Napoleon and History Painting: Antoine-Jean Gros's La Bataille d'Eylau (Hardcover)

by Christopher Prendergast (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This is the first full-length study of Antoine-Jean Gros from an art-historical point of view, but it is more than a monograph. It uses the example of Gros to examine a more general crisis of history painting at a time (the Napoleonic period) of major political and cultural transition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198174020
• ISBN-13: 978-0198174028
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,155,240 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An agonizing synedoche, September 30, 2001

By A Customer

This book is really awful to read.
There is first the author's inexplicable need to quote extensively in French thruout this book. I don't read French and fail to understand why the author writes in English and quotes extensively in another language. Then it struck me - he is a learned man, being educated in the humanities in English, French and presumably, Latin as well (says so in his background).
Then there is his use of words which do not even occur in any dictionary, thesaurus or great books on organised words that I consulted. I guess that he was making a synedochic point about words and grammar.
Finally, his analysis on the one famous painting about the battle of Eylau by JL Gros and that green clad Prussian soldier with the wild look in the corner of the painting. Ah, that I understand except that he got it wrong. That's a Russian soldier being depicted.
He'll need to brush up on his military history if he wants a career outside of art criticism.