L'esthetique de la lettre dans le roman et dans la peinture du XVIIIe siecle ou la representation de la scene de lecture et d'ecriture

One can not question the fact that a motif of a letter occupies a very significant position in the eighteenth century French paintings and literature . Although the motif of a woman reading a letter was used much earlier by the Dutch painters such as Vermeer, there are also many eighteenth century French painters (Raoux, Fragonard, Chardin or Pierre), who show women devoted to this particular activity. Thus, the popularity of letters in literature and art results from an important role correspondence played at tha t time. This paper emphasizes the description of a process of writing letters by a protagonist and its further influence on th e receiver’s emotional and physical state of mind and body. Letters comprise a source of pleasure for both — a writer and a reader. In painting, a letter serves as the key to the interpretatio n of a painting, though its content is neither revealed nor comprehensible. The way of presenting characters and space, and a central position of a letter in the considered paintings may determine the interpretation — it can be treated as a signal of a relationship between lovers or its reminiscence. Considering the intimacy of the presented scene and a confidential character of a love letter, the canvas can differently predispose the receivers and make them think about sentimental intrigues

Atrium

Architectural history has overlooked the significance of one of its oldest and most fundamental elements. Present at the origins of architecture and characteristically essential to almost any contemporary design (over two floors), the atrium consistently finds itself in the lapse of history’s judgment - perhaps due to its consistent presence. The atrium has ranged from the hole in primitive shelters for smoke management, to its introduction as a proper space in the Roman domus and finally manifesting itself at its most extravagant in Portman’s hotel designs. However, as the atrium acts as the auspice for all vertical openings in a building, it is at once the space - in the form of the courtyard - that protects primitive tribes from surrounding threats - and elsewhere, the mezzanine, allowing the viewer to see the stage in the theatre for the upper class. But it is this same variability that makes the atrium everywhere and nowhere, causing its most important contribution to architecture and society to go unnoticed. As the central space in the building in which people gather, the atrium is an element of collectivity that has played a core historical role, as a catalyst or antagonist, in the urban development of mankind through social interaction

Workers in the streets : an assessment of labor mobilizations in Buenos Aires, 1888-1896

En la última década del siglo XIX se produjo un destacado salto en la agitación obrera en la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Si bien el eje de la actividad de las sociedades y comisiones obreras fue la agitación huelguística, a lo largo de todos estos años los trabajadores porteños también llevaron adelante otro tipo de acciones, entre las cuales se destacan una serie de importantes movilizaciones callejeras. En muchos casos eran manifestaciones convocadas por gremios que se encontraban en conflicto y pretendían con una movilización callejera difundir sus reivindicaciones y reforzar su capacidad de presión frente a los empresarios. En otros casos se trataba de manifestaciones convocadas para celebrar el aniversario de una sociedad de resistencia o algún otro evento importante para la vida de los gremios obreros. En este artículo desarrollamos un análisis específico sobre las características, asistencia, recorridos, dinámica y discursos de estas movilizaciones obreras, así como de la respuesta que recibieron por parte de las autoridades y la policía, que estuvieron lejos de tener una actitud condescendiente para con los trabajadores movilizados.In the last decade of the 19th century, a strong wave of labor unrest hit Buenos Aires. Even though the main activities of labor unions were those related with organizing strikes, during these years "porteño" workers also organized other activities, among them many important mobilizations and rallies over the streets of the city. Some of these were called by striking unions, that wanted to promote their claims through street rallies. In other cases, workers' mobilizations were called to celebrate union's anniversaries or other important events in the social life of labor organizations. This paper assesses the main features of this kind of mobilizations, their attendance, geographical delimitation and political characteristics, and also the answer they received from the government and the police--which was certainly not a condescendent one.Fil: Poy, Lucas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto Gino Germani

Danser seule au XVIIIe siècle : un espace féminin de création et transmission ?

Cette étude propose des hypothèses sur l’affirmation d’un statut professionnel et sur la construction des représentations de la danseuse par la danse en solo sur la scène de l’Académie royale de musique à Paris, pendant la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle. L’objectif est d’identifier les jalons d’un processus qui contribue à faire de la danseuse soliste une figure paradigmatique de l’histoire du ballet et plus largement de la culture européenne. Une attention particulière sera portée à la pièce Les Caractères de la danse, une fantaisie musicale de Jean-Féry Rebel (1715), dont la conception et la chorégraphie sont attribuées à la danseuse Françoise Prévost (1680-1741), qui la dansa probablement en solo. Une fois reprise par d’autres danseuses à qui elle aurait été transmise, cette pièce devint un test d’interprétation, d’invention et de popularité pour plusieurs d’entre elles à des moments clés de leur carrière. L’analyse de ses traces et de sa réception durant la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle permet d’interroger les pratiques des exhibitions en solo, les rituels de passage dans la carrière d’une soliste et les modalités d’imprégnation et d’appropriation des modèles de créativité féminine, vers une nouvelle esthétique de l’expression.This paper presents some hypotheses about the way that the solo dance became a means for establishing the professional status of the female dancer and for creating her image on the stage of the Académie royale de musique during the first half of the 18th century. Its aim is to identify the stages in a process that helped to make the solo female dancer a paradigmatic figure in the history of ballet and, even more so, in European high culture. It focuses in particular on the Les Caractères de la danse, a fantasie musicale by Jean-Féry Rebel (1715), whose choreography and interpretation has been attributed to the female dancer Françoise Prévost (1680-1741) who probably performed it as an item in a solo recital. Once restaged by or transmitted to other female dancers, this piece became a test of a dancer’s abilities as an interpreter, and as an inventive performer, and as a test of popularity for a number of these dancers at key moments in their careers. An analysis of steps and of the reception of this piece in the first half of 18th century, allows an examination of the practices of the solo performance, the rites of passage in the career of a female soloist, and the propagation and appropriation of female models of creativity, leading towards a new aesthetic of expression

Dare to wear: performing the prohibition of indiennes on the streets of Paris

This is the final version. Available on open access from Routledge via the DOI in this recordThis chapter analyses a set of Paris police documents from 1727-1738 that record infractions of the protectionist ban on wearing indiennes. These were popular colourful fabrics imported from the East, which were also imitated by European manufacturers. Enforcement of the multiple legislations passed in France during the long period of prohibition (1686-1759) was draconian and inequitable. Women, predominantly from lower and middle classes, were spied upon, named, shamed and fined. As with present day controversies over the hijab, women’s dress was a flashpoint for wider societal debates. The series of ordonnances issued by René Hérault, Lieutenant Général de Police, exhibit a dual performance of upholding and breaking the law, enacted through textual, visual and spatial strategies. As the scopic legal gaze is lured by the exotic and feminine, the subversive properties of indiennes present an opportunity for wider social change

The Deceptive Surface: Perception and Sculpture’s “Skin”

In the eighteenth century, sculptors such as Antonio Canova often experimented with polychromy, using wax or grind water to subtly tint their figures’ flesh. In this article, I examine viewers’ discomfort with these surface treatments. I argue that viewers reacted negatively to the colored surface of works such as Hebe and Penitent Magdalene because they found it to be deceptive. First, encaustic treatments mellowed the marble surface, giving modern works the appearance of antiquities. Second, the “reality effect” created by color threatened sculpture’s status as high art. Finally, hyper-realism also suggested that the sculpture’s surface was exactly that—that is to say, only a surface, a shell that contained the messy reality of the body. The polychrome surface therefore oscillated between ancient and modern, flesh and stone, penetrable and impenetrable and raised larger aesthetic, philosophical and scientific issues

Verdenslitteratur på væggen: Telemachos’ eventyrlige rejse fra bogsiderne til panelerne på Sønderskov

Ph.d. Anders Toftgaard beskæftiger sig i denne artikel med de lærredstapeter, der pryder væggene i et af værelserne på førstesalen på Sønderskov, deres motiver og deres kulturhistoriske baggrund