Preface Opening the curtain: an introduction Scenography as visual dramaturgy The challenge of ephemerality An interdisciplinary approach Outline of the chapters Chapter 1. Sceneography in the age of the Enlightenment Setting the scene: scenography as an evolution of prospettiva, a Renaissance legacy Seventeenth-century Italian paths: machinery and perspective as illusion Diverging tastes: resisting change on seventeenth-century French stages Key terms: Scénographie and Décoration, a lexical and Encyclopedic shift Reform under the Enlightenment: the tableau as a spatial and emotional configuration of the stage Chapter 2: Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824): the Italian milieu The Degotti family in Turin: origins and background Models of ambitions: the Galliari family Knowledge of the Classics and Roman encounters The establishment of a staging identity Mapping the last Italian journey: Naples Chapter 3: An Italian artist in Paris: works under the Revolution (1790-1797) The power of hometown networks in a French environment The experimental enterprise of the Thé'tre de Monsieur: a Franco-Italian repertoire A controversial example of pastiche: Le Retour aux isles des amis, ou le capitaine Cook (1790) Lodoïska (1791): fire, scenography and Revolutionary resonance Visual challenges and changing aesthetics: Eliza (1792) and Médée (1797) Degotti at the Thé'tre de la République: the exotic décor of Abufar ou la Famille Arabe (1795) Chapter 4: Power and Spectacle at the Thé'tre de l?Opéra. The Napoleonic years (1795-1810) From monarchy to empire: the Opéra?s institutional shifts and theatrical infrastructure A missed opportunity for a functional atelier de peinture (1795) Scenographic tableau in the making Between image and order: Degotti and the politics of theatrical production Staging the myth of Rome: Le Triomphe de Trajan (1807) Napoleon?s self-promotion: La Mort d?Adam (1809) The tortuous path to marketing imperialism: Fernand Cortez (1809) Chapter 5: Networks of the Napoleonic period Domestic stages: collective ventures in private scenography Standing together: Degotti and David Intimate networks: Degotti, Louise-Gabrielle Greuze, and the private legacy Chapter 6: Afterlives of a scenographer: restoration, transmission, and loss (1814-1825) Familiar faces, familiar problems: Degotti?s continued battles at the Opéra Exeunt Degotti: the final years Transmitting light: Degotti?s influence on Daugerre A quiet dispersal of an artist?s life: a brother?s role Closing the curtain: a conclusion Appendices.