Art, Dance, and the Body in French Culture of the Ancien Régime
Art, Dance, and the Body in French Culture of the Ancien Régime
Out of Print
Art, Dance, and the Body in the French Culture of the Ancien Régime is an interdisciplinary study of images produced in France during the reign of Louis XIV. Focusing on the relationship between art and dance during this period, Sarah Cohen examines how depictions of the aristocracy, which put emphasis on the body, project political and social ideas. Cohen analyses complex modes of physical presentation, including ballet, masquerading, and etiquette, together with the paintings and drawings of Antoine Watteau; the decorative work of Charles Le Brun, as well as theater, garden, and interior design. She demonstrates the striking parallels among these different visual forms and uses these interrelationships to prove the varied and changing significance of the 'artful body' within French culture of the ancien régime.
- Shows parallels between visual art and dance never before recognized
- Shows changing constructions of gender in ballet and decorative art
- Shows the relationship between the art of Watteau and the art made for the court of Louis XIV
Reviews & endorsements
'While grounded in an understanding of dance, the project Cohen takes up in this clearly written and beautifully produced book addresses the boarder subject of bodily display - in her words, the 'artful body'… Her book will be an important point of departure for investigations into how spectacle evolved beyond the period she covers.' Burlington Magazine
Product details
May 2000Hardback
9780521640466
376 pages
262 × 186 × 29 mm
1.16kg
166 b/w illus. 8 colour illus.
Unavailable - out of print February 2005
Table of Contents
- Introduction: the artful body
- 1. The court ballet
- 2. Art as spectacle
- 3. Aristocratic traceries
- 4. The universal masquerade
- 5. Watteau's performers
- 6. Collective rituals
- 7. The artful body in question.
