Scene per un mondo nuovo. Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant e il Famous Women Dinner Service

Abstract

In 1933-34, the Bloomsbury Group painters Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell honored twelve actresses and dancers from XVIIto XXcentury in The Famous Women Dinner Service, the Wedgewood dinner set which was one of Bell and Grant’s most spectacular joint commissions, the evidence of their dedication to different genres and media and the impressive testament of their close working partnership. Having onlyjust come to light, and first publicly exhibited in 2017 with the whole set, the portraits offer exciting new material for research and discussion: this essay try to unravel the many connections that tie Bell and Grant to the dramatic stage and to explorethe approach of Bloomsbury Group members to theatre as a space of freedom and of experiments of living and working to (try to) change the world.