Pseudo-Lucian’s Cnidian Aphrodite: A Statue of Flesh, Stone, and Words

Millennium ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-138
Author(s):  
Laura Bottenberg
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Literary Response ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Achilles Tatius ◽  
Ancient Novel ◽  
Verbal Strategies ◽  
The Erotic

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to analyse a literary response to antiquity’s most alluring work of art, the Cnidian Aphrodite. It argues that the ecphrasis of the statue in the Amores develops textual and verbal strategies to provoke in the recipients the desire to see the Cnidia, but eventually frustrates this desire. The ecphrasis thereby creates a discrepancy between the characters’ aesthetic experience of the statue and the visualisation and aesthetic experience of the recipients of the text. The erotic mechanisms of the ecphrasis, simultaneously arousing and frustrating the recipients’ desire, mirror the effect of the statue on its viewers and disclose the erotic programmatics of the whole dialogue. The analysis shows that the Amores surpass the ongoing discourse on love from Plato’s Phaedrus to the ancient novel – and Achilles Tatius and Longus in particular. The Amores, like the nude statue of the Cnidia, threaten to cross all bounds of decency in sexuality.

scholarly journals Kunst og naturvidenskab under samme tag

1970 ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Mette Kia Krabbe Meyer ◽  
Hanne Teglhus
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Art And Science ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Full Size ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
American Artist ◽  
Size Model ◽  
The Relationship

Kollokvium om at udstille kunst og naturvidenskab. Steno Museet, Danmarks Videnskabshistoriske Museum, Århus, 25. september 2006. In the fall of 2006, the Steno Museum (Aarhus, Denmark) exhibited the installation Room One created by the American artist Rosamond Purcell. This installation consists of a full-size model of Museum Wormianum, the Danish physician Ole Worm’s curiosity cabinet, dating from the 17th century. This is a work of art – yet it depicts a naturalist’s laboratory. When one adds that it has also been called the first museum in Denmark, it seemed an obvious step to make the artwork the occasion of a symposium on the relationship between art, science and museums. At this symposium, the artist, along with a number of science historians and museum curators, discussed the definitions of art and science then and now, and spoke about the attempts to transcend the disciplinary boundaries that take place within the museums. Different ways of exhibiting were brought into focus, and Purcell’s installation formed the basis for many interesting discussions about the museum as a place of learning and of aesthetic experience.

6. Aesthetics and life

2019 ◽  
pp. 72-85
Author(s):  
Bence Nanay
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences

‘Aesthetics and life’ considers several questions to show how aesthetics and life are intertwined on all kinds of levels. Should we treat our life as a work of art? Should we become the spectators of our own life? It discusses how not to be jaded by aesthetic experiences, how expectations can influence our experiences, how some aesthetic experiences have a lot to do with seeing something afresh, and how some aesthetic experiences can have a lingering effect. It concludes that aesthetic experience does not have to be detached, it does not need to be contemplative, and it does not need to involve open-ended attention.

FORMS OF ATTENTION: TIME AND NARRATIVE IN ECPHRASIS

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 88-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Goldhill
Keyword(s):  
Work Of Art ◽  
Achilles Tatius ◽  
The Third ◽  
New Development ◽  
New Form ◽  
Aesthetic Expression

This paper investigates differing forms of attention entailed by the ecphrastic gaze in epic and epigram as a way of considering issues of time and narrative as crucial elements of ecphrasis. Its first section focuses particularly on Paulinus of Nola, who has been almost wholly ignored in recent discussions of ecphrasis, but who not only provides the first example of an ecphrasis of an ecphrasis – the description of an ecphrastic inscription attached to a work of art – but also provides a set of poems which construct the viewer's experience of visiting a church. This is taken as exemplary of a new development of a Christian gaze, a new form of attention. The second section looks specifically at temporality in ecphrasis (through Pliny, Virgil, and epigram), to see how different ideas of time and the experience of looking are inscribed in different genres – which in turn expect and create different forms of knowing. The third section looks particularly at later Greek epigrams, Callistratus and Achilles Tatius, to see how different authors play with ideas of temporality and narrative explored in the first two sections of the paper. Together, these interrelated arguments demonstrate how investigating forms of attention and modes of temporality allows us to develop a more nuanced comprehension of ecphrasis as a historical and aesthetic expression.

