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left to discover about the crowd in the French Revolution? Can
we contribute to the issues raised by Rudé, Soboul, and
Andrews over the last 30 years? Is the crowd a new topic for representation
in late eighteenth-century France, and if so, why is that important? |
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question
4 Warren
Roberts, 6-9-03, 9:54 AM |
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RE:
question 4 Jack Censer, 6-12-03, 4:46 PM |
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what
can we learn about the crowd Lynn Hunt, 6-23-03, 11:04
PM |
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RE:
what can we learn about the crowd Barbara Day-Hickman,
7-15-2003,
12:58 PM |
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RE:
what can we learn about the crowd Jack Censer, 7-17-2003,
10:18 AM |
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Response
to Jack Warren Roberts,
7-21-03, 8:03 AM |
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Responses
to Barbara Warren Roberts,
7-19-03, 10:31 AM |
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RE: Response to Warren
and Final Remarks Barbara Day-Hickman,
7-25-03, 1:14 PM
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Response
to Barbara Warren
Roberts, 7-28-03, 10:33 AM |
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| Subject: |
RE: what we
can learn about the crowd |
| Posted
By: |
Barbara Day-Hickman |
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| Date
Posted: |
7-15-03, 12:58
PM |
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I would concur with Lynn that most of the prints in our
selection demonstrate an ambivalence between the representation
of crowd brutality and the artist’s more subdued or
rational interpretation of the revolutionary narrative.
For example, in the “Hanging of Foulon,” Jean-Louis
Prieur establishes a “safe” separation between
the violence of the lynching scene in the background
and the assembling crowd in the foreground. Furthermore,
the artist separates the viewer from the disturbing
reinactment of crowd violence by locating the point
of view of the composition somewhat opposite and above
the suspended victim. With a panoramic view of the
events in the square below, Prieur’s audience has a
privileged perspective that encompasses the entire
scene “at a distance.” Instead of dramatizing
the death scene, the artist reduces the size of the
victim and dancing hangmen to miniscule figures that
either shadow or merge with the mass of figures in
the rear. The viewer’s eye is rather drawn to the myriad
activities going on in the square, from the soldiers
who are in perpetual motion to the viewers who wave
and witness the event from open windows, to the mass
of spectators that extend up and around the street
(rue Mouton?) to a vanishing point beyond audience
purview. Thus, while Prieur achieves a convincing sort
of documentary realism through his skillful rendering
of the event, the complexity of his reportage manages
to disengage his audience from the more disturbing
and offensive aspects of Foulon’s torture. Similarly,
in terms of affect, ambivalence is apparent. The artist
both invites his viewer to become engaged in the fascination
of the death scene while he concurrently shields his
audience from its impact through the intervention of
the surrounding crowd. The artist thus creates a compelling
attraction toward and distraction from details of the
gruesome spectacle portrayed on the distant street
corner. |
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