Staging the Table in Europe 1500–1800

February 17–July 9, 2023

Curated by Deborah L. Krohn, associate professor and chair of academic programs

Support for Staging the Table in Europe 1500–1800 was generously provided by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and Joseph S. Piropato.

Additional support provided by Cafaro Foundation, the Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Suzanne Slesin and Michael Steinberg, and other donors to Bard Graduate Center.

Occupying the third floor of the Bard Graduate Center Gallery, Staging the Table in Europe 1500–1800 was the culmination of years of research by curator Deborah L. Krohn. It presented sixteenth- and seventeenth-century manuals and handbooks containing instructions for folding table linens and carving meats and fruits alongside exquisite tools used for this purpose. The themes explored in the exhibition included carving manuscripts as objects, the carver as tableside performer, table linen folding, and the carving tools themselves. Together they depicted a rich material culture of the dinner table. The exhibition was accompanied by a beautifully considered catalogue designed by Jocelyn Lau.

The in-gallery experience included digital interactives designed and created by BGC students in Krohn’s fall 2022 “In Focus” course. One interactive brought to life a deck of “carving cards” from the seventeenth century, with each of the four suites of traditional playing cards presenting a different kind of food. The cards displayed recipes and images and diagrams from carving manuals.

BGC held a symposium on March 31, 2023, in conjunction with Staging the Table. “Instruments of Dining” featured speakers Ivan Day, Molly Taylor-Poleskey, Elizabeth Weinfield, and Evelyn Lincoln. They explored themes of performance around the table, considering English coronation feasts, German court carvers, and musical accompaniments to dining.

Public Humanities + Research planned exhibition-related programs that included “Settings and Sound,” a lecture interwoven with short musical interludes performed on period instruments by the chamber ensemble Sonnambula, and a linen-folding demonstration with virtuoso napkin folder Joan Sallas.

The exhibition generated enthusiasm in the press. Camille Okhio from Elle Decor praised the exhibition for dissecting and celebrating banqueting and dining culture. She said, “Bard Graduate Center’s new show, Staging the Table in Europe, lays out the manifold ways in which entertaining at home really was entertaining. In the center’s historic townhouse setting, artistry of the table is put on full display. . . . Another show like this has not opened in New York for many years. It’s impossibly special.”