The Consumption of Culture 1600-1800: Image, Object, Text (Consumption and Culture in 17th and 18th Centuries)

658 Pages·1995·47.692 MB·English

by  Ann Bermingham

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Consumption and Culture in the
17th and 18th Centuries
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Consumption and the World of Goods
Edited by John Brewer and Roy Porter
Early Modern Conceptions of Property
Edited by John Brewer and Susan Staves
The Consumption of Culture 1600-1800
3 Edited by Ann Bermingham and John Brewer
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J^The Consumption
/5<of Culture 1600—1800
Image, Object, Text
Edited by
Ann Bermingham and John Brewer
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London and New York
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First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
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This collection © 1995 The Regents of the University of California; except
for chapters 6, 9 and 12 © respective contributors
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Typeset in Baskerville #2 by Florencetype Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
■1 Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Press Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
< utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
- from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Consumption of Culture, 1600-1800: Image, Object, Text. -
(Consumption & Culture in 17th & 18th Centuries Series)
I. Bermingham, Ann IL Brewer, John III. Series
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306.09032
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-415-12135-3
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Contents
LIST OF PLATES vii
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xii
PREFACE xv
1 Introduction. The consumption of culture: image, object, text i
Ann Benningham
Part I The formation of a public for art and literature
2 Subjective powers? Consumption, the reading public, and domestic woman
in early eighteenth-century England 23
Terry Lovell
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3 Reading women. Text and image in eighteenth-century England 42
Peter H. Pawlowicz
4 Colonizing readers. Review criticism and the formation of a reading public 54
Frank Donoghue
5 Expanding on portraiture. The market, the public, and the hierarchy of
genres in eighteenth-century Britain 75
Louise Lippincott
6 The abandoned hero. The decline of state authority in the direction of
French painting as seen in the career of one exemplary theme, 1777-89 89
Thomas Crow
7 Gombrich and the rise of landscape 103
J. T. Mitchell
vi Contents
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Pari II Engendering the literary canon
I 121
8 British Romanticism, gender, and three women artists
Anne K. Mellor
9 The “exchange of letters.” Early modern contradictions and postmodern
143
conundrums
Don E. Wayne
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1 10 Author-mongering. The “editor” between producer and consumer 166
Robert IliJJe
11 Shot from canons; or, Maria Edgeworth and the cultural production and
193
J consumption of the eighteenth-century woman writer
1 Mitzi Myers
3 Pari Ill Consumption and the modern state
217
12 Polygamy, Pamela, and the prerogative of empire
Felicity 4. Nussbaum
13 The good, the bad, and the impotent. Imperialism and the politics of
identity in Georgian England 237
Kathleen Wilson
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14 The state’s demand for accurate astronomical and navigational
instruments in eighteenth-century Britain 263
Richard Sorrenson
15 Signs and citizens. Sign language and visual sign in the French Revolution 272
Nicholas MirzoeJJ
16 Outrages. Sculpture and kingship in France after 1789 294
J, Anne M. Wagner
17 Dante’s Restaurant. The cultural work of experiment in early modern
Tuscany 319
Jay Tribby
Part IV The social order: culture high and low
18 “The most polite age and the most vicious.” Attitudes towards culture as a
commodity, 1660-1800 341
John Brewer
19 Politeness for plebes. Consumption and social identity in early eighteenth­
century England 362
4 Lawrence E. Klein
20 Emulative consumption and literacy. The Harlot, Moll Flanders, and Mrs.
Slipslop 383
J Ronald Paulson
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Contents vii
21 “La chose publique.” Hubert Robert’s decorations for the “petit salon” at
Mereville 401
Paula Rea Radisich
Part V What women want
22 “News from the New Exchange”. Commodity, erotic fantasy, and the
female entrepreneur 419
James Grantham Turner
" 23 Women’s participation in the urban culture of early modern London.
Images from fiction 440
Elizabeth Bennett Kubek
24 The im/modesty of her sex. Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun and the Salon of 1783 455
Mary D. Sheriff
V 25 Elegant females and gentlemen connoisseurs. The commerce in culture and
self-image in eighteenth-century England 489
Ann Bermingham
26 Social order and the domestic consumption of music. The politics of sound
in the policing of gender consstruction in eighteenth-century England 514
Richard Lepperl
INDEX 535
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Plates
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i (between pp. 240 and 241)
1.1 Willem Kalf, Still Life with Nautilus Cup, c. 1664.
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1.2 Antoine Watteau, L’Enseigne de Gersaint, 1721.
3.1 Joshua Reynolds, Theophila Palmer Reading “Clarissa Marlowe," 1771.
3.2 Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, Le Midi, engraved by E. de Ghendt, c. 1770.
