Ceren Özpınar and Mary Kelly (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266748
- eISBN:
- 9780191938146
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266748.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today is set out to show what is beneath the surface, under the appearances of skin, body, colour and provenance, ...
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Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today is set out to show what is beneath the surface, under the appearances of skin, body, colour and provenance, and not the cultural fixities or partial views detached from the realities of communities, cultures and practices from the area. Through 12 chapters, Under the Skin brings together artistic practices and complex histories informed by feminism from diverse cultural and geographical contexts: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. The aim is not to represent all of the countries from the Middle East and North Africa, but to present a cross-section that reflects the variety of nations, cultures, languages and identities across the area—including those of Berber, Mizrahi Jews, Kurdish, Muslim, Christian, Arab, Persian and Armenian peoples. It thus considers art informed by feminism through translocal and transnational lenses of diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious groups not solely as a manifestation of multiple and complex social constructions, but also as a crucial subject of analysis in the project of decolonising art history and contemporary visual culture. The volume offers an understanding on how art responds to and shapes cultural attitudes towards gender and sexuality, ethnicity/race, religion, tradition, modernity and contemporaneity, and local and global politics. And it strives to strike a balance by connecting the studies of scholars based in the European-North American geography with those attached to the institutions in the Middle East and North Africa in order to stimulate different feminist and decolonial perspectives and debates on art and visual culture from the area.Less
Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today is set out to show what is beneath the surface, under the appearances of skin, body, colour and provenance, and not the cultural fixities or partial views detached from the realities of communities, cultures and practices from the area. Through 12 chapters, Under the Skin brings together artistic practices and complex histories informed by feminism from diverse cultural and geographical contexts: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. The aim is not to represent all of the countries from the Middle East and North Africa, but to present a cross-section that reflects the variety of nations, cultures, languages and identities across the area—including those of Berber, Mizrahi Jews, Kurdish, Muslim, Christian, Arab, Persian and Armenian peoples. It thus considers art informed by feminism through translocal and transnational lenses of diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious groups not solely as a manifestation of multiple and complex social constructions, but also as a crucial subject of analysis in the project of decolonising art history and contemporary visual culture. The volume offers an understanding on how art responds to and shapes cultural attitudes towards gender and sexuality, ethnicity/race, religion, tradition, modernity and contemporaneity, and local and global politics. And it strives to strike a balance by connecting the studies of scholars based in the European-North American geography with those attached to the institutions in the Middle East and North Africa in order to stimulate different feminist and decolonial perspectives and debates on art and visual culture from the area.
Ceren Özpinar and Mary Kelly (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266748
- eISBN:
- 9780191938146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266748.003.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
This chapter discusses the aim and objectives of the volume by way of addressing the recent debates in the discipline of art history. The two main themes that comes through from this discussion are ...
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This chapter discusses the aim and objectives of the volume by way of addressing the recent debates in the discipline of art history. The two main themes that comes through from this discussion are the current efforts of decolonising the curriculum of art history and the discipline itself, and the ongoing challenges to art history and its canon particularly coming from the perspectives of transnational feminism and postcolonialism. This introductory chapters draws upon scholars whose studies have been key to these discussions, including Okwui Enwezor, Nada Shabout, James Elkins and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, providing a comprehensive overview of the current state and relevance of them to the volume. This chapter ends with an explanation of how each section and chapters contribute to these debates and what novelties they bring into art historical scholarship.Less
This chapter discusses the aim and objectives of the volume by way of addressing the recent debates in the discipline of art history. The two main themes that comes through from this discussion are the current efforts of decolonising the curriculum of art history and the discipline itself, and the ongoing challenges to art history and its canon particularly coming from the perspectives of transnational feminism and postcolonialism. This introductory chapters draws upon scholars whose studies have been key to these discussions, including Okwui Enwezor, Nada Shabout, James Elkins and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, providing a comprehensive overview of the current state and relevance of them to the volume. This chapter ends with an explanation of how each section and chapters contribute to these debates and what novelties they bring into art historical scholarship.
Özpinar
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266748
- eISBN:
- 9780191938146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266748.003.0012
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Since the day it was inaugurated in 2004, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art has assumed a pivotal role in re–establishing the history of modern and contemporary artistic practices in Turkey. The ...
