Femininmasculin. - book reviews

Anthea Callen's is the only one of these books to deal at length with one artist. In The Spectacular Body: Science, Method and Meaning in the Work of Degas, her reading of Degas expands the reader's vision of the nineteenth century, in areas other than its art. All the while it remains firmly rooted in the artifact. Callen reminds us:

One of the reasons why it is so crucial to examine art-objects "in the flesh" is precisely that, in reproduction, the sensual is lost. Confronting the object, the spectator - through memory, through association - relives the physical history of the mark-making which produced the image; the eye retraces the movements of the artist's hand. The visual sensation is a metaphor for - or a sublimation of - actual bodily contact (p. 143).

Callen's keen observations develop from sustained looking. She maintains a discreet distance from reading Degas's psychology in favor of tracing the constructions of meaning in his works. Thus, although the information in chapter 1, "Physiognomy and Difference," and in chapter 3, "The Invisible Man" (which includes the scabrous caricature of "Jewish virtues according to Gall's method" from La Libre Parole as fig. 78, p. 107) would enable the reader to venture speculatively into the realm of the artist's anti-Semitism and his ignominious behavior in l'affaire Dreyfus, Callen appropriately holds her peace. At other times, she weaves sociological information dexterously into her visual analysis. On the page opposite an 1899 photograph of Degas coming out of a public urinal, the author provides information on "Public Inconveniences":

It could be argued that bourgeois woman's social life of calling-cards and visits to friends' houses was dictated by the inevitable and regular calls of nature - which required a reasonably salubrious privacy. Previously considered a natural function and thus often performed in public, especially in rural areas, nineteenth-century constraint upon public urination and defecation was the product of a new concern for hygiene and the evacuation of urban waste to prevent disease. . . . By timing her life according to a coerced biological clock, the bourgeoise would, quite literally, not be caught "out. ". . . A woman could not enter a bar or cafe to use whatever basic facilities they afforded, and public conveniences were mainly limited to that ubiquitous Parisian landmark, the men's urinal (p. 178).

Callen then goes on to discuss the process of disrobing, involving the fashion innovation of underpants for women and the rise of department stores, which offered women shoppers the first true comfort stations.(6)

Her work imprinted with the example of feminist film theory, especially as developed by Laura Mulvey, Callen will drop everything to offer her viewer the pleasures of looking at specific images. An especially strong example can be found in her discussion of Degas vis & vis Charles Blanc's (1867) writing on pastels: "Feminist theory posits sight as a locus of masculine power and sexuality. Indeed, by the date Blanc was writing, the verb voit had come also to mean sexual intercourse" (p. 123). Callen continues: "In terms of its ability to suggest fugitive effects pastel was a highly appropriate choice for Degas, even though his effects were often achieved in the absence of his model, giving only the appearance of immediacy" (p. 124). And on the following page: "The techniques used to fix pastel (like beauty in woman [Callen has just cited Blanc's references to pastel as 'exquisite powder,' 'a flower of youth,' etc.]) often destroyed its finest qualities. Seen as a medium good for fugitive effects, it is significant that the fugitive, the ephemeral, the temporal were associated with the feminine" (p.125). And finally: