Visualizing the Revolution: Politics and Pictorial Arts in Late Eighteenth-Century France

This title is translated by Corinne Attwood. The French Revolution was marked by a wealth of imagery and visual symbolism that inspired the masses to fight for freedom. Visualizing the Revolution surveys the rich and multifaceted visual culture of this time, exploring its creation and how it conveyed the new revolutionary sensibilities of the era. Unlike most studies of art of the French Revolution, Visualizing the Revolution embraces a wide range of artistic genres including prints, architecture, painting and sculpture and also draws on archival documents and other historical literature to investigate the period’s aesthetic concerns. Reichardt and Kohle break new ground in methodology and interpretative practice as they trace the intricate web of connections between these various historical artifacts and argue for the central place of the arts in the transmission of ideas and the political manipulation of the populace both educated and illiterate. Visualizing the Revolution translates the provocatively new visual language revealed in these artworks and writings and reveals how its emphasis on metaphor, allegory and symbolism transformed French mass visual culture. An innovative and well-illustrated study, Visualizing the Revolution is a valuable new contribution to scholarship on the French Revolution and the history of French art.