Word and Image: French Painting of the Ancien R Gime (Revised)

Title: Word and Image: French Painting of the Ancien R Gime (Revised)
Author: Norman Bryson
F: 1703940
ISBN: 9780521276542
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1983
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 300
Section: Art | History | General
Condition Note: Clean, unmarked copy with some edge wear. Good binding. Dust jacket included if issued with one. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.
Publisher Description: This 1982 book, now recognised as a classic, has done perhaps more than any other single work to change the face of art criticism in the twentieth century. Whereas previous books on French painting looked only at the history of painting as an evolution of artistic styles (baroque, rococo, neo-classical, and so on), Norman Bryson examines the evolution of narrative styles: the kinds of stories paintings tell, the ways they communicate their information, the different techniques of presenting the body as an instrument for incorporating textual messages. The procedure is applied to a number of painters: LeBrun, Watteau, Greuze, David and others, and the author demonstrates that the relation of formal and 'literary' elements was regarded by painters and critics in the eighteenth century as the primary issue to be confronted in the production of a painting.