Casanova: The Seduction of Europe

by Frederick Ilchman (Editor), Thomas Michie (Contributor), Meredith Chilton (Contributor)

From the salon to the the world of Casanova as seen through the art of his era

In 18th-century Europe, while the old order reveled in the luxurious excesses of the Rococo style and the Enlightenment sowed the seeds of revolution, the shapeshifting libertine Giacomo Casanova seduced his way across the continent. Although notorious for the scores of amorous conquests he recorded in his remarkably frank memoirs, Casanova was just as practiced at charming his way into the most elite social circles, through an inimitable mix of literary ambition, improvisational genius and outright fraud. In his travels across Europe and through every level of society from the theatrical demimonde to royal courts, he was also seduced by the visual splendors he encountered.

This volume accompanies the first major art exhibition outside Europe to lavishly recreate Casanova’s visual world, from his birthplace of Venice, city of masquerades, to the cultural capitals of Paris and London and the outposts of Eastern Europe. Summoning up the people he met and the cityscapes, highways, salons, theaters, masked balls, boudoirs, gambling halls and dining rooms he frequented, it provides a survey of important works of 18th-century European art by masters such as Canaletto, Fragonard, Boucher, Houdon and Hogarth, along with exquisite decorative arts objects.

Twelve essays by prominent scholars illuminate multiple facets of Casanova’s world as reflected in the arts of his time, providing a fascinating grand tour of Europe conducted by a quintessential figure of the 18th century as well as a splendid visual display of the spirit of the age.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

343 pages, Hardcover

Published September 26, 2017

Reviews

[Eric Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

The editors of this fabulous book are right to claim that they produced not simply an exhibition catalogue, but a survey of Casanova’s Rococo Europe – Madrid to St. Petersburg, London to Venice, with many inns, monasteries, and estates in between – splendidly illustrated with examples of its painting, sculpture, decor, domestic wares, costumes and ephemera. The twelve essays are wonderful. Malina Stefanovska, professor of French at UCLA, gives this picture of the “windblown adventurer” at last come to rest and recollection in the “rural Bohemian outpost of Duchov”:

Despite these triumphs, Casanova’s public literary efforts did not bring him the fame and livelihood he hoped for. When he settled into the remote Waldenstein summer estate at Duchov in 1785, after the financial failure of Iscosameron, the novel on which he had pinned his last literary hopes, he knew that renown as a man of letters during his lifetime was out of reach. Now the aging adventurer’s passion for storytelling gained a new dimension. From a worldly pastime meant to charm an audience, it became a last defense against despair, a performance only virtually addressed to the good company he missed so keenly: “The reader will forgive me when he learns that…writing my memoirs was the only remedy I found to avoid going mad or dying of grief,” he wrote in a grim aside to his usually sunny narrative. “Keeping myself busy writing for ten or twelve hours a day, I prevented dark sorrow from killing me, or making me lose my mind.”

By this rare admission, Casanova was nimbly crossing over from an amiable Enlightenment man of letters to a figure in a category yet in the making, one to be extolled by the coming Romantic generation: the solitary writer, exiled from life, rotating the shimmering kaleidoscope of his past, rife with adventures, seductions, plots, escapes, travels, women, gambling, magic, and sex, all set against a background of despair.

The last line of her essay is appropriately penile:

He may have been old and lonely, but he could still wield a sharp, prompt, and youthful pen.

I think Stefanovska has a crush on Casanova; her bio says that she’s at work on an epistolary novel set in his times, the narrator a young woman writing him fan letters. Casanova, dead but still got it!

[Georgia H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casanova: The Seduction of Europe, edited by Frederick Ilchman, Thomas Michie, C. D. Dickerson III, and Esther Bell, is less a book about Casanova than a lavish visual tour through the 18th-century world he moved through. Think powdered wigs, gilded snuff boxes, elaborate fabrics, flirtation, theater, travel, and just enough bad behavior to keep things interesting. 😂


I am definitely not an expert on Casanova or 18th-century European art, but a fair amount of the artwork felt familiar from other art books I have read, which actually made the experience more enjoyable. The real appeal for me was the range of material culture on display: oil portraits, sculpture, furniture, clothing, decorative objects, and especially the intricate fabrics and fashions, which make the period feel very vivid and theatrical. The book is organized as a series of essays around themes and places such as Venice, Paris, London, travel, seduction, clothing, etc., and while the essays are informative, they do jump around a bit. I found myself looking through the book more than reading it straight through. Two images especially stuck with me: the cover painting, Jean-Marc Nattier’s Thalia, Muse of Comedy, with its knowing, teasing sensuality, and Martin van Meytens’ hilariously cheeky kneeling nun portrait, shown from the front in pious pose and from behind with her skirt up, revealing rather more than expected. Apparently nuns were among Casanova’s conquests, which somehow makes that image even funnier. The book did prompt me to do a little side-reading on Casanova, but the more I learned, the less interested I became in romanticizing him. For me, the broader 18th-century world was the real star here, and I would recommend this more to someone interested in the art, clothing, and culture of the period than to someone looking for a straightforward Casanova biography.

[Emmaline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a delight to savor. It was a great follow up to seeing the Casanova focused exhibit at the Legion of Honor a few years ago. My only criticism is that 1. some sections don't have cohesion within the context of the whole book - topics or stories are mentioned in some sections later on that are introduced as if for the first time, but have actually already been covered in an earlier section, just in less detail 2. The format for the historical citations was unfamiliar to me as a non-historian (e.g. H __:__ ), so I was unsure of why some things were in the back indexes and others weren't.

[Margaryta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly less in-depth/academic than I would've personally liked, with some chapters like the one on textiles being particularly sparse and general. At the same time, the catalogue really does act more as an introduction than as an authoritative work on the subject, for better or for worse. Has a nice narrative tone that makes it easy to follow along, though again, the objects included in the catalogue/exhibition could've been better contextualized within the essays themselves.

[Mark Luongo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always nice to delve into the 18th Century after you've been away from it awhile. Particularly when it pertains to such an interesting personality like Giacomo Casanova.
The book, a series of essays, itself is profusely illustrated with photos of art, furniture, porcelain,clothing and personalities that touched on the life of this unique character that was Casanova. His travels throughout Europe had him rubbing elbows with the like of Madame Pompadour, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, Voltaire and Rousseau. But the man "behind the mask" was really the seducer, the gambler, orchestra fiddler, debtor and "bon vivant" who has come down to us through history. The book will surprise you. The Age of Enlightenment was much more "saucy" than you might have thought. His "Memoirs" from what I gather should be added to my reading list!

[Sjors · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book about the art environs of the Europe that Casanova inhabited.