What is Tableau Vivant-style?

When reading through the brief, i came across the term 'tableau vivant-style', i had never heard of this before, so i went on a little research hunt to find the meaning.

From research on the internet and dictionary, i found that tableau vivant means "living picture" in french. And tableau on its own means " A group of models or motionless figures representing a scene". From what i have understood about the expression is that it is basically a freeze-frame of a story. Basically the action in the story appears to stop momentarily..

Examples of Tableau Vivant





The two Hopper images give the audience the feel that maybe someone is looking in on the scene.. With image of the bar, the audiences imagination could be led to believe that someone is about to do something bad, because its quite and dark in the street, and there are only a few people in the building..

The image of the woman sitting by herself, gives me a different opinion. It seems as if she is sitting a train and the some has opened the carriage door to sit down, meanwhile, she is so rapped up in her own world. She looks as if shes reading a map, and with her face covered it makes her look as if shes running away or hiding from someone..

Giorgio De Chirico

Chiricos' work really interests me. There is something poignant in the way he gives his images depth, mainly when he uses the buildings. The way they shrink in a way is very powerful.

The piece named 'Love song' is amazing, the way he uses the objects gives the audience that same idea of bewilderment and confusion. When we were doing the critique for the last project, i cant remember who it was, but they put random images in the middle of one of their scenes and it reminds of this.



Another of De Chiricos' pieces that stands out for me, is 'The disquieting Muses', the way he uses objects to portray the muses is similar to the way you produce a collage when you are younger. Also the way in which the base where muses are placed is raised, you cant get a full view of the buildings in the background. So whilst the image makes you look directly at the foreground figures, you then want to move further into the image and see what is beyond.