Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot [Paperback]

Michael Fried (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226262138 | ISBN-13: 978-0226262130 | Publication Date: September 15, 1988 | Edition: 1st

With this widely acclaimed work, Fried revised the way in which eighteenth-century French painting and criticism were viewed and understood.

"A reinterpretation supported by immense learning and by a series of brilliantly perceptive readings of paintings and criticism alike. . . . An exhilarating book."—John Barrell, London Review of Books

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1st edition (September 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226262138
• ISBN-13: 978-0226262130
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars readable historical account that is very relevant today, July 9, 2002

By 

Jill Walker Rettberg (Bergen, Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot (Paperback)

I came to this book as someone interested in new media rather than as an art historian, and I found it fascinating. Fried uses Diderot and other eighteen century art critics' writing to understand how the beholder of paintings is positioned. He uses an abundance of paintings (reproduced in good quality black and white) and citations of art criticism to show the ways in which painted characters ignore the beholder, first by being absorbed in quiet activities, and later in self-abandonment. While the beholder is clearly set apart from the represented world in history paintings, Diderot also writes about entering landscape paintings, stepping inside the world.

I found the book very readable and thought-provoking, and relevant to far more than just eighteenth century French art. Personally I will use it in relation to our current notions of immersion and interactivity.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Organized, insightful, and elegant, September 23, 2011

By 

Richard Spurgeon - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot (Paperback)

This book is about the tension in French 18th century painting between work which is dramatically restrained on the surface and work which is more visually ebullient. The basic question is about the purpose of painting. Should painting be a portal to an internal experience for the viewer, or should painting be a form of entertainment? Fried is not judgmental about theatricality, but is much more interested in the psychology and mechanics of what he terms absorption. He explores this both through the evolved etiquette of absorption in the paintings -- the intricacies involved in showing people without exhibiting them -- and commentary about the paintings from contemporary critics. This last focuses on excerpts from Diderot, and there is a great chapter on this unique critic as well. This is genuine, as opposed to popular or overtly intellectual, art history. As a writer Fried is highly organized and readable, articulate without resorting to a an impenetrable vocabulary. He keeps the story in motion and explains clearly to the modern reader what this painting was about from the perspective of the culture that created it, also providing fascinating insights of his own. This book provides an concentrated and elegant illustration of the perennial tension in painting between form and content, sophistication and sincerity. But, much in the spirit of absorption itself during the period, Fried lets this be something the reader chooses to consider in broader terms, or not.