Versailles Reconsidered (Seminar)
FINH-GA 3031-001 (#20585)
Meredith Martin 
SPRING 2016

In addition to surveying the standard literature on Versailles, this seminar draws upon new scholarship to offer a revisionist view of the palace and gardens from the seventeenth to twentyfirst centuries. We will focus in particular on situating the art, architecture and landscape of Versailles in a global context. Versailles is often seen as the epitome of “Frenchness,” yet the palace and its contents were profoundly shaped by encounters with people and objects from around the world. In emphasizing the international character of Versailles between the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI, we will consider such topics as ambassadorial visits to the palace; gifts to and from the French Court; objects and images made for Versailles and its inhabitants that depict non-European cultures or reveal cross-cultural resonances; and examples of art and architecture made outside of Europe that were inspired by Versailles. We will also explore the palace’s transformation into a “Museum of French History” and imperial staging ground in the nineteenth century and, more recently, into a venue for global contemporary art. This seminar is being organized in advance of a major exhibition on the foreign visitor to Versailles that will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017, as well as with an international symposium on “Versailles in the World, 1660-1789” held at NYU’s Washington Square campus on January 29, 2016.