Studies in Eighteenth-century Culture

This volume spotlights the visual arts, vision, and blindness during the Enlightenment in France, Britain, and Germany. The essays range from exploring the musical and cultural impact of an eighteenth-century virtuoso violinist to analyzing lotteries as romance in eighteenth-century England.

Contributors and Contents:

Mary Sheriff, The King, the Trickster and the Gorgon: On the Illusions of Rococo ArtBeverly Wilcox, The Hissing of Monsieur PaginJessica Richard, Lotteries and the Romance of Chance in Eighteenth-Century EnglandEmrys D. Jones, 'Friendship like mine / Throws all Respects behind it': Male Companionship and the Cult of Frederick, Prince of WalesDavid Hagan, Threading the Needle: Problems in Reading Dennis Diderot's La lettre sur les aveuglesJosephine Touma, From the Playhouse to the Page: Some Visual Sources for Watteau's Theatrical UniverseDaniel O’Quinn, Diversionary Tactics and Coercive Acts: John Burgoyne's Fete ChampetreShelley King, Portrait of a Marriage: John and Amelia Opie and the Sister ArtsDavid Fairer, Where Fuming Trees Refresh the Thirsty AirDorothea Von Mucke, Iconic Turn and the Power of Images: Goethe’s Elective AffinitiesLaure Marcellesi, Louis-Sebastien Mercier: Prophet, Abolitionist, Colonialist

Downing A. Thomas is a professor of French at the University of Iowa, where he is also associate provost and dean of International Programs. He is the author or coeditor of several books, including Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime: 1647–1785, Operatic Migrations: Transforming Works and Crossing Boundaries in Musical Drama, and Music and the Origins of Language: Theories from the French Enlightenment. Lisa F. Cody is an associate dean of the faculty and an associate professor of history at Claremont McKenna College. She is the author of Birthing the Nation: Sex, Science, and the Conception of Eighteenth-Century Britons.