Available online
Description
"Sir Joshua Reynolds in his 'Discourses to the Royal Academy' urged painters to adopt a form of history painting which would be intellectual and ennobling. Its subject matter was to be taken f...rom antiquity and the treatment was to be in the 'Grand Style'. One painting in this tradition was James Barry's "King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia". It is a large work on canvas with tall powerful figures and an air of dignified gravity. It follows Sir Joshua's precepts yet few would number it amongst the greatest of English paintings. In this talk Michael Kitson centres his study of English History Painting on this one picture. He analyses how and why the ideals of the movement arose and how they were met in practice. He tries to explain why a style which obsessed a significant number of painters never achieved the same success in England as it did in France."
"Sir Joshua Reynolds in his 'Discourses to the Royal Academy' urged painters to adopt a form of history painting which would be intellectual and ennobling. Its subject matter was to be taken f...rom antiquity and the treatment was to be in the 'Grand Style'. One painting in this tradition was James Barry's "King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia". It is a large work on canvas with tall powerful figures and an air of dignified gravity. It follows Sir Joshua's precepts yet few would number it amongst the greatest of English paintings. In this talk Michael Kitson centres his study of English History Painting on this one picture. He analyses how and why the ideals of the movement arose and how they were met in practice. He tries to explain why a style which obsessed a significant number of painters never achieved the same success in England as it did in France."
| Module code and title: | A202, The age of revolutions |
|---|---|
| Item code: | A202; 23 |
| Recording date: | 1971-05-11 |
| First transmission date: | 01-07-1972 |
| Published: | 1972 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OUDA web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:18:33 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Richard Callanan |
| Contributors: | Michael Kitson; Stephen Murray |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Discourses to the Royal Acadmey; English history painting |
| Master spool number: | TLN44FM178J |
| Production number: | TLN44FM178J |
| Available to public: | no |