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Since the day it was inaugurated in 2004, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art has assumed a pivotal role in re–establishing the history of modern and contemporary artistic practices in Turkey. The major all–woman exhibition titled ‘Dream and Reality: Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey’, which was opened in late 2011 at Istanbul Modern, constitutes an important case study to prompt deeper exploration into the narrative frameworks within which the art museum reproduces differences. This chapter revisits the institutional and the curatorial discourse of ‘Dream and Reality’ by examining the statements released in the media and in catalogue essays with a view to comprehending the allegedly conflicting notions of gender and feminism on which the exhibition was premised and how differences were articulated against the politics of the state and art history writing. With this reconsideration, the chapter addresses the reverberations of these framings in the art histories of Turkey but also relocates them within the debates of art’s new transnational landscape.Less
Since the day it was inaugurated in 2004, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art has assumed a pivotal role in re–establishing the history of modern and contemporary artistic practices in Turkey. The major all–woman exhibition titled ‘Dream and Reality: Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey’, which was opened in late 2011 at Istanbul Modern, constitutes an important case study to prompt deeper exploration into the narrative frameworks within which the art museum reproduces differences. This chapter revisits the institutional and the curatorial discourse of ‘Dream and Reality’ by examining the statements released in the media and in catalogue essays with a view to comprehending the allegedly conflicting notions of gender and feminism on which the exhibition was premised and how differences were articulated against the politics of the state and art history writing. With this reconsideration, the chapter addresses the reverberations of these framings in the art histories of Turkey but also relocates them within the debates of art’s new transnational landscape.
Frederick C. Beiser
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199573011
- eISBN:
- 9780191722202
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573011.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Philosophy
This book is a re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics which prevailed in Germany in the late 17th and 18th century. It is partly an historical survey of the central figures and ...
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This book is a re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics which prevailed in Germany in the late 17th and 18th century. It is partly an historical survey of the central figures and themes of this tradition, but it is also a philosophical defence of some of its leading ideas such as: that beauty plays an integral role in life; that aesthetic pleasure is the perception of perfection; and that aesthetic rules are inevitable and valuable. It shows that the criticisms of Kant and Nietzsche of this tradition are largely unfounded. The rationalist tradition deserves re-examination because it is of great historical significance, marking the beginning of modern aesthetics, art criticism, and art history.Less
This book is a re-examination of the rationalist tradition of aesthetics which prevailed in Germany in the late 17th and 18th century. It is partly an historical survey of the central figures and themes of this tradition, but it is also a philosophical defence of some of its leading ideas such as: that beauty plays an integral role in life; that aesthetic pleasure is the perception of perfection; and that aesthetic rules are inevitable and valuable. It shows that the criticisms of Kant and Nietzsche of this tradition are largely unfounded. The rationalist tradition deserves re-examination because it is of great historical significance, marking the beginning of modern aesthetics, art criticism, and art history.
John Morrill (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263129
- eISBN:
- 9780191734861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263129.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the ...
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To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the disciplines that fall within the Academy's compass. The Academy proposed the discipline and the universities nominated their preferred speakers. Those selected were drawn from Britain, Europe and the USA, and they rose magnificently to the challenge, while interpreting it in a way specific to their discipline. The eight chapters (plus four commentaries) span the disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, from the history of art to international relations and geography. These are reflections on the stability and instability of the ways in which we organize knowledge and on how far the academic community can and should be involved in the shaping of public policy.Less
To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the disciplines that fall within the Academy's compass. The Academy proposed the discipline and the universities nominated their preferred speakers. Those selected were drawn from Britain, Europe and the USA, and they rose magnificently to the challenge, while interpreting it in a way specific to their discipline. The eight chapters (plus four commentaries) span the disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, from the history of art to international relations and geography. These are reflections on the stability and instability of the ways in which we organize knowledge and on how far the academic community can and should be involved in the shaping of public policy.
John Elderfield
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263129
- eISBN:
- 9780191734861
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263129.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter presents the text of a lecture on the role of visual medium in art-historical study. It addresses the relationship of art history to the existential acts of painting and looking at ...
