Early Modern Court Culture

ISBN-13: 9781032304328 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 576 str.

Erin Griffey

Opis

Through a thematic overview of court culture that connects the cultural with the political, confessional, spatial, material and performative, this volume introduces the dynamics of power and culture in the early modern European court. Exploring the period from 1500 to 1750, Early Modern Court Culture is cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, providing insights into aspects of both community and continuity at courts as well as individual identity, change and difference. Culture is presented as not merely a vehicle for court propaganda in promoting the monarch and the dynasty, but as a site for a complex range of meanings that conferred status and virtue on the patron, maker, court and the wider community of elites. The essays show that the court provided an arena for virtue and virtuosity, intellectual and social play, demonstration of moral authority and performance of social, gendered, confessional and dynastic identity. Early Modern Court Culture moves from political structures and political players to architectural forms and spatial geographies; ceremonial and ritual observances; visual and material culture; entertainment and knowledge. With 35 contributions on subjects including gardens, dress, scent, dance and tapestries, this volume is a necessary resource for all students and scholars interested in the court in early modern Europe.

Spis treści

Part I: People and political structures: Connecting power  1. Monarchs: Kings and queens regnant, sovereign princes and popes  2. Consorts and court ladies  3. Wider kinship networks  4. Courtiers, ministers and favourites 5. Confessors  6. Aristocrats and nobles  7. Diplomats  Part II: Place and space: Negotiating the court  8. Access  9. Princely residences 10. Gardens Part III: Ceremonial and ritual: Observing tradition  11. Religious rituals and the liturgical calendar  12. Childbirth  13. Marriages  14. Coronations  15. Receptions: Triumphal entries, ambassadorial receptions and banquets  16. Funerals  Part IV: Visual and material culture: Furnishing the palace  17. Metalwork  18. Tapestry  19. Upholstered furnishings, cabinet work and gilt furniture  20. Portraiture  21. Display  22. Porcelain rooms  Part V: Material culture: Dressing the Body  23. Jewellery  24. Male dress  25. Female dress  26. Beauty  27. Scent  Part VI: Entertainment and knowledge: Performing authority  28. Science  29. Theatre and opera  30. Dance  31. Literature  32. Music  33. Tournaments and hunting  34. Food and dining  35. Games and jokes

O autorze

Erin Griffey is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Auckland and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. She is a specialist in early modern visual and material culture and has published widely on the Stuart court, including On Display: Henrietta Maria and the Materials of Magnificence at the Stuart Court (2016). Her other books include the edited collection Sartorial Politics in Early Modern Europe: Fashioning Women (2019). She is writing a monograph entitled Facing Decay: Beauty, Wrinkles and Anti-Aging in Early Modern Europe.