Asalon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation and readings, often consciously following Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "to please and educate" (aut delectare aut prodesse est). The term is commonly associated with French literary and philosophical gatherings of the 17th century and 18th century, though the practice continues today in many cities worldwide.
The word salon first appears in France in 1664 (from the Italian word sala, used to designate the large reception hall of Italian mansions). Literary gatherings before this were often referred to by using the name of the room in which they occurred, like cabinet, réduit, ruelle and alcôve 1. Before the end of the 17th century, these gatherings were frequently held in the bedroom (treated as a more private form of drawing room): a lady, reclining on her bed, would receive close friends who would sit on chairs or stools drawn around; this practice may be contrasted with the greater formalities of Louis XIV's petit levée, where all stood. The expression ruelle, literally meaning "little street", designates the space between a bed and the wall in a bedroom, and more generally the entire bedroom; it was used commonly to designate the gatherings of the "précieuses", the intellectual and literary circles that formed around women in the first half of the 17th century, whose affectations were ridiculed by Molière.
Nobles' courts have always drawn to themselves poets, writers and artists, usually with the lure of patronage, an aspect that sets the court apart from the salon. In 16th-century Italy some scintillating circles did form in the smaller courts, often galvanized by the presence of a beautiful and educated patroness such as Isabella d'EsteorElisabetta Gonzaga. In 16th century France, literary and artistic circles formed around royal women such as Marguerite of Navarre, Marie de Medici, Marguerite de Valois, among others. But in the late 16th century, as a result of the Wars of Religion, the official royal literary circles were increasingly superseded by more private circles.
The most famous of the literary salons of Paris formed in the 1620s were the Hôtel de RambouilletbyMadame de Rambouillet and the rival salon that gathered around Madeleine de Scudéry. Here gathered the original "blue-stockings" (les bas-bleues), whose nickname continued to mean "intellectual woman" for the next 300 years. In the salons of Paris, the précieuses refined the French language even before the Académie française was founded.
The 18th century salons brought together Parisian society and the progressive philosophes who were producing the Encyclopédie. Marmontel's remark about Julie de Lespinasse suggests the secret of the salon in French culture:
Such a woman in German circles, inspiring to writers and artists, perhaps without an artistic bent herself, was called a "muse".
Galante manners of the mid 18th century were less formal. Horace Walpole's correspondent, Sir Horace Mann, the British envoy at Florence, chafed at the formality of Florentine salons, or conversazioni, where the tall chairs were drawn in a circle and a subject was introduced by the hostess, at which each member was expected to shine in turn.
Paris salons of the 18th century:
Some 19th century salons were more inclusive, verging on the raffish, and centered around painters and "literary lions" such as Mme Récamier. After the shocks of 1870, French aristocrats tended to withdraw from the public eye. Marcel Proust called up his own turn-of-the-century experience to recreate the rival salons of the fictional Duchesse de Guermantes and Madame Verdurin. Some late 19th and early 20th-Century Paris salons were major centres of music, including those of Winnaretta Singer (the Princesse de Polignac) and Comtesse Greffulhe.
The salon was more or less a French invention, and it flourished there from the early 17th century and forward more than in any other country, but it quickly spread over Europe, although in different speed, and in the 18th and 19th centuries most big cities in Europe had a famous "salon hostess" - but the salons may not always have been as prominent as the French ones, and they were not as common as they were in Paris, where the hostesses were so many that they even rivaled with each other.
In England, salons were held by Lady Elizabeth Montagu and Hester Thrale in the 18th century; in Germany, the most famous salons were held by Jewish ladies, such as Henriette Herz and Rachel Levin Varnhagen; in Spain, the duchess of Alba in the end of the 18th century; and in Greece by Alexandra Mavrokordatou in the 17th century.
Italy had an early tradition of this; the courtisan Tullia Aragona held a salon already in the 16th century, and Giovanna Dandolo became known as a patron and gatherer of artists as wife of the doge in Venice in 1457-1462, but this did not start a tradition as the salon-instution in France, as men and women were traditionally more separated in social life in Italy; the real pioneers were instead the abdicated Queen Christina of Sweden and the french-born princess Colonna, Marie Anne Mancini, who rivaled as salon hostesses in 17th century Rome. In IberiaorLatin Americaatertulia is a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones. The word is originally Spanish and has only moderate currency in English, in describing Latin cultural contexts. Since the twentieth century a typical tertulia has moved out from the private drawing-troom to become a regularly scheduled event in a public place such as a bar, although some tertulias are still held in more private spaces. Participants may share their recent creations (poetry, short stories, other writings, even artwork or songs).[1]
In Poland, the duchess Sieniawska held a salon in the end of the 17th cenury, and the salons became very popular there during the 18th century; the most famous salons were the Thursday Dinners of King Stanisław August Poniatowski in the end of 18th century, and the most notable salon-hostesses was Zofia Lubomirska and Izabela Czartoryska.
In Scandinavia, the salon was introduced in Sweden by Sophia Elisabet Brenner in the end of the 17th century and Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht and Malla Silfverstolpe were salon hostesses in the 18th and the 19th centuries, respectively, while Christine Sophie Holstein and Charlotte Shimmelmann were the most notable hostesses in Denmark in the beginning and the end of the 18th century.
American "society hostesses" such as Perle Mesta have performed a function similar to the host or hostess of the European salon.
The word salon also refers to art exhibitions. The Paris Salon was originally an officially-sanctioned exhibit of recent works of painting and sculpture by members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, starting in 1673 and soon moving from the Salon Carré of the Palace of the Louvre.
The name salon remained, even when other quarters were found and the exhibits' irregular intervals became biennial. A jury system of selection was introduced in 1748, and the salon remained a major annual event even after the government withdrew official sponsorship in 1881.
See also: French art salons and academies, Paris Salon, Salon des Refusés, Salon d'Automne, Salon des Indépendants.
Private salons
(Biographies of French salonists from Madame de Rambouillet to Madame Recamier and descriptions of salon culture from the 17th to the 19th century.)
Art exhibitions
