Théâtres d’artifices parisiens dans les années 1730 : les architectures éphémères de Servandoni et des Dumesnil édifiées place de Grève pour le Bureau de la ville de Paris

Abstract

Jean-Nicolas Servandoni worked on at least five public celebrations in Paris in the 1730s. Three of these projects were commissioned by the Paris municipal authorities, known as the Bureau de la Ville. This article proposes to shed light on the awarding of his municipal contracts and on his position regarding the requirements for the public ceremonial as described by the theorists of public ephemeral architecture. Servandoni’s attitude towards the regulations on ephemeral architecture is underlined by comparing his 1732 and 1739 set designs and the architecture produced by three of the painters from the Dumesnil family, who worked for the Bureau de la Ville de Paris between 1688 and 1771. While it is difficult to determine whether certain elements resulted from constraints imposed by the Bureau de la Ville de Paris or artistic choices, the drawings attached to the contracts now in the “Série K” of the Archives Nationales reveal an architectural conception of Servandoni’s ephemeral productions, opposed to the whimsical and picturesque features observed in the architecture produced by the Dumesnils.

Keywords

• firework machines
• ephemeral architecture
• fireworks
• Place de Grève
• ordinary painter of the Hôtel de Ville
• Académie de Saint-Luc