A gallant holiday of the XVII century as an introduction to management

Zaуtseva Nataliya Vladimirovna PhD in Art History Director General, "Voyager" LLC 194100, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Kharchenko, 1, kv. 34 nvzaytseva@mail.ru Other publications by this author

"He who loves his king loves pleasure. Whoever loves pleasure loves the one who gives it to them," wrote Samuel Chapuzot in 1674, formulating the ideology of the French royal court ^{[1, p. 93]}. In the XVII century, holidays became part of an ideological program aimed at glorifying and strengthening the royal power, turning from entertainment into a tool for managing the nobility and an important political platform. 

In the XVII century in France, under the influence of gallant aesthetics, a new secular socio-integrative model and a new typology of the holiday were formed, which not only spread throughout Europe, reached Russia and with some changes remained in the noble culture in the XVIII and XIX centuries. The typology and scenography of secular holidays that developed at that time reaches our time. 

Recently, we have seen an increased interest in the phenomenon of the holiday. There is a large number of studies devoted to their sacred, emotional, psychological and mental aspects.  However, most of the works are devoted either to religious, national and ethnographic holidays, or considered secular holidays, starting from the era of Peter the Great transformations, from the point of view of cultural innovations in the life of Russian society, apart from the European tradition. 

European, in particular, French researchers, analyzing royal divertissements, until recently did not touch on the influence of gallant aesthetics on the genesis of holidays. For example, Marie-Christine Meng, who describes in detail the scenography and typology of royal divertissements^[2]. For the first time, Alain Viala, in his monograph "Gallant France", devoted an entire chapter to royal holidays and raised the question of the influence of gallant aesthetics on their ideology and scenography ^{[3, pp. 84-110]}. This trend was continued by Pierre Gatul in an article on the dancing traditions of the French aristocracy "The military class, the dancing class and the gallant spirit" ^[4].  

The study of the holiday phenomenon has a multidimensional character. However, none of the researchers considered the festive culture of the new time from the point of view of a management tool. The historical tradition that developed after the French Revolution condemns royal divertissements for waste and luxury. In this article, the phenomenon of a gallant holiday is considered not only as an important socio-cultural phenomenon, but as an institution of elite management, a new tool of power that helped solve many economic, social and psychological problems. 

The material presented in the first part of the article demonstrates how and under the influence of what reasons secular holidays turn into a tool for managing elites.

The second part analyzes the model of the New age holiday with its typology and scenography, which arises under the influence of gallant aesthetics.  

The paper uses a functional research method, the holiday is analyzed as a management tool.

The philosophy of the holiday, as an important factor in domestic politics, was formed at the French court in the XVI century under the influence of Renaissance aesthetics. In a letter to her son Charles IX, Catherine de' Medici, referring to the experience of his grandfather and father, says that it is necessary for the pleasure of the courtiers, as well as to attract them to the court and inspire love for the monarch, twice a week to arrange balls and receptions, knightly competitions and hunting ^[5]. Madame Lozniak showed the young King Louis XIV these letters from the queen in class, the king's teacher, Monsieur de Rode, read them to him and noted that "the king listened with great attention and discussed them" ^{[6, p. 267]}. As we can see, the idea of creating an attractive image of the royal court with the help of holidays was not at all new. However, Louis XIV not only listened to these tips, but also adapted them to the changed historical context.

The transformation of holidays into a management tool occurred under the influence of specific socio-political reasons and was due to the fact that in the first half of the XVII century in France there was a process of transformation of the knightly estate into a courtier under the onslaught of the advancing monarchy ^{[7, p.75]}, the final collapse of the old feudal system with its traditional ties, which led to a crisis of values orientations. At the same time, new ties and a new social structure of the monarchy of the classical model were being formed. Against the background of these processes, royal holidays are transformed from recreation and entertainment into a powerful lever of political and social influence, which was used by the royal power.

What changes in festive culture do we see in the XVII century?

Firstly, there was a desacralization of holidays, their secularization. The holiday calendar of the XVI and XVII centuries traditionally keeps the orientation on the church calendar and fasts. However, since the middle of the XVII century, the royal ballets and divertissements have been dominated by the secular principle. First of all, because after the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church itself follows the path of mobilizing feelings and talks with believers in images. Imaginative thinking becomes a feature of the art of Catholic countries: "The mind is touched by images more than simple speech. The impressions that images have on our consciousness are much stronger than words, because what she sees has a greater impact on the soul than what she supposedly hears or what she is told," writes the famous heraldist Claude - Francois Menestrie ^{[8, p. 211]}.

