Abstract
The Masonic Lodge embodied the new type of private societies with public effects that developed remarkably over the eighteenth century in Europe. On the contrary, the Salon, as an official exhibition of paintings, was the representation of the influence of the monarchy on artistic matters during the same period of time. Its main characteristic being to be totally opened to the population could make it join the Masonic Lodge as an alternative social space within a monarchy still claiming its complete monopoly over the public sphere. The effect of such a development of social networks was the diffusion of different ideas about society, namely to create the “Enlightenment”. Jürgen Habermas talked about the birth of a new “public sphere” in the eighteenth century, for these networks encouraged the formation of a public opinion different from the monarch's.
