Bodies in Peril: French Sculpture and the Return of Flemishness

The presence of Netherlandish sculptors who migrated to France among the pioneer members of the Académie Royale is well documented, but it does not stand as the only point of contact between the two visual traditions. Around 1700 the qualities associated with a Flemish and Dutch image-repertoire offered further points of departure for French sculptors. This visual integration rested on concepts that emerge in contemporary French art theory, as can be illustrated in passages from Roger de Piles and Claude-Henri Watelet, as well as by the sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet. Rather than a concept of truth to optical perception, critics spoke of a type of image that shows sudden and disruptive events, as if exposed by a sudden flash, leaving beholders struck and breathless. Part of a transition from the rhetorical energeia-enargeia in direction of a new notion of pictorial magie, the criticism of the Flemish violent image and body becomes manifest, I will argue, through works of sculpture exhibited as early as the Salons of 1699 and 1704.La presència d’escultors neerlandesos emigrats a França entre els primers membres de l’Académie royale està ben documentada, tot i que aquest no és l’únic vincle establert entre ambdues tradicions visuals. Al voltant de l’any 1700 les característiques associades a un repertori d’imatges fl amenco-neerlandeses van oferir als escultors francesos un horitzó de major amplitud. Aquesta incorporació visual es recolzava en conceptes sorgits de la teoria de l’art francès del moment, tal i com ho il·lustren determinats fragments de les obres de Roger de Piles i Claude-Henri Watelet, així com de l’escultor Etienne-Maurice Falconet. En lloc del concepte de representació fi del a la percepció òptica, aquests autors es referien a un tipus d’imatge que mostra esdeveniments imprevistos i pertorbadors, com si estiguessin exposats a una sobtada fulgor, deixant a l’espectador impressionat i sense alè. En plena transició entre un concepte retòric de energeia-enargeia i un pictòric de la magie, la crítica del cos i la imatge violenta fl amenca queden en evidència, tal i com s’exposa al següent article, a través de les obres escultòriques exhibides als Salons de 1699 i 1704

Sergel in Naples and Pompeii: an Artistic Station in the Dark

This contribution considers eighteenth-century visits to the antiquarian collections in Naples in the context of recent accounts of neoclassical art, and in particular Andrei Pop’s reading of it through his introduction of the notion of “Neopaganism”. The article argues that visits to Portici and the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii have been improperly amalgamated with the Roman study journey undertaken by artists and tourists. Noting the novelty and excitement of the archeological findings, but also the tight control on visitors and strict prohibition of any form of copy that signifi ed the “extraction” of images of the Neapolitan treasures, the article argues that artists’ visits to collections of antiquities must be treated as an anomaly in the study regime. The contribution draws from several records of visits, highlighting a small artists’ excursion that included the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel. In such records, but also in Sergel’s sculpture, it finds evidence for the idea that Naples can be framed in terms of the budding fascination with a violent antiquity and with “natural” drives accompanying the rise of “Neopaganism” in the late 1760s. The intimate nature of some of the objects recovered, along with the dramatic relationship to the drama of sudden death and the sense of history having been “cancelled out” for the buried towns, made it difficult to sustain traditional attitudes of “admiration” for antique model

Cossos en perill: l’escultura francesa i el retorn de l’art flamenc

Th e presence of Netherlandish sculptors who migrated to France among the pioneer members of the Académie Royale is well documented, but it does not stand as the only point of contact between the two visual traditions. Around 1700 the qualities associated with a Flemish and Dutch image-repertoire off ered further points of departure for French sculptors. Th is visual integration rested on concepts that emerge in contemporary French art theory, as can be illustrated in passages from Roger de Piles and Claude-Henri Watelet, as well as by the sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet. Rather than a concept of truth to optical perception, critics spoke of a type of image that shows sudden and disruptive events, as if exposed by a sudden fl ash, leaving beholders struck and breathless. Part of a transition from the rhetorical energeia-enargeia in direction of a new notion of pictorial magie, the criticism of the Flemish violent image and body becomes manifest, I will argue, through works of sculpture exhibited as early as the Salons of 1699 and 1704.La presència d’escultors neerlandesos emigrats a França entre els primers membres de l’Académie royale està ben documentada, tot i que aquest no és l’únic vincle establert entre ambdues tradicions visuals. Al voltant de l’any 1700 les característiques associades a un repertori d’imatges fl amenco-neerlandeses van oferir als escultors francesos un horitzó de major amplitud. Aquesta incorporació visual es recolzava en conceptes sorgits de la teoria de l’art francès del moment, tal i com ho il·lustren determinats fragments de les obres de Roger de Piles i Claude-Henri Watelet, així com de l’escultor Etienne-Maurice Falconet. En lloc del concepte de representació fi del a la percepció òptica, aquests autors es referien a un tipus d’imatge que mostra esdeveniments imprevistos i pertorbadors, com si estiguessin exposats a una sobtada fulgor, deixant a l’espectador impressionat i sense alè. En plena transició entre un concepte retòric de energeia-enargeia i un pictòric de la magie, la crítica del cos i la imatge violenta fl amenca queden en evidència, tal i com s’exposa al següent article, a través de les obres escultòriques exhibides als Salons de 1699 i 1704

