Review
The Matter of Sculpture
Eighteenth - Century Studies, Vol.43(4), pp.505-508
07/01/2010
DOI: 10.1353/ecs.0.0133
Abstract
At the salon exhibitions, works of sculpture were enthusiastically received and written about in salon criticism. sculpture also played metaphorical and symbolic roles when represented in painting and prints. the author signals the importance of sculpture as a primary visual language of the period and a form of mass communication that existed not only in large-scale monuments but also in reductions and copies. thus, sculpted figures were widely disseminated. the book gives insight into sculpture as a public art, funerary imagery, and tomb sculpture, the relationship between sculpture and idolatry as it was understood in the eighteenth century, the continuing paragone debates, the sculptor's role and status in French society and culture, and the depictions of sculpture in other visual media. throughout her study Weinshenker calls attention to the breadth and variety of eighteenth-century writings on sculpture that engage specific artists, the role and functions of sculpture, the merits of antique versus modern sculpture, etc. her book serves to demonstrate that sculpture was exalted in eighteenth-century France during the ancien régime and as such merits much more art historical attention and investigation. her end point is the revolution, and therefore she does not engage late-eighteenth-century developments in neoclassical sculptural aesthetics, such as those embraced by Jacques-Louis David, who transformed his early style through his study and use of sculpture and helped forge, through his aesthetics and training of sculptors, the first generation of romantic sculptors such as Pradier, rude, and David d'Angers (attested to by both Delacroix and stendhal).
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Matter of Sculpture
- Creators
- Dorothy Johnson
- Resource Type
- Review
- Publication Details
- Eighteenth - Century Studies, Vol.43(4), pp.505-508
- Publisher
- Johns Hopkins University Press; Baltimore
- DOI
- 10.1353/ecs.0.0133
- ISSN
- 0013-2586
- eISSN
- 1086-315X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/01/2010
- Academic Unit
- Art and Art History
- Record Identifier
- 9984398326602771
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