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This chapter presents the text of a lecture on the role of visual medium in art-historical study. It addresses the relationship of art history to the existential acts of painting and looking at painting and describes how the so-called story of modern art has been narrated in the history literature. It also considers how modern histories can accommodate the unfamiliar that is normally part of the story.Less
This chapter presents the text of a lecture on the role of visual medium in art-historical study. It addresses the relationship of art history to the existential acts of painting and looking at painting and describes how the so-called story of modern art has been narrated in the history literature. It also considers how modern histories can accommodate the unfamiliar that is normally part of the story.
Frederick C. Beiser
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199573011
- eISBN:
- 9780191722202
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573011.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on Johann Joachim Winckelmann, a student of Baumgarten who later became one of the most celebrated writers of his day. Winckelmann is generally regarded as the father of art ...
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This chapter focuses on Johann Joachim Winckelmann, a student of Baumgarten who later became one of the most celebrated writers of his day. Winckelmann is generally regarded as the father of art history. Winckelmann's influence on his age was by all accounts enormous, and he became almost a cult figure in his own lifetime. With the possible exception of Klopstock, no German writer was held in such high regard. Winckelmann was admired by every major thinker of his generation — Lessing, Abbt, Nicolai, Mendelssohn, and Herder — and he was virtually canonized in the Goethezeit. In the early 1800s Goethe made him the patron saint of his own paganism and neo-classicism, invoking his memory to taunt the emerging Romantic movement. But the romantics too sanctified him. Even after his rebellion against neo-classicism, Friedrich Schlegel still revered ‘der heilige Winckelmann’.Less
This chapter focuses on Johann Joachim Winckelmann, a student of Baumgarten who later became one of the most celebrated writers of his day. Winckelmann is generally regarded as the father of art history. Winckelmann's influence on his age was by all accounts enormous, and he became almost a cult figure in his own lifetime. With the possible exception of Klopstock, no German writer was held in such high regard. Winckelmann was admired by every major thinker of his generation — Lessing, Abbt, Nicolai, Mendelssohn, and Herder — and he was virtually canonized in the Goethezeit. In the early 1800s Goethe made him the patron saint of his own paganism and neo-classicism, invoking his memory to taunt the emerging Romantic movement. But the romantics too sanctified him. Even after his rebellion against neo-classicism, Friedrich Schlegel still revered ‘der heilige Winckelmann’.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.003.0029
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter examines the history of the study of medieval art in Great Britain during the period from 1950 to 2000. The British Academy created a separate section for History of Art and Music, but ...
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This chapter examines the history of the study of medieval art in Great Britain during the period from 1950 to 2000. The British Academy created a separate section for History of Art and Music, but in many quarters art history was still thought of as the province of the amateur art-lover rather than an object of serious study. Only the Courtland Institute continued to be the only institution in England offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. The situation changed in the 1960s and 1970s when all branches of the discipline experienced major growth in the areas of conservation studies and art-book publishing.Less
This chapter examines the history of the study of medieval art in Great Britain during the period from 1950 to 2000. The British Academy created a separate section for History of Art and Music, but in many quarters art history was still thought of as the province of the amateur art-lover rather than an object of serious study. Only the Courtland Institute continued to be the only institution in England offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. The situation changed in the 1960s and 1970s when all branches of the discipline experienced major growth in the areas of conservation studies and art-book publishing.
J. Onians
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264751
- eISBN:
- 9780191734229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264751.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Michael Baxandall was probably the most important art historian of his generation, not just in Britain but in the world. In a series of books published between 1971 and 2003 he kept expanding the ...
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Michael Baxandall was probably the most important art historian of his generation, not just in Britain but in the world. In a series of books published between 1971 and 2003 he kept expanding the frontiers of the discipline, introducing new topics, new ways of writing, and new explanatory models, always demanding of himself and his readers an undissembling clarity of thought and expression. If art history is now a field that can hold its own with more established areas of the humanities, it is largely because Baxandall had a talent to transmit to others through the printed page the powerful intellectual resources he had built up through tireless inward reflection. These resources he applied with equal engagement to Italian Renaissance art criticism, German wood sculpture, the understanding of shadows in the 18th century, the planning of the Forth Bridge, and the functions of the neural structure of the retina.Less
Michael Baxandall was probably the most important art historian of his generation, not just in Britain but in the world. In a series of books published between 1971 and 2003 he kept expanding the frontiers of the discipline, introducing new topics, new ways of writing, and new explanatory models, always demanding of himself and his readers an undissembling clarity of thought and expression. If art history is now a field that can hold its own with more established areas of the humanities, it is largely because Baxandall had a talent to transmit to others through the printed page the powerful intellectual resources he had built up through tireless inward reflection. These resources he applied with equal engagement to Italian Renaissance art criticism, German wood sculpture, the understanding of shadows in the 18th century, the planning of the Forth Bridge, and the functions of the neural structure of the retina.
