Julian Luxford
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266724
- eISBN:
- 9780191916052
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266724.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter addresses English medieval art and architecture in the long term and is of a basically methodological character. It argues for a view of immigrancy rooted in stylistic and (less ...
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This chapter addresses English medieval art and architecture in the long term and is of a basically methodological character. It argues for a view of immigrancy rooted in stylistic and (less urgently) iconographic influence, in favour of an approach through case studies of individual immigrant artists or particular works. In an extended introduction, the traditional, formalist nature of art history is presented as a justification of this point of view. This is followed by an object-focused section in which some of the main practical functions and ambiguities of the concept of influence are exposed, and the problems of ignoring these ambiguities suggested. A case study focused on English church architecture is then presented in order to clarify the theoretical points. The chapter concludes with a brief, essentially sceptical review of the usefulness of medieval documentation as a basis for understanding stylistic influence in art.Less
This chapter addresses English medieval art and architecture in the long term and is of a basically methodological character. It argues for a view of immigrancy rooted in stylistic and (less urgently) iconographic influence, in favour of an approach through case studies of individual immigrant artists or particular works. In an extended introduction, the traditional, formalist nature of art history is presented as a justification of this point of view. This is followed by an object-focused section in which some of the main practical functions and ambiguities of the concept of influence are exposed, and the problems of ignoring these ambiguities suggested. A case study focused on English church architecture is then presented in order to clarify the theoretical points. The chapter concludes with a brief, essentially sceptical review of the usefulness of medieval documentation as a basis for understanding stylistic influence in art.
Margaret S. Graves
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190695910
- eISBN:
- 9780190695941
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190695910.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
The art of the object reached unparalleled heights in the medieval Islamic world, yet the deep intellectual dimensions of ceramics, metalwares, and other plastic arts in this milieu have not always ...
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The art of the object reached unparalleled heights in the medieval Islamic world, yet the deep intellectual dimensions of ceramics, metalwares, and other plastic arts in this milieu have not always been acknowledged. Arts of Allusion reveals the object as a crucial site where premodern craftsmen of the eastern Mediterranean and Persianate realms engaged their creations in fertile dialogue with poetry, literature, painting, and, perhaps most strikingly, architecture. Through close studies of objects from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, this book reveals that allusions to architecture abound across media in the portable arts of the medieval Islamic world. Arts of Allusion draws upon a broad range of material evidence as well as medieval texts, from works of philosophy and ethics to marketplace manuals, to locate its subjects in a nuanced cultural landscape where the material, visual, and verbal realms were intertwined. Moving far beyond the initial identification of architectural types with their miniature counterparts in the plastic arts, it develops a series of new frameworks for exploring the intelligent art of the allusive object. These address materiality, representation, and perception, and examine contemporary literary and poetic paradigms of metaphor, description, and indirect reference as tools for approaching the plastic arts. Arts of Allusion makes a powerful case for the role of the intellect in the applied arts and for the communicative potential of ornament. Simultaneously, it argues for the reinstatement of craftsmanship into Islamic intellectual history.Less
The art of the object reached unparalleled heights in the medieval Islamic world, yet the deep intellectual dimensions of ceramics, metalwares, and other plastic arts in this milieu have not always been acknowledged. Arts of Allusion reveals the object as a crucial site where premodern craftsmen of the eastern Mediterranean and Persianate realms engaged their creations in fertile dialogue with poetry, literature, painting, and, perhaps most strikingly, architecture. Through close studies of objects from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, this book reveals that allusions to architecture abound across media in the portable arts of the medieval Islamic world. Arts of Allusion draws upon a broad range of material evidence as well as medieval texts, from works of philosophy and ethics to marketplace manuals, to locate its subjects in a nuanced cultural landscape where the material, visual, and verbal realms were intertwined. Moving far beyond the initial identification of architectural types with their miniature counterparts in the plastic arts, it develops a series of new frameworks for exploring the intelligent art of the allusive object. These address materiality, representation, and perception, and examine contemporary literary and poetic paradigms of metaphor, description, and indirect reference as tools for approaching the plastic arts. Arts of Allusion makes a powerful case for the role of the intellect in the applied arts and for the communicative potential of ornament. Simultaneously, it argues for the reinstatement of craftsmanship into Islamic intellectual history.
Cretien Van Campen and Julian Ross
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199685875
- eISBN:
- 9780191771675
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199685875.003.0005
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology
For centuries, mnemonics, or the art of memory, was an essential technique for conveying information. Until the invention of printing, stories were often recounted using images (think of the linear ...
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For centuries, mnemonics, or the art of memory, was an essential technique for conveying information. Until the invention of printing, stories were often recounted using images (think of the linear stories depicted in mediaeval frescoes on Italian church walls) and songs (performed by troubadours). The Renaissance artists’ use of perspective enabled them to inscribe figures more recognisably and more sharply in the memory of the viewer. Contemporary video-artist Bill Viola experiments with the slow playback of Renaissance and mannerist-inspired images to evoke intense feelings of remembrance. Television and new media offer different opportunities to record events and will to some extent change our future autobiographical sense memories.Less
For centuries, mnemonics, or the art of memory, was an essential technique for conveying information. Until the invention of printing, stories were often recounted using images (think of the linear stories depicted in mediaeval frescoes on Italian church walls) and songs (performed by troubadours). The Renaissance artists’ use of perspective enabled them to inscribe figures more recognisably and more sharply in the memory of the viewer. Contemporary video-artist Bill Viola experiments with the slow playback of Renaissance and mannerist-inspired images to evoke intense feelings of remembrance. Television and new media offer different opportunities to record events and will to some extent change our future autobiographical sense memories.
