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Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot (Paperback)

by Michael Fried (Author) "THIS BOOK puts forward an interpretation of the evolution of painting in France between the early and mid-1750s-the moment, roughly, of the advent of Vien..." (more)
Key Phrases: pictorial enterprise, absorptive values, actual beholder, Van Loo, Van Dyck, Jean-Baptiste Greuze (more...)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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 (September 15, 1988)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226262138
ISBN-13: 978-0226262130
Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #557,129 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
THIS BOOK puts forward an interpretation of the evolution of painting in France between the early and mid-1750s-the moment, roughly, of the advent of Vien and Greuze-and 1781, the year David's Belisaire was exhibited at the Salon. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pictorial enterprise, absorptive values, actual beholder, absorptive character, sister doctrines, homer drawings, persuasive representation, pastoral conception, pictorial unity, being beheld, absorptive activities, absorptive states, sur les sourds, ambitious painting, physically entering, dramatic conception, sur les spectacles, painting unknown, receiving alms

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Van Loo, Van Dyck, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Baillet de Saint-Julien, Jean-Baptiste-Sim�on Chardin, Diderot's Salons, Joseph Vernet, Acad�mie Royale, Jacques-Louis David, Hubert Robert, Jean-Honor� Fragonard, Lady Macbeth, New York

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 27 books:

The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film, Enlarged Edition by Stanley Cavell in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Must We Mean What We Say?: A Book of Essays by Stanley Cavell in Back Matter
MONET HIS CRITICS (Outstanding dissertations in the fine arts) by Levine in Back Matter
Art and Social Life by G.V. Plekhanov in Back Matter
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Bloom's Modern Critical Views) by Harold Bloom in Back Matter

See all 27 books this book cites

100 books cite this book:

The Surprising Effects of Sympathy: Marivaux, Diderot, Rousseau, and Mary Shelley by David Marshall on 4 pages
Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution by Joan B. Landes in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
The King's Midwife: A History and Mystery of Madame du Coudray by Nina Rattner Gelbart in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
CONSUMING FANTASIES: LABOR, LEISURE, AND THE LONDON SHOPGIRL, by LISE SHAPIRO SANDERS in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Ingres and his Critics by Andrew Carrington Shelton in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

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Books on Related Topics (learn more)

A Short History of Art, Seventh Edition by Anthony F. Janson

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Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris by Professor Thomas Crow

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A Social History of Modern Art, Volume 1 by Albert Boime

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Art and Objecthood by Michael Fried

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	82% buy the item featured on this page: Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot 4.0 out of 5 stars (1) $20.48
	8% buy Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) $28.80
	7% buy Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before 1.8 out of 5 stars (9) $34.65
	2% buy After Photography 4.0 out of 5 stars (4) $19.77

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17 of 17 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

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.

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