Georges de La Tour

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalia Judovitz
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Oil Paintings ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Religious Imagery ◽  
Artistic Training ◽  
Training Professional ◽  
Artistic Career ◽  
Bear Witness

Georges de La Tour’s (b. 1593–d. 1652) artistic contributions were largely ignored by posterity until his “rediscovery” in 1915 by the art historian Hermann Voss. The patronage of such luminaries as the Duke of Lorraine, King Louis xiii, and Cardinal Richelieu, and the plethora of early copies, attest to his success during his lifetime. His eventual lapse into obscurity lasting almost three centuries led to the reattribution of his works to Italian, Netherlandish, Spanish, or French Baroque painters. While more than seventy oil paintings have been attributed to La Tour, fewer than forty are accepted as originals. The existence of his paintings in two or more versions, some as autograph replicas or as copies, along with questions about his son Étienne de La Tour’s possible pictorial contributions, left the attribution and chronology of his works mired in conjecture and controversy. Born the second son of a baker of some means at Vic-sur-Seille, he married a widow of minor nobility in 1617. Resettling to Luneville in the Duchy of Lorraine, he gained recognition as a painter in a region devastated by the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). A casualty of an epidemic, La Tour died a few days after his wife at the height of his artistic career. The scarcity of documentary sources about his life is compounded by the total absence of evidence concerning his artistic training, professional travels, and artistic influences. La Tour’s pursuit of likeness between image and the natural world is believed to bear the influence of Caravaggio or his followers, reflecting post-Tridentine calls for the revitalization of religious imagery. La Tour’s paintings have been traditionally divided into daylight and night-time works, despite notable exceptions. Depictions of daylight serve to bring into moralizing relief foibles of secular life shown in realist genre scenes of brawling, cheating, and fortune-telling. Biblically inspired, his mysterious nocturnal or tenebrist works glow with a poetic luminosity imbued with spiritual connotations. Suspended in the stillness of religious contemplation, his candlelight paintings bear witness to the presence of inner life, depicting modes of consciousness that painting may only suggest but cannot ultimately show. Celebrated for their aura of mystery, his paintings continue to invite scholarly interest and public fascination.

Tantisuk, Sawasdi (1925--)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Galloway
Keyword(s):  
Fine Arts ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
Oil Paintings ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Outdoor Scenes ◽  
The 1960S

Born in Thonburi, Thailand, Sawasdi Tantisuk is a contemporary of Tawee Nandakwang; both artists were trained at Silpakorn University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. As a prominent figure in early Thai modernism, Tantisuk favored watercolor, as its unforgiving and immediate characters resonated with his approach to art practice, which drew on the Buddhist philosophy wherein each action—in this case, brushstroke—cannot be undone. Tantisuk’s early works were in the impressionist genre, but following his four years in Rome, his work became more abstracted and geometric as he absorbed some of the major trends in Western art, with color and texture being characteristics of many oil paintings of the 1960s. As his career progressed, abstraction remained his favored approach to painting, though he maintained some realist elements in his watercolor outdoor scenes. Tantisuk used color to evoke emotion in his works, depicting both the serenity and wonder of the natural world and the bustle of Thai urban life. A consistent painter, he has received many awards throughout his career and has remained involved with the art profession. He received an Honorary PhD from Silpakorn University in 1991, and was Thailand’s National Artist (painting) that same year.

Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalia Judovitz
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Visual Medium ◽  
Religious Imagery ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Spiritual Reality ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study ◽  
Familiar Objects

Celebrated due to the aura of mystery attached to his rediscovered works in the twentieth century, Georges de La Tour’s paintings continue to be an object of scholarly interest and public fascination. Exploring the representations of light, vision and the visible in his works, this interdisciplinary study raises seminal questions regarding the nature of painting and its artistic, theological, and conceptual implications. If the visible presents an enigma in La Tour’s pictorial works, this is because familiar objects of visible reality serve as emblems of an invisible, spiritual reality. La Tour’s pursuit of likeness between image and the natural world bears the influence of the Catholic Reform’s call for the revitalization of religious imagery in the wake of Protestant iconoclastic outbreaks. Like the books shown in his paintings which are asking to be read, La Tour’s paintings are examined not just as visual depictions but also as instruments of insight, which ask to be deciphered rather than merely seen. La Tour’s paintings show how the figuration of faith as spiritual passion and illumination challenges the meanings attached to the visual realm of painterly expression. This study shows that La Tour’s emphasis on spiritual insight opens up a broader artistic, philosophical and conceptual reflection on the conditions of possibility of painting and its limitations as a visual medium. By scrutinizing what is seen and how and by questioning the position of the beholder, his works encourage meditation on the role of painting and its engagements with the visible world.

A Note on Sources

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Lyman Bushman
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
The State ◽  
Mutual Trust ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
The Future ◽  
Male Head ◽  
The Will ◽  
Relationship Of

Beyond the basic farm idea, we can catch a glimpse of the farm mentality by looking closely at the documentary sources farming created: court records, tax lists, account books, and so on. Each one formed a particular world in which farmers led part of their lives. The deed created a space formed of artificial lines imposed on the natural world. The purpose of the deed was to move these chunks of space between the largely male owners, the only significant actors in this world. The promissory note created a period of obligation. During the specified time, the borrower was tied to the lender in a relationship of mutual trust. All farmers were festooned with obligations linking him to other lenders and borrowers. The estate auction revealed the farmer amidst his small possession, forever changing his assemblage of tools, furniture, animals, and land. The will exhibits the farmer ordering the future, willing what the small society of his family will look like after he is gone. Tax lists can be interpreted, after Foucault, as the state exercising discipline by naming every person and exacting a tax. They also reveal the eminence of the male head of the household and the obscurity of women, children, and servants. Finally, the lists ranked farmers by their productivity and ownership, a ranking every farmer could see by glancing at his neighbors’ properties compared to his own.

scholarly journals ‘This town’s a different town today’

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Hadfield ◽  
Stuart Lister ◽  
Peter Traynor
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Security Governance ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Regulatory Architecture ◽  
Police Action ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Social Orders

This article considers recent policing and regulatory responses to the night-time economy in England and Wales. Drawing upon the findings of a broader two-year qualitative investigation of local and national developments in alcohol policy, it identifies a dramatic acceleration of statutory activity, with 12 new or revised powers, and several more in prospect, introduced by the Labour Government within its first decade in office. Interview data and documentary sources are used to explore the degree to which the introduction of such powers, often accompanied by forceful rhetoric and high profile police action, has translated into a sustained expansion of control. Many of the new powers are spatially directed, as well as being focused upon the actions of distinct individuals or businesses, yet the willingness and capacity to apply powers to offending individuals in comparison to businesses is often variable and asymmetrical. The practice of negotiating order in the night-time economy is riddled with tensions and ambiguities that reflect the ad hoc nature and rapid escalation of the regulatory architecture. Night-time urban security governance is understood as the outcome of subtle organizational and interpersonal power-plays. Social orders, normative schemas and apportionments of blame thus arise as a byproduct of patterned (structural) relations.

African Cultural Festivals and World Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-257
Author(s):  
Claire Ducournau
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Critical Inquiry ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Cultural Festivals ◽  
The World ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Bear Witness

Abstract In an era where cultural festivals multiply, so-called African festivals have spread in Africa, but also outside of the continent, in major cities as well as in little-known villages, for example in provincial France. What are some of their implications and effects in the case of francophone African literature? These events privilege a continental representation of literature, which often reveals itself as problematic when confronted with the complex geographies of the texts and authors represented at these festivals. Using cross-disciplinary methodology, this critical inquiry reads different reallocations of this persistent African matrix through a typology and contemporary examples (Kossi Efoui’s writings, the “Étonnants Voyageurs” and “Plein sud” festivals). As an object of study, festivals bear witness to the necessity of expanding the toolbox of the (world) literary scholar by making use of documentary sources and adopting ethnographic approaches. It reveals a structural tension between an African map and various concrete territories, where local issues matter often more than this continental category, and can affect the form and content of literature itself.

