Academies, Museums, and Canons of Art

by Edited by Gill Perry and Colin Cunningham

• ISBN13: 9780300077414
• ISBN10: 0300077416
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-01-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This lavishly illustrated book examines the variety of ways in which works of art have achieved a position in the so-called canon of Western art. Focusing mainly on art and institutions in Britain and France from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, the hook explores the construction and evolution of canonical values. The authors provide a series of detailed case studies -- to enable readers to practice using the vocabularies and analytical skills of art history.

The book begins with a consideration of the nature of the modern discipline of art history and the nature of a canonical work. It explores the importance of the classical tradition in the development of the Western canon of art and introduces some of the aesthetic and cultural issues that underpin historical and contemporary valuations of the classical past. In a discussion of the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and the British Royal Academy of Art, the book looks closely at the roles of the two influential academies in establishing taste and canonical status for the world of"a

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 6
Acknowledgements	p. 18
Introduction	p. 19
The Arcadian Shepherds: a painting by Poussin	p. 25
The Parthenon marbles	p. 43
Charles Le Brun, 'art dictator of France'	p. 86
'Mere face painters? Hogarth, Reynolds and ideas of academic art in eighteenth-century Britain	p. 124
Academic into modern: Turner and Leighton	p. 169
The Albert Memorial	p. 190
The National Gallery's first 50 years: 'cut the cloth to suit the purse'	p. 207
Art in the provinces	p. 238
Conclusion	p. 257
Recommended reading	p. 259
Index	p. 261
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.