Transcript salon

th
18
Century Salons &
The Enlightenment
Honors World History
Questions?
Where do you meet your friends?
What do you talk about?
Louis XIV Court
 Moliere, a French playwright, meets with his patron, Louis XIV
 The most trusted courtiers stood near the king.
 The king’s private space was separate from most courtiers
Louis XIV Court
 “The king’s court was a very formal place.
There were strict rules about how courtiers
had to dress, when and where they could sit,
and when and where they could speak to
certain people. Even courtiers who had the
privilege of joining a conversation chose
their worlds carefully. Some topics were
objectionable to church authorities or highranking nobility. Court gossip and intrigue
often dominated discussion.”
Glencoe, World History Textbook, pg. 564
The 18th Century Salon
 In 18th century France, a popular
gathering called a salon attracted great
writers and thinkers to the homes of
French hostesses.
What is a Salon?
 “The French world salon, refers to a parlor
or living room, a main gathering space in a
private home. In the 18th century, the salons
became gathering places for intellectual
conversation. Writers, scientists, and
philosophers met weekly to discuss
important discoveries and new works of
poetry and theater.”
Glencoe, World History, pg. 564
What is a Salon?
 A salon is a gathering of intellectual, social,
political, and cultural elites under the roof
of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to
amuse one another and partly to refine their
taste and increase their knowledge through
conversation.
 These gatherings often consciously
following Horace's definition of the aims of
poetry, "either to please or to educate"
What did a Salon look like?
A Reading in the Salon of Mme Geoffrin, 1755
What did a Salon look like?
What did a Salon look like?
 The painting depicts an English-style tea in the Four-Mirror Salon of the Palais
du Temple in Paris in 1766.
What did a Salon look like?
 The Rothschild Room - 18th Century French salon
 It belonged to a second-generation member of the new aristocracy, the
Count de Courbet, and was part of his Paris townhouse on the rue de Bac,
designed by François Debias-Aubry between 1741 and 1745.
Salon Facts
 Most salon hosts were women, while guests
were mainly men.
 Participants came from middle class as well
as aristocracy.
 In the salon, a guests good manners and
original thought were highly prized displays
of the guest’s wealth and standing.
Questions?
 How did salons foster the spread of
ideas?
 How would you feel as a guest at one
of these functions?
 How would you feel being in the
presence of the king?
Rene Descartes
 “It is not enough to
have a good mind; the
main thing is to use it
well.”
 “Except our own
thoughts, there is
nothing absolutely in
our power.”
John Locke
 “Our incomes are like our
shoes; if too small, they
gall and pinch us; but if
too large, they cause us to
stumble and to trip.”
 “Government has no other
end, but the preservation
of property.”
Isaac Newton
 “If I have done the public
any service, it is due to my
patient thought.”
 “To me there has never
been a higher source of
earthly honor or
distinction than that
connected with advances
in science.”
Montesquieu
 “An empire founded
by war has to maintain
itself by war.”
 “Luxury ruins
republics; poverty,
monarchies.”
 “Useless laws weaken
the necessary laws.”
Voltaire
 “Anyone who has the
power to make you
believe absurdities has
the power to make you
commit injustices.”
 “History is only the
register of crimes and
misfortunes.”
Denis Diderot
 “Evil always turns up in
this world through some
genius or other.”
 “There are things I can't
force. I must adjust. There
are times when the
greatest change needed is
a change of my
viewpoint.”
Adam Smith & laissez-faire
 “No society can surely be
flourishing and happy, of
which the far greater part
of the members are poor
and miserable.”
 “What can be added to
the happiness of a man
who is in health, out of
debt, and has a clear
conscience?”
Cesare Beccaria & Justice
 “For a punishment to
be just it should
consist of only such
gradations of intensity
as suffice to deter men
from committing
crimes.”
 “Happy is the nation
without a History.”
Mary Wollstonecraft
 “Strengthen the female
mind by enlarging it, and
there will be an end to
blind obedience.”
 “The divine right of
husbands, like the divine
right of kings, may, it is
hoped, in this enlightened
age, be contested without
danger.”
John Wesley
 "Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can !”