La Décoration et du Feu d'Artifice... la Naissance de Monseigneur le Daufin (Fireworks Celebrating the Birth of the Dauphin) 1782

Curator: Look at this, a print capturing a spectacle. It's titled "La Décoration et du Feu d'Artifice... la Naissance de Monseigneur le Daufin (Fireworks Celebrating the Birth of the Dauphin)" by Victor Jean Nicolle, dated 1782. Editor: Fireworks make everything seem celebratory, don't they? Even in monochrome here, you can almost feel the whoosh of it all. It is very dramatic. Curator: The engraving really gets the grand scale across, and what it doesn't immediately show is the degree of labor that went into creating the entire event. Consider the making of the fireworks, the architectural construction just for this ephemeral event, the city resources devoted to this propaganda effort. Editor: It is an astonishing bit of city branding. Those baroque curves and swirls are saying a lot, it’s really extra but for the arrival of an heir I guess it’s kind of right. Curator: Exactly. The image reveals so much about social priorities and power structures. This wasn't just entertainment. It's about communicating the legitimacy and strength of the monarchy and the Bourbon Dynasty's position. We must think about the labor of artisans, too—from those crafting the paper and ink to those physically setting off the fireworks. This print memorialises their labor just as much as the event itself. Editor: Makes me think about how fleeting and fragile those fireworks were against a system, you know, that everyone just assumed would keep existing for centuries more. And then...poof! Curator: And this print now exists as documentation of a very particular, fleeting moment in time and as the physical manifestation of all of that labor! Editor: Funny, how what’s left behind tells as much as the intention of the original event, isn’t it? An engraving that reminds us that even light is fleeting.