This is not just a painting. An essay on art, domination, magic, and the sacred.
The Discovery| N° d'inventaire | 23055 |
| Format | 12.5 x 19 |
| Détails | 762 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2020 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782348064173 |
In 1657, Nicolas Poussin painted a Flight into Egypt with a Reclining Traveler. The canvas then disappeared for several centuries. In the 1980s, different versions of the painting reappeared, great experts clashed, analysis laboratories and courts got involved, and many wanted to authenticate and appropriate the masterpiece. What does this story, which resembles a detective story, tell us about? What makes a work of art valuable? And where does this aura attached to creators and works come from? Bernard Lahire shows that the sacred has never disappeared from our world, but that we do not know how to see it. Social magic is omnipresent in economics, politics, law, science, and art as much as in mythology and religion. It is this effect of enchantment that transforms an animal sculpture into a totem, a piece of metal into currency, ordinary water into holy water; and which transforms a painting from a mere copy to a masterpiece. Drawing with erudition from anthropology, history, and sociology, this book questions the foundations of belief on which our institutions and perceptions are based. Radically questioning art and its emancipatory ambition, it reveals the forms of domination hidden behind the admiration of works.
In 1657, Nicolas Poussin painted a Flight into Egypt with a Reclining Traveler. The canvas then disappeared for several centuries. In the 1980s, different versions of the painting reappeared, great experts clashed, analysis laboratories and courts got involved, and many wanted to authenticate and appropriate the masterpiece. What does this story, which resembles a detective story, tell us about? What makes a work of art valuable? And where does this aura attached to creators and works come from? Bernard Lahire shows that the sacred has never disappeared from our world, but that we do not know how to see it. Social magic is omnipresent in economics, politics, law, science, and art as much as in mythology and religion. It is this effect of enchantment that transforms an animal sculpture into a totem, a piece of metal into currency, ordinary water into holy water; and which transforms a painting from a mere copy to a masterpiece. Drawing with erudition from anthropology, history, and sociology, this book questions the foundations of belief on which our institutions and perceptions are based. Radically questioning art and its emancipatory ambition, it reveals the forms of domination hidden behind the admiration of works.