This study explores the interdependent relationship between Diderot's writings on art, the art of eighteenth-century France, and the times that produced them both. Accordingly, the study falls into three principal related sections, with each enlarging upon a specific facet of the topic. Proceeding from the premise that both Diderot and the paintings he discussed belonged within a particular cultural context of tastes, ideas, and historical facts, the first principal division, "Diderot in the Scheme of Things", begins as a brief survey of the artistic realities that prevailed in France prior to the approximate period spanned by the Salons in order to present a general view of the eclectic body of art on which he based the substance of his commentaries. The related section on "Diderot's Aesthetics" specifies a certain problem in discussing Diderot's writing on art and demonstrates that Diderot's artistic notions cannot be treated from a general aesthetic standpoint but can be understood only in terms of the individual criticisms themselves. The "Essay on Painting" presents a compendium of the themes and ideas that Diderot applied in those individual criticisms. Both the section entitled "Diderot's Aesthetics" and the one dealing with the "Essay" present transitional introductory material for the second major division, "The Salons: 1759-1781", which deals with individual criticisms of specific paintings to show Diderot's critical method at work in a varied range of representative works and to show in what way Diderot fails to understand the paintings before him in the idiom of the artist. On the basis of this conclusion, it would be easy to dismiss much of his commentary on the ground that it is quaint but inadequate; the final major division builds on this possible conclusion, however, to explore a further facet of the Salons and shows, through its focus on the Salon of 1767 that Diderot's commentaries were not merely criticisms of art but of society as well and that his attitude toward the needs and faults of society conditioned his approach to art. In its substance, this section offers the view that because of--rather than in spite of--its polarities and inconsistencies, Diderot's thoughts on contemporary art provide a faithful reflection in small of identical conflicts and aspirations in the larger context of eighteenth-century French society. Diderot's values and the values of his time emerge from his application of those values to contemporary art. With art as the matrix, the values of the man. and those of the society present themselves at the conclusion of the study as a mosaic of concepts in opposition--a mosaic where each conceptual element attains its meaning in juxtaposition, rather than in harmony, with the others. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

This thesis concerns six Swedish history paintings from 1864 until 1897 with motifs depicting the Swedish renaissance. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the influence of 19th century fashion on the depiction of garments from the renaissance, and what this portrayal deflects concerning the artists contemporary vision of fashion and bodily ideals in the 16th century. Using a checklist method to approach the artworks the thesis examines how and to what extent the artists used visual culture from the 16th century in their visualization of the era and wether or not this portrayal is affected by the artists contemporary fashions. Interwined with the method is the theoretical framwork of the thesis, based upon the notion of fashion in art as a fabricated construct and history usage. The thesis presents the idea that the history painting depicting events spanning between a period of 70 years still uses a similar fashion in the works, even considering the time frame of different styles. The idea of gender coded garments and body siluetts during the 19th century heavily affects the fashion in the paintings, as well as the artist’s contemporary attitudes towards representations of sexuality and bodily beauty.

Analyse du parcours et de la production du peintre brésilien Rodolpho Amoêdo (1857-1941), pensionnaire de l’Académie Impériale (brésilienne) des Beaux-Arts à Paris, entre les années 1879 et 1887. Au contact avec l’art français contemporain, mais aussi celui du XVIIIème siècle, Amoêdo va d’abord subir l’influence de certains peintres français, comme Gustave Boulanger et Alexandre Cabanel, ses premiers maîtres. Mais vers la fin de son séjour parisien, il passe à s’intéresser à l’art de Puvis de Chavannes. Ses toiles deviennent alors plus claires et se rapprochent maintes fois d’un style pré-symboliste. De retour au Brésil en 1888, il s’intéresse à la littérature de son temps et il participe à divers cercles formés par de célèbres hommes de lettres à Rio de Janeiro. Sa peinture toujours académique dans la facture et romantique dans son contexte va évoluer vers un style réaliste plus intimiste et psychologique. Souvent la femme actuelle prenait une œuvre place importante dans ses représentations. Dans ce sens, il devient très à l’écoute de l’art de James Tissot. Toutefois, ses œuvres imprégnées de théâtralité font preuve d’originalité : tant au niveau de la composition comme de la mise-en-scène des personnages. Sa science des techniques de peinture et les idées positivistes ont aussi joué un rôle dans sa conception de l’art. Commentaires et critiques sur les œuvres présentées par l’artiste lors des Salons parisiens, des expositions brésiliennes et internationales. Comme enseignant dévoué à l’école des Beaux-Arts de Rio de Janeiro, il a collaboré directement au développement de l’art au Brésil, en particulier dans la période de transition entre l’art académique du XIXème et l’art moderne du XXème siècle. / Analysis of Brazilian painter Rodolpho Amoêdo’s (1857-1941) career path and works who earned a grant from Brazilian Imperial Academy of Fine Arts to stay in Paris between 1879 and 1887. Exposure to French contemporary art but also to that of the XVIIIth century, at the beginning, Amoêdo is influenced by French painters like Gustave Boulanger and Alexandre Cabanel, his first professors. At the end of his Paris stay, he gets closer to Puvis de Chavannes. His paintings become lighter, in a pre-symbolist style. Back to Brazil, in 1888, he is fond of literature and takes part to several societies founded by famous writers in Rio de Janeiro. His paintings, academic in their style but romantic in their environment, become more realistic and include greater personal and psychological dimensions. Occurrences of modern ladies in his works are more frequent : his works are closer to James Tissot’s ones. However, they encompass theatrical aspects which make them unique at the general organization level as well as at the direction of characters. His views about art were also founded on his deep knowledge of painting techniques and on positivism. Comments and critical analysis of works presented by the artist at exhibitions in Paris or at local or international exhibitions in Brazil. As a devoted professor at Rio de Janeiro School of Fine Arts, he worked directly for developing art in Brazil, especially during the transition period between XIXth century academic art and XXth century modern art.

