Pictures & tears : a history of people who have cried in front of paintings

It is common to cry in the theater or the movies, at a concert or when reading a book. Painting seems more distant, though museums are full of images meant to affect us deeply. Crying in front of paintings was commonplace in the ancient Greece and the Middle Ages. Also in the eighteenth century and the age of Romanticism tears were shed viewing paintings. Why the last hundred years our reaction has changed? Investigation into paintings and the (oppressed) emotions they conjure. Recensie verschenen in: Boekman.16(2004)58/59(voorjaar.248-251).