The Economics of Spectacle. Funding the Ephemeral Arts in Early Modern Europe
Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (CESR)
59 rue Néricault Destouches
37000 Tours
France
Presentation
The Europe of Renaissance and early modern era saw the emergence of an increasingly organized system of production and consumption in the performing arts, whether for the celebration of civic and court festivals, or in the contexts of academies and confraternities, finally with the advent of impresarios and professional theatre companies of actors.
While more and more specialized professions appeared, their economic impact, to a large extent, remains to be studied. Indeed, although the festival culture of Renaissance Europe has been explored from many angles, there is still a lack of studies on economic issues, which are generally left in the background.
In an attempt to fill this lacuna, this conference seeks to explore the economic management of the performing arts during the early modern period (theatre, music, dance, scenography and ephemeral architecture) both from a practical and a theoretical perspective – the former by studying the sources, handling, and distribution of expenditure on these events, and the latter by interrogating the social, cultural, and economic capital invested in, and gained by, ephemeral consumption.
Alongside theatre historians and musicologists, this conference brings together scholars working in the fields of art history and architecture, literature, and history who have either engaged with the production of spectacular events or studied the many professions associated with them.
The economic management of the performing arts raises a number of key political, moral, religious and social questions for the period. The aim of the papers is to identify common problems and their possible solutions, as well as to pave the way for a study of spectacle economics at an interdisciplinary and European level.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101027860
CONVENORS
Dr Francesca Fantappiè, LE STUDIUM Guest Research Fellow / MSCA Individual Fellowship
FROM Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies - IT
IN RESIDENCE AT Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance (CESR) / CNRS, University of Tours - FR
Prof. Philippe Canguilhem
Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance (CESR) / CNRS, University of Tours - FR
Thursday 08th of June 2023
- 14:00 : Welcome by Serre Solveig
Session 1: Gagner son pain : le métier d’acteur entre la France et l’Italie
chair: Marie Bouhaïk-Gironès
- 14:20 Emanuele De Luca - Giovan Battista Andreini et les Fedeli à Paris : commandes, munificences, gains.
- 15:00 Celine Candiard - Egalité, hierarchies et logiques de rémunération dans les troupes françaises du XVIIe siècle.
- 15:40 Sergio Monaldini - Le métier des comici dell’arte en Italie (XVIe-XVIIe siècles). Aspects organisationnels et financiers
- 16:10 Coffee break
Session 2: Travailler pour la cour: musiciens et poètes
chair: Chiara Lastraioli
- 16:30 Philippe Canguilhem - Dépenses musicales ordinaires et extraordinaires dans les cours de la Renaissance: l'exemple florentin (1540-1570)
- 17:10 Adeline Lionetto - Des Apollons gagés ? Etude des rétributions des poètes pour leur participation aux fêtes de cour sous les derniers Valois
Friday 09th of June 2023
Session 3: Les professionnels de la musique, quelques cas d’étude européens
chair: Anne-Madeleine Goulet
- 09:20 Olivier Spina - Honorables travailleurs ou dangereux mercenaires ? Les professionnels de la musique confrontés à la Réforme dans le Londres Tudor (1500-1550)
- 10:00 Jorge Morales - Assurer le prestige par la musique : l’économie de la magnificence du cardinal Maurice de Savoie à travers les livres de comptes de sa maison
- 10:40 Alexander Robinson - Musical economics in ceremonial entries from late Renaissance Lyon (c.1590–c.1625)
- 11:20 Coffee break
Session 4: L'économie des fêtes : tournois et ballets
chair: Monique Chatenet
- 11:40 Marina Viallon - Jouter aux frais du prince : les dépenses de François d'Angoulême pour le tournoi de l'entrée de la reine Marie Tudor à Paris (1514)
- 12:20 Marie-Joëlle Louison-Lassablière - Le Ballet en langage forézien de Marcellin Allard (1605): un aperçu d’économie domestique
- 12:50 Lunch
Session 5: L'économie théâtrale entre le sacré et le profane
chair: Philippe Vendrix
- 14:50 Marie Bouhaïk-Gironès - L’économie votive des mystères (France, 1ere moitié du XVIe siècle)
- 15:30 Beth Glixon - Who's in charge? Modalities of opera production in Mid-Seicento Venice
- 16:10 Coffee break
Session 6: Une affaire publique : le financement des fêtes et les dépenses de la cour
chair: Marco Belfanti
- 16:30 Francesco Ammannati - The reveler and the accountant: spectacles and the control of public expenditure in Early Modern Tuscany
- 17:10 Francesca Fantappiè - The economics of 'meraviglia': Fictional and real expenses at the Bourbon and Medici courts (1590-1620)
Saturday 10th of June 2023
Session 7: Les entrées dans différentes villes européennes : recettes et dépenses
chair: Pascal Brioist
- 09:20 Ilario Mosca - Le roi très – chrétien, la ville de Paris et le financement des entrées de 1571
- 10:00 Aurélie Massie - L’entrée royale d’Henri II à Paris en 1549: comptabilité et représentation du pouvoir
- 10:40 Coffee break
Session 8: Les entrées dans différentes villes européennes : entre luxe et économies
chair: Philippe Canguilhem
- 11:00 Jonathan Glixon - Patrician pomp: ceremony and celebration for new Procuratori in Early Modern Venice
- 11:40 Sabrina Lind - Aspirations and reality in the Antwerp entry of the cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Spain (1635): Financing joyous entries in the Early Modern Spanish Netherlands
- 12:20 Conclusion - Francesca Fantappiè
Location
The conference venue is unique. Located right next to the basilica of St Martin in the old city centre of Tours, the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance) is a teaching and research institution which welcomes students and researchers seeking initial or supplementary instruction in all aspects of the Renaissance. The Centre was initially constituted in 1956 on the basis of a library and a documentary archive, supplemented by a collection of photographs and databases. It is now a venue for multi-disciplinary instruction, which, in association with the various Faculties of the University, has responsibility for teaching and research in History, History of Art, Literature, Languages, Musicology, and Philosophy. It currently leads a large research programme dedicated to the cultural regional heritage (Intelligence des Patrimoines). As a research centre it brings together fifty or so researchers committed to the investigation of the "civilization of the Renaissance" from Petrarch to Descartes. Participants will be welcomed in this exceptional surrounding blending Middle Age and Renaissance cultures and will have the opportunity to discover French cuisine and wines.
Partners of the event
