The eloquence of color : rhetoric and painting in the French Classical Age

Bibliographic Information

The eloquence of color : rhetoric and painting in the French Classical Age

Jacqueline Lichtenstein ; translated by Emily McVarish

(The new historicism : studies in cultural poetics / Stephen Greenblatt, general editor, 18)

University of California Press, c1993

Other Title

La couleur éloquente : rhétorique et peinture à l'âge classique

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Translation of: La couleur éloquente : rhétorique et peinture à l'âge classique

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In this contribution to the theory of art, Jacqueline Lichtenstein discusses the importance of colour in reconciling ancient differences between rhetoric and painting. The visible world has been suspect since Plato accused the Sophists of relying on rhetorical show, of being in effect makeup artists. Before the 17th century, these differences were manifest in a valorization of design over colour. But in the 17th century, the image suddenly becomes an essential agent of thought. Rhetorical colour is revalued along with colour in painting, with cosmetics, and with all that belonged to the feminine, as a sensual force necessary to reconcile reason and pleasure, action and passion. Lichtenstein thus identifies a major shift in European theories of meaning, gender and the relationship between the world and the image.

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