Fragonard's playful paintings : visual games in Rococo art / Jennifer D. Milam.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Milam, Jennifer Dawn, 1968-

Series:

Critical perspectives in art history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré, 1732-1806--Criticism and interpretation.

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré.

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré, 1732-1806.

Recreation in art.

Art, Rococo.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xiv, 191 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed in the USA by Palgrave, 2006.

Summary:

The art of Jean-Honore Fragonard embodies the pervasive culture of play in eighteenth-century France. His interactive paintings and drawings invite beholders to engage in a visual game of interpretation through subject, form and theme. This book not only examines Fragonard's art through close analyses of individual works, but also considers the role of the viewer within a variety of contexts related to social behaviour, philosophy, literature and aesthetics. More than any other artist from the period, Fragonard produced images of play that evidence the ludic impulses of ancien regime thought and expose the underlying significance of eighteenth-century frivolity.

Fragonard's playful paintings is the first critical analysis of the function of play as artistic concept and visual experience in Rococo art. Focused on bringing students and specialists closer to works of art, the book addresses what we see in order to understand better how paintings about play can stimulate playful ideas through dynamic exchanges between artist, image and beholder. The book is an important addition to research on the Rococo period for art historians, and will also appeal more broadly to those interested in the cultural history and aesthetic ideas of eighteenth-century France.

Contents:

1 The interpretive challenges of a blindman's game 19

First readings: emblem and experience 22

Blind passion and reasoned love: new rules of play 28

Playful companies: finding alternatives to le gros jeu 33

Blindness and the interpretive game 40

2 Visual vertigo and the swinging scenes 52

The happy hazards of artistic play 53

Visual vertigo and The little swing 61

'Seeing' differently: discerning the relativity of vision 66

3 Picturing creativity and the imagination in children's play 73

Play and the visual invention of childhood 74

From absorption to imaginative recreation 86

Mimicry and the art of make-believe 95

4 Interpretive play between pendants 104

A guessing game 107

Determining the stakes in aesthetic play 110

Forfeits and the masking function of kissing games 112

Stacking the deck in erotic games and art 116

Interpretive challenges: The bolt and The Adoration 123

Relating play to decoration 129

5 Decoration and the playful space 139

Rococo decorative traditions and the theme of play 144

Maintaining class distinctions and building public bonds 148

Spectatorship as a preferred form of experience 156

The grand scheme of play in art and decoration 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [176]-185) and index.

ISBN:

0719075165

9780719075162

OCLC:

71238970