory