This original book explores the radical transformation of the heroic male body in late eighteenth-century British art. It ranges across a period in which a modern art world was established, taking into account the lives and careers of a succession of major figures-from Benjamin West and Gavin Hamilton to Henry Fuseli, John Flaxman and William Blake-and influential institutions, from the Royal Academy to the commercial galleries of the 1790s.Organized around the historical traumas of the Seven Years' War (1756-63), the War of American Independence (1775-83) and the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars (1789-1815),
Bodybuilding places the visual representation of the hero at the heart of a series of narratives about social and economic change, gender identity, and the transformation of cultural value on the eve of modernity. The book offers a vivid image of a critical period in Britain's cultural history and establishes a new framework for the study of late-eighteenth-century art and gender.
About the AuthorMartin Myrone is curator of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British art at Tate Britain, London.
Book InformationISBN 9780300110050
Author Martin MyroneFormat Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Yale University PressPublisher Yale University Press
Weight(grams) 1520g