Enfilade

‘Cinquième journée. Feu d’artifice sur le Canal de Versailles (Fifth day. Fireworks on the canal of Versaille), engraved by Le Pautre in Les divertissemens de Versailles. Paris, de l’Imprimerie royale, 1676; Waddesdon, The Rothschild Collection (The National Trust). Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957.

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A recent Enfilade posting (31 May 2014) introduced the Waddesdon Manor exhibition, Royal Spectacle. Since then, an especially impressive 45-page checklist has been added to the Waddesdon website. If notice of the exhibition at all piqued your curiosity, then it’s certainly worth returning to download the file. -CH

Royal Spectacle: Ceremonial and Festivities at the French Court
Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, 26 March — 26 October 2014

Curated by Selma Schwartz and Rachel Jacobs

The exhibition handlist for the exhibition at Waddesdon Manor, Royal Spectacle: Ceremonial and Festivities at the French Court is now available for download as a PDF file from the Waddesdon website. It includes short introductory essays for each of the sections (royal entrances, weddings, coronations, funerals, fireworks, etc.), an illustration of each of the 58 exhibited works, and their labels. The engravings, drawings, and manuscripts—many of extremely large formats, designed by celebrated artists and produced by some of the best engravers—are the only visual records of the extravagantly-staged spectacular but ephemeral events.