Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible

Dalia Judovitz

Description

Not rediscovered until the twentieth century, the works of Georges de La Tour retain an aura of mystery. At first sight, his paintings suggest a veritable celebration of light and the visible world, but this is deceptive. The familiarity of visual experience blinds the beholder to a deeper understanding of the meanings associated with vision and the visible in the early modern period.By exploring the representations of light, vision, and the visible in La Tour's works, this interdisciplinary study examines the nature of painting and its artistic, religious, and philosophical implications. In the wake of iconoclastic outbreaks and consequent Catholic call for the revitalization of religious imagery, La Tour paints familiar objects of visible reality that also serve as emblems of an invisible, spiritual reality. Like the books in his paintings, asking to be read, La Tour's paintings ask not just to be seen as visual depictions but to be deciphered as instruments of insight. In figuring faith as spiritual passion and illumination, La Tour's paintings test the bounds of the pictorial image, attempting to depict what painting cannot ultimately show: words, hearing, time, movement, changes of heart.La Tour's emphasis on spiritual insight opens up broader artistic, philosophical, and conceptual reflections on the conditions of possibility of the pictorial medium. By scrutinizing what is seen and how, and by questioning the position of the beholder, his works revitalize critical discussion of the nature of painting and its engagements with the visible world.

Sujets

• History of art
• Renaissance art
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Fordham University Press
• Date de parution: 07 novembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780823277469
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

G e o r g e s d e L a To u r a n d t h e E n i g m a o f t h e V i s i b l e

This page intentionally left blank

Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible

Dalia Judovitz

f o r d h a m u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s New York 2018

Copyright © 2018 Fordham University Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Fordham University Press also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Visit us online at www.fordhampress.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Judovitz, Dalia, author. Title: Georges de La Tour and the enigma of the visible / Dalia Judovitz. Description: New York : Fordham University Press, 2017. | Includes  bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017022682 | ISBN 9780823277438 (hardback) | ISBN 978082327744(5paper) Subjects: LCSH: La Tour, Georges du Mesnil de, 1593–1652—Criticism and  interpretation. | Visual perception in art. | BISAC: ART / History /  Renaissance. | RELIGION / Christianity / Literature & the Arts. |  PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics. Classification: LCC ND553.L28 J83 2017 | DDC 759.4 —dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017022682

Printed in the United States of America

20 19 18 5 4 3 2 1

First edition

to Hamish Caldwell

To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit. Shakespeare,Sonnets, XXIII

This page intentionally left blank

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments

Introduction 1

c o n t e n t s

 1. The Enigma of the Visible

 2. Spiritual Passion and the Betrayal of Painting

 3. The Visible and the Legible

 4. Flea Catching and the Vanity of Painting

 5. Painting as Portal: “Birth” and “Death” of the Sacred Image

Epilogue 105

Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Color plates follow pages 48 and 80

vii

ix xiii

1

5

3

4

6

2

7

5

8

3

111 141 153

This page intentionally left blank

i l l u s t r at i o n s

Color Plates  1 Georges de La Tour,The Hurdy-Gurdy Player, c. 1628 –1630; orThe Hurdy-Gurdy Man,oil on canvas, 162 × 105 cm, c. 1631–1636, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes. Gianni Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY.  2 Georges de La Tour,St. Jerome, oil on canvas, 157 × 100 cm, c. 1628 – 1630, Musée de Grenoble; orPenitence of St. Jerome(also calledSt. Jerome with Halo). Erich Lessing Resource, NY./ Art  3 Georges de La Tour,St. JeromeorThe Penitent St. Jerome,oil on can- vas, 152 × 109 cm, c. 1630 –1632, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum CC BY SA.  4 Georges de La Tour,The Magdalene at the Mirror,c. 1635;orThe Repentant Magdalen92.7 cm, c. 1640; National, oil on canvas, 113 × Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.  5 Georges de La Tour,The Magdalene with Two Flames, c. 1640 –1644; or The Penitent Magdalene, oil on canvas, 133.4 × 102.2 cm, c. 1640, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  6 Georges de La Tour,The Magdalene with the Smoking Flame,oil on canvas, 118 × 90 cm, c. 1636 –1638, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation. http://collections.lacma.org / node /238963. Signed lower right:G Dela Tour.  7 Georges de La Tour,The Repentant MagdaleneorPenitent Magdalen, also known asThe Repentant Magdalen with the Night-Light, oil on can- vas, 128 × 94 cm, c. 1640, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY.  8 Detail of still life from Georges de La Tour,The Repentant Magdalene orPenitent Magdalen, also known asThe Repentant Magdalen with the Night-Light,oil on canvas, 128 × 94 cm, c. 1640, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY.

i

x