Design for a Stage Set: Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba under a Baldacchino, with Fantastical Architecture and a Gardenscape. 1728 - 1778

Editor: So, this is "Design for a Stage Set: Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba" by Carlo Galli Bibiena, likely created between 1728 and 1778. It’s ink, etching and drawing on paper. It feels incredibly theatrical, almost overwhelming. What kind of impact do you think this design would have had? Curator: It’s important to consider how stage design, particularly in the Baroque period, served a public function. It wasn't just entertainment, it was spectacle! Bibiena's designs often portrayed rulers in a grandiose, almost allegorical way. These kinds of scenes were integral to how power projected itself. Consider where performances like this took place and for whom? Editor: Ah, like a propaganda piece, almost? It’s definitely opulent, but knowing that the elites probably enjoyed these displays and controlled the narrative makes it less appealing to me, I must admit. Curator: Precisely! This image underscores the relationship between art, power, and public perception. Did the Queen of Sheba even truly visit King Solomon, and does that matter here? Think about the role that the museum plays in contextualizing art, and shaping an audience’s perception and political understanding. What biases might a curator need to address? Editor: I see what you mean. It's a drawing for a play but beyond entertainment, it communicates how leaders wished to be seen, both then and now. Thank you; I am taking away more questions than answers today. Curator: Excellent! Engaging with art history should provoke that deeper critical questioning and I would just like to say that stage designs help us consider how visual imagery was, and is, still used to reinforce hierarchies and project power in society.