Journée d’étude : Versailles in the World 1660-1789.

D’après Charles Le Brun, Les différentes nations de l’Asie, XVIIe siècle, huile sur toile, 72 x 58 cm, Versailles, musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon.

Type : journée d’étude.
Date : 29 janvier 2016.
Lieu : NYU, Jurow Hall, Silver Center, Washington Square Campus.
Sous la direction de : Jeffrey Collins, Meredith Martin et Robert Wellington.

Versailles is often seen as the epitome of “Frenchness,” yet the palace and its contents were profoundly shaped by encounters with people and objects from around the world. This symposium builds upon recent colloquia and exhibitions such as La Chine à Versailles: art et diplomatie au XVIIIe siècle (2014) and Voyageurs étrangers à la cour de France, 1589-1789 (2014) to emphasize the international character of Versailles between the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI and to situate its art and architecture in a global context.

The day-long public event at the Washington Square Campus of NYU brings together an international group of scholars to explore connections between Versailles and a wide variety of geographical regions and cultures, from Thailand to Tunisia to Dutch Brazil. Papers focus on a range of visual and material culture that relates to cross-cultural exchanges at Versailles in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including the depiction of ambassadorial visits to the palace; gifts to and from the French Court; objects and images made for Versailles and its inhabitants that depict non-European cultures or reveal cross-cultural resonances; exoticism and fashion; and examples of art and architecture made outside of Europe that were inspired by Versailles.

Versailles in the World, 1660-1789 is timed to coincide with the preparation of a major exhibition on the foreign visitor at Versailles that will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2017. It has been made possible through the generous support of New York University, Bard Graduate Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Programme :

10:00AM
Welcome and Opening Remarks : Versailles as a Site of Global Exchange
Meredith Martin, New York University.

10:15AM
Curators Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide (Metropolitan Museum) and Bertrand Rondot (Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon) discuss their upcoming exhibition Visitors to Versailles, 1682-1789.

11:00AM – 12:30PM
Session I. Diplomatic Gifts and the French Court.

Mediating Spaces: Dutch Brazil at the French Court.
Carrie Anderson, Middlebury College.

From Versailles to Nouvelle France : French ‘Indian Peace Medals’ of the Eighteenth Century.
Robert Wellington, Australian National University.

Versailles, Beijing and the Eighteenth-Century Global Imaginary
Kristel Smentek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

12:30 – 1:45PM
Lunch.

1:45 – 3:15PM
Session 2. International Trade, Collecting, and Display.

From Ancient Carthage to Modern Tunis : The Cultural and Political Reception of Tunisia at the French Court of Versailles.
Ridha Moumni, Institut de recherche sur le Maghreb contemporain (IRMC).

Mercantilism, Entrepreneurship, and the French Silk Corridors to Persia
Junko Takeda, Syracuse University.

Native American Objects at Versailles.
Noémie Etienne, Getty Research Institute.

3:15 – 3:30PM
Break.

3:30 – 4:15PM
Session 3. Fashion and Exoticism.

Fashion Will Travel: Dress and Diplomacy at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.
Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, Independent scholar.

4:15 – 5:15PM
Roundtable discussion led by Jeffrey Collins, Bard Graduate Center.

5:15 – 6:00PM
Closing Reception.