The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tableau vivant \Ta`bleau" vi`vant"\; pl. Tableaux vivants. Same as Tableau, n., 2.
Wiktionary
n. (context art English) A tableau (group scene resembling a painting).
WordNet
n. a group of people attractively arranged (as if in a painting) [syn: tableau]
Wikipedia
(plural: ), French for 'living picture', is a style of artistic presentation, often shortened to simply . It most often describes a group of suitably costumed actors, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. By extension, it also applied to works of visual art including painting, photography and sculpture, featuring artists' models in similar arrangements, a style used frequently in the works of the Romantic, Aesthetic, Symbolist, Pre-Raphaelite, and Art Nouveau movements. In the theatrical context, the actors/models do not speak or move throughout the duration of the display. The approach thus marries the art forms of the stage with those of the more static visual arts, and it has thus been of interest to modern photographers. The most recent heyday of the was the late 19th to early 20th centuries, during confluence of the above-mentioned art movements, and also featuring ('flexible poses') – virtually nude – providing a form of erotic entertainment, both on stage and in print.
"Tableau Vivant" is the 23rd episode of the third season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 71st episode overall. It aired on May 16, 2012. The episode was written by Elaine Ko, Jeffrey Richman and Bill Wrubel, and directed by Gail Mancuso.
Usage examples of "tableau vivant".
The only light came from a few small crude pottery lamps, but it was sufficient for me to see, not only the traces of paint on the walls, but the tableau vivant before me.
The intent immobility of the spectators, wholly absorbed as they are in the performance of their hieratic ritual, is scarcely that of living things and this tableau vivant might be better termed a nature morte for the mirthless carnival is a celebration of a death.
We never went near the bed, for it would have been a shame to disturb her tableau vivant, much.
Four swift soundless steps on my stockinged feet, a flick of the left thumb and they were pinned in the white glare of the torch, a tableau vivant but for their unnaturally petrified rigidity which gave them for all the world the appearance of a group sculpted from marble.
But if her conduct and appearance had already somewhat jarred upon their limited and precise sense of the fitness of things, what were they to think of the next little act in this tableau vivant?