Rococo representations of interspecies sensuality and the pursuit of "volupté"

• Autores: Jennifer Milam
• Localización: Art bulletin, ISSN 0004-3079, Vol. 97, Nº 2, 2015, págs. 192-209
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Enlightenment writers proposed the existence of an animal soul, refuting the Cartesian beast-machine. Arguments credit the caresses of a dog to its master as direct visual evidence of the capacity of an animal to feel and show emotion. A focus on paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard sets the Rococo representation of lapdogs within the context of changing ideas about the relationship between animal and human. Eroticized images of lapdogs are related to radical materialist theories that assert the role of physical pleasure in human motivation.