3.3 Joshua Reynolds, Emilia, duchess of Leinster, 1753.
3.4 Cesare Ripa, “Meditation,” from his Iconologia (London: Motte, 1709).
5.1 John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, \T18.
5.2 John Singleton Copley, Charles I Requesting from Parliament the Five Impeached
'J Members, 1782-95.
5.3 James Gillray, Shakespeare Sacrificed, or, The Offering to Avarice, 1789.
5.4 Joseph Wright of Derby, The Corinthian Maid, c. 1783-4.
5.5 Joseph Wright of Derby, Penelope Unravelling Her Web, 1785.
5.6 Benjamin West, Etruria, or British Manufactory, 1789-91.
6.1 Francois-Andre Vincent, Belisarius Begging Alms, 1776.
6.2 Francois-Andre Vincent, Socrates Admonishing Alcibiades, 1776.
6.3 Jean-Francois-Pierre Peyron, Belisarius Receiving Hospitality from Peasants who had
Served Under Him, 1779.
6.4 Jacques-Louis David, Belisarius Begging Alms, 1781.
6.5 Jean-Germain Drouais, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1782.
6.6 Jean-Germain Drouais, Christ and the Canaanite Woman, 1784.
6.7 Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii Between the Hands of Their Father, 1784.
6.8 Jean-Germain Drouais, Marius at Mintumae, 1786.
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6.9 Jean-Germain Drouais, study for Marius at Mintumae, c. 1786.
Z'l 6.10 Jean-Germain Drouais, study for Marius at Mintumae, c. 1786.
6.11 Jean-Germain Drouais, study for Marius at Mintumae, c. 1786.
■ J 6.12 Jean-Germain Drouais, Philoctetes on Lemnos, 1788.
7.1 Flemish school, A Collector’s Cabinet, 1620.
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Plates ix
7.2 Albrecht Diirer, Pond in the Woods, c. 1497-8.
7.3 Giorgione, Tempesta, c. 1505.
8.1 Angelica KaufTmann, Miss Cornelia Knight, 1793.
8.2 Angelica KaufTmann, Hector Taking Leave of Andromache, 1768.
8.3 Gavin Hamilton, Andromache Bewailing the Death of Hector, c. 1761-4.
8.4 Thomas Burke after Angelica KaufTmann, Andromache Weeping Over the Ashes of
Hector, 1772.
8.5 Maria Cosway, The Progress of Female Virtue, plate IV (London, c. 1800).
8.6 Maria Cosway, The Progress of Female Dissipation, plate IV (London, c. 1800).
8.7 Mary Moser, Flower Painting, c. 1770.
12.1 Frontispiece by F. Child to A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol.
II (London, 1745).
14.1 Ramsden’s Dividing Engine of 1777.
14.2 Ramsden’s Dividing Engine of 1777; detailed view from above.
15.1 Marie-Pierre Nicolas Ponce-Camus, L’Abbe de I’Epee, 1802.
15.2 Jerome-Martin Langlois, Sicard Instructing the Deaf-Mutes, 1806.
15.3 Jerome-Martin Langlois, Sicard Instructing the Deaf-Mutes, 1814.
16.1 F. Lemot, Henri IV, 1818.
16.2 Helman after Monnet, Fountain of Regeneration, 1793.
16.3 Anonymous, Monument erected on the Place des Victoires in Honor of General Desaix,
1810.
16.4 Anonymous, Caricature of Vivant Denon, c. 1815.
16.5 Anonymous, Louis XVIII: A French Elephant, c. 1814.
16.6 Anonymous, Louis XVIII, c. 1815-24.
16.7 Theodore Gericault, Two Napoleonic Soldiers and a Caricature of Louis XVIII, c.
1815.
16.8 Merlet, Anthousiasme des franqais pour Henri IV, lors de la translation de sa Statue au
Pont Neuf 1818.
16.9 Anonymous, Louis de noire amour, amant de Gabrielle, 1818.
16.10 Prieur, Busts of Necker and the due d’Orleans Carried to the Place Louis XV, 1789.
16.11 Veve and Girardet, Gathering on the Pont Neuf, September 16, 1788, 1788.
16.12 Anonymous, Destruction of the Statues of Louis XIV, Place Vendome and Place des
Victoires, 1792.
16.13 Anonymous, Destruction of the Statues of Henri IV, Pont Neuf and Louis XIII, Place
Royale, 1792.
