The Philadelphia Museum of Art re-creates an 18th-century table setting in "Just Desserts"

Sweet on design?

Satisfy your artistic appetite with 'Just Desserts' in Philadelphia

June 9, 2000
Web posted at: 10:17 a.m. EDT (1417 GMT)

(CNN) -- There's always room for dessert. That's why the Philadelphia Museum of Art has lengthened to June 21 the run time of its "Just Desserts" exhibit.

It's a sweet thing, too, one highlighting elaborate table decorations used for dessert courses in the 18th century.

Don't underestimate the emphasis put on the lavish place settings and centerpieces during that period, said Donna Corbin, assistant curator of European Decorative Arts. Dessert, she said, was the culinary moment of any meal.

"In the 18th century, books were published on how to make a dessert table," she said. "It was probably the most important course, the one people lavished the most money on."

Designs by Joseph Gilliers, a confectioner for the King of Poland, inspired many of the popular centerpieces of the day. They became so acclaimed that Gilliers in 1751 published "Le Cannameliste francaise," a how-to guide for the do-it-yourself entertainer.

Gilliers' creations most often resembled gardens -- hedges and flowers, rendered in sugar paste, marzipan, and unglazed porcelain.

The design movement picked up momentum when the French Vincennes/Sevres porcelain factory introduced "biscuit figures" -- unglazed, white porcelain figres -- that successfully mimicked the color and texture of sugar-paste sculptures. They weren't as edible, but certainly lasted longer: The movment became a craze.

The centerpiece in "Just Desserts" includes Sevres' biscuit figures of children, many inspired by Francois Boucher, Etienne-Maurice Falonet and other leading 18th-century artists.

To sweeten the centerpiece, the museum enlisted food historian Ivan Day to create a sugar sculpture. Day responded with a fountain, a confection based on recipes from two centuries before.

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Philadelphia Museum of Art

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