Spolia in se at the fair, 1867-1889: a channel for Islamic reuse in nineteenth-century architecture and furniture?
Résumé
From 1867 onward, Universal Expositions became gigantic feasts of spolia in re, to borrow Brilliant's classical phrase defining stylistic reuses of the past in contemporary design. National pavilions took the form of replicas and creative interpretations of the historical architecture of the countries they represented. The furnishings displayed within their premises or on sale in the corresponding commercial galleries followed similar formulas. Much less known is the fact that spolia in se, that is material reuse, was also a fixture of many a pavilion at Universal Expositions. A case in point is Egypt which featured as early as 1867, and in subsequent fairs, authentic furnishings, as well as décors and specimens repurposing historic fragments into modern frames. When the event was over, Egypt's pavilions were dismantled and fragments reused elsewhere, as happened with the reception hall presented in 1873. A fashion for building and decorating with Islamic antiques developed in parallel in Cairo. Through selected examples, the paper proposes to uncover the range of agencies and dynamics that shaped the spread of this characteristic architectural genre, among which Egyptian displays at World's fairs and French precedents in material medievalism. Ultimately, it pleas for a proper historiographical recognition of its outcomes.
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