---
title: "Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot"
url: https://architect-books.com/Absorption_and_Theatricality_Painting_and_Beholder_in_the_Age_of_Diderot_0226262138
description: "Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot, by Michael Fried, ISBN 0226262138 in the Architect Books catalogue."
---

# Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot

[Architect Books](https://architect-books.com/)

[Browse the catalogue](https://architect-books.com/l-1005-1.html)

Michael Fried

- **Author line**Michael Fried
- **Released**October, 1988
- **ISBN**0226262138
- **Binding**Paperback

## Reader notes

### readable historical account that is very relevant today

I came to this book as someone interested in new media rather than as an art historian, and I found it fascinating. Fried uses Diderot and other eighteen century art critics writing to understand how the beholder of paintings is positioned. He uses an abundance of paintings (reproduced in good quality black and white) and citations of art criticism to show the ways in which painted characters ignore the beholder, first by being absorbed in quiet activities, and later in self-abandonment. While the beholder is clearly set apart from the represented world in history paintings, Diderot also writes about entering landscape paintings, stepping inside the world. I found the book very readable and thought-provoking, and relevant to far more than just eighteenth century French art. Personally I will use it in relation to our current notions of immersion and interactivity.

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