Performing a tableau
"Photography is a kind of primitive theatre, a kind of Tableau Vivant" Roland Barthes.
A tableau is a moment frozen in time, sometimes called a tableau vivant, which translates as a ‘living picture’. Characters are arranged for dramatic effect to tell a story, then they stand motionless, the players seemingly unaware of their audience. It was an art form used by the Ancient Greeks during religious plays. The tableau would show scenes of violence such as warfare or murder, which were not allowed to be acted. The tableau actors would stand in position on a wooden platform, which was then wheeled across the stage.
As early as the fifth century living tableaux were introduced into Christian church services, to show the congregation (who were mostly illiterate) stories of the bible.
The tableau again became popular in the 19th Century, as an entertainment. A cast of characters represented scenes from literature, art, history, or everyday life, on a stage. After the curtain went up, the models remained silent and frozen for about thirty seconds. Sometimes a tableau was used as a parlour game at a country house party. Guests would split into groups to find costumes and stage the tableau, with the best tableau winning a prize.
Photography freezes a moment in time, so you could say that all photographs are a tableau. Though Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 –1879) was the first photographer to deliberately pose her subjects for a tableau image.
Since then, there have been many ways in which tableaux have been used. For instance, parades with floats often show a tableau. A tableau was used to get around the law.
The famous Windmill Theatre in Soho, London, put on variety shows from the 1930s to 1960s. Because of obscenity laws they were not allowed to include nude women in their shows, but they managed to get around the law by successfully arguing that nude statues (i.e., nude women standing still in a tableau), could not be morally objectionable. In other words, ‘if you move, it’s rude’. The nude Windmill girls were a huge commercial success.
Even Google’s Street Views1 are a tableau. I saw a heart-warming post of a woman who said her elderly father had died, but that she saw him on Google’s Street View, where he could be seen still doing the gardening that he loved.
Create a family tableau during the holidays - then repeat it every year.
You could photograph a tableau of a childhood memory, or something special that relates to your family. Or copy a childhood photo (which is funny if the original has small children, and you recreate it with adults). Sometimes just a photograph of an ordinary domestic scene is effective - if you repeat it every year you will see how you and your surroundings change. It could become a tradition.
The theatre company Ludovica Rambelli Teatro create amazing tableaux vivants of works by Caravaggio and Michelangelo. The moments before, as they prepare, add to the effectiveness of the scene.
Re-create a painting, a photograph, or scene from a movie.
You could recreate a painting, photo, or scene from a movie with your family over the holidays. Inspired by the Rijksmuseum quarantine Instagram account Between Art and Quarantine, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles challenged art lovers to post photos of themselves recreating their favourite masterpieces, using only household items. Lots of people joined the fun and did a fantastic job of creating astonishingly accurate (or sometimes odd or funny) recreations. Click here to see some of the results and read tips for creating your own re-created artwork.
Will you create a tableau during the holiday festivities?
Did you know that you can use Google Street View as a time machine? Browse Street View Images > The wee black box shows the date of the image > Click on ‘see more dates’ to change the date (if there are previous images) and go back in time.
Our family takes an end of summer photo at a shared summer house every year so whoever is around gets memorialized. Mostly it’s the same people over and over, changing over time, but all the variations matter as much as the continuity. Now we have a fridge covered in some 20 images.... it’s a sort of shrine to summer.
Thx for this!
Btw, what about the poses plastiques that are related to tableaux? Those were more in the “artistic study” category, I guess. Cameron made some based on classical statuary too.
Brilliant! I love the tableau vivant theatre company. So creative with just a few props, it kind of takes you behind the scenes in the artist’s studio!