Chinese Cut-Paper Designs

Raphael Masson, Veronique Mattiussi

Rodin, the first authoritative monograph from the MusA©e Rodin, is written by the museum's leading experts, with a foreword from its director. All facets of the artist's life and art are explored in chapters that cover the artistic context of the day, his education, the commission of The Gates of Hell, his relationship with Camille Claudel, his monuments, the exhibition that brought him international acclaim, his studios, his sources of inspiration, from dance and eroticism to poetry and cathedrals, the final years of his life, and the international museums dedicated to his incomparable art, along with a detailed chronology and bibliography. Studies of key works, which include sculpture, drawings, engravings, and paintings, are illustrated in photographs commissioned for this publication. Rodin created much controversy in his lifetime (1840-1917); his passionate sculptures met criticism from conservatives but adoration from the avant-garde. Today he is revered as a...

Chapters: Peter Scheemakers, Andre Beauneveu, Thomas Quellinus, Jacques de Baerze, Alexander Colyn, Jacques Jonghelinck, Peter Anton Von Verschaffelt, John Michael Rysbrack, Maximilian Colt, Artus Quellinus, Lucas Faydherbe, May Claerhout, Josse de Corte, Pieter Verbrugghen I. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 47. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Andre Beauneveu (born c. 1335 in Valenciennes, died c.1400 in Bourges) was an Early Netherlandish sculptor and painter, born in the County of Hainaut (Valenciennes is today in France), who is best known for his work in the service of the French King Charles V, and of the Valois Duke, Jean de Berry. His work in all media shows a generally naturalistic and 'sculptural' style, characteristic of the 'Pucellian revival' of the latter 14th century. As with all northern European artists of this period,...

Michael Dorsch

"French Sculpture Following the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1880" investigates the role played by the trope of the 'strong woman, fallen man' in re-establishing morale among the French people following the Franco-Prussian War. The study explores how certain French sculptors - including Falguiere, Mercie, Barrias, and Rodin - presented this recent history of defeat in commemorative monuments that increasingly dominated public space across France during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Though it focuses on French nationalism and the commemoration of war (or, as is the case with the French following the Franco-Prussian War, the commemoration of defeat), this volume also examines shifts in gender roles in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and the impact of military defeat on relations between the sexes. The book probes the aesthetic discourse of the period concerning the merits of traditional allegorical sculpture versus new-fangled realist sculpture in depicting modern...

Chapters: Entropa, Czech Dream, Ztohoven,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 25. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Entropa is a sculpture created by Czech artist David A?ernA? under commission for the Czech Republic to mark the occasion of its presidency of the Council of the European Union. The sculpture was supposed to have been created jointly by 27 artists and artist groups from all member countries of the EU; but in a hoax, A'ernA and his three assistants created the satirical and controversial work depicting pointed stereotypes of European nations and fake artist profiles complete with invented descriptions of their supposed contributions. The piece was unveiled on 12 January 2009. Moving and multimedia components were activated on the formal "launch date" of 15 January 2009. It is on display in the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels; a...

Suzanne Glover Lindsay, Daphne S. Barbour, Shelley G. Sturman

As an artist, Edgar Degas (1834-1917) defies easy description. Allied with the French impressionists through his commitment to portraying modern life, he also took an independent course, preferring line over color and the visible brushstroke, and working in a studio instead of out-of-doors. He is perhaps best known as a painter, but his most widely known work is a sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Executed in wax, near life-sized, dressed in a ballerina's tutu, with real ballet slippers and real hair, the sculpture caused a sensation when it was exhibited in 1881. It is the only sculpture Degas ever showed publicly, though more than one hundred--of dancers, horses, and bathers--were found in his studio after he died, all dusty, some fallen apart. For almost forty years after his death, these works were known only through the bronzes his heirs had cast from the originals.Then, in 1955, the waxes themselves appeared on the art market. Thanks to the discernment and generosity of...