Tag Archives: Comte de Caylus

Antique Eurythmics: “TABLEAU VIVANTS” at POMPEII

When the ruins of Pompeii came to light, they caused a revolution in taste- stripping away rococo gilt, reshaping the female figure, and leaving a deposit of pseudo-Greek temples from Moscow to Mississippi; although what sometimes passed for “classical” would … Continue reading

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FROM POMPEII to Madame de Pompadour:Games People Play

When the volcano Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as a host of luxury villas overlooking the Bay of Naples. That ancient tragedy was a gift to the modern world: the … Continue reading

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IMPOSSIBLE WORLD: DISILLUSIONED SOULS AS A REFRAMED VALUE

Jean Antoine Watteau( 1684-1721) was thirty-three when he painted “Embarkation” . Two years later in 1719 he went to London to sonsult Dr. Richard mead, the queen’s physician, and was there subjected to such treatment as the best medical knowledge … Continue reading

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WATTEAU:EMBEDDED LANGUAGE AS AN ART OF LIVING

There is always two contradictory dimensions which Watteau’s paintings contain. On the one hand there is melancholy pleasure signifying sadness, the metaphysics of pleasure; on the other hand, a libertine pleasure without any metaphysical meaning, pleasure which signifies only itself: … Continue reading

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WATTEAU & UTOPIA ON STANDBY: THE GHOSTS OF STYLE

Should we let bygones be bygone eras?These are precious, because Watteau’s paintings so unmistakably draw meaning from and give memorable form to a certain now far distant subculture.He is a master of in-between situations….Watteau introduced just such a change of … Continue reading

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FORBIDDEN WORLD:IN THE SHADOW OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

The forbidden world of Watteau. The witness of a life he could not share; one of France’s greatest painters transformed reality into the most poetic and lyrical visions in the history of art…. “This artist who said hardly anything about … Continue reading

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