Les Tables Du Pouvoir : Une Histoire Des Repas De Prestige

Exhibition at the Musée du Louvre-Lens, 31 March - 26 July 2021

Considered today as a moment of sharing and conviviality bringing together relations, families or friends, meals have also been for centuries the occasion to put power on stage. From the ancient practice of the banquet given in honour of a victorious sovereign to the invention of the cutlery, via the change from eating lying down to sitting down, the habits and customs of the table have never stopped evolving. From Antiquity to the present day, the greatest artists, potters, ceramists and earthenware makers, goldsmiths, master glassmakers, sculptors and ornamentalists have worked in the service of gods, sovereigns, princes and republics.

With some 400 illustrations, this catalogue offers a journey through the centuries at the table, from libations offered to the gods to philosophical banquets and Roman bacchanals, from medieval feasts to receptions for ambassadors from distant countries, from the sumptuous tables of the Ancien Régime to the Élysée Palace today.