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The Brooklyn Museum

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Catherine de Rambouillet




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Judy Chicago (American, b. 1939). The Dinner Party (Heritage Floor; detail), 1974–79. Porcelain with rainbow and gold luster, 48 x 48 x 48 ft. (14.6 x 14.6 x 14.6 m). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10. © Judy Chicago. Photograph by Jook Leung Photography

Catherine de Rambouillet
b. 1588, Rome; d. 1665, Paris

Catherine de Rambouillet, aristocrat and salon hostess, shaped the style of French literature in the first half of the seventeenth century. After marrying at a young age, Rambouillet established a salon as a rival to the court of Henry IV, which she considered morally depraved. Her salon encouraged eloquent expression of ideas and was known for its mixture of nobles and literary figures. It also exerted conformist pressures on French classical literature, a tendency that was later critiqued by Molière in Les précieuses ridicules (1658).

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Last updated March 21, 2007.
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