scholarly journals Eroticism and Justice: Harold Pinter’s Screenplay of Ian McEwan’s "The Comfort of Strangers"

Text Matters ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
Paulina Mirowska
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Gender Relations ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Sexual Intimacy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
The Erotic

A careful analysis of Harold Pinter’s screenplays, notably those written in the 1980s and early 1990s, renders an illustration of how the artist’s cinematic projects supplemented, and often heightened, the focus of his dramatic output, his resolute exploration of the workings of power, love and destruction at various levels of social interaction and bold revision of received values. It seems, however, that few of the scripts did so in such a subtle yet effective manner as Pinter’s intriguing fusion of the erotic, violence and ethical concerns in the film The Comfort of Strangers (1990), directed by Paul Schrader and based on Ian McEwan’s 1981 novel of the same name. The article centres upon Pinter’s creative adaptation of McEwan’s deeply allusive and disquieting text probing, amongst others, the intricacies and tensions of gender relations and sexual intimacy. It examines the screenplay—regarded by many critics as not merely an adaptation of the novel but another, very powerful work of art—addressing Pinter’s method as an adapter and highlighting the artist’s imaginative attempts at fostering a better appreciation of the connections between authoritarian impulses, love and justice. Similarly to a number of other Pinter filmscripts and plays of the 1980s and 1990s, the erotic and the lethal alarmingly intersect in this screenplay where the ostensibly innocent—an unmarried English couple on a holiday in Venice, who are manipulated, victimized and, ultimately, destroyed—are subtly depicted as partly complicit in their own fates.

Eros Through the Looking-Glass? Erotic Ekphrasis and Narrative Structure in Moschus' Europa

Ramus ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Harden
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Love Affair ◽  
Achilles Tatius ◽  
Visual Description ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Looking Glass ◽  
Narrative Function ◽  
The Erotic

Moschus' Europa has long been recognised to be a highly visual and pictorial poem. It is also dominated by an erotic theme: the sexual awakening of the maiden Europa and her love affair with Zeus. This article will focus on a connection between erotic theme and highly visual narrative that has received attention in relation to Greek texts from the Roman Empire, but none in relation to Moschus. The sophisticated and self-conscious use of vision and ekphrasis in erotic narrative which has been traced in authors such as Achilles Tatius (in particular by Goldhill) is anticipated, I shall argue, in Moschus' Hellenistic poem. The work done on this theme in Achilles Tatius provides a useful framework for analysing Moschus' treatment of vision and desire and as such, I will refer to the work of Goldhill and Morales where it illuminates my approach to Moschus.The Europa displays a striking combination of erotic theme and ekphrastic style: Moschus uses the motifs and techniques of ekphrasis to explore the erotic gaze, whereby the process of viewing a desirable object becomes the ‘action’ of the plot and ekphrasis transcends its normally digressive or embedded position within the structure of the text and appropriates the very narrative function of the poem. In terms of its visuality and exploration of visual themes, Moschus' Europa differs from Achilles Tatius and from the poetry of his own contemporaries such as the Argonautica, for although other poets often explore similar themes of vision and desire, the form and structure of Moschus' poem set his treatment apart. The Europa is a short poem of 166 lines and it is dominated by visual description: firstly by the ekphrasis of the basket and then by three extended descriptive scenes which, as I argue below, should also be treated as ekphraseis.

scholarly journals The role of architecture in an engaging and meaningful experience of the physical exhibition

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-53
Author(s):  
Bárbara Dos Santos Coutinho ◽  
Ana Cristina Dos Santos Tostões
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Spiritual Intelligence ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
The Public ◽  
Exhibition Space ◽  
Digital World ◽  
The Arts

