Beauty and the bestiary : animal art and humane thought in the Gilded Age
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This project investigates how American artists contended with the problems and exploited the possibilities of representing animals during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Thanks to the precipitous rise of Darwinism, the anti-cruelty movement, zoological parks, and conservationism, as well as the emergence of modern forms of taxidermy, pet breeding, and pet keeping, this period witnessed a wholesale reevaluation of human and animal alike. Fascinated by these transformations, Americans voraciously sought out new opportunities to encounter animals, both in life and in art. "Beauty and the Bestiary" focuses on four turn-of-the century American artists—James Henry Beard, Winslow Homer, Astley D. M. Cooper, and Albert Laessle—who actively engaged with animal subjects during this transformative time. Their work not only reflected but actively participated in the development of in humane thought, an interdisciplinary field of inquiry which, much like contemporary animal studies, grappled with the ethical, epistemological and ontological ramifications of human un-exceptionalism. In their sculptures and paintings of animals, these artists charted the shifting boundary between the human and the nonhuman, thoughtfully interrogating the personal and political meaning of our relations with other species. Revisiting and reconsidering their unruly visions is imperative, not only to nuance our understanding of American art, but to fully grasp how its evolution has shaped our present-day commitments to the natural world.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Ronan, Anne |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Art and Art History. |
| Primary advisor | Wolf, Bryan Jay |
| Thesis advisor | Wolf, Bryan Jay |
| Thesis advisor | Corn, Wanda M |
| Thesis advisor | Nemerov, Alexander |
| Thesis advisor | Ott, John, 1971- |
| Advisor | Corn, Wanda M |
| Advisor | Nemerov, Alexander |
| Advisor | Ott, John, 1971- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Annie [Anne] Ronan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Art and Art History. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Anne Elizabeth Ronan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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