The popes themselves become patrons of the theatrical art and arrange grandiose celebrations. Pope Urban VIII Barberini in 1628 began construction of a palace in Rome with a theater, which in 1632 opened with Stefan Landi's groundbreaking opera "Saint Alexy" with music, arias, dances, comic scenes. It was absolutely secular art. 

In France, under Louis XIV, the "festive season" begins to not coincide with the religious calendar. The Royal Ballet traditionally takes place in the last "fat" week on the eve of Lent. However, royal divertissements are already tied to significant political events or important dates in the life of the king and the royal family. Such an event could be either another military victory or a change of the favorite. But always the first impulse in the organization of the holiday came from the king himself. Only after the king decided to organize a holiday, the chief quartermaster gave an order to the first chamberlain, who heads the Ministry of Pleasures, and he, in turn, addressed the performers.

Secondly, entertainment has been institutionalized and its regular nature is being established. Never before had entertainment turned into a royal duty, state institutions that looked at the liberal arts as a state policy were never created: the Royal Academy of Dance (1662), the Academy of Opera (1669), the Administration of the King's Entertainment.  

The King's Entertainment Administration, dealing with ceremonies, celebrations, performances, operas and ballets was part of the administration of the King's house. At its head was the royal official - intendant "premier gentilhomme", who commanded the footmen, pages, musicians and furniture of the royal house.  

This institutionalization of holidays coincides with the general socio-political and economic reforms of the monarchy of the classical model. Strictly hierarchical institutions of power are created as the state administration is formed, which is separated from the house of the king. The entertainment administration of the king turns into a kind of ministry, for which a special building was built in 1750.

The institutionalization of entertainment, which takes place in the XVII century and persists throughout the subsequent time, suggests that the holidays performed certain economic, political, social and psychological functions.

Holidays are becoming part of a new economy - the economy of luxury. This luxury has been growing throughout the reign of Louis XIV. Here is a letter from Madame Coulange to Madame de Grignan: "All follies are made for pleasure. [...] Ladies who are also involved in these pleasures should be on top! Expenses have quadrupled. At a masquerade, they choose damasks no cheaper than 100-150 francs per elbow, and when someone, unfortunately, is forced to appear twice in the same outfit, they say about him that he probably came to Paris to dress in old clothes"^{[9, p. 446]}. 

Saint-Evremont echoes her: "Everyone dresses with extreme care. Ribbons, mirrors and lace - these are the things that the French cannot live without. Gold and silver in clothes has become commonplace, as I said, it glitters on the clothes of a variety of people. Excessive luxury makes you confuse the owner with the footman, people from the people with persons of high rank"^{[10, p. 283]}.

The royal decrees on the fight against luxury demonstrate some concern of the king about the ruin of the nobility and an attempt not to curb spending, but to introduce them into a reasonable framework. During the preparation of the ball in 1668, for example, the king even expressed a desire that all expenses should be at his expense and the invitees would only have fun. However, as Abbe Montigny said, it is impossible to control the laws of fashion, "the madness that comes up with how to spend on the style of what was saved on fabric." 

Spending on clothes was huge. The Comte de Saint-Maurice complained that the 1668 holiday cost the king 500,000 livres, but the personal expenses of the participants were incredible. Some of them spent up to 15,000 livres on outfits and jewelry, Saint-Maurice himself - 4,000 livres and he was sorry that the money went nowhere, no one appreciated the beauty of the outfit in the confusion and crush ^{[11, pp. 209-211]}. The royal power draws the aristocracy into a series of ruinous holidays for them.

Therefore, the holidays with their luxury were a kind of economic mechanism that tied the nobility to the throne. The king's sister-in-law, the Princess of Orleans, writes on this occasion: "Everyone strives to surpass the other in the luxury of carriages, tables and toilets. And, since a lot of money is needed for this, efforts are being made to get them no matter what ways" ^{[12, p. 77]}. Therefore, the impoverished nobility becomes more dependent on royal favor, posts and boarding houses. It was a powerful economic mechanism for manipulating the elites, tying them to the throne.

