Research seminar “Versailles: art et histoire”
In the current academic year (2024/25), the Centre de recherche du château de Versailles is organising a research seminar for students registered at its university and member institutions.
The exclusively interdisciplinary seminar will at all times be considering the history of art in association with social and political history, based around five themes focusing primarily on Versailles, and more generally on the places and expression of monarchical power.
We will start with a sequence entitled “Art and the court: history and practice”, which, following introductions, will begin by looking at the historiography of the French court. This will be followed by discovering in situ the rites and ceremonies associated with the sovereign’s everyday life. The second sequence, ”Court society and culture”, will focus more specifically on the Versailles habitat and the court networks, and the cultural practices associated with this lifestyle. Still focusing on the theme of life at the Château, the third sequence will be about “Women of Versailles” and the fourth “Celebrations and Entertainment”, exploring both the places where plays and concerts were performed and a more private side of Versailles. The fifth and final sequence, “The court and the palace after the Ancien Régime” will present a discussion of the history of the Château after the French Revolution and how it metamorphosed into a museum.
The seminar, directed by Flavie Leroux and Bastien Coulon, research officers at the Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, will take place this academic year on Mondays from 13 January to 10 February, 2025.
Applications for this seminar are now closed.
