The lure of the foreign stage: Chronicles of Italian mobility to France in the long eighteenth century

TL;DR

This paper explores the migration of Italian artists to France in the 18th century and their role in cultural history.

Contribution

The study highlights the overlooked stories of Italian artists in France through archival and cultural historical methods.

Findings

Italian artists like the Ruggieri brothers, Antonio Franconi, and Ignazio Degotti migrated to France at different times.

Their artistic work in ephemeral entertainment was integrated into the social and cultural context of France.

Abstract

This article investigates the migration of three Italian-born artists working in France in the field of ephemeral entertainment and argues that their stories were part of a broader process of cultural history and artistic mobility of the long eighteenth century. These artists are the firework makers Ruggieri brothers, the circus performer Antonio Franconi and his family and the stage designer Ignazio Degotti. They left their home country

at different points
(1730s, 1750s and 1790 respectively), settling in Paris under different socio-political circumstances.

Due to the immaterial and contingent medium in which these artists chose to work,

which is
difficult to replicate and collect, the mobility of these artists has often remained a neglected story. To explore the reasons why these artists moved from their home country and the motivation that convinced them to stay in France, this research combines an attentive examination of archival material with a methodology influenced by methods of cultural history. The paper argues that their lives and their artistic expertise were not only aesthetically relevant, but also very much integrated within the defined social and cultural context they

chose
to live in.

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