李志綱. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2004. / 參考文獻 (p. 95-102). / 中英文摘要. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Li Zhigang. / Zhong Ying wen zhai yao. / Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2004. / Can kao wen xian (p. 95-102).

This thesis looks into the development of Songjiang School in the context of mutual interaction and networking among painters. It focuses on two phenomena. Firstly, it studies the interaction between Songjiang School painters and artists from various Jiangnan art centres. Secondly, it explores the artistic genealogy within the Songjiang School. It investigates the activities of individual Songjian School painters in particular, and the rise and decline of the entire Songjiang School in general. / Under the famous master literati Dong Qichang, Songjiang School painters broke new path in landscape painting, valuing moist ink tones at the expense of brush and ink. But even before Dong, Gu Zhenyi and Mo Shilong were already well known for their efforts in exploring new styles. Supported by brilliant art talent such as Chen Jiru, Zhao Zuo and Shen Shicong, Dong Qichang brought the Songjiang School to its zenith. However, it was also Dong Qichang who dug the grave for the School. As Dong's followers were mostly professional painters, they could not stand as equals to Literati connoisseurs. Some became Dong Qichang's ghost-painters at the expense of their artistic individuality, whereas others were trapped in the lower end of the art market. Consequently, the Songjiang School lost its vigor and prestige in the Qing dynasty. Only Dong Qichang, the leading master of the School, could dominate the literati painting scene. / With its economy revived after the suppression of the wako invasion in late Jiajing period (1522-1566), Songjiang quickly reassumed its dominant position in the art scene. Songjiang School painters became very self-conscious and proud of their own hometown. They succeeded in networking with connoisseurs in Zhejiang and Huizhou, and learning valuable lessons from the works of their Suzhou counterparts. Consequently, although both the Wu (Suzhou) and Songjiang Schools were descendents of the same literati painting tradition, the Songjiang School loomed large throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The social prestige of some Songjiang literati certainly enhanced the success of the School. / 徐麗莎. / 呈交日期: 2005年8月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2005. / 參考文獻(p. i-x (2nd group)). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2005 nian 8 yue. / Advisers: Jao Tsung-i; Harold Mok Kar-leung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2355. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (p. i-x (2nd group)). / Xu Lisha.

For the past century, medievalism studies generally and Anglo-Saxonism studies in particular have largely dismissed the eighteenth century as a dark period in English interest in the Anglo-Saxons. Recent scholarship has tended to elide Anglo-Saxon studies with Old English studies and consequently has overlooked contributions from fields such as archaeology, art history and political philosophy. This thesis provides the first re-examination of scholarly, antiquarian and popular Anglo-Saxonism in eighteenth-century England and argues that, far from disappearing, interest in Anglo-Saxon culture and history permeated British culture and made significant contributions to contemporary formulations and expressions of Englishness and English national, legal and cultural identities. Each chapter examines a different category of Anglo-Saxonist production or activity, as those categories would be distributed across current scholarship, in order to explore the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons were understood and deployed in the construction of contemporary cultural- historiographical narratives. The first three chapters contain, respectively, a review of the achievements of the ‘Oxford school' of Saxonists of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; antiquarian Anglo-Saxon studies by members of the Society of Antiquaries of London and their correspondents; and historiographical presentations of the Anglo-Saxons in local, county and national histories. Chapters four and five examine the appearance of the Anglo-Saxons in visual and dramatic art, and the role of Anglo-Saxonist legal and juridical language in eighteenth-century politics, with reference to discoveries resulting from the academic and antiquarian research outlined in chapters one to three. It is my contention that Anglo-Saxonism came to serve as a unifying ideology of origins for English citizens concerned with national history, and political and social institutions. As a popular as well as scholarly ideology, Anglo-Saxonism also came to define English national character and values, an English identity recognised and celebrated as such both at home and abroad.