Valérie Font

Valérie Font (1995, France) is a doctoral student at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and a member of the Savoir et Pratique Artistiques du Moyen Age à l’époque contemporaine research laboratory. Her thesis is entitled: Aux origines de la manufacture de la Savonnerie: Pierre Dupont et le tapis dit “façon de Perse et du Levant” sous les règnes de Henri IV et de Louis XIII. Following on from her Master’s research, she is continuing her exploration of the textile field through carpets. More generally, she is interested in interior decoration and trade in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. She currently teaches at the École des Arts Textiles du Mobilier National.

Her research project focuses on orders for so-called “Persian and Levant style” carpets made by French workshops in the early XVIIᵉ century. Two particularly rare specimens for this period can be traced back to members of the Barberini family. Through these examples, and thanks to the examination of archives, the aim is to shed new light on the economic and social dimensions of this textile work, while questioning taste, commissioning practices and Italian interior decoration of the period. Carpets emerged as an essential element in the living environment of the elite, revealing their social status and their cultural and commercial networks.