This BA dissertation is a discussion around the meaning behind Edouard Manet's 'Bar at the Folies-Bergère'. I explore the work as an allegory of illusion; meaning there is more than what meets the eye in the painting. Manet has contrived... more
This BA dissertation is a discussion around the meaning behind Edouard Manet's 'Bar at the Folies-Bergère'. I explore the work as an allegory of illusion; meaning there is more than what meets the eye in the painting. Manet has contrived an air of illusion through manipulation of formal qualities in artistic treatment to specific pictorial elements and subject matter. The mirror, as an arbitrary object, has a sense of prestige attributed to its function within Renaissance imagery where the symbol of the mirror is linked with ideas of misconception. Titian in particular has used the mirror in his works to allude to ambiguity of the female identity, and here I argue that similarities can be seen in Manet's treatment of the mirror in the Bar. A turn from illusion to allusion takes place in the discussion, referring to misconceptions in society and modern Paris (capitalism, consumerism, the flaneur, the spectacle). I aim to highlight the importance of the mirror in the work to gain deeper insight to the meaning of the painting and Manet's intentions in his final masterpiece.
This book originated in a colloquium held at the Warburg Institute in London in June 2009, and the contributors have had ample time to finesse their papers. The editor is to be congratulated for his work in ensuring an improved and... more
This book originated in a colloquium held at the Warburg Institute in London in June 2009, and the contributors have had ample time to finesse their papers. The editor is to be congratulated for his work in ensuring an improved and coherent collection of essays.
This text, published a year after the centenary of the birth of EH Gombrich (1909-2001), aims to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication "Art and Illusion: A Study in Psychology of Pictorial Representation", his greatest work... more
This text, published a year after the centenary of the birth of EH Gombrich (1909-2001), aims to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication "Art and Illusion: A Study in Psychology of Pictorial Representation", his greatest work and one of the most important in 20th century art theory. Analyzing the relationships between the visual and the visible, between vision and representation and between the artist's action and the role of the observer, "Art and Illusion" sought to understand in a pioneering way the relations between image and reality through the continuities between art and science - in particular, between art and visual perception. Despite this, it was never published in Portugal.
The moment of creative transition for Fred Williams is signalled by a painting he completed after he had been in London nearly four years. Tree Loppers, a large oil of 1955, marks that step where the promising youngster metamorphoses into... more
The moment of creative transition for Fred Williams is signalled by a painting he completed after he had been in London nearly four years. Tree Loppers, a large oil of 1955, marks that step where the promising youngster metamorphoses into a mature artist.
