Focus on Venice 2024
CHANGE OF VENUE
March 14 at 6:00PM Incognito: the 'Comte de Lusace' on the Grand Cure in Italy, 1738-40 by Maureen Cassidy-Geiger The unpublished travel accounts of Crown Prince Friedrich Christian (1722-63) of Saxony/Poland, a disabled teenager touring Italy in 1738-40 as 'Comte de Lusace'. His peers were going to Italy for the Grand Tour: art, landscapes, music, rare foods, and elegant society. Our Prince doesn't want to miss out on this opportunity because of his handicap and manages to go, enjoying the same opportunities as his luckier peers, while searching for a cure. In his future there is the succession to his father as Prince Elector of Saxony, a marriage and 9 children. Italy did him good! |
Door open at 5:30PM at AISPhila office
Aperitif by Gran Caffe' L'Aquila
Presentation 6:00PM
Q&A
Aperitif by Gran Caffe' L'Aquila
Presentation 6:00PM
Q&A
This lecture will explore the tour of Italy undertaken in 1738-40 by the Crown Prince of Saxony, Friedrich Christian (1722-63). The prince was disabled from birth by what is thought to have been cerebral palsy and traveled to Italy for a cure. As was customary, the boy traveled incognito, as the Comte de Lusace. He spent time in several Italian cities including six months in Venice, where he resided in Ca’Foscari, under the care of the Pisano Mocenigo family.
Fortunately for us, the prince was an avid diarist; hence, we have his own personal accounts of his two year odyssey abroad, as well as the detailed journals of his devoted majordomo, the Italian-born Count Wackerbarth-Salmour. Ms Cassidy-Geiger has twice driven the prince’s entire itinerary, starting in Dresden, and has conducted research in Naples, Rome and Venice, as well as in Dresden. For our lecture, she will present aspects of his time in Venice, where he arrived ahead of Christmas 1739 and remained until June 1740. Ms Cassidy-Geiger's research on the Crown Prince of Saxony, Friedrich Christian, led to the 2018 exhibition The Grand Cure, at the Dresden State Museum as well as numerous lectures and essays.
Fortunately for us, the prince was an avid diarist; hence, we have his own personal accounts of his two year odyssey abroad, as well as the detailed journals of his devoted majordomo, the Italian-born Count Wackerbarth-Salmour. Ms Cassidy-Geiger has twice driven the prince’s entire itinerary, starting in Dresden, and has conducted research in Naples, Rome and Venice, as well as in Dresden. For our lecture, she will present aspects of his time in Venice, where he arrived ahead of Christmas 1739 and remained until June 1740. Ms Cassidy-Geiger's research on the Crown Prince of Saxony, Friedrich Christian, led to the 2018 exhibition The Grand Cure, at the Dresden State Museum as well as numerous lectures and essays.
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger is an independent curator and scholar with special expertise in European decorative arts and Dresden court culture of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, focusing on diplomatic gifts, food history and court dining, Meissen porcelain, and the Grand Tour. A native of New Hampshire, Maureen attended Wellesley College and received her Masters Degree from Parsons School of Design. She resides in New York.