Images en action
Claude-François Ménestrier’s Writings on Image and Theater Theory

Claude-François Ménestrier, professor at the Jesuit college in Lyon, organizer of numerous festivals, entries and theatrical representations, and author of approximately 150 publications, covering such diverse topics as emblematic and numismatic symbolism, heraldry, music, ballet, tournaments, fireworks, chivalric festivals and festive entries, can be counted among the most important early modern writers on public as well as courtly spectacles. Furthermore, in his vast oeuvre on symbolic images, which uses Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Poetics and Politics as well as Tesauro’s Cannocchiale Aristotelico as key references for an all-encompassing conceptualization of the visual, epitomized in his project of a philosophie des images, Ménestrier traces back all forms of knowledge such as art, philosophy, and theology to specific image practices.
Today, Ménestrier’s writings on theater and performance are to a large extend available in digitized form. Despite this accessibility, a thorough examination of Ménestrier’s theoretical conception remains difficult to undertake due to the thematic disparity of his oeuvre as well as his casuistic and accumulative approach. Hence, Ménestrier’s theoretical contribution to the performance culture of the Ancien Régime becomes fully visible only in a synopsis of scattered remarks.
This workshop forms part of an editorial project which sets out to introduce to a broader audience Ménestrier’s theoretical writings on images within the theater and performance culture of the Ancien Régime. This project aims at a trilingual (French, German, English) commented anthology of writings by C.F. Ménestrier.
The goal of this anthology is at least twofold: First, we want to make visible and accessible to a broader audience the theater & performance related writings of Ménestrier; second, we want to shed light on the specific ways and means (sites, media, practices) of theorizing images in the 17th century. Here, we want to better understand the role of the performing arts in thinking and conceptualizing images and the imagination - and vice versa.
Therefore, a compilation of excerpts from key writings by Ménestrier has been made by the editors, such as Art des emblèmes (1662), Traité des tournois (1669), Art du blason (1673), Representations en musique (1681), Ballets anciens et modernes (1682), Art des emblèmes (1684), La philosophie des images enigmatiques (1694).

 

Program

15. Oktober 2015
15.00 – 16.00	Annette Kappeler, Jan Lazardzig, Nicola Gess: Introduction
16.00 – 17.00	Bram van Oostveldt: Text Commentary. Des Représentations en musique anciennes et modernes, 1685
17.00 – 17.30	Coffee break
17.30 – 18.30	Kan Lazardzig: Text Commentary. Traité des Tournois, Joustes, Carrousels et autres Spectacles publics, 1669
18.30 – 19.30	Paul Maercker: Progress report. German Translation of the text ercerpts
16. Oktober 2015
10.00 – 11.00	Kareen Seidler: Progress report. English Translation of the text excerpts
11.00 – 12.00	Judi Loach: Text Commentary. Les Recherches du Blason. De l'Usage des Armoiries, 1673
12.00 – 12.30	Coffee Break
12.30 – 13.30	Ralph Dekoninck: Text Commentary. L'Art des Emblèmes, 1662, 1684
13.30 – 14.30	Stephanie Schroedter: Text Commentary. Des Ballets anciens et modernes selon les Règles du Théatre, 1682

 

 

 

Konzept: Nicola Gess, Annette Kappeler, Jan Lazardzig

Referierende: Bram van Oostveldt, Jan Lazardzig, Paul Maercker, Kareen Seidler, Judi Loach, Ralph Dekoninck, Stephanie Schroedter

eikones NFS Bildkritik, Rheinsprung 11, CH - 4051 Basel