While recognising the part that digital media play in bringing about greater accessibility to artworks display and ensuring that they are more visible, this paper argues that the physical exhibition continues to be the primary place for the public to encounter the arts, as it can offer an engaging and meaningful aesthetic experience through which people can transcend their own existence. As such, it is essential to rethink now, in the scope of an increasing digital world, the exhibition in conceptual and methodological terms. For this purpose, the exhibition space must be considered as content rather than container and the exhibition as a work, often with the intentionality of a “total work of art”, rather than just a vehicle for exhibiting artworks and objects. Having the former purpose in mind, this paper proposes a re-reading of the exhibition designs of Frederick Kiesler (1890–1965), Franco Albini (1905–1977) and Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992) in order to evaluate how their theory and practice can provide useful lessons for our contemporary thinking. The three architects, assuming the role of curators, use only the specific language of an exhibition and remix conventional modes of communication and architectural vocabulary, exploring the natural and artificial light, materials, layouts, surfaces and geometries in innovative ways. They considered the exhibition to be a work of art, overcoming the container/content dichotomy and trigging an intersubjective and self-reflective participation. Kiesler, Albini and Bo Bardi may all be considered visionaries of our time, as they offer a landscape that stimulates our curiosity through a multiplicity of information arranged in a multisensory way, allowing each visitor to discover associations between himself and his surroundings. None of them simply created an opportunity for distraction or entertainment. This perspective is all the more pertinent nowadays, as the processes of digitalising information and virtualising the real may well lead to the dematerialization of the physical experience of art. By drawing upon these historical examples, this paper seeks to contribute to current study on how an exhibition can stimulate the cognitive, emotional and spiritual intelligence of each visitor and clarify the importance of this effect in 21st century museums and society at large.

scholarly journals La experiencia estética y los estratos de la obra de arte. La estética como la esencia del arte

2014 ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Pau Pedragosa
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Philosophy Of Art ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Siglo Xix ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
Siglo Xx

El contenido de este artículo consiste en mostrar que la experiencia estética es la esencia de la experiencia de la obra de arte. Argumentaré en contra de la concepción del arte de Arthur C. Danto según la cual el arte moderno ya no requiere de la experiencia estética y este hecho determina el fin del arte. La experiencia estética permitiría dar cuenta del arte desde el Renacimiento hasta el siglo XIX pero el arte moderno del siglo XX solo puede ser explicado conceptualmente y, por tanto, la filosofía del arte es necesaria para explicitar ese contenido.Para defender el estatuto estético de la obra de arte mostraré que la experiencia estética se identifica con la experiencia fenomenológica. Esto quiere decir que la experiencia estética nos hace concientes de la diferencia entre el contenido de la obra (lo que aparece ) y el medio de la experiencia sensible en el que este contenido se da (el aparecer). El “aparecer” y “lo que aparece” se corresponden en la experiencia estética con los dos polos de la relación intencional y constituyen los dos estratos fundamentales de la obra de arte. A través de la aproximación fenomenológica intentaré mostrar que la obra de arte no excluye el contenido conceptual, pero este contenido ha de estar necesariamente incorporado. No es la filosofía la que tiene que comprender este contenido sino exclusivamente la experiencia estética.The subject of this paper is to claim that the aesthetic experience is the essence of the experience of the work of art. I argue against the view hold by Arthur C. Danto, according to which modern art does not require the aesthetic experience any more and that this fact means the end of art. The aesthetic experience allows explaining only the art made be-tween the Renaissance and the XIX century. The modern work of art of the XX century can only be explained conceptually and therefore a philosophy of art is required to make that content explicit and clear.To defend the aesthetic status of the work of art I will show that the aesthetic experience identifies itself with the phenomenological ex-perience. This means that the aesthetic experience makes us aware of the difference between the content of the work (what appears) and the sensible lived experience in which this content appears (the appearance). The “appearance” and “what appears” are the two poles of Intentionality and the two fundamental layers of the work of art. Through the phenomenological approach I will make clear that the work of art does not exclude the conceptual content at all. This content has to be necessarily embodied. It is not philosophy that has to disclose this con-tent but the aesthetic experience alone.

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