ABSTRACT
Whatever disagreements exist about the general significance of spectacle as an element in urban affairs, few commentators deny its role as a readily identifiable thread in the cultural history of Western cities. This chapter samples this diverse, if fluctuating, tradition, providing a historical overview from Antiquity through to the early nineteenth century. There are four main sections. We begin by recognising the interplay of spectacle and cultural festivals in the Age of Antiquity, focusing on the public games, theatre and civic ceremonies of ancient Greece and Rome. The next part examines the round of festivals, fairs and ceremonies that enlivened and, in some respects, mitigated the hardships of everyday life in medieval Europe. The ensuing section considers the splendour and ambition of princely pageantry from the thirteenth through to the nineteenth century, examining a genre of consciously orchestrated events that harnessed spectacle to address vital interests of the ruling political elite. The final part of the chapter continues the ideological theme, by examining the revolutionary festival in late eighteenth-century France, focusing on the work of Jacques-Louis David, the pageant-master of the First French Republic.
