111-245/345 Passion, Power and Perception: French Art in the Nineteenth Century

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This subject aims to give students a broad understanding of the development of French painting and sculpture from the French Revolution to the Paris Exposition of 1900. Students are asked to consider the relationship between creative visual expression and social and political change; to develop an understanding of the academic techniques of both media and to see how they came under threat as the century progresses and new materials came into use and different requirements are made of the work of art. A close examination of particular examples is central to the teaching and certain classes are taught in front of the art works in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.The subject covers the change in the very nature of what a painting was considered to be - from an expression of collective civic and moral virtues right through to a fleeting and personal expression of a moment in time.

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