Lynne Thornton
Auteur van The Orientalists: Painter Travellers Pocket Colour Series
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Werken van Lynne Thornton
Travellers : beyond the Grand Tour 3 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geslacht
- female
Leden
Besprekingen
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Statistieken
- Werken
- 6
- Leden
- 101
- Populariteit
- #188,710
- Waardering
- 3.8
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- 3
- ISBNs
- 11
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- 1
Thornton's account treats both the realities and the European perceptions of various institutions in the 19th-century Muslim world, including the harem, the hammam (i.e. public bath), and slavery. She often has recourse to the relevant commentary of European women from the period, such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Lady Anne Blunt, Lady Duff Gordon, and Mabel Bent.
Although this book is genuinely a work of art history and aesthetic criticism, rather than the polemic of Dijkstra's book mentioned above, Thornton is culturally astute and incisive. She offers insightful comments regarding the projection of European sensibilities in 19th-century depictions of the Near East and North Africa (the "Orient" in question for these Orientalist painters). For example, "It is, however, extremely rare to find an Orientalist painting in which the woman is sexually satisfied" (122). This remark coordinates with others to demonstrate that despite the sometimes salacious exoticism of the whole Orientalist art project, moral and sexual license were if anything more inhibited than in other subject matter of the period, but similarly circumscribed by masculine appetites.
The art images in the book are very well reproduced on heavy glossy paper, representing a comprehensive survey of the field indicated in the title.… (meer)