Az észrevehetetlen részlet: : legyek és bolhák Georges de La Tour festészetében

Katalin Bartha-Kovács

doi:10.14232/animalia.2024.1

The Imperceptible Detail: Flies and Fleas in Georges de La Tour’s Paintings

Authors

Katalin Bartha-Kovács

Szegedi Tudományegyetem

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4552-1585

Synopsis

This paper deals with the motifs of flies and fleas in two paintings by the 17th-century French artist Georges de La Tour. From a distance, these two tiny insects are barely visible, inconspicuous black dots that can only be revealed by a closer look. This study aims to show that the inclusion of the fly and the flea in the paintings was a conscious decision of the artist, which adds supplementary meaning to the picture, can change its perception, and may also lead to its reinterpretation.

Keywords: imperceptible detail, Georges de La Tour, fly, flea

Author Biography

Katalin Bartha-Kovács, Szegedi Tudományegyetem

is an associate professor at the Department of French Studies at the University of Szeged. Her research interests include the theory of art in France in the 17th and 18th centuries (especially the writings of Denis Diderot on art); research of motifs (the concept of silence, the je-ne-sais-quoi, the theories of passions, representations of animals: the monkey). Her most recent publications are: Diderot et Watteau. Vers une poétique de l’image au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2019) and Hét arabeszk – Watteau-olvasatok (ed. Krisztina Bertók, Budapest, Martin Opitz Kiadó, 2021).