Session at RSA (New Orleans, 22-24 Mar 18)
French Classicism and French Romanticism: A Necessary Encounter
How does one historical epoch construct and interpret another historical period?
The session poses this question in relation to French Classical art of the seventeenth-century and its reception by the artists and critics of Romanticism. Was the reaction of the French artists of the Romantic period to the art of Grand Siècle as significant and resonant? Something like that of the British Romanticists to the Italian masters of the Renaissance? Since the critical writing of Diderot, the seventeenth-century French artists, including Nicolas Poussin, Charles Le Brun, Eustache Le Sueur, Philippe de Champaigne, and the printmaker Jacques Callot among others, were strongly present in the criticism of the Salons and other publications but what critical stances towards national art, past history, and new aesthetic values did they project?
The session invites papers, which may consider but are not limited by the themes of comparative historical and aesthetic references between the two periods; Romanticism’s tentative break with classicism of Louis XIV’s period and of the academic tradition; the transformation of the classical ideal in the aftermath of the French Revolution; the continuity of the seventeenth-century religious paintings.
Please send your proposal including your contact information, the
paper’s title (max. 15 words), an abstract (max. 200 words), a brief CV
(max. 300 words), and five keywords to Tatiana Senkevitch by
June 1, 2017. (tsenkevitch@gmail.com)
Tatiana Senkevitch