Description

Book Synopsis

Examines how fragile and decaying artworks transformed the relation between art, time, and value in eighteenth-century France.



Trade Review

“A lyrical and witty rereading of eighteenth-century French art that connects the popularity of physically fragile artworks—from cracking Watteau paintings to precarious Clodion terracottas by way of disintegrating pastel paintings and quixotic experiments with encaustic—to a nascent consumer culture dependent on ephemeral goods. Wunsch adroitly joins sophisticated technical analysis to a thought-provoking argument about the ways in which the market shaped artistic practice, art collecting, and aesthetic theory.”

—Amy Freund,author of Portraiture and Politics in Revolutionary France

A Delicate Matter

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    £71.36

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    RRP £83.95 – you save £12.59 (14%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Sat 11 Jul 2026.

    A Hardback by Oliver Wunsch

    3 in stock

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      Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
      Publication Date: 30/01/2024
      ISBN13: 9780271095288, 978-0271095288
      ISBN10: 0271095288
      Also in:
      History of art Social and cultural history

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Examines how fragile and decaying artworks transformed the relation between art, time, and value in eighteenth-century France.



      Trade Review

      “A lyrical and witty rereading of eighteenth-century French art that connects the popularity of physically fragile artworks—from cracking Watteau paintings to precarious Clodion terracottas by way of disintegrating pastel paintings and quixotic experiments with encaustic—to a nascent consumer culture dependent on ephemeral goods. Wunsch adroitly joins sophisticated technical analysis to a thought-provoking argument about the ways in which the market shaped artistic practice, art collecting, and aesthetic theory.”

      —Amy Freund,author of Portraiture and Politics in Revolutionary France

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