16.14 Anonymous, Horrible Crimes Committed in Paris, August 10, 1792, 1792.
16.15 N. Lesueur, Equestrian Figure of Louis XIV, after 1699.
16.16 P. E. Lesueur, Execution of Louis XVI, c. 1793.
16.17 Anonymous, Death of Louis XVI, 1793.
16.18 G. Opiz, Descente de la Statue de Napoleon de la Collonne [sic] triomphale sur la Place
Vendome, 1814.
16.19 F. Lemot, Henri IV (detail), 1818.
16.20 Anonymous, Cane with Handle Representing Louis XVIII, Concealing an Image of
Napoleon, c. 1815-24.
19.1 Johannes Kip after J. Badslade, The Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells, 1719.
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x Plates
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19.2 F. H. van Hove, frontispiece to John Dunton’s The Young Students Library
(London, 1692). ,
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Anonymous, frontispiece and title page to J. Hill’s The Young Secretary s Guide
19.3
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19.4 Anonymous, frontispiece and title page to The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence
(London, 1685).
20.1 William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 1, 1732.
20.2 William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 2, 1732.
20.3 William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 3, 1732.
20.4 William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 4, 1732.
20.5 William Hogarth, Boys Peeping al Nature, 1730/1.
20.6 William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress, Plate 1, 1735.
J 20.7 William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress, Plate 2, 1735.
20.8 William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress, Plate 3, 1735.
20.9 William Hogarth, Marriage a la Mode, Plate 1, 1745.
20.10 William Hogarth, Marriage a la Mode, Plate 4, 1745.
20.11 William Hogarth, The Dislrest Poet, 1741.
21.1 Hubert Robert, Four Decorative Paintings from the Chateau of Mere'ville: The Obelisk,
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1787/8.
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21.2 Hubert Robert, Four Decorative Paintings from the Chateau at Mereville: The Old
Temple, 1787/8.
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21.3 Hubert Robert, Four Decorative Paintings from the Chateau of Mereville: The
Fountains, 1787/8.
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21.4 Hubert Robert, Four Decorative Paintings from the Chateau at Mereville: The Landing
Place, 1788.
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24.1 Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Peace Bringing Back Abundance, 1783^1.
24.2 Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Self-Portrait, 1783.
24.3 Peter Paul Rubens, Le Chapeau de Paille, 1620-24.
24.4 Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Portrait of Marie-Antoinette “en chemise,” 1783.
24.5 Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Portrait of the duchesse de Polignac, 1783.
J 24.6 Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Portrait of the duchesse de Polignac, 1787.
24.7 Gustave Lundberg, Portrait of Francois Boucher, 1752.
24.8 Antoine Vestier, Portrait of Nicolas-Guy Brenet, 1786.
24.9 Anton Raphael Mengs, Self-Portrait, 1774.
1 24.10 Louis Tocque, Portrait of Galloche, 1734.
24.11 Nicholas Largilliere, Portrait of Coustou, 1710.
i 24.12 Jacques-Louis David, Self-Portrait, 1794.
■ -i 24.13 Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Broken Jug, 1773.
25.1 Nikolas Willem von Heideloff, Gallery of Fashion, vol. II, April 1795. Fig. 87,
“New Dresses in the Roman Style”.
25.2 Nikolas Willem von Heideloff, Gallery of Fashion, vol. V, October 1798. Fig.
120, “Afternoon Dress.”
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25.3 George Romney, Caroline, Viscountess Clifden and Lady Elizabeth Spencer, 1791.
25.4 Edward Francis Burney, A Fashionable Academy for Young Ladies, c. 1800.
25.5 Wax Ex-Voti from Isernia, from Richard Payne Knight’s Discourse on the
Worship of Priapus (London, 1786).
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Plates xi
25.6 Frederick Rehberg, Three Attitudes of Emma Hamilton, 1794.
25.7 Johan Zoffany, Charles Towneley and Friends in the Park Street Gallery, Westminster,
1781-3.
25.8 Johan Zoffany, The Tribuna of the Uffizi, XTT2.-Q.
26.1 Robert Dighton, Fashion Plate for February, c. 1780.
26.2 Johan Zoffany, The Armstrong Sisters, Mary and Priscilla, late 1760s.
26.3 Henry Pickering, attr., Family Gathered Around a Harpsichord, c. 1760s.
26.4 Joseph Francis Nollekens, Conversation Piece, 1740.
26.5 Lady Dorothy Savile, Woman at Harpsichord, with a Dog and a Cat.
26.6 Paul Sandby, Two Women at Music Seated Under a Tree.
26.7 John Hoppner, Quartet.
26.8 Gavin Hamilton, Family Scene.
26.9 Samuel Collins, Musical Party.
26.10 Nathaniel Dance-Holland, Musical Parly.
26.11 Johan Zoffany, Musical Parly.