The Claude glass
Subtitle: use and meaning of the black mirror in western art
By: Arnaud Maillet ; translated by Jeff Fort
Edition: 1st pbk. ed.
Publisher: Zone Books; Distributed byThe MIT Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York; Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 306
ISBN-13: 9781890951481
Subjects: Claude glasses; Technique; Reflection (Optics); Landscape painting
Other titles: Use and meaning of the black mirror in western art
Work titles: Miroir de Claude
Description: In this first full-length study of a largely forgotten optical device from the eighteenth century, Arnaud Maillet reconfigures our historical understanding of visual experience and meaning in relation to notions of opacity, transparency, and imagination. Many are familiar with the Claude glass as a small black convex mirror used by artists and spectators of landscape to reflect a view and make tonal values and areas of light and shade visible. In a groundbreaking account, Maillet goes well beyond this particular function of the glass and situates it within a richer archaeology of Western thought, exploring the uncertainties and anxieties about mirrors, reflections, and their potential distortions. He takes us from the magical and occult background of the "black mirror," through a full evaluation of its importance in the age of the picturesque, to its persistence in a range of technological and representational practices, including photography, film, and contemporary art. The Claude Glass is a lasting contribution to the history of Western visual culture.
Notes: Originally published: 2004.

Translated from the French.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Prolegomena; title: Definitions: characteristics and aspects; title: Problems of naming; title: Problems of historical sources: the disappearing mirror; title: A suspicious mirror; title: Demoniac mirrors; title: Catoptromancy; title: Magnetism, hypnotism; title: Disquiet; title: Fascination; title: A reductive mirror; title: Regarding the eye and the visual field; title: A reductive mirror: regarding tonality; title: A seductive and deceptive mirror; title: An idealizing mirror; title: Limits on the use of the Claude mirror; title: Toward deception and beyond; title: A devaluing mirror; title: Devaluation; title: Abstraction(s); title: An irremediable loss.