From Publishers Weekly
The amorous exploits of the gods and their mortal lovers provided 18th-century French painters with an opportunity to depict the female nude and please their wealthy Parisian patrons. Aside from their technical mastery and sheer beauty, the pictures reproduced in this hefty catalogue may tempt readers to dip into Homer or Ovid to better grasp the moral allegories that unfold in the works of Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, David and 23 other artists. Bailey, senior curator at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Tex., and organizer of the traveling exhibition, focuses on the flowering of mythological art under Louis XV, stressing the erudition and inventiveness of painters often too readily dismissed as frivolous or decorative. With 100 color plates, 359 halftones and essays by six scholars, this tome brings to light an art that even today startles with its daring intensity and radiant harmonies.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The elaborate catalog of an exhibition held in Paris, Philadelphia, and Fort Worth, this book focuses on depictions in 18th-century French painting of the amorous activities of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses by such luminaries as Boucher, Fragonard, Watteau, and David, as well as lesser-known artists. Essays by French and American scholars consider particular myths and general questions about 18th-century taste. Catalog entries are full and detailed, with a wealth of comparative materials and illustrations. This entrancing and seductive topic, long an inspiration for painters, is here given a full, lush treatment that general audiences as well as scholars will appreciate.
- Jack Perry Brown, Ryerson & Burnham Libs., Art Inst. of Chicago
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Jack Perry Brown, Ryerson & Burnham Libs., Art Inst. of Chicago
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
