Tradition and Desire: From David to Delacroix

by Norman Bryson

Overview

In this highly original book Norman Bryson applied 'structuralist' and 'post-structuralist' approaches to French Romantic Painting. He considers the work of David, Ingres and Delacroix as artists who found themselves within an artistic tradition that had nothing creative to offer them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521335621
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/19/1987
Series:	Cambridge Studies in French , #5
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Tradition and its discontents; 2. David and the problem of inheritance; 3. Mortal sight: The Oath of the Horatii; 4. Visionary delays: Ingres in the atelier of David; 5. Tradition and desire; 6. Desire in the Bourbon library; Epilogue; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'this is an important book which cuts into the fabric of nineteenth-century art historical studies … What Bryson has to say demands and deserves serious attention and sustained consideration.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

'Bryson's own contribution may ultimately have the inestimable value of incitement in a field in which new methods can play a central and revitalising role.' Burlington Magazine

'Particularly impressive is the manner in which, comfortable with the language of the various interpretation theories (Bryson) renders even the technical problems of painting easily accessible to his interdisciplinary audience. Thus integrating contemporary critical theory with the particular demands of art history and criticism, Bryson not only argues persuasively for a new direction in that single discipline; he reaffirms the work of interpretation as the common ground of humanists in all disciplines and so doing, provides a stunning example of critical practice at its very best.' French Review

From the Publisher