At the same time, when talking about spending on holidays of the past, we forget about the income that they bring both for the state treasury, private entrepreneurs, and for the economy as a whole. This is the beginning of the global process of turning festive culture into an economically profitable enterprise.

Holidays since the XVII century have become not only a demonstration of the economic well-being of the state, but also an opportunity to earn money from numerous foreigners coming to Versailles or Paris. They created an attractive positive image of the monarch, gave shine to the new rule and translated this image into hard currency.

It was understood by contemporaries. Saint-Evremont stated that Paris loves foreigners who "come here from all over the world to see the king - prince, who is very well built and perfect" ^{[10, p.287]}. The appeal of the new reign, the new festive scenography and unprecedented luxury were used by Finance Minister Colbert. 

The Duc de Luigne tells in his memoirs how at the very beginning of the reign of the Marquis de Louvois, Colbert's rival, suggested to the king the idea of a grandiose holiday - a carousel. Louis, who was in love with Louise de Lavliere at that time, had this idea in his head, and he expressed it to Colbert, noting with sadness that finances were clearly not enough now. 

Colbert asked the king how much, in his opinion, such a holiday could cost? "Three or four hundred thousand livres," the king said without hesitation. "You should not flatter yourself with hope for such a meager amount, because the holiday should be worthy of the greatness of the king who suits him and this is at least a million!" "But where can you get such a huge amount?", the king was amazed. Colbert asked the king not to take these worries into his head and only keep the idea of the holiday secret for eight days. He called the tax collectors who wanted to get land near Paris at the mercy and solved the problem with money to begin with.  Returning to the king, he said that His Majesty could announce an equestrian competition - a carousel and advised to inform all foreign courts about it. The news attracted many foreigners to Paris. Colbert, referring to the fact that everything is not yet prepared for the holiday, delayed it for two weeks, thus increasing the expenses of foreign guests and treasury revenues. When, after the end of the holiday, the king asked how much the treasury had incurred, Colbert replied that they had earned more than a million on the carousel ^[13].

This historical anecdote demonstrates well that the estimated expenses of the royal treasury for the holidays were much larger than the real ones, which is confirmed by a modern study by Sabin Shosh dedicated to the intendents of the Entertainment Administration of the king ^[14]. At this time, the foundations of the "holiday trade" are being laid, the very economic mechanism that is developing rapidly in the XX century and leads to the emergence of the modern event industry.

The next group of problems that allowed the royal power to turn holidays into a management mechanism were social problems, since "the holiday is one of the earliest and most effective public regulators" ^{[15, p. 72]}. The main social function of holidays in the XVII century is compensatory. Turning into courtiers under the pressure of the absolutist monarchy, yesterday's feudal lords lost their personal freedom, but, even more dangerously, the idea of their own greatness and significance. Therefore, the holidays performed the function of compensating for this loss. After all, the luxury of holidays gives shine not only to the monarch, but also to his court, to belong to which it becomes prestigious. The idea of the superiority of France and the king, standing at the head of all successes, inspired pride in the involvement of diverse elites. 

Historically, chivalry, which was perceived in France as a "profession of valor" ^{[16, p.8]}, looked at war as an occupation and free time for them was a rest after hostilities: "This winter should be like a long holiday after a tedious job. Not only the king and his great minister made efforts to increase the state, but also the brave warriors who did not spare themselves for this purpose should rest during the entertainment period. In addition, the people should also have fun after many worries in anticipation of success. He should get great pleasure from the acquisitions of his king, to which he himself contributed by his service and in the name of his glory"^{[17, p.89]}. Far from homogeneous nobility (tribal, provincial, service nobility, ruined feudal lords) experienced a crisis of personal orientation under the pressure of the advancing monarchy. The holidays consolidated the elites at the throne, uniting them with a common glorious past. 

A strong royal court attracts a lot of yesterday's knights, minor nobles. The mechanisms of social adaptation to the changed conditions and the new social space of the courtyard and salons have not yet started working, duels and conflicts were not uncommon between them. Ballets, carousels, divertissements allowed the energy of war to pour into the element of holidays. The battle game replaced the usual battlefield. The King managed to channel the energy of rebellion and war into a peaceful channel, which for centuries fed the knightly estate. The courtiers were in front of his eyes, involved in a series of holidays, forgot about discontent.  This is another tool of psychological management of the elites at the expense of festive culture - the splash of negative emotions and the energy of rebellion into the festive element.

