Side Elevation and Perspective of Grand Ballroom n.d.

Domenico Cagnoni's "Side Elevation and Perspective of Grand Ballroom" is a monochrome print offering a glimpse into the architectural and social landscape of its time. This print depicts the hall decorated for the wedding celebrations of Prince Antoine Clemente de Saxe with the Princess Caroline de Savoye. The print offers more than just an architectural rendering, it invites us to consider the performance of class, the theater of courtly life, and the power dynamics inherent in such spaces. The figures that populate the ballroom, though small, are carefully placed, suggesting a hierarchy and order that mirrored the broader social structure. There is a tension here between the celebration of love and the display of power. The ballroom, in all its grandeur, is a stage upon which identities are performed and reinforced. Consider the labor required to create such a space, the stories of those who built it, and the many unseen hands that sustained it. This print then is not just a document of a ballroom but a reflection on the society that conceived it.