Conversation piece [ Art & Luxury ]
… of sociability began to flourish, British portraitists started to offer a new mode of portraiture expressive of this culture. After a tentative start in the 1720s, the ‘conversation piece’ took off around 1730, thanks to artists such as … homosocial conversation pieces featured wine glasses, wine coolers and punch bowls as their underpinning material culture. Moving outdoors, books, drawing implements and fishing apparel sustained the shared leisure time depicted. 6 . … of these friends, discussing a drawing of the Temple of Jupiter, flanked by further examples of the classical material culture which they explored and discussed on their travels: the Colosseum and an urn bearing the relief of The Borghese …
Conversation | Painting | Portrait | Tea-table
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