Painting as a Way of Life

Philosophy and Practice in French Art, 1620–1660

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

599 kr

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Neer uncovers a key moment in the history of early modern art, when painting was understood to be a tool for self-transformation and for living a philosophical life. In this wide-ranging study, Richard Neer shows how French painters of the seventeenth century developed radically new ways to connect art, perception, and ethics. Cutting across traditional boundaries of classicism and realism, Neer addresses four case studies: Nicolas Poussin, renowned for marrying ancient philosophy and narrative painting; Louise Moillon, who pioneered French still life in the 1630s; Georges de La Tour, a painter of intense and introspective nocturnes; and the Brothers Le Nain, specialists in genre and portraiture who inspired Courbet, Manet, and other painters of modern life. Setting these artists in dialogue with Montaigne, Descartes, Pascal, and others, ranging from the studios of Rome to the streets of Paris, this book provides fresh accounts of essential artworks—some well-known, others neglected—and new ways to approach the relation of art, theory, and daily life.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-04-07
Mått178 x 254 x 33 mm
Vikt1 334 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor352
FörlagThe University of Chicago Press
ISBN9780226835495

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Konsthistoria inom Kultur

Richard Neer is the Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished Service Professor in Art History, Cinema & Media Studies and the College at the University of Chicago, where he also serves as director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities. He is the author of numerous books and articles on classical art, cinema, art theory and French painting, including The Emergence of the Classical Style in Greek Sculpture. In 2022 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Before Theory: Painting and Philosophical PracticePart I: Poussin’s ClassicismChapter One. Poussin’s Self-Portraits and the Dream of Classical TheoryChapter Two. Poussin’s PhilosophyChapter Three. Poussin’s PracticeChapter Four. Landscape and DisproportionPart II: Realism, Acuity, and MetaphorChapter Five. Discerning Eyes: Louise Moillon, Still-Life, and GenreChapter Six. Corporeality and Metaphor in La Tour and Le NainCodaNotesBibliographyIndex

"Where do we go from here, when it feels as if truth itself is receding out of reach? Thanks to Neer, I now see our collective condition in Nicolas Poussin’s 1658 depiction of the blinded giant Orion seeking the healing rays of the sun to restore his sight. Yet the painting contains two conflicting sources of light, implying a tragic irony: He cannot know whether he’s getting closer to his cure or farther from it.Neer’s book speaks to our troubled time by casting seventeenth-century painting as a spiritual exercise, an ancient conception (revived by intellectual historian Michel Foucault) of philosophical activity not as a mode of thinking but as an art of living. Likewise, philosophical painting does not illustrate truthful ideas but rather inculcates habits of truth-seeking. Most remarkably, Painting as a Way of Life embodies the virtues it describes. Interpretations that aspire toward correctness end the quest for truth: When we find the answer, we can stop looking. Neer instead values recognition and discernment."

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Richard Neer, The College of the University of Chicago) Neer, Richard (William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, Cinema & Media Studies, William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, Cinema & Media Studies

Inbunden

479 kr