The court ballet as a prescriptive image of cosmic and political harmony in the French court (1610-1661)

Abstract

Danced dramatic spectacle, capable of simultaneously mobilizing various arts and artifices - such as poetry, music, singing, dancing, painting, heraldry and machinery - in a large erudite composition, having the effective participation of the courtiers and the king himself, the court ballet was the favorite and the most expressive entertainment at the French court in the seventeenth century.Based on the study of librettos and descriptions of ballets produced between 1610 and 1661at the French court, this research project seeks to understand how this dramatic genre is elaborated as a prescriptive representation of power in the context of the Ancien Régime based on the allegorical notion of "harmony." Thereby, we intend to investigate to what extent the analyzed genre and compositions formulate allegorically an image of cosmic and political harmony, and, from their own languages and resources, in which manner it collaborates to reinforce the courtiers' ways of thinking, being and acting, as well as moral values and political pacts that maintain (artificially) the social body in order. Ultimately, this research aims to verify the validity of considering the court ballet as one of the possible dimensions of power and of the monarchical state in modern France.