'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de Paris
This essay revisits the relationship between Zola's descriptive techniques and painting by taking a detailed look at <em>Le Ventre de Paris</em>, and at one particular genre of painting, still life. The argument involves dissolving the easy identification between the painter Claude...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2004
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| _version_ | 1797073398153609216 |
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| author | Tunstall, K |
| author2 | Society for French Studies |
| author_facet | Society for French Studies Tunstall, K |
| author_sort | Tunstall, K |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This essay revisits the relationship between Zola's descriptive techniques and painting by taking a detailed look at <em>Le Ventre de Paris</em>, and at one particular genre of painting, still life. The argument involves dissolving the easy identification between the painter Claude Lantier and the narrator in order to reveal the presence of visions of Les Halles other than Claude's quasi-Impressionist one, to which much critical attention has been devoted. In a series of close readings of the visual descriptions, this essay reveals the presence of a Rococo aesthetic, implying parallels between the Second Empire and the eighteenth century; by exploring Florent's perspective on Les Halles in particular, it uncovers <em>vanitas</em> imagery and <em>memento mori</em> in which 'nourriture' is 'pourriture'. To read <em>Le Ventre de Paris</em> is thus to be placed in a position analogous to that of the spectator in Holbein's <em>The Ambassadors</em>, with its notorious anamorphosis; for, as the narrative perspective shifts between Claude and Florent, and as the descriptions evoke Impressionist, Rococo and early modern aesthetics, so the death's head flickers disconcertingly in and out of view. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:21:32Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:68e3bf06-ae86-4df8-aab8-6996354c0bb7 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:21:32Z |
| publishDate | 2004 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:68e3bf06-ae86-4df8-aab8-6996354c0bb72022-03-26T18:47:58Z'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de ParisJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:68e3bf06-ae86-4df8-aab8-6996354c0bb7Literatures of Romance languagesPainting & paintingsLiterature (non-English)EnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetOxford University Press2004Tunstall, KSociety for French StudiesThis essay revisits the relationship between Zola's descriptive techniques and painting by taking a detailed look at <em>Le Ventre de Paris</em>, and at one particular genre of painting, still life. The argument involves dissolving the easy identification between the painter Claude Lantier and the narrator in order to reveal the presence of visions of Les Halles other than Claude's quasi-Impressionist one, to which much critical attention has been devoted. In a series of close readings of the visual descriptions, this essay reveals the presence of a Rococo aesthetic, implying parallels between the Second Empire and the eighteenth century; by exploring Florent's perspective on Les Halles in particular, it uncovers <em>vanitas</em> imagery and <em>memento mori</em> in which 'nourriture' is 'pourriture'. To read <em>Le Ventre de Paris</em> is thus to be placed in a position analogous to that of the spectator in Holbein's <em>The Ambassadors</em>, with its notorious anamorphosis; for, as the narrative perspective shifts between Claude and Florent, and as the descriptions evoke Impressionist, Rococo and early modern aesthetics, so the death's head flickers disconcertingly in and out of view. |
| spellingShingle | Literatures of Romance languages Painting & paintings Literature (non-English) Tunstall, K 'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de Paris |
| title | 'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de Paris |
| title_full | 'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de Paris |
| title_fullStr | 'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de Paris |
| title_full_unstemmed | 'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de Paris |
| title_short | 'Crânement beau tout de même': still life and Le Ventre de Paris |
| title_sort | cranement beau tout de meme still life and le ventre de paris |
| topic | Literatures of Romance languages Painting & paintings Literature (non-English) |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tunstallk cranementbeautoutdememestilllifeandleventredeparis |