Manet Vel Zquez

Here approximately two hundred works by French and Spanish artists chart the development of this cultural influence and map a fascinating shift in the paradigm of painting, from Idealism to Realism, from Italy to Spain, from Renaissance to Baroque. Above all, these images demonstrate how direct contact with Spanish painting fired the imagination of nineteenth-century French artists and brought about the triumph of Realism in the 1860s, and with it a foundation for modern art."--BOOK JACKET.

Here approximately two hundred works by French and Spanish artists chart the development of this cultural influence and map a fascinating shift in the paradigm of painting, from Idealism to Realism, from Italy to Spain, from Renaissance to Baroque. Above all, these images demonstrate how direct contact with Spanish painting fired the imagination of nineteenth-century French artists and brought about the triumph of Realism in the 1860s, and with it a foundation for modern art."--BOOK JACKET.

Now available in paperback A major art historian reflects on a great tradition of European painting. "The Vexations of Art is an engrossing, passionate attempt to re-engage with painting as a mode of thought at a time when 'it is not clear in what form the resource of painting?for surely painting has been a singular resource of the greater European culture?will continue."?Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times "[A] fascinating book that will surely generate discussion for some time to come."?Mindy Nancarrow, Renaissance Quarterly

In 19th century culture, Hispanomania creates Les Choses espagnoles; they exhibit themselves as themes and forms of appearance as well as structures and techniques. Hispanomania is a temporary fashion and functions as a metaphor; it reflects numerous sources which are arranged in a fantastic way. Hispanomania leaves traces in the materials of the performative arts i.e., in librettos, theories, and reviews. The book focuses on re-construction of several concepts and practices in ‘Spanish’ dancing: an overview of dance librettology is linked to the discussion of ‘staging Spanishness’; the connection between choreography and dance-theoretical discourse concerning the Spanish is pursued; performances of Otherness – especially as monsters and women – are discussed in their theatrical and cultural contexts – as is the investigation of dance criticism; the hitherto little acknowledged biography of the then popular and highly productive choreographer Henri Justamant is highlighted …

"Is Paris Still the Capital of the Nineteenth Century?" The question that guides this volume stems from Walter Benjamin's studies of nineteenth-century Parisian culture as the apex of capitalist aesthetics. Thirteen scholars test Benjamin's ideas about the centrality of Paris, formulated in the 1930s, from a variety of methodological perspectives. Many investigate the underpinnings of the French capital's reputation and mythic force, which was based largely upon the city's capacity to put itself on display. Some of the authors reassess the famed centrality of Paris from the vantage point of our globalized twenty-first century by acknowledging its entanglements with South Africa, Turkey, Japan, and the United States. The volume equally studies a broader range of media than Benjamin did himself: from modernist painting and printmaking, photography, and illustration to urban planning. The essays conclude that Paris did in many ways function as the epicenter of modernity's international reach, especially in the years from 1850 to 1900, but did so only as a consequence of the idiosyncratic force of its mythic image. Above all, the essays affirm that the study of late nineteenth-century Paris still requires nimble and innovative approaches commensurate with its legend and global aura.

Diego Velázquez (15991660) was one of the towering figures of western painting and Baroque art, a technical master renowned for his focus on realism and startling veracity. Everything he painted was treated as a portrait, from Spanish royalty and Pope Innocent X, to a mortar and pestle. This comprehensive introduction to Velázquezs life and art includes a discussion of all his major works, and illustrates most of Velázquezs surviving output of approximately 110 paintings. The artists greatest innovation his unorthodox and revolutionary technique is explored in relation to the styles of certain of his most celebrated contemporaries both in Spain and beyond, including Titian and Rubens. The book concludes with a final chapter on the influence and importance of Velázquezs art on later painters from the time of his own death to the art of recent times including Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and the Impressionists.

This is the first major study on Azorin to appear in two decades. The first part explores parallels between the cultural milieus in France and Spain when both countries lost their colonies in the second half of the nineteenth century. The second part studies the fiction and essays of Jose Martinez Ruiz (Azorin). Illustrated.