The names of things: terminology and the practice of art history

This paper aims to explore the ways in which standard art history terminology shapes the practice of art history by conditioning the interpretation of specific works of art and, in certain cases, the definition of a research subject (especially where questions of genre and periodization are concerned). Taking as a case study a painting by Georges de La Tour, the Peasant Couple Eating, I will argue that terms such as realism, realistic, naturalistic etc. used for its description and/or interpretation, far from constituting objective stylistic characterizations, shape our perception of the work in question. Bringing the question of social class to the center of the discourse on realism, I propose to show how the social divide between the painter and his subject matter (in this case, the peasants) is internalized in the painting’s style and meaning, and how it is fundamental for the understanding of its intentionality and function.

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Introduction

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Mammalia

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Aves. v. 1. Introduction -- Subclass Aves Carinate. Order Passeres.

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Aves. v. 2. Subclass Aves Carinate. Order[s]: Passeres (contd.), Macrochires, Pici, Coccyges, Psitta

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Aves. v. 3. Subclass Aves Carinate. Order[s]: Striges, Accipitres, Steganopodes, Phoenicopteri, Colu

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Aves. v. 4. Plates.

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Reptilia and Batrachia

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Pisces

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Land and Freshwater Mollusca

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Arachnida Araneidea

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Arachnida Araneidea and Opiliones

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Arachnida, Scorpiones, Pedipalpi, and Solifugae

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Chilopoda and Diplopoda

Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology /edited by Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin.

Insecta. Coleoptera. v. 1. pt. 1. [Adephaga] by H.W. Bates (1881-1884).