Shakherazada from Bellevue or french boudoir "a la turk" of the XVIII century

Abstract

Introduction. The boudoir as a concept of a peculiar female room originated at the beginning of the 18th century, when the Turkish was just beginning to enter European fashion. Among the factors that influenced this fashion, more than anything else is the publication of the first French translation of the fairy tales «One Thousand and One Nights» (1704-1717). France was a trendsetter in those years, and the development of fashion greatly helped by letters from travelers. Materials and methods. The intensification of FrancoTurkish diplomatic relations also contributed: after the arrival in Paris of the Ottoman Embassy of the Sultan Ahmed III (1720-1721) Turkish at the peak of popularity in various fields: in music and in the stagearts, in literature and painting. One of the manifestations of the «à la Turk» fashion was the «Turkish» decoration of boudoirs that came into fashion in the early reign of Louis XV, together with the fashion for a private rather than ceremonial lifestyle. Results. This problem, which has not previously come to the attention of domestic Turquerie researchers, addressed through a study of the earliest known boudoirs «a la Turk» by Louis XV's favorite, the Marquise de Pompadour, at Bellevue (1748-1750). Conclusion. The author comes to the conclusion that it was the Turkish boudoir that was the heart of Bellevue. Here, the marquise, like the fabulous Scheherazade, entertained the king and his friends, "terribly suffering from unbearable boredom." Such boudoirs in the conventional Turkish style will become more common in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when many European aristocrats will have the opportunity to try on the role of an oriental beauty. The boudoir of the Marquise de Pompadour, whose well-known strength was the ability to surprise, each time finding something new in the ordinary, became one of the first, opening a series of relatively oriental specific female interiors.