CRRS and the Sable Centre: The Renaissance in the 19th Century

Centre for Reformation and
Renaissance Studies
and the
Centre d’études du 19e siècle français / Centre for 19th Century French Studies

SESSION 9A
The Renaissance on Stage

Mark EVERIST, Jeanice BROOKS, University of Southampton
Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots: Staging the History of the French Renaissance When Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots was premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique in 1836, grand opéra brought some of the most bloodthirsty scenes of Parisian renaissance history back to the capital. While earlier historical operas had explored revolution in seventeenth-century Naples or regicide in eighteenth-century Sweden, Les Huguenots restaged the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in the city in which it had taken place. Eugène Scribe's libretto shared its origins with a wide range of works for the stage that engaged with French renaissance history which were premiered in 1832 (Les Huguenots took four years to come to fruition). Such an interest with dramatised religious conflict was a result of a reading newly-published documents on French renaissance history in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century.

Irene MORRA, University of Toronto
'Tutto e gioia, tutto e festa': Singing the Renaissance from Benvenuto Cellini to Falstaff The nineteenth century is distinguished by musicologists for the emergence of new musical forms, the increasing reverence granted to the virtuosos performer and composer, and the frequent emphasis on associating musical developments with those in literature and the visual arts. Of these musical forms, opera was and often still is considered to be one of the most representative manifestations of the continental artistic spirit. In celebrating what is often termed 'the golden age of opera', however, many have failed to note the characteristics which distinguish these operas from each other. A number of the most prominent of nineteenth century operas were derived from sources either written during the Renaissance, or based upon contemporary understandings of Renaissance culture. At the same time, the operatic treatments of these sources differed widely. In order to address the numerous political and artistic implications of this interest in Renaissance culture, I will consider Verdi's Ernani (1844) and Rigoletto (1851) (both after plays by Victor Hugo), Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini (1838), and Verdi's Falstaff (1893). The Hugo plays arguably offer up the Renaisssance as a sufficiently distanced period through which to explore potentials for political allegory. To what extent was this potential for the Renaissance subject recognized by composers, and to what was it appreciated by audiences? How did this understanding of the Renaissance change when an opera such as Benvenuto Cellini staged the events of a recorded, historical life? To what extent did the choice of subject determine the musical and thematic emphasis of the opera? To what extent did the choice of subject determine the musical and thematic emphasis of the opera? To what extent can opera be seen as having 'educated' audiences into an appreciation for Renaissance culture, and to what extent can that appreciation be seen as having been solicited for the figure of the artist, rather than a specific culture? As a composer long associated with expressions of nationalism, Verdi chose as his sources surprisingly few Italian works. Indeed, his final great work is not only based upon a British play, but is set in England. To what extent was Verdi's interest in Shakespeare defined by a dramatic appreciation for Shakespeare's work in general, to what extent was it determined by a recognition of an operatic trend towards staging the Renaissance, and to what extent can it be deemed an expression of interest in specifically British culture? How did this reflect or influence other musical and artistic treatments of Renaissance sources, artists, and culture? What were the political, artistic, and social questions which were being raised or answered by these diverse treatments of the Renaissance?

Jean-Claude YON, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
La Renaissance vue par un librettiste: le cas d'Eugène Scribe On sait l'importance qu'a l'opéra dans la société du 19e siècle: parmi tous les genres théâtraux, il est le plus fastueux et le plus susceptible de marquer les esprits. En outre, la reconstitution historique est une des lois du "grand opéra" qui s'épanouit à l'Opéra de Paris. On ne peut donc appréhender la perception de la Renaissance au 19e siècle sans évoquer des opéras aussi célèbres que La Juive (1835), Les Huguenots (1836), Le Prophète (1849), tous écrits par Eugène Scribe (1791-1861), dont cette communication entend étudier la demi-douzaine d'opéras que ce maître du genre a placés à l'époque de la Renaissance.

Nadine D. PEDERSON, City University of New York
Historiography of French Renaissance Theatre in the 19th Century The idea of "Renaissance" as a periodization in theatre history is a controversial one. The supposed shift from religious drama to secular drama is part and parcel of the Renaissance idea in theatre history. In France, the 1548 arrêt of Parlement which curtailed the religious subject matter of the Confrères de la Passion is usually given as a convenient date for this transition; other historians prefer dramatic texts as milestones. This study will examine major scholars in the 19th century who instigated the reception of those ideas, including Picaard and Peyrot, Magnin, DuMéril, Hawkins, and Petit de Julleville.

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SESSION 9B
The Renaissance in the Minor Arts

Martha A. McCRORY, Fashion Institute of Technology
Neo-Renaissance Jewelry: Its Role in the Revivalist Styles of the 19th century This paper proposes a consideration of neo-Renaissance jewelry which was born in the context of an interest in the Italian Renaissance and the oeuvre of Benvenuto Cellini and in the patronage of King François I, whose advocacy of Italian aartists resulted in the Fontainebleau style. The sources for jewelers were various. Luigi Marchi, a Bolognese jeweler, looked, for instance, to paintings by Raphael and the jewels depicted therein for inspiration. In Paris Alphonse Fouquet evoked the romantic legend of Bianca Cappello, mistress and then consort of Grand Duke Francesco I de Medici, when he created the spectacular neo-Renaissance "Chatelaine Bianca Cappello" for the Paris World's Fair of 1878. A reliance on ornament, such as strapwork, which originated at Fontainebleau, and the important repertoire of French Renaissance print sources distinguish neo-Renaissance jewelry. An examination of the imaginative choice of sources (pictorial, literary, and actual jewels) furnishes an important insight into the genesis and evolution of this important 19th century jewelry style which will be considered in the context of both the fine and decorative arts.

Mariel O'NEILL-KARCH, University of Toronto
Jean-Alexis Rouchon (1794-1878) et la (Re)naissance de l'affiche publicitaire Vers 1848, Jean-Alexis Rouchon, fabriquant de papiers peints de son métier, se transforme en imprimeur d'affiches et les murs de Paris sont bientôt recouverts, et c'était alors une nouveauté, de placards publicitaires polychromes de très grand format. Parmi les images utilisées par l'imprimeur pour annoncer des commerces se trouve La belle jardinière de Raphaël qui prête ses traits à un magasin de nouveautés et son nom, à un magasin de vêtements. À partir d'une analyse sémiotique des affiches elles-mêmes, ainsi que de la place réservée à Raphaël en France à la même époque, nous allons explorer comment La belle jardinière donne une légitimité historique à deux commerces dont la qualité des produits laisse pourtant à désirer.

Ségolène LeMEN, Université de Paris X-Nanterre
Daumier: caricature et Renaissance En feuilletant l'oeuvre lithographique de Daumier dans les années 1830, l'on peut relever des citations de gravures de la Renaissance et noter des réinterprétations de la sculpture funéraire, qu'il doit probablement à la vaste culture visuelle acquise auprès d'Alexandre Lenoir, son initiateur artistique qui avait été le fondateur du musée des Monuments français et l'un des premiers défenseurs de la Renaissance française. De plus, certaines de ses caricatures font alors référence à Rabelais, en particulier la célèbre planche de Gargantua. Enfin, dans les caricatures de la seconde République, et celles du cycle de Ratapoil, Daumier s'inspire du style de la gravure maniériste de l'Ecole de Fontainebleau. Cette communication s'attachera ainsi à évoquer les divers aspects iconographiques, littéraires et stylistiques qui lient la caricature chez Daumier à la Renaissance, période qui fut celle de l'invention de l'art qu'il pratiquait.