Albanese, Natan. "Ultimi fasti d’Ancien Régime a Torino: gli allestimenti effimeri dei grandi balli di corte nel secondo Settecento e le feste nuziali dei Duchi d’Aosta."

Albanese, Natan. "Ultimi fasti d’Ancien Régime a Torino: gli allestimenti effimeri dei grandi balli di corte nel secondo Settecento e le feste nuziali dei Duchi d’Aosta." Studi Piemontesi 51, no. 1 (Juni 2022): 61-74.


Abstract:
The temporary architecture structures built for court celebrations in the 18th century take on different forms. The preparations for ballroom dances at weddings involving members of the nobility stand out in importance. The aim was often to temporarily decorate and reorganize the halls of royal residences, when they still did not have rooms that were exclusively dedicated to balls. The last decades of the century saw a growing variety of places chosen to host the most prestigious court balls, held during the wedding celebrations that marked the dynastic policy of the Kingdom of Sardinia. The court architects, who were also asked to work as stage designers, tended to set up the space as if it was a theatre, with a cavea extending to the sides, thus obtaining a stage for dancing surrounded by tiers of seats and temporary loggias. The protocol of the ceremony required an accurate hierarchical planning of the spaces and how they were used, as balls sometimes involved the presence of different social classes. The article traces the events related to some settings built between 1771 and 1789, a time for which we have rich archival sources that accurately document these ephemeral displays.