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	SPIRIT AND GALLANTRY - MUSÈE DU PETIT PALAIS PARIS

Spirit and Gallantry
Art and Science in the 18th Century
Musée du Petit Palais, Paris
13 December 2002 - 6 April 2003

The Parisian Petit Palais’ current guest appearance in Bonn presents selected precious objects from the 18th century. Four topics trace the development of the Rococo up to the neoclassicist revolution and illustrate the sources of inspiration that motivated this era: The sciences, theater and fairy tales, orientalism and exoticism, as well as the era’s fascination with nature are all represented by exceptional works of art. Sixteen magnificent tapestries and a complete original edition of Diderot and d’Alembert’s encyclopedia with its elaborate engravings form the heart of this exhibition. A further section illustrates how the artistic developments of the 18th century continued to have a formative influence on the 19th century and beyond that with regard to Surrealism and the artistic styles following it.


	Introduction
	Guided Tours
	Map
	Catalogue
	Reference Collection

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Insects
© PMVP, Photo: Pierrain

Thought and the Sciences takes a look at the new enthusiasm for academies and learned societies which have a direct relationship to the era’s new spirit of Enlightenment. Diderot and d’Alembert’s major encyclopedia with its unique engravings forms the heart of this section. The establishment of the academies signified a great leap towards new organizational forms, and at the same time involved the potential for political and religious conflicts.

		Stories, Theater and Fables The history of the relationship between painting and theater in the 18th century contains many facets that are difficult for the modern viewer to comprehend. What is certain is that theater was the most popular form of recreation, and that the same stories were told on stage as in paintings. Artists were also often engaged in theater, and those who were able to portray stories or fables on canvas were placed at the top of the hierarchy of genres.
		Claude Gillot Vignette of de La Mothe`s fables © PMVP, Photo: Pierrain


	The Musée du Petit Palais at Art and Exhibition Hall in 1998

Exoticism and Orientalism
In the yearning to discover a far-off and inevitably ‘better’ world, the myth of man’s Golden Age was revived. The idea of the noble savage living in an unspoiled natural environment dominated all artistic genres. Images of the exotic world were borrowed from all continents in an undifferentiated manner, particularly from the cultures of China, India, Persia and Turkey.

Joseph-Marie Vien
Black Sultana
© PMVP, Photo: Pierrain

		The Nature Experience in the 18th Century The 18th century was not so much a century of landscape as the one before and after it. The 18th century maintained the previous one’s tendency to idealize nature and to prefer calm, yet forceful poetry. It bestowed upon the next century its vision of nature as torn between darkness and light which expressed itself in the language of passion. The storms of nature became a particularly popular theme. The Rediscovery of the 18th Century Beginning in France in the early 19th century, the 18th century began to be disowned and its achievements devalued. This ended with the brothers Goncourt who published a thirteen-volume work titled French 18th Century Painters, and with the brothers Dutuit whose collection of 18th century works of art form an essential part of the Petit Palais’ own collection.
		Hubert Robert Medici Venus © PMVP, Photo: Pierrain

Designs for jewelry by one of the most talented designers of the jeweler Louis Cartier, François Charles Jacqueau, and those of Georges Deraisme, who is practically unknown today, illustrate the rediscovery of the 18th century at the begin of the 20th. This was when the „style guirlande” was created for which Cartier became famous.


	Project Manager
	Stephan Andreae
	Angelica Francke

The exhibition in accompanied by a catalogue put together by scholars from the Musée du Petit Palais, including columns on the history of 18th century French culture dealing with such topics as anglomania, Marquis de Sade, potatoes, the Salons, Madame de Pompadour, the Marseillaise and the beauty patch.


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