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Pierpont Morgan Manuscript 324: Le Roman De La Rose; A Study In Social Transition, Louise A. Miller

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Art and literature, significant forms of human expression, serve as two valuable cultural sources for the understanding of a given civilization. The philosophical rationalism of Voltaire and the mythological paintings of Boucher, as contrasted to the concern with self of Chateaubriand and the tragically realistic paintings of Gericault, provide an important expressive background to the understanding of society before and after the French Revolution. These sources provide a broader insight into the societies of the time, their influences upon and their reactions to the immediate historical event. Similarly, the starkness of the paintings of Buffet and the preoccupation with the …