The picturesque : architecture, disgust and other irregularities / John Macarthur.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macarthur, John, 1958-

Series:

Classical tradition in architecture

The classical tradition in architecture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Picturesque, The, in architecture.

Aesthetics, Modern.

Physical Description:

xv, 295 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2007.

Summary:

The term picturesque once meant a radical blurring of art and life - a reordering of hierarchies of taste and of relations between the arts of architecture, painting and landscaping. Today, the idea of understanding experience through images is so ubiquitous, and the technology for doing this so sophisticated, that the word picturesque is frequently used to describe aesthetic failure, trivial cultural products and naive tastes. In this fresh and authoritative account of the picturesque, John Macarthur presents the eighteenth-century idea in the light of its reception and effects on modern culture. The series of essays explains the theory of the picturesque thematically, drawing on its history and present issues as much as on its original formulation. Macarthur offers a major overview of the picturesque: what the concept of the 'picture' does in the picturesque and how this relates to modern theories of the image, and where visual values such as irregularity' become the basis of modern architectural planning. The picturesque is a matter of cultural history, yet there is a little understanding of how its concepts techniques remain at work in contemporary culture. This is an important new account, which will make engaging reading for all those studying architecture, art history, cultural history or visual studies.

Contents:

Pictures

Disgust

Irregularity

Appropriation

Movement.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [262]-284) and index.

ISBN:

9781844721412

1844721418

9781844720118

184472011X

OCLC:

79860843