Susanna Bede Caroselli
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195170382
- eISBN:
- 9780199835669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195170385.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The disciplinary focus of Caroselli’s essay is the visual arts and art history. She examines how two styles of scholarship, the “considered response” and the “instinctive response,” come into play in ...
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The disciplinary focus of Caroselli’s essay is the visual arts and art history. She examines how two styles of scholarship, the “considered response” and the “instinctive response,” come into play in her own work. The essay focuses especially on the Italian Renaissance painting Christ on the Cross with Saints Vincent Ferrer, John the Baptist, Mark, and Antoninus.Less
The disciplinary focus of Caroselli’s essay is the visual arts and art history. She examines how two styles of scholarship, the “considered response” and the “instinctive response,” come into play in her own work. The essay focuses especially on the Italian Renaissance painting Christ on the Cross with Saints Vincent Ferrer, John the Baptist, Mark, and Antoninus.
Joseph Shatzmiller
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691156996
- eISBN:
- 9781400846092
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156996.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter briefly reviews the art history from 1230–1450 CE in order to better understand the cultural profile of the rabbi, and to evaluate the contribution of the wall paintings in his house as ...
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This chapter briefly reviews the art history from 1230–1450 CE in order to better understand the cultural profile of the rabbi, and to evaluate the contribution of the wall paintings in his house as indications of the artistic horizons of German Jews of the fourteenth century. It also shows how Jews had to abandon the art that they cherished for generations, yet they found ways to keep alive their fascination with the beautiful and to nurse their aesthetic needs. The interior synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca of Toledo and that of the recently reconstructed Sinagoga Mayor of Segovia manifest a profound attachment to Islamic public architecture. Jews showed great appreciation for the decorative value of their Hebrew alphabet. They also learned to paint inanimate or geometric images in miniature letters on the covers of their Bibles.Less
This chapter briefly reviews the art history from 1230–1450 CE in order to better understand the cultural profile of the rabbi, and to evaluate the contribution of the wall paintings in his house as indications of the artistic horizons of German Jews of the fourteenth century. It also shows how Jews had to abandon the art that they cherished for generations, yet they found ways to keep alive their fascination with the beautiful and to nurse their aesthetic needs. The interior synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca of Toledo and that of the recently reconstructed Sinagoga Mayor of Segovia manifest a profound attachment to Islamic public architecture. Jews showed great appreciation for the decorative value of their Hebrew alphabet. They also learned to paint inanimate or geometric images in miniature letters on the covers of their Bibles.
Martina Meyer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199559213
- eISBN:
- 9780191594403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559213.003.0016
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Feminist responses to Antigone's choice to rebel against masculine authority have largely refocused the text as a discourse of gender difference in order to expose patriarchy's victimization of ...
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Feminist responses to Antigone's choice to rebel against masculine authority have largely refocused the text as a discourse of gender difference in order to expose patriarchy's victimization of women. This chapter, while acknowledging feminine defiance as a crucial aspect of the text's internal contradictions, equally recognizes that Antigone's performance of the burial rites situates her firmly within paternalistic constructions of femininity. In classical art, contemporary (roughly) with Sophocles' play, defiance becomes invisible: only the traditional feminine role is portrayed. A long visual tradition follows from the classical one, always casting the ancient heroine in this same, typically feminine role, and this tradition serves as a perfect example of the modern feminist critique of the history of images, in which women are robbed of their agency. Such endemic aversion to the depiction of overt defiance is, it is proposed, symptomatic of the broader cultural response to the play's revelation of two discrete, but mutually dependent feminine constructs: one demands Antigone's submission to a patriarchal definition of femininity that would require her to relinquish her autonomous perception of her feminine role, and the other involves her wilful conformance to that self‐generated identity. Meyer proposes in this chapter to demonstrate that by politicizing Antigone in the most conservative fashion, images reinforce patriarchal gender and kinship hierarchies, implying a perception of the dangers of what the author interprets here as expressions of ‘excess’ femininity, and underlining the need for continuing oppression in the interests of masculine political systems and social stability.Less
Feminist responses to Antigone's choice to rebel against masculine authority have largely refocused the text as a discourse of gender difference in order to expose patriarchy's victimization of women. This chapter, while acknowledging feminine defiance as a crucial aspect of the text's internal contradictions, equally recognizes that Antigone's performance of the burial rites situates her firmly within paternalistic constructions of femininity. In classical art, contemporary (roughly) with Sophocles' play, defiance becomes invisible: only the traditional feminine role is portrayed. A long visual tradition follows from the classical one, always casting the ancient heroine in this same, typically feminine role, and this tradition serves as a perfect example of the modern feminist critique of the history of images, in which women are robbed of their agency. Such endemic aversion to the depiction of overt defiance is, it is proposed, symptomatic of the broader cultural response to the play's revelation of two discrete, but mutually dependent feminine constructs: one demands Antigone's submission to a patriarchal definition of femininity that would require her to relinquish her autonomous perception of her feminine role, and the other involves her wilful conformance to that self‐generated identity. Meyer proposes in this chapter to demonstrate that by politicizing Antigone in the most conservative fashion, images reinforce patriarchal gender and kinship hierarchies, implying a perception of the dangers of what the author interprets here as expressions of ‘excess’ femininity, and underlining the need for continuing oppression in the interests of masculine political systems and social stability.
Michael Peppard
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300213997
- eISBN:
- 9780300216516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300213997.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter first summarizes the ancient history of Dura-Europos, its inhabitants, and its eventual destruction. It explains how the house-church came to be buried and preserved in the third ...
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This chapter first summarizes the ancient history of Dura-Europos, its inhabitants, and its eventual destruction. It explains how the house-church came to be buried and preserved in the third century. The narrative then turns to twentieth-century excavation and interpretation of the site. Finally, the chapter presents a method for studying the interaction between biblical narrative, visual art, and ritual behavior in the initiatory space of the baptistery. It offers a focused survey of previous scholarly approaches to sites of early Christian initiation in general, and this house-church in particular.Less
This chapter first summarizes the ancient history of Dura-Europos, its inhabitants, and its eventual destruction. It explains how the house-church came to be buried and preserved in the third century. The narrative then turns to twentieth-century excavation and interpretation of the site. Finally, the chapter presents a method for studying the interaction between biblical narrative, visual art, and ritual behavior in the initiatory space of the baptistery. It offers a focused survey of previous scholarly approaches to sites of early Christian initiation in general, and this house-church in particular.
Jane Hawkes
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264508
- eISBN:
- 9780191734120
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264508.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter examines whether the current study of the early Christian sculpture of England and Ireland is the object of art history or archaeology. It explains that the methods used to study early ...
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This chapter examines whether the current study of the early Christian sculpture of England and Ireland is the object of art history or archaeology. It explains that the methods used to study early medieval sculpture in Ireland and England are accepted and discredited in both archaeological and art-historical circles. The chapter investigates two distinct approaches in Ireland and England, which intersect so thoroughly with art history and archaeology that they have come to be used to examine the medieval sculpture.Less
This chapter examines whether the current study of the early Christian sculpture of England and Ireland is the object of art history or archaeology. It explains that the methods used to study early medieval sculpture in Ireland and England are accepted and discredited in both archaeological and art-historical circles. The chapter investigates two distinct approaches in Ireland and England, which intersect so thoroughly with art history and archaeology that they have come to be used to examine the medieval sculpture.
Charles Gore
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633166
- eISBN:
- 9780748652983
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633166.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, ...
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This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, the communities of devotees, and the artists who make artifacts for their shrines. The visual arts are part of a wider configuration of practices that include song, dance, possession, and healing. These practices provide the means for exploring the relationships of the visual to both the verbal and performance arts that feature at these shrines. The analysis in this book raises fundamental questions about how the art of Benin, and non-Western art histories more generally, are understood. The book throws critical light on the taken-for-granted assumptions that underpin current interpretations and presents an original and revisionist account of Benin art history.Less
This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, the communities of devotees, and the artists who make artifacts for their shrines. The visual arts are part of a wider configuration of practices that include song, dance, possession, and healing. These practices provide the means for exploring the relationships of the visual to both the verbal and performance arts that feature at these shrines. The analysis in this book raises fundamental questions about how the art of Benin, and non-Western art histories more generally, are understood. The book throws critical light on the taken-for-granted assumptions that underpin current interpretations and presents an original and revisionist account of Benin art history.
Jane Blocker
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816696970
- eISBN:
- 9781452952321
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816696970.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Visual Culture
In 2009, Hal Foster initiated a questionnaire to prominent art historians, critics, and curators about the problem of the contemporary in which he stated that there is “a sense that, in its very ...
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In 2009, Hal Foster initiated a questionnaire to prominent art historians, critics, and curators about the problem of the contemporary in which he stated that there is “a sense that, in its very heterogeneity, much present practice seems to float free of historical determination, conceptual definition, and critical judgment.” The responses he gleaned are just part of the recent scholarship in art and art history focused on understanding the nature and limits of the contemporary, and the significant debate about the problem of the contemporary for history. This book takes as its premise that the contemporary, as much as we may want to consider it otherwise, is being made history as it happens. The important question is not whether there is (or should be) contemporary art history, but how. And “how” is the primary concern of this book, the key argument of which is that we cannot answer the demands of the contemporary by using out-dated research practices, received theories of history, and linear temporal models. Nor can we proceed without rethinking our practices of writing. Acknowledging a significant trend in current art practice, in which artists have engaged with historical subject matter, methods, and questions, it asks how the work of the artist implicates and interrogates that of the critic or historian. It asks how to emulate the artist-historian, how to do history differently, and thus examines and attempts to deploy unorthodox historical methodologies that are witnessed in and distilled from the work of a number of contemporary artists.Less
In 2009, Hal Foster initiated a questionnaire to prominent art historians, critics, and curators about the problem of the contemporary in which he stated that there is “a sense that, in its very heterogeneity, much present practice seems to float free of historical determination, conceptual definition, and critical judgment.” The responses he gleaned are just part of the recent scholarship in art and art history focused on understanding the nature and limits of the contemporary, and the significant debate about the problem of the contemporary for history. This book takes as its premise that the contemporary, as much as we may want to consider it otherwise, is being made history as it happens. The important question is not whether there is (or should be) contemporary art history, but how. And “how” is the primary concern of this book, the key argument of which is that we cannot answer the demands of the contemporary by using out-dated research practices, received theories of history, and linear temporal models. Nor can we proceed without rethinking our practices of writing. Acknowledging a significant trend in current art practice, in which artists have engaged with historical subject matter, methods, and questions, it asks how the work of the artist implicates and interrogates that of the critic or historian. It asks how to emulate the artist-historian, how to do history differently, and thus examines and attempts to deploy unorthodox historical methodologies that are witnessed in and distilled from the work of a number of contemporary artists.
Claire Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028405
- eISBN:
- 9789882207738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028405.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter discusses the early correspondence formed by Huang Binhong and Fou Lei. It begins by introducing Huang Binhong, his early life in Jinhua, east Zhejiang, his education, and the paintings ...
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This chapter discusses the early correspondence formed by Huang Binhong and Fou Lei. It begins by introducing Huang Binhong, his early life in Jinhua, east Zhejiang, his education, and the paintings he created since his first few years in Shanghai. The other section focuses on the correspondence between Lei and Binhong. The first letter Lei wrote to Binhong was on May 1943 and alluded to Lei's knowledge of Western art history. The chapter also presents several of the letters exchanged between the two, which show that Binhong valued the friendship that formed between him and Lei.Less
This chapter discusses the early correspondence formed by Huang Binhong and Fou Lei. It begins by introducing Huang Binhong, his early life in Jinhua, east Zhejiang, his education, and the paintings he created since his first few years in Shanghai. The other section focuses on the correspondence between Lei and Binhong. The first letter Lei wrote to Binhong was on May 1943 and alluded to Lei's knowledge of Western art history. The chapter also presents several of the letters exchanged between the two, which show that Binhong valued the friendship that formed between him and Lei.
Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628460391
- eISBN:
- 9781626740846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628460391.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This transitional section takes stock of the contributions of traditional white, Western jazz criticism. It has reproduced in this specific field the alienation of African American culture at large ...
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This transitional section takes stock of the contributions of traditional white, Western jazz criticism. It has reproduced in this specific field the alienation of African American culture at large and music specifically from Western society. First scorned, African American music was assimilated with the help of critics. They notably contributed to an understanding of the music that eschewed social, historical and economic context in which the music was originally created. Promoting a classically Western understanding of art as distinct from social life, it allowed for a consumption of jazz devoid of political critique. This would change with the advent of black jazz criticism.Less
This transitional section takes stock of the contributions of traditional white, Western jazz criticism. It has reproduced in this specific field the alienation of African American culture at large and music specifically from Western society. First scorned, African American music was assimilated with the help of critics. They notably contributed to an understanding of the music that eschewed social, historical and economic context in which the music was originally created. Promoting a classically Western understanding of art as distinct from social life, it allowed for a consumption of jazz devoid of political critique. This would change with the advent of black jazz criticism.
Jennifer Scheper Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195367065
- eISBN:
- 9780199867370
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367065.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Mexico is famous for its notoriously graphic and bloody crucifixes depicting the broken and tortured body of Jesus on the cross. Images of Christ’s suffering frequently outnumber images of the Virgin ...
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Mexico is famous for its notoriously graphic and bloody crucifixes depicting the broken and tortured body of Jesus on the cross. Images of Christ’s suffering frequently outnumber images of the Virgin Mary in local and household devotions throughout Latin America. How do we explain the enduring significance of these images for the popular Roman Catholic faith of poor and ordinary Mexicans? Based on original archival and ethnographic research, this book uncovers the diverse and sometimes contradictory meanings that the symbol of the crucifix has held for indigenous and mestizo Mexicans over many centuries. By recounting the epic story of the Christianization of Mexico from the perspective of a specific, sculpted crucifix of colonial origin, this book offers a profoundly sympathetic portrait of indigenous Christian belief and practice and a lively defense of the diverse and “heterodox” local expressions of Christianity alive in the world today.Less
Mexico is famous for its notoriously graphic and bloody crucifixes depicting the broken and tortured body of Jesus on the cross. Images of Christ’s suffering frequently outnumber images of the Virgin Mary in local and household devotions throughout Latin America. How do we explain the enduring significance of these images for the popular Roman Catholic faith of poor and ordinary Mexicans? Based on original archival and ethnographic research, this book uncovers the diverse and sometimes contradictory meanings that the symbol of the crucifix has held for indigenous and mestizo Mexicans over many centuries. By recounting the epic story of the Christianization of Mexico from the perspective of a specific, sculpted crucifix of colonial origin, this book offers a profoundly sympathetic portrait of indigenous Christian belief and practice and a lively defense of the diverse and “heterodox” local expressions of Christianity alive in the world today.
Nigel Saul
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199215980
- eISBN:
- 9780191710001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215980.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter traces the history of the study of church monuments, highlighting the unfortunate effect of the hiving off, in the 19th century, of the study of brasses from the study of monuments more ...
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This chapter traces the history of the study of church monuments, highlighting the unfortunate effect of the hiving off, in the 19th century, of the study of brasses from the study of monuments more generally in leading to fragmentation of the field. By the early 20th century the study of brasses had sunk into antiquarianism, while the study of sculpted monuments had become absorbed into the study of art history. The twin aims of this book are to achieve the reintegration of the subject and to examine the monuments for their social meaning — for what they can tell us about the aspirations and concerns of the commemorated in this world and their hopes for salvation in the next.Less
This chapter traces the history of the study of church monuments, highlighting the unfortunate effect of the hiving off, in the 19th century, of the study of brasses from the study of monuments more generally in leading to fragmentation of the field. By the early 20th century the study of brasses had sunk into antiquarianism, while the study of sculpted monuments had become absorbed into the study of art history. The twin aims of this book are to achieve the reintegration of the subject and to examine the monuments for their social meaning — for what they can tell us about the aspirations and concerns of the commemorated in this world and their hopes for salvation in the next.
