Salon (room)
Salon (from the French salon [ salɔ̃ ], from Italian salone , "large hall") describes a lounge , a representative reception room or a hall in a private house or a more intimate, quieter area of a hotel.
Spatial concept as the origin
The word “salon”, which can only be traced back to the year 1664 in French, is the result of a language development and was created for a large, richly decorated hall supported by columns, which often comprised two floors. Otherwise, visitors were received in rooms with names such as “cabinet”, “alcove”, “chambre” etc. The “Blue Salon” of the Marquise de Rambouillet was simply called “chambre bleue” at the time.
The term salon was first adopted for reception and representation rooms (“salons de reception”) in castles; in Versailles there is, for example, the "Salon de la Paix" or the "Salon de la Guerre". Around the middle of the 18th century, smaller, more modest and more intimate rooms were also called salons. The togetherness was also emphasized more: the “salons de reception” were now called “salons de compagnie” or “salons d'assemblie”. This form of purpose reflected the tendency towards social equality for people who travel there.
In the German language, the spatial term “salon” replaced the term “parlor” in middle-class circles around 1800.
Extension to salon conviviality
The expansion of the purely spatial term “salon” to include the so-called “conversation salons” went hand in hand with the art exhibitions that have been taking place regularly since 1737 in the “salon carré” of the Louvre . These were referred to as “salons” without any additions, so that the term in this context included both the spatial situation and the cultural, aesthetic occasion. However, this form of name was not used for salon companies until the 19th century. So one spoke only in the retrospective of the great literary ( literary salon ), artistic ( salon music ), philosophical or sophisticated “salons” of the 17th and 18th centuries.
literature
- Kirsten Baumann, Natascha Meuser: Salons der Diplomatie , DOM publications Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938666-38-8
- Petra Wilhelmy-Dollinger: The Berlin Salon in the 19th Century. 1780-1914 , Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 1989. ISBN 3-11-011891-2
