PORTRAYING PETS | Lapdogs and Hounds in 18th Century Art with Jennifer Milam

Enlightenment writers and philosophers proposed the existence of an animal soul, refuting the Cartesian beast-machine. A shift in the portrayal of dogs during the 18th century signals the role of art in reconfiguring the human perception of the animal as capable of feeling and emotion. This lecture considers the image of the dog in 18th century portraiture and genre scenes as visual explorations of the sensationist animal soul.

JENNIFER MILAM is Professor of Art History at the University of Sydney. Her books include the Historical Dictionary of Rococo Art (2011), Fragonard’s Playful Paintings: Visual Games in Rococo Art (2006) and Women, Art and The Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe (2003).

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), Girl Making a Dog Dance on Her Bed, late 1760s, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany