FPS LIVING ROOM LECTURES
We are delighted to welcome as our next lecturer Sylvain Cordier, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Sylvain will discuss the use of Sèvres porcelain as a powerful diplomatic tool by Napoleon I during the Empire years. We hope you can join us!
Living Room Lecture: “TRÉSORS DE DIPLOMATIE.” SÈVRES AND THE POLICY OF GIFT-GIVING OF NAPOLEON’S IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD – Sylvain Cordier
Time: Sunday, 29 November 2020, 18:00-19:00PM London, UK (GMT)
Members will receive an email invitation with instructions on how to join the online lecture. If you want to join, please contact us for more details on FPSenquiries@gmail.com.
“TRÉSORS DE DIPLOMATIE.” SÈVRES AND THE POLICY OF GIFT-GIVING OF NAPOLEON’S IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD
Sylvain Cordier
In collaboration with the manufacture of Sèvres, France’s imperial household made use of an impressive decorative language to serve Napoleon’s official policy of diplomatic gift-giving. This lecture will focus on the typology of gifts and the different circumstances for their presentation, in the complex context of Napoleonic France’s imperialistic rule over continental Europe between 1804 and 1814. This is an opportunity to draw attention on an extraordinary catalogue of neoclassical porcelain surviving in public and private collections in Europe and America.
Image: Ice Pail (one of a pair) with Elephant‐Head Handles, from the ‘Service Iconographique Grec’ given to Cardinal Fesch in Commemoration of the King of Rome’s Baptism, 1810–11, Sèvres Imperial Manufactory, porcelain. Collection Comte et Comtesse Charles‐André Colonna Walewski, Geneva. Photo Thierry Genand