MITTEILUNGEN DER RESIDENZEN-KOMMISSION DER ...

KOLLOQUIUMSBERICHTE
Luxury and Integration
Material Court Culture in Western Europe
Twelfth to Eighteenth Centuries
International conference held by the German Historical Institute London in co-operation with
the German Historical Institute Paris and the Free University of Berlin, with additional sponsorship
by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung
Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, 1-4 July 2004
The aim of this conference was to examine the integration of power from a cultural historical
perspective and to understand pomp at court – often criticized by contemporary observers –
in terms of its function (prodigality as investment) and dysfunction (prodigality as waste)
both inside and outside the particular political and social unit under consideration. The event
took its title from Werner Sombart’s Luxus und Kapitalismus (2nd edn., 1922); our common
intention was to revisit the seemingly irrational with an eye to its sometimes unexpectedly
rational consequences.
In Latin Christian Europe, the links that existed between royal, princely, and aristocratic
courts furthered acculturation and cultural transfer from the end of late Antiquity onwards.
For the medieval and early modern periods far-reaching effects can be observed, whether
attributable to the exchange of envoys and gifts, travel, marital links, the acquisition of art, or
to material compensation for services of all kinds (one term under which such forms of exchange
may be subsumed is ‚patronage‘ in its widest sense). It thus becomes possible to observe
and describe culturally determined power strategies calculated to have an impact on the
interior structure of the group in question as well as on its environment: court culture and the
representation of wealth and power were essentially a means of achieving political integration
through social integration.
Research on these areas has hitherto been somewhat heterogeneous in regard to both the
particular subjects and periods under investigation, and the methods applied. We still lack
comprehensive, interdisciplinary studies which explore the problem of integration through
material culture in detail and analyse the extant sources closely enough to arrive at findings
that can serve as the basis for synchronic and diachronic comparisons. With regard to the
roles of permanent and ephemeral buildings, wages and pensions, clothing and jewellery,
tapestries and pictures, books and instruments etc., and the ever increasing need for expenditure
felt by those present at court, we know more about the late medieval and early modern
periods. Nevertheless, what has been missing so far even here is a perspective which allows
us to deal with all these isolated aspects in the wider context of how power systems were
maintained. In other words, it remains necessary to bridge the gap between the history of art
and the history of power.
The aim of the conference was to ‚take stock‘ regarding these questions and to encourage
future co-operation in research on material culture, with ‚power‘, ‚service and compensation‘,
‚consumption‘, ‚gift culture‘, and ‚the perception of the other‘ as themes of special interest. It
is hoped that in the long run this will allow us to focus more on the lesser known level below
that of political and diplomatic relations.
An innovative format was chosen for this conference (to good effect, as was commonly
felt). It was divided into four sessions comprising between four and six speakers each. Instead
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