The eloquence of color : rhetoric and painting in the French Classical Age / Jacqueline Lichtenstein ; translated by Emily McVarish.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lichtenstein, Jacqueline.

Series:

New historicism ; 18.

New historicism : studies in cultural poetics ; 18

Standardized Title:

Couleur éloquente. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Painting, French.

Painting, Modern--17th century--France.

Painting, Modern.

Painting, Modern--18th century--France.

France.

Ut pictura poesis (Aesthetics).

Classicism in art--France.

Classicism in art.

Physical Description:

xii, 269 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [1993]

Summary:

In this richly suggestive contribution to the theory of art, Jacqueline Lichtenstein discusses the importance of color in reconciling ancient differences between rhetoric and painting. The visible world had been suspect since Plato accused the Sophists of relying on rhetorical show, of being in effect makeup artists. Before the 17th century, these differences were manifest in a valorization of design over color.

But in the 17th century, the image suddenly becomes an essential agent of thought. Rhetorical color is revalued along with color in painting, with cosmetics, and with all that belonged to the feminine, as a sensual force necessary to reconcile reason and pleasure, action and passion. Lichtenstein thus identifies a major shift in European theories of meaning, of gender, and of the relationship between the word and the image.

Notes:

Translation of Couleur éloquente: rhétorique et peinture à l'âge classique.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-259) and index.

ISBN:

0520069072

OCLC:

23694063