At the same time, the holidays partly blurred the class framework, since the influx of visitors to the Royal Ballet or divertissement in the park of Versailles was huge. They made the government closer to the people and united the nation. The holiday allowed the subjects to contemplate the monarch and, approaching him, perhaps, draw his gaze to themselves.This is noted by many contemporaries. So the Gazette for 1636 writes about the ballet, "when the king can communicate with his subjects, without detracting at all from the authority of the ruler"^{[18, p.85]}. 

Louis XIV himself says this in his instructions to his son: "This pleasure society gives courtiers a noble intimacy with the ruler, touches them and charms them more than one can imagine"^{[19, p. 121]}. In these words, you can see a well-thought-out program of the reign. This communication was devoid of any sacredness, it was about consolidating the nation with common pleasures.  

The holiday publicly and especially vividly demonstrated the position at the court of each of the participants. The strict hierarchy of power placed the courtiers on the approach to the ruler that they could count on due to their origin, service or royal favor. The place in the festive procession or at the table becomes important, how often the monarch paid attention to you. 

An invitation to the celebration could be encouraged or put in place: "On the eve of the feast of kings, his Majesty gave a dinner for a select circle of ladies, much to the displeasure of those who were not invited" ^{[20, p. 168]}.  As outraged in letters and memoirs, courtiers or diplomats who did not get the place they expected or the inattention of the royal services to their person. Each official celebration was preceded by lengthy negotiations on the protocol and, despite this, there were a lot of offended people. 

Thus, the holiday turned into the most important tool of manipulation and encouragement, creating new privileges in the emerging system of values. In confirmation of this, we can cite a lot of parallels in subsequent eras, including the location of Soviet elites at the Mausoleum during parades on holidays, which demonstrate this control lever.

We should not forget the international political functions of the New Age holidays. The holiday is a political action, a message to foreign courts. An example is the famous holiday "The Delight of the Enchanted Island" in 1664, which was based on the plot from "Liberated Jerusalem", in which Louis XIV played the role of the knight Roger surrounded by his loyal knights, whose roles were played by former fronders. This holiday was a message to foreign courts about political stability in the kingdom, which had just passed the period of civil war. 

Or the feast after the peace in Aix-en-Chapelle in 1668, which was described by Abbot Montaigne, who was close to the court of Anne of Austria. This description was made not only to be sent to Madrid, but was also officially published in 1669 with a dedication to Monsignor Marquis de la Fuente, thus turning into a diplomatic message ^[21].

From that moment on, public holidays turn into a political message, a veiled message with many allegories and symbols understandable to contemporaries, which inform foreign states about political stability in the country, talk about its financial well-being, consolidation of the people around the throne, loyalty of the elites to the king.

And finally, the holidays put the ruler above everyone, proving the legitimacy of his power, the legitimacy of his superiority over the rest - a powerful lever of moral influence. Their luxury and extravagance could only be allowed to the king, none of the subjects could compare with him. Everything that was created was as beautiful and worthy as possible, because the king wanted this holiday to thunder and be remembered, go down in history and have no equal and, thus, would be equal to victory. Andre Felibien wrote about this: "Only a king can gather huge armies at his feet in a short time and make a conquest with such speed as we saw when all the lands were terrified, when in the middle of winter he defeated his enemies, forced to open the gates of the cities in which he appeared. Does not the great sovereign also have the ability to bring together musicians, dancers, performers and all these beauties? [...] It is obvious that His Majesty does all this with equal greatness, he is like that in peace and in war" ^{[22, p. 217]}.

Holidays become a message to posterity. The essence of the holidays was not only an understandable desire to celebrate victory, but also a desire to perpetuate it, turning the fleeting into the eternal. Therefore, books and albums with engravings, booklets were published, which told in advance the plan of action, the route of the procession or the motorcade, explained numerous allegories, described the mottos and outfits of all participants. These publications were both for internal use and were sent to foreign courts^[23]. The king's historiographers, such as Andre Felibien, were engaged in this.  

For example, a description of the carousel of 1662 with engravings was sent to all the courts of Europe. Or on the eve of the carousel of the great Dauphin in 1685, an album with costumes and explanations was published long before the start of the holiday, so that the audience could understand the slightest details, the names of the characters and the plot.  

