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The Convergence of Dancing and Drawing Practices in the Reign of Louis XIV: Costume Designs from the Edmond de Rothschild Collection in the Louvre

2016; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 34; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3366/drs.2016.0143

1750-0095

Mickaël Bouffard, Jérôme de La Gorce, Margaret Μ. McGowan,

Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

This article takes as its starting point the large corpus of costume drawings contained in the Edmond de Rothschild collection in the Louvre. This corpus represents a significant fraction of the works from the 17 th and 18 th centuries built up by the collector Claude Pioche du Rondray with the intention of publishing an illustrated history of French spectacle. An attempt is made here to set aside the view that choreographic images from the Ancien Regime cannot be used as a source for understanding the technical aspects of dancing from that time. While accepting that no image can be entirely trustworthy, it is nonetheless the case that the true nature of choreographic art from the reign of Louis XIV can be discovered from the way the skirt is held in the minuet, from the coordination of arms and legs in opposition, and from the double bend of the elbows or the high positioning of the arms. Study of these precise examples also helps to date the introduction of certain dance movements and to clarify certain choreographic descriptions. Thus, in order to select and exploit images of the dance as useful sources of information, this article argues that the scholar must bring together a deep knowledge of technique and a familiarity with the workshop practices used by artists to reduce their production time whether through borrowing postures from other images or making etched silhouettes.