McClintock, Stuart

About the author: Dr. Stuart McClintock received his PhD from Middlebury College. He is currently Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages at Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas.

Iconography and Iconology of Georges De La Tour’s Religious Paintings (1624-1650)

2003 0-7734-6798-X
This is a semiotic study of the artist’s twenty-one religious paintings. Like the art historians Panofsky and Gombrich, the author is particularly interested in establishing La Tour’s intentions and meaning in his work by examining his personal use of symbols. The study interprets the paintings in terms of the artist’s religious, political, artistic, and geographical background. Its cross-disciplinary methodology identifies and synthesizes a wide range of elements that must have influenced the painter, elements which have not previously been seen in light of each other. It is also the most thorough recent analysis of his paintings. With color illustrations.