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The Adventures of the Optic Nerve

John Elderfield

in The Promotion of Knowledge: Lectures to Mark the Centenary of the British Academy 1902-2002

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 ... More

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

Winckelmann and Neo‐Classicism

Frederick C. Beiser

in Diotima's Children: German Aesthetic Rationalism from Leibniz to Lessing

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 ... More

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

The Study of Medieval Art 2: 1950–2000

Jonathan J. G. Alexander

in A Century of British Medieval Studies

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 ... More

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

Michael David Kighley Baxandall 1933–2008

J. Onians

in Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 166, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, IX

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 ... More

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

Instinctive Response as a Tool for the Scholar

Susanna Bede Caroselli

in Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation

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 ... More

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

German Jews and Figurative Art: Appreciation and Reservation

Joseph Shatzmiller

in Cultural Exchange: Jews, Christians, and Art in the Medieval Marketplace

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 ... More

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

Studying Early Christian Sculpture in England and Ireland: The Object of Art History or Archaeology?

Jane Hawkes

in Anglo-Saxon/Irish Relations before the Vikings

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 ... More

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

Dura-Europos and the World’s Oldest Church

Michael Peppard

in The World's Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria

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 ... More

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

Reclaiming Femininity: Antigone's ‘Choice’ in Art and Art History

Martina Meyer

in Interrogating Antigone in Postmodern Philosophy and Criticism

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 ... More

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

Huang Binhong and Fou Lei

Claire Roberts

in Friendship in Art: Fou Lei and Huang Binhong

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 ... More

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

The Blind Task of Criticism

Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli

in Free Jazz/Black Power

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 ... More

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

Perspectives on the Ancient Near Eastern Canon: More than Mesopotamia’s Greatest Hits

Amy Rebecca Gansell and Ann Shafer

in Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology

Serving as the volume introduction, Chapter 1 lays out the scope of the ancient Near Eastern canon as it has been understood since its inception. Situating the canon within Art History, Archaeology, ... More

Serving as the volume introduction, Chapter 1 lays out the scope of the ancient Near Eastern canon as it has been understood since its inception. Situating the canon within Art History, Archaeology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, this chapter raises an inquiry about the fluidity and staying power of its content. Through a case study of the ancient Near Eastern canon as it appears in college art history textbooks, we detect patterns in the canon, which remains a flexible but essentially conservative phenomenon. Nevertheless, the individual contributions in the volume’s four sections are shown here through chapter synopses to be historically grounded, theoretically provocative, and full of potential avenues for research and revision of the seemingly outmoded phenomenon of the canon. The chapter proposes that celebrating the longevity and future of the canon, rather than dismissing it, can allow today’s researchers to take the study of the ancient Near East to new levels and share it with expanded audiences.Less

Summary and Conclusion

in Art and Pluralism: Lawrence Alloway's Cultural Criticism

For Lawrence Alloway, the 1960s was ‘a period of exceptional high pressure, affluence, creativity, [and] confidence’, which was in stark contrast to the 1970s. This changed outlook in art was implied ... More

For Lawrence Alloway, the 1960s was ‘a period of exceptional high pressure, affluence, creativity, [and] confidence’, which was in stark contrast to the 1970s. This changed outlook in art was implied in the subtitle of Alan Sondheim's 1977 book on the contemporary avant-garde, Post-Movement Art in America. This section focuses on Lawrence Alloway's life as an art critic, beginning with his commitment to pluralism and his attitude towards Post-Modernism. It also discusses his views on art history and art criticism, his reputation as an art critic and the legacy of his pluralism.Less

Iconology and the Hamburg School

Emily J. Levine

in Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School

The sixth chapter argues that Panofsky forged a “third way” between the formalist and contextualist approaches of his art historical mentors, Wölfflin and Riegl. Influenced by Warburg’s early work, ... More

The sixth chapter argues that Panofsky forged a “third way” between the formalist and contextualist approaches of his art historical mentors, Wölfflin and Riegl. Influenced by Warburg’s early work, Panofsky’s methodology solidified around these scholars’ shared interests in symbols and drew on Hamburg’s combined resources: the library’s unique index of images, the Kunsthalle’s collection of local and modernist art, and the absence of an established and hierarchical department. To connect a particular insight with a more general principle, Panofsky and the Hamburg School promoted iconology—a holistic approach to analyzing images over time. While Ernst Gombrich would later criticize the cultural-historical assumption that art is representative of the Zeitgeist, this chapter argues that understanding Panofsky’s early work as a revision of Riegl’s notion of Kunstwollen and his engagement with Cassirer’s symbolic forms offers a more complete view of iconology’s origins.Less