In 1990 the Department of Graphic Arts at the Louvre made their holdings available to guest curatos for a programme called "Parti Pris" or "Taking Sides". Jean Starobinski, literary critic and intellectual historian from the University of Geneva, was selected as the third curator in the programme. In his exhibition and accompanying essay, Starobinski explores the theme of largesse in its broadest sense. Arguing that gift giving and receiving are fundamental human gestures, he examines graphic and textual representations from the offering of the apple to Eve to Salome's gift of the head of John the Baptist, from the giving of lawsto the gift of death.

Translated by: Jane Marie Todd