“Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes
This article addresses Alma-Tadema’s reconstructions of scenes set in ancient Greece. His Greek subjects raise issues pertaining to the transition in the contemporary pictorial context from history painting to historical genre. Alma-Tadema was influenced by the Flemish genre painters and by the Fren...
Gespeichert in:
| Veröffentlicht in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes, |
|---|---|
| 1. Verfasser: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprache: | Anglais |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Polysèmes
2019
|
| Schlagworte: | |
| Online Zugang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:polysemes_4805 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
openedition |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:polysemes_4805 https://doi.org/10.4000/polysemes.4805 urn:doi:10.4000/polysemes.4805 en https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes/4805 2019-05-30T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/j69c All rights reserved “Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes Polysèmes SAIT info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2496-4212 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0999-4203 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes Gillard-Estrada, Anne-Florence peinture victorienne antiquité peinture de genre peinture d’histoire Grèce Rome Victorian painting antiquity genre painting historical painting Greece Rome This article addresses Alma-Tadema’s reconstructions of scenes set in ancient Greece. His Greek subjects raise issues pertaining to the transition in the contemporary pictorial context from history painting to historical genre. Alma-Tadema was influenced by the Flemish genre painters and by the French Néo-Grec movement and his reconstructions of Greek history are in fact everyday-life scenes. They privilege social experience over noble action and simple emotions over elevated sentiment, and so fitted the Victorian taste for genre. Yet perusal of the critical reception of his works shows that the commentators still established distinctions between Greek and Roman subjects—notably because Greece was still expected to conform to a number of aesthetic conventions as well as to gendered or racialist considerations. Moreover, because Alma-Tadema and a number of critics frequently established analogies between the ancients and Alma-Tadema’s contemporaries, the painter in fact held an ambiguous mirror up to his contemporaries. His reconstitutions of Greece tackle unorthodox sexual mores and depicted physical types that were perceived as inappropriate for the Greeks. They therefore went against the aesthetic codes that subsisted when representations of the Greeks were concerned, which raised aesthetic and ideological expectations that were less prominent in the case of Roman subjects. Cet article se propose d’aborder la question de la reconstruction de scènes situées dans la Grèce antique par le peintre Alma-Tadema. Les sujets grecs d’Alma-Tadema reflètent des enjeux liés à la transition, dans le contexte pictural de l’époque, de la peinture d’histoire à la peinture de « genre historique ». Influencé par les peintres de genre flamands et par les Néo-Grecs en France, Alma-Tadema propose des reconstructions de l’histoire grecque qui sont en fait des scènes de la vie quotidienne en Grèce. Elles privilégient l’expérience sociale par rapport aux nobles actions et les émotions simples par rapport aux sentiments élevés, et s’adaptent ainsi au goût victorien pour la peinture de genre. Cependant, l’étude de la réception critique de ses œuvres montre que les commentateurs opéraient des distinctions entre les sujets grecs et romains, la Grèce faisant encore l’objet d’attentes sur le plan esthétique mais aussi en termes de genre et de considérations racialistes. En outre, parce qu’Alma-Tadema et une partie des critiques établissaient des analogies entre les anciens et ses contemporains, le peintre tendait en fait un miroir ambigu à ceux-ci. Ses reconstitutions de la Grèce abordaient en effet des mœurs sexuelles jugées scandaleuses ou montraient des types physiques perçus comme inappropriés pour les Grecs. Elles dérogeaient donc aux codes esthétiques qui perduraient dès lors que la représentation concernait ce sujet précis de la Grèce, alors que les attentes sur le plan esthétique et idéologique semblent avoir été moins marquées pour les sujets romains. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
peinture victorienne antiquité peinture de genre peinture d’histoire Grèce Rome Victorian painting antiquity genre painting historical painting Greece Rome |
| spellingShingle |
peinture victorienne antiquité peinture de genre peinture d’histoire Grèce Rome Victorian painting antiquity genre painting historical painting Greece Rome Gillard-Estrada, Anne-Florence “Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes |
| description |
This article addresses Alma-Tadema’s reconstructions of scenes set in ancient Greece. His Greek subjects raise issues pertaining to the transition in the contemporary pictorial context from history painting to historical genre. Alma-Tadema was influenced by the Flemish genre painters and by the French Néo-Grec movement and his reconstructions of Greek history are in fact everyday-life scenes. They privilege social experience over noble action and simple emotions over elevated sentiment, and so fitted the Victorian taste for genre. Yet perusal of the critical reception of his works shows that the commentators still established distinctions between Greek and Roman subjects—notably because Greece was still expected to conform to a number of aesthetic conventions as well as to gendered or racialist considerations. Moreover, because Alma-Tadema and a number of critics frequently established analogies between the ancients and Alma-Tadema’s contemporaries, the painter in fact held an ambiguous mirror up to his contemporaries. His reconstitutions of Greece tackle unorthodox sexual mores and depicted physical types that were perceived as inappropriate for the Greeks. They therefore went against the aesthetic codes that subsisted when representations of the Greeks were concerned, which raised aesthetic and ideological expectations that were less prominent in the case of Roman subjects. |
| author |
Gillard-Estrada, Anne-Florence |
| author_facet |
Gillard-Estrada, Anne-Florence |
| author_sort |
Gillard-Estrada, Anne-Florence |
| title |
“Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes |
| title_short |
“Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes |
| title_full |
“Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes |
| title_fullStr |
“Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes |
| title_full_unstemmed |
“Not so, surely, looked the Greeks”: Alma-Tadema’s Reconstructions of Grecian Scenes |
| title_sort |
“not so, surely, looked the greeks”: alma-tadema’s reconstructions of grecian scenes |
| publisher |
Polysèmes |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/polysemes.4805 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes/4805 |
| _version_ |
1877241611731075072 |