Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible

Dalia Judovitz

$63.95 $54.15

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Fordham University Press
07 November 2017

The Arts: General & Reference; Renaissance art; Philosophy: aesthetics; The historical Jesus

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.

By: Dalia Judovitz
Imprint: Fordham University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780823277445
ISBN 10: 0823277445
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 07 November 2017
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dalia Judovitz is National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of French at Emory University. Her books include Subjectivity and Representation in Descartes, The Culture of the Body, and more recently, works on Duchamp and modernist aesthetics.

Reviews for Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible

A century has passed since the paintings of Georges de La Tour were rescued from near oblivion. Yet the interest in his enigmatic achievement has never diminished. Dalia Judovitz surveys a wealth of previous writings, and argues brilliantly for the significance of the new spiritual dimension that his work inhabits. -- Stephen Bann, Bristol University This is an important book that will challenge and inform. It is beautifully illustrated with many of La Tour's most important paintings in colour. * Literature and Theology * Judovitz's densely argued, meticulously researched, and beautifully illustrated study opens the door to the broader artistic, religious, and philosophical implications of La Tour's mysterious paintings through her insightful readings and broad interdisciplinary perspective. * Seventeenth-Century News * Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible should be well-stocked and displayed in every art gallery and museum shop where a Georges de La Tour painting is to be found. It will be of use to all those with a specific interest in La Tour's art and, more generally, in theology, spirituality, and the visual arts. * Reading Religion * This study will be of considerable interest to anyone engaged not only with La Tour but with early modern visual culture as a whole, especially as it relates to the spiritual. * Renaissance Quarterly *