This desire to perpetuate the holiday will persist in the following centuries, from here the published descriptions, coronation albums, photo and video chronicle of modern years originate.

Thus, we see that the festive culture is used for the first time in the history of the royal court as a complex political instrument of management and manipulation of elites, public opinion, form a positive image of the royal power in the international arena, turns into a mechanism of income, luxury trade. The secularization and institutionalization of holidays suggests that they are becoming mechanisms of public administration. 

Having considered the holidays from the point of view of their socio-political, we will now analyze them from the point of view of art. According to A. Vial, gallantry is not only a social or literary phenomenon, but an artistic phenomenon that includes all kinds of art and "we are talking about the formation of an ethos that has acquired reflexes, thanks to which the manner of behavior coincides with the manner of existence" ^{[24, p. 69]}. This is a system of views and aesthetics, which has certain features that influenced the typology of the holiday.   

This idea is confirmed by ideological changes in the festive culture. So in the second half of the reign of Louis XIV, when the king felt political stability in the country, after a series of victories over external enemies, the political background of the holidays was replaced by a cult of pleasure, play and fantasy. Throughout the XVII century, there is a gradual subordination of royal holidays to gallant aesthetics. Anne Madeleine Goulet vstatier "Louis XIV and gallant aesthetics: the formation of refined taste" expressed the opinion that between 1650-70 there was a perception of gallant aesthetics by the king, which led to the transformation of his court into a gallant one ^{[25, p. 15]}. The perception of gallant aesthetics was the lesson that the king learned after the Fronde era. The realization that it is not possible to suppress the civil war with weapons and there are no winners in it will push him to create the most attractive image of power. Versailles, with its amusements, thus became an alternative to the civil war and the Fronde.

Gallant aesthetics influence the form of holidays, their ideology changes. Until 1674, mythological ideology prevailed in all royal divertissements, there was a combination of the conventions of art and life. Symbols and allegories, mottos and colors mythologized and sacralized real events.

However, at a certain point, mythology, having played its role, faded into the past. The king achieved political stability, he no longer needed to assert himself with the help of gods and heroes to prove his greatness and glory. Changes occurred in 1674 during the Great Royal Divertissement, when the myth was replaced by life. This time can be considered the final statement of gallant aesthetics in royal divertissements.

What changes have occurred in the scenography of the holiday with the approval of a new aesthetic concept?

Under the influence of gallant aesthetics, women are invading the "male" festive culture. Gallant aesthetics is aesthetics born in the interaction of the sexes. Gallantry gives the cult of love a quasi-official status. According to Peloux, this gallant paneroticism almost mixes love and civility ^{[26, p. 78]}. 

The holidays of the Louis XIV era were dedicated to women, scripts were written on plots, which were necessarily based on a love story. For example, "The Delights of the Enchanted Island" (1664) was dedicated to Anna of Austria and Maria Theresa, but, in fact, it was the first time that Louise de la Valliere was presented as an official favorite. For the celebration, a gallant comedy-ballet "Princess Elida" was staged, in which two Greek princes are fighting for the heart of the beauty.

The great royal divertissement of 1668 with the comedy-ballet "Georges Dandin or the duped husband" marked the change of the favorite. Louise de la Valliere goes into the past and is replaced by the Marquise de Montespan. 

The name of the carousel "Brilliant Day or carousel of gallant Moors" (1686) speaks for itself. It was based on a plot from a gallant novel translated from Spanish "The History of the Civil War in Granada" about love for a concubine^[27].

Starting with the royal ballet "The Weddings of Thetis and Peleus", staged in 1654, when women, representatives of the highest aristocracy (Henrietta of England, Marquise de Villeroy, Duchess de Crequi, Princess Conti, Countess de Saint-Simon) first appeared on the stage during the royal divertissement and throughout the XVII century women took part in the most active participation in the productions. Even the knightly carousel competitions were no exception. The number of women participating in tournaments was sometimes equal to the number of men, sometimes after the "men's part" of the competitions, competitions for women were held ^{[28, p. 366]}. 

Since the XVII century, women, along with men, have become not only equal participants in the holidays, but also their inspirers and the main decoration. 

