Fleshing out surfaces: Skin in French art and medicine, 1650-1850 (Rethinking Art's Histories) - Hardcover

Fend, Mechthild

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719087961 ISBN 13: 9780719087967

Verlag: Manchester University Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

A strong and insightful work which argues that skin is not just any surface an artist can represent, but a highly overdetermined one. Focusing on five French painters - Fragonard, David, Girodet, Benoit and Ingres - it spans the fields of history of art and of medicine.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mechthild Fend is Reader in History of Art at University College London

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Fleshing out surfaces considers flesh and skin in art theory, image making and medical discourse in seventeenth- to nineteenth-century France. It describes a gradual shift between the early modern and the modern period and argues that what artists made when imitating human nakedness was not always the same. Initially understood in terms of the body's substance, of flesh tones and body colour, it became increasingly a matter of skin, skin colour and surfaces.

Skin is the most significant surface for artistic imitation and flesh has often been described as a privileged site of life and lifelikeness. Skin and flesh entertain complex metaphorical relationships with artefacts, images and image making: fabricated surfaces are often described as skins, skin and colour have a longstanding connection and paint is frequently associated with flesh. This book traces the shift in the terminology of art theory and in the practices of painting, as well as engraving, colour printing and drawing. Each chapter is dedicated to a different notion of skin and its colour, from flesh tones via a membrane imbued with nervous energy to hermetic borderline. Looking in particular at works by Fragonard, David, Girodet, Benoist and Ingres, the focus is on portraits, as facial skin is a special arena for testing and theorising painterly skills and a site where the body and the image made of it become equally expressive.

Fleshing out surfaces is essential reading for scholars and students of art history, visual culture, the medical humanities, the history of science and French history.

Aus dem Klappentext

Fleshing out surfaces considers flesh and skin in art theory, image making and medical discourse in seventeenth- to nineteenth-century France. It describes a gradual shift between the early modern and the modern period and argues that what artists made when imitating human nakedness was not always the same. Initially understood in terms of the body's substance, of flesh tones and body colour, it became increasingly a matter of skin, skin colour and surfaces. Skin is the most significant surface for artistic imitation and flesh has often been described as a privileged site of life and lifelikeness. Skin and flesh entertain complex metaphorical relationships with artefacts, images and image making: fabricated surfaces are often described as skins, skin and colour have a longstanding connection and paint is frequently associated with flesh. This book traces the shift in the terminology of art theory and in the practices of painting, as well as engraving, colour printing and drawing. Each chapter is dedicated to a different notion of skin and its colour, from flesh tones via a membrane imbued with nervous energy to hermetic borderline. Looking in particular at works by Fragonard, David, Girodet, Benoist and Ingres, the focus is on portraits, as facial skin is a special arena for testing and theorising painterly skills and a site where the body and the image made of it become equally expressive.Fleshing out surfaces is essential reading for scholars and students of art history, visual culture, the medical humanities, the history of science and French history.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Manchester University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0719087961
• ISBN 13: 9780719087967
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 348
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland