The Marble Index: Roubiliac and Sculptural Portraiture in 18th-Century Britain

FAIN: FA-55769-11

Malcolm Charles Baker
Regents of the University of California, Riverside (Riverside, CA 92521-0001)

The Marble Index will be the first study of sculptural portraiture in eighteenth-century Britain, exploring the significance of the bust and the statue as modes of representation. The sculptural portrait emerged in Britain as an independent form only in the early eighteenth century but by 1750 it was being used to represent an increasingly wide range of sitters and had been given a centrality that allowed it to rival the painted portrait. The sculptor, Louis Francois Roubiliac played a key role in this reconfiguration. By looking at the bust and the statue as genres, this study will address the central question of how these images, seemingly so traditional in their conventions, developed into ambitious and complex forms of representation within a culture in which many of the components of modernity were being fashioned. As an interdisciplinary study, it sets out to add a major missing dimension to existing accounts of eighteenth-century British culture.

Associated Products

The Marble Index: Roubiliac and Sculptural Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Book)
Title: The Marble Index: Roubiliac and Sculptural Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Author: Malclom Baker
Abstract: na
Year: 2014
Publisher: New Haven: Yale University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Fame and Friendship: Pope, Roubiliac, and the Portrait Bust (Catalog)
Title: Fame and Friendship: Pope, Roubiliac, and the Portrait Bust
Author: Malcolm Baker
Abstract: Already frequently used to represent authors in antiquity, portrait busts became the most familiar and widely disseminated images celebrating famous writers during the eighteenth century. No literary figure was more esteemed than the poet Alexander Pope, and his sculpted portraits exemplify the celebration of literary fame at a period when authorship was being newly conceived, and the portrait bust was enjoying new popularity. This exhibition explored the convergence between authorship, portraiture, and the sculpted image in particular by bringing together a wide range of works that foregrounded Pope’s celebrity status.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/collection/past-exhibitions/2014-fame-and-friendship
Primary URL Description: Exhibition co-organized by UK's Waddesdon Manor and ale Center for British Art
Secondary URL: http://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions/fame-and-friendship-pope-roubiliac-and-portrait-bust-eighteenth-century-britain
Catalog Type: Exhibition Catalog
Publisher: London: Rothschild Foundation

Fame and Friendship: Pope, Roubiliac, and the Portrait Bust in Eighteenth Century Britain (Catalog)
Title: Fame and Friendship: Pope, Roubiliac, and the Portrait Bust in Eighteenth Century Britain
Author: Malcolm Baker
Abstract: na
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/collection/past-exhibitions/2014-fame-and-friendship
Catalog Type: Exhibition Catalog
Publisher: New Haven: Yale Center for British Art

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