{"product_id":"9781941701546","title":"Pissing Figures 1280-2014","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Not just anyone makes a good pisser.\"—Jean-Claude Lebensztejn\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJean-Claude Lebensztejn’s history of the urinating figure in art, \u003ci\u003ePissing Figures 1280–2014,\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a scholarly inquiry into an important visual motif, and a ribald statement on transgression and limits in works of art in general. Lebensztejn is one of France’s best-kept secrets. A world-class art historian who has lectured and taught at major universities in the United States, his work has remained almost entirely in French, his American audience limited to a small but dedicated group of cognoscenti.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst introducing the Manneken Pis—the iconic little boy whose stream of urine supplies water to this famous fountain and is also the logo for a Belgian beer company—the author takes the reader through a semi-scatological maze of cultural history. The earliest example is a fresco scene located directly above Cimabue’s “Crucifixion” from around 1280 at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, in which Lebensztejn’s careful eye locates an angel behind a pillar urinating through a hole in his garment. He continues to navigate expertly through cultural twists and turns, stopping to discuss Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 film \u003ci\u003eTeorema\u003c\/i\u003e, for example, and Marlene Dumas’s 1996–97 homage to Rembrandt’s pissing woman. At every moment, Lebensztejn’s prose is lively, his thinking dynamic, and his subject matter entertaining.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"David Zwirner Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47039792513264,"sku":"9781941701546","price":9.23,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781941701546_p0.jpg?v=1763787508","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781941701546","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}