The Profession of sculpture in the Paris ‘Académie’

The profession of sculpture was transformed during the eighteenth century as the creation and appreciation of art became increasingly associated with social interaction. Central to this transformation was the esteemed yet controversial body, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. In this richly illustrated book, Tomas Macsotay focuses on the sculptor’s life at the Académie, analysing the protocols that dictated the production of academic art. Arguing that these procedures were modelled on the artist’s study journey to Rome, Macsotay discusses the close links between working practices introduced at the Académie and new notions of academic community and personal sensibility. He explores the bodily form of the morceau de réception on which the election of new members depended, and how this shaped the development of academic ideas and practices. Macsotay also reconsiders the early revolutionary years, where outside events exacerbated tensions between personal autonomy and institutional authority. The Profession of sculpture in the Paris Académie underscores the moral and aesthetic divide separating modern interpretations of sculpture based on notions of the individual artistic persona, and eighteenth-century notions of sociable production. The result is a book which takes sculpture outside the national arena, and re-focuses attention on its more subjective role, a narrative of intimate life in a modern world. Introduction 1. The impossible originality of Falconet’s Milon 2. Sculptors’ morceaux between style and method 3. From shop floor to academic gallery 4. Guidance and autonomy: the role of Rome 5. Vleughels’s drawing sculptors 6. The order of figures: inert and moving Epilogue. Of lions and cats: sociability and sculpture Bibliography Index Winner of the Prix Marianne Roland Michel 2009. Contains 90 illustrations

La capilla de los Huérfanos de París de Germain Boffrand (1746-1750) y la resonancia de la obra de arte pseudo-escénica

In the history of art, the illusory play that seeks to integrate and fuse different components of construction and representation is usually associated with the devices of the Baroque ecclesiastical interior, while the redefinition of the relationship between architecture and image as a result of a virtuoso display of framing and ornamental transitions coincides in various parts of Europe, albeit in different styles, in the early and mid-eighteenth century. The now vanished orphans’ chapel designed by the important architect Germain Boffrand (1667-1754) offers an example of a singular manifestation of such a taste for pseudo-scenic ecclesiastical interiors. This article will observe that the chapel lends itself to a contextualisation that depends on a series of immersive spaces. It springs from an interplay between ways of understanding architecture, of practising spectacle and of conceptualising emotion in the face of the natural world. The main objective of this contribution will be to follow these paths that suggest the centrality of the spectator, as well as a moment of innovation and dynamisation of spectacular technology.En la historia del arte, el juego ilusorio que busca integrar y fundir distintos componentes de construcción y representación se asocia normalmente a los dispositivos del interior eclesiástico barroco, mientras que la redefinición de las relaciones entre arquitectura e imagen como resultado de un virtuoso despliegue de enmarcaciones y transiciones ornamentales coincide en varios puntos de Europa, aunque bajo distintos estilos, a principios y mediados del siglo XVIII. La ahora desvanecida capilla de los huérfanos diseñada por el importante arquitecto Germain Boffrand (1667-1754) ofrece un ejemplo de una singular manifestación de dicho gusto por el interior eclesiástico pseudo-escénico. En este artículo se observará que la capilla se presta a una contextualización que depende de una serie de espacios inmersivos. Brota de un engranaje entre modos de entender la arquitectura, de practicar el espectáculo y de conceptualizar la emoción ante el mundo natural. El objetivo principal de esta aportación será seguir estos senderos que sugieren la centralidad del espectador, así como un momento álgido de innovación y dinamización de la tecnología espectacular

The distracted believer and the return to the first basilica: Marqués de Ureña’s Reflexiones sobre la arquitectura, ornato, y música del templo of 1785

A key text on Spanish architectural reform, Marqués de Ureña’s Reflexiones sobre la arquitectura, ornato, y música del templo of 1785, contains a rich and layered discussion of the doctrinal and aesthetic foundations of ecclesiastical architecture. Ureña’s Reflexiones appears at a moment of transition for Spanish architectural history by calling for a return to the ancient basilica type. The paper reconstructs a discussion waged by Ureña and his contemporaries on problems within the contemporary Spanish church interior: its use of wooden ornament, ephemerals, transformable altars and other Spanish late-baroque ecclesiastical décor. Thus, the return to origins in Christian architecture might be framed in terms of a wider debate on usage, and the sense in which the basilica offered a corrective for the relationship between the religious building and religious practitioners. The integration of doctrine and aesthetic reason in this defence of the original basilica furthermore demonstrates Ureña’s wish to modernize devices that had traditionally undergirded religious practice and featured materially in the education of the faithful. Finally, the paper argues for the importance, given Ureña’s introduction of a framework that allowed for an aesthetic way of reasoning, of considering affective responses to architecture in the Iberian and Hispanic context.The research for this article was carried out under a Marie Curie Actions Post-doctoral Fellowship (Gerda Henkel Stiftung) and the RYC-2015-18371 (MINECO) program. I also wish to reserve a special thank you to Caroline van Eck, Christian Michel, Erika Naginski, and Hendrik Ziegler, who commented on my work at these meetings, along with Bonaventura Bassegoda and the Spanish research project HAR2012-39182-C02-02, which animated the heuristic phase

