Postures After the Antique in Eighteenth-Century Portraits of Women

Authors

Lauren K. DiSalvo, Utah Tech UniversityFollow

Author Biography

Lauren DiSalvo is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Utah Tech University. An archaeologist turned art historian, her interests lay at the intersections of these two disciplines in the field of classical reception. She has published and presented on topics of classical reception including plaster casts used at world’s fairs in the 20th century, souvenirs associated with Rome and the Grand Tour, and portraiture of women in the long eighteenth century.

Abstract

This paper re-examines the relationship between eighteenth-century portraiture and the antique where women adopt the postures of floating female figures from Pompeiian wall paintings in eighteenth-century portraiture. I argue that eighteenth-century floating portraits afforded their female sitters an opportunity to assert classical knowledge while adhering to typical conventions of femininity.

Keywords

Portraiture, classical reception, Pompeii, classical antiquity, Herculaneum Dancers, Antichità di Ercolano

Recommended Citation

DiSalvo, Lauren K. (2022) "Postures After the Antique in Eighteenth-Century Portraits of Women," ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830: Vol.12: Iss.2, Article 3.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2157-7129.12.2.1279
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol12/iss2/3