Melbourne Masterclass: “Paris is the World”- The history of Old Regime and revolutionary Paris (17th and 18th centuries) | 9-12 January 2018 | The University of Melbourne and the National Gallery of Victoria

‘Paris is the world’ wrote Marivaux in 1734. “The rest of the earth is merely its suburbs.” His soaring elegy to the French capital captured the city’s central place in the imagination of the Enlightenment. This masterclass will examine how Paris became synonymous with gleaming architectural wonders, harmonious facades, and numerous public squares, in the context of France’s social, political, and cultural upheavals during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beginning with Henri IV’s and Louis le Grand’s search for urban grandeur, Paris was transformed by and for its elites into a new Rome.

At the same time, a Paris of the people, particularly in the overcrowded ghettos of the city centre, was repeatedly condemned as insalubrious and ripe only for the spread of infectious disease and seditious ideas. This other Paris was repeatedly condemned as a new Babylon. For the heart of Paris was still a horribly medieval city, wrote Voltaire in 1749, in which the creations of France’s greatest architects were marred by narrow, filthy streets and crumbling houses worthy of “barbarians and vandals.” At the time of the French Revolution, Parisians revolted against these social ills that were those of modernity itself.

Presented by internationally renowned historians and notable curator of International Art from the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), this Melbourne Masterclass is held at The University of Melbourne and the NGV over five consecutive days with a combination of lectures, interactive and facilitated discussions, with the integration of objects and art works in select presentations.

Cost: Series Pass: $350/ $300*  (*University of Melbourne alumni, staff, and students). Prices are inclusive of GST. Bookings via the University of Melbourne.

Melbourne Masterclasses at The University of Melbourne in the Faculty of Arts are high quality, non-award educational experiences open to all, offering a curated overview of an area of study. They are a combination of lectures, facilitated discussions for greater audience participation, including refreshments and exclusive and social learning opportunities. 

Program Outline

Monday 8 January: ‘Paris in the Age of Classicism (17th century)’
Venue: Forum Theatre, Arts West, The University of Melbourne

Session 1: Lecture
Presented by Professor Allan Potofsky

Session 2: Q&A and audience discussion
Chaired by Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee

Tuesday 9 January: ‘Paris as the Global City of the Enlightenment (18th century)’
Venue: Forum Theatre, Arts West, The University of Melbourne

Session 1: Lecture
Presented by Professor Allan Potofsky

Session 2: Q&A and audience discussion
Chaired by Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee

Wednesday 10 January: National Gallery of Victoria

Venue: Clemenger BBDO Auditorium, NGV International, St Kilda Rd

Session 1: Lecture 1 – ‘The French Revolution and the world of the arts’
Presented by Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee

Session 1: Lecture 2 – ‘Inside the French Revolutionary Prison
Presented by Dr Sophie Matthiesson

Session 2: Floor talks in the NGV Gallery spaces
Presented by Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee and Dr Sophie Matthiesson

Thursday 11 January: ‘The Urban Landscape of Paris and the Revolution’

Venue: Forum Theatre, Arts West, The University of Melbourne

Session 1 & 2: Lectures
Presented by Professor Allan Potofsky

Friday 12 January: ‘Napoleon: Engineering the Revolution’
Venue: Forum Theatre, Arts West, The University of Melbourne

Session 1: Lecture
Presented by Professor Allan Potofsky

Session 2: Q&A and audience discussion
Chaired by Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee

To view full program details, including lecture abstracts, please see this website: http://alumni.online.unimelb.edu.au/s/1182/

Presenters

Professor Allan Potofsky is a Professor of Atlantic and French history at the Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, specializing in early modern French America and Parisian urban history during the eighteenth century and the French Revolution. He is the author of Constructing Paris in the Age of Revolutions (2009; paperback, 2012) and has edited two collections of articles (for French History, in collaboration with Trevor Burnard and The History of European Ideas).
Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee has published widely on the history of modern France, including A Social History of France 1789-1914 (2004) and Liberty or Death. The French Revolution 1789-1799 (2016). He was appointed to the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Melbourne in 2003 and was the University’s first Provost in 2007-09. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (1997) and the Academy of Social Sciences (2003).
Dr Sophie Matthiesson is curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria. She has contributed to many of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibitions since 2007. She is a specialist in eighteenth-century French art and her doctoral research was on ‘The prison-made object in the French Revolution’. Sophie was co-ordinating curator of the 2014 MWM exhibition, Monet’s Garden.