Communicative and Applied Technologies in the Training of a Professional Philologist

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
L. G. Antonova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Educational Standard ◽  
State Educational ◽  
Training Professional ◽  
Independent Work

The article is devoted to the current university system of training professional philologists. The author analyzes the requirements of the Federal state educational standard of higher education in the field of philology. The communicative component is identified as the core professional competency. The leading role of communicative competency in the implementation of the basic requirements of interactive learning technologies in higher education is discussed. The requirements for the selection of disciplines in the structure of «regional university» curricula, which ensure the employability of graduates in regions, are described. In addition, the issues of testing the general (normative) literacy of a philology student, media literacy and media education of modern professional philologists, as well as their knowledge in the field of genre studies and textology are considered. The author relies on documentary sources, reviews of didactic sources and materials of students’ independent work in real and virtual environments. Various practical exercises with different text types are proposed. In describing didactic materials, their use and approaches to their analysis, the author adheres to the principles of evaluating effective methodological support that have been developed in the research laboratory and practice of university rhetoric founded by prof. T. A. Ladyzhenskaya.

War, peace and Northwest Coast complex hunter-gatherers

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 240-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Daly
Keyword(s):  
Extended Family ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Northwest Coast ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Nation States

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to question the assumptions behind the aggressive competitive image of Northwest Coast (NWC) forager societies, given that their most reflective descendants emphasize sharing and paying back as constant peacemaking actions through history. Also to seek data that help ascertain whether this contemporary view might predate today's sensibilities colored by life as post-foragers encapsulated in nation states. Design/methodology/approach – Historical, ethnographic and ethnohistorical documentary sources are studied, together with regional archeological findings. These are considered against the author's own ethnographic work among various foragers on the edge of, but integrated with higher profile coastal peoples. Some historical context for regional war and peace is provided. Findings – The archeology indicates that evidence for violent warlike activity appears clearly about three times in 10,000 years, the most extensive being contiguous with Europe's economic and political influence on the continent in the past half millennium. Even in this latter period, extended family foragers managed and sought to control aggression/competition by social sharing and cooperation between like units and by upholding established peacemaking processes and protocols. Research limitations/implications – Since the region and its literature are vast, this theme requires extensive long-term investigation. Findings given here from a limited number of locations are tentative and require detail from other parts of the region; however, they do suggest an existing ethic of sharing and peacemaking reflected back in time through oral history and archeology. Practical implications – The literature of the NWC's bellicosity, its slavery, war-making and agonistic giving is based on events reported from a very short span of contact history. If these conditions had been endemic over time, there would have been insufficient peace to allow these foragers to hunt, gather, fish, barter and prepare foods and goods with which to survive between annual growing and spawning seasons. Social implications – Instead of finding ways to cooperate with each other to seek better living conditions, some NWC post-foragers now assume competition and aggression to be endemic features of their relations with each other. Such persons, perhaps from a sense of inferiority engendered by history, cite the bellicose literature and the glories of the fur trade period as more typical of their heritage than the wisdom and peaceful teachings of their own elders about the past, the future, human relations and the natural world. Originality/value – The findings from the NWC suggest analogies in the emphasis on sharing as a mechanism for making and maintaining peace in the broader comparative context of hunter-gatherer studies. Sharing remains central whether one examines complex hunter-gathers or their more egalitarian colleagues.

Progress Toward Describing the Inner Life of the Dying

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Madelaine Lawrence ◽  
Rebecca Ramirez
Keyword(s):  
Inner Life
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