Gallant art is a secular art, so at the holidays there was a combination of art and secular life. As a socio-aesthetic and socio-artistic phenomenon, the holidays of the Louis XIV era used the entire arsenal of arts. Country residences with alleys and canals, fountains and bosquets were easily transformed into theater venues. Each holiday is a theatrical action that lasted from several hours to several days and was accompanied by dramatic performances with dance divertissements, complex machinery, dinners, fireworks. From that moment on, not only organizers or engineers were needed for the celebrations, but also set designers and directors.

Gallant aesthetics is characterized by the theatricalization of life in general and secular life in particular. Theatricality is manifested in it  as a game in the global sense of the word, as lightness and frivolity in the perception of life, "because no one takes life seriously, but everyone plays with feelings, ideas and even actions"^[29].  It is impossible to spend your whole life on the stage, so life turns into a theater. 

All this plunged the court into an ideal world, a romantic dream, gave the king the opportunity to appear before his subjects in the image of historical and literary characters. The subjects perfectly understood the significance of royal holidays and divertissements. "Mercury Galant" wrote about the opening of the royal apartments in Versailles: "There is no other ruler on earth who could give such entertainment to his court, nor a court that could so fill everything with play and match its splendor to such apartments" ^{[30, p. 62]}.

For the first time in the gallant celebrations, the participants began to play an active role, not a passive one. The king himself, and behind him all the highest nobility take part in theatrical productions and performances. The king acts as a set designer and, at the same time, as a participant in theatrical action, increasing his status. This is not a performance when you are entertained by professional actors or engineers, but when you are entertained, involved in a whirlwind of alternating action.  

The desire for diversity is inherent in gallant aesthetics. Moreover, pleasure has become associated, first of all, with diversity: "The greatest true pleasure is to change entertainment, since long-term pleasure becomes less tangible and they are changed as often as they wish"^{[30, p. 56]}.

All these features inherent in the gallant aesthetics dictate a new form of holidays - movement and a constant change of action. Set designers and directors are beginning to use the method of assembling space, dividing it into numerous platforms and creating a motion scenario. The holiday, therefore, begins to include separate entertainment events in its structure. For the first time we find such a scenography during the infamous holiday in Vaux le Vicomte in 1661, which ended with the fall of a powerful minister in a short time. It's hard to say who owns the idea of a new holiday structure. Nicolas Fouquet, Vatel, Lafontaine or Moliere, most likely, to no one individually and all together. 

But, the most important thing is that this holiday was laid down a scenario of action, which is characterized by movement and a constant change of angles. This scenography will henceforth come into use and be established for centuries. Directors of modern mass holidays write about this type of scenography, for example, V.A. Triadsky: "a holiday is a set of episodes mounted in such a way that a dynamic phenomenon resembling a circular motion, a cycle that contributes to the change of episodes" ^{[31, p. 80]}.

An example of an already established scenography can be the royal divertissement of 1668. It consisted of a walk, collations (snacks), a theatrical production, a ball, dinner and fireworks. Later, all royal holidays, regardless of whether it was a carousel or a multi-day celebration on the occasion of the victory, retain the dynamism of the action and the change of stage platforms. Not only were all the invitees in constant motion, changing venues, but there was a constant change within each action. For example, in parallel with comedy there is a ballet, poems are combined with prose, illumination is replaced by fireworks.Moreover, there was a breakdown of the holiday into separate episodes and a montage of episodes with some kind of plot or action.

This model comes to the present time - a holiday system on several sites united by a single plot. This is what modern experts call the method of installation and dismemberment of space. That is, at the court of Louis XIV, a modern scenography of the holiday is being formed. 

In the XVIII century, the grandiosity of the plans of the great century is replaced by a great attraction to refined luxury and sophistication, however, the royal power continues to take seriously the issues of holidays, as evidenced by the archives of the "Menu Plaisir" - the entertainment administration of the king. Foreign diplomats and numerous holiday albums bring every detail of royal holidays to European courts. This model is coming to Russia. An example is the holidays of the Petrine and Elizabethan eras, entertainments in Peterhof, Oranienbaum and Tsarskoye Selo.

Thus, we see that both in content and in form, the holidays of the Louis XIV era are an expression of gallant aesthetics, in scale and grandiosity they embody its apotheosis.

Having fulfilled their socio-political tasks, they preserved aesthetics, artistic form and scenography, turning into "fleeting works of art". In the XVII century, not only a new scenography and model of the holiday, which has reached our time, is being formed, but from now on holidays become a social institution and an instrument of government management.