Sergel a Nàpols i Pompeia: una estació artística a la foscor

Th is contribution considers eighteenth-century visits to the antiquarian collections in Naples in the context of recent accounts of neoclassical art, and in particular Andrei Pop’s reading of it through his introduction of the notion of “Neopaganism”. Th e article argues that visits to Portici and the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii have been improperly amalgamated with the Roman study journey undertaken by artists and tourists. Noting the novelty and excitement of the archeological fi ndings, but also the tight control on visitors and strict prohibition of any form of copy that signifi ed the “extraction” of images of the Neapolitan treasures, the article argues that artists’ visits to collections of antiquities must be treated as an anomaly in the study regime. Th e contribution draws from several records of visits, highlighting a small artists’ excursion that included the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel. In such records, but also in Sergel’s sculpture, it fi nds evidence for the idea that Naples can be framed in terms of the budding fascination with a violent antiquity and with “natural” drives accompanying the rise of “Neopaganism” in the late 1760s. Th e intimate nature of some of the objects recovered, along with the dramatic relationship to the drama of sudden death and the sense of history having been “cancelled out” for the buried towns, made it diffi cult to sustain traditional attitudes of “admiration” for antique models.Aquesta contribució analitza la visita a les col·leccions d’antiguitats a Nàpols durant el segle xviii a partir d’una lectura creuada amb estudis recents de l’art neoclàssic, i en particular la interpretació que d’ell en fa Andrei Pop en introduir el seu concepte de «neopaganisme». L’article argumenta que les visites a Portici i a les excavacions d’Herculà i Pompeia s’han amalgamat de manera tendenciosa amb el viatge d’estudis d’artistes i turistes a Roma. Notant la novetat i la commoció creada per les troballes arqueològiques, però també l’estricte control sobre els visitants i la prohibició a tot tipus de còpia que permutés «extreure» imatges dels tresors napolitans, l’article argumenta que les visites dels artistes a les col·leccions d’antiguitats han de ser tractades com una anomalia en el règim d’estudi. La contribució es basa en diverses notes de visites, destacant una petita excursió d’artistes a la qual es va unir l’escultor suec Johann Tobias Sergel. Aquestes anotacions, però també l’escultura de Sergel, aporten una evidència que permet establir la hipòtesi que Nàpols es va convertir en sòl fèrtil per a la incipient fascinació per una antiguitat violenta i pels impulsos «naturals» que acompanyen el sorgiment del «neopaganisme» a la fi de la dècada de 1760. La naturalesa íntima d’alguns dels objectes recuperats, juntament amb l’associació dramàtica de la mort sobtada, així com la idea que la història no va transcórrer per a les ciutats ja soterrades, van fer difícil mantenir les actituds tradicionals d’«admiració» pels models antics

Introducción: cuando los espacios devienen arte. Obra de arte total, instalación, entornos inmersivos

Dossier's introduction.Introducción al dossier

Introduction

Taking the infamous Theatrum Crudelitatum Haereticorum nostri temporis by the Catholic priest Richard Verstegan as its starting point, this chapter introduces the reader to the over-arching agenda of the book, clearly formulating its interdisciplinary research agenda. The Hurt(ful) Body focuses on both literal and metaphorical violence, performed and depicted in early modern performing and visual arts. Indeed, Theatrum Crudelitatum is a very outspoken example of the issues at stake in this book: the violence inflicted on bodies and the representation of this very same violence, in theatres, in pictures and paintings but also in non-artistic modes of representation. In the introduction, the editors describe the threefold structure of the book. The first part will focus mainly on performing bodies (on stage), whereas the second part will discuss the pain of someone who watches the suffering of others, both in regard to theatre audiences and beholders of art, as well as to the onlooker in art: the theatre character or individual on canvas who is watching a(nother) hurt body. The third and final part will analyse how this circulation of gazes and affects functions within a specific institutional context, paying particular interest to the performative context of public space

The hurt(ful) body : performing and beholding pain, 1600-1800

This book offers a cross-disciplinary approach to pain and suffering in the early modern period, based on research in the fields of literary studies, art history, theatre studies, cultural history and the study of emotions. The volume's two-fold approach to the hurt body, defining 'hurt' from the perspectives of both victim and beholder - as well as their combined creation of a gaze - is unique. It establishes a double perspective about the riddle of 'cruel' viewing by tracking the shifting cultural meanings of victims' bodies, and confronting them to the values of audiences, religious and popular institutional settings and practices of punishment. It encompasses both the victim's presence as an image or performed event of pain and the conundrum of the look - the transmitted 'pain' experienced by the watching audience