Speculation, Critique, Constructivism: Notions for Art History

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamini Vellodi
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Kantian Philosophy

This chapter explores the values of the notions of critique, construction and speculation for the practice of Art History. It argues for an immanently critical and constructive art history in pace of a speculative art history. Beginning with an examination of the distinctions between speculation and critique in Kant’s philosophy, and exploring how these notions have functioned in art history’s ‘scientific image of thought’ in part through an appeal to the post-Kantian philosophy of CS Peirce, the chapter develops a constructive, immanently critical art history through Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy. Turning to a single painting by the 15th century painter Jacopo da Negroponte, it indicates some of the features of this constructivist art history, and how it might impact the task of art historical writing.

scholarly journals “‘But the Fountain Sprang Up and the Bird Sang Down’: Heidegger’s Gathering of the Fourfold and the Seven-Sacraments Font at Salle, Norfolk.”

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 464
Author(s):  
Marie Clausén
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Art History ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
The Church ◽  
As If

My paper analyses the 15th-century seven-sacraments font at the medieval church of St Peter and St Paul at Salle in Norfolk (England). The church guides and gazetteers that describe the font, and the church in which it is situated, owe both their style and content to Art History, focusing as they do on their material and aesthetic dimensions. The guides also tend towards isolating the various elements of the font, and these in turn from the rest of the architectural elements, fittings and furniture of the church, as if they could be meaningfully experienced or interpreted as discrete entities, in isolation from one another. While none of the font descriptions can be faulted for being inaccurate, they can, as a result of these tendencies, be held insufficient, and not quite to the purpose. My analysis of the font, by means of Heidegger’s concept of Dwelling, does not separate the font either from the rest of the church, nor from other fonts, but acknowledges that it comes to be, and be seen as, what it is only when considered as standing in ‘myriad referential relations’ to other things, as well as to ourselves. This perspective has enabled me to draw out what it is about the font at Salle that can be experienced as not merely beautiful or interesting, but also as meaningful to those—believers and non-believers alike—who encounter it. By reconsidering the proper mode of perceiving and engaging with the font, we may spare it from being commodified, from becoming a unit in the standing reserve of cultural heritage, and in so doing, we, too, may be momentarily freed from our false identities as units of production and agents of consumption. The medieval fonts and churches of Norfolk are, I argue, not valuable as a result of their putative antiquarian qualities, but invaluable in their extending to us a possibility of dwelling—as mortals—on the earth—under the sky—before the divinities.

Speculative Art Histories

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Philosophy Of Art ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Works Of Art

Following the recent ‘speculative turn’ in Continental philosophy, the aim of this volume is to propose a ‘counter-discourse’ of speculative approaches to art history. How could today’s materialist, realist, pragmatist, vitalist or object-oriented speculations offer alternatives to the mere complementarity of philosophy of art and art history, often based on mutual recognition and critical limitation rather than imaginative crossovers? What new intermedial methodologies for art and art historical writing do they provide? Or vice versa, how can the encounter with art induce new forms of philosophy? How do speculative concepts of time, past and contingency challenge typically modern engagements with art’s ‘history’? Is there, for example, an unexpected contemporary relevance for pre-modern, e.g. or mannerist or gothic ideas of art? Is it possible for art history to experience a work of art in its novelty beyond its historical facticity? And what is the speculative potential of works of art themselves? Does the speculative open up new ways of extending art into fields of biology, mathematics or the digital? What is the ‘thing’ or ‘object’ of art, whether inanimate or animate? What does it mean to have an ‘idea’? And finally, what remains of ‘beauty’ and ‘expressivity’, after decades of critical mistrust and embarrassed deconstruction?

scholarly journals A Transparent Dialogue Between Iconography and Chemical Characterisation: A Set of Foreign Stained Glasses in Portugal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra J. Rodrigues ◽  
Mathilda Larsson Coutinho ◽  
Andreia Machado ◽  
Bruno A. Martinho ◽  
Luís Cerqueira Alves ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Lead Oxide ◽  
Stained Glass ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Heritage Science ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
First Results ◽  
Glass Panels ◽  
Production Period ◽  
Oxide Pigment

Abstract This work presents the first results of the iconographic study and analytical characterisation of a set of four stained-glass panels that are part of the collection of National Palace of Pena (Sintra, Portugal). These panels were collected by the King Ferdinand II in the mid-19th century, for his main residence the Palace of Necessidades (Lisbon, Portugal), and only first presented to the general public in 2011. This study contributes with the knowledge of Technichal Art History and Heritage Science to a better and deeper understanding of their history, materials and techniques used in the production, where an art-historical and a scientific approach are applied to attribute their origins. Based on the analysis of the formal and stylistic characteristic of the panels, it is proposed that the drawings used for the production of three of these panels may be based on the design and painting being carried out in the same workshop, and that the four panels have the same provenance (Germany). The composition of the glass and grisaille was determined and colourising elements were identified. Through this approach, conclusive correlation among the analysed glasses was possible: all are calcium rich or calcium-potassium rich types, and the results also suggest that the same source of silica was used for their production. A typical mixture of glass and lead oxide was found on the grisaille applied on the painted panels. However, less usual was the use of a copper oxide pigment for the black grisaille. All these findings support the proposals made regarding provenance and production period (15th century).

The Reincarnation of the Aura

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-80
Author(s):  
Victoria Bigliardi
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Art History ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Original Art ◽  
Art Object ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Object Biography ◽  
Material Record ◽  
Plaster Casts

In 1935, Walter Benjamin introduced the aura as the abstract conceptualization of uniqueness, authenticity, and singularity that encompasses an original art object. With the advent of technological reproducibility, Benjamin posits that the aura of an object deteriorates when the original is reproduced through the manufacture of copies. Employing this concept of the aura, I outline the proliferation of plaster casts of sculptures in 18th- and 19th-century Europe, placing contextual emphasis on the cultural and prestige value of originals and copies. Theories of authenticity in both art history and material culture are used to examine the nature of the aura and to consider how the aura transforms when an original object is lost from the material record. Through an object biography of a 15th-century sculpture by Francesco Laurana, I propose that the aura does not disappear upon the loss of the original, but is reincarnated in the authentic reproduction.

scholarly journals Parsuna – the first secular representation of the traditional Russian icon

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Takushinova Bella
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Church History ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Russian Art ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Way

The second half of the 15th century in the Russian Church history marked a strong decline of spiritual life, which naturally found its reflection in the icon painting. The feeling of integrity of an image, its depth were lost. At the same time, the weakening influence of the Orthodox Balkans and the Byzantine Empire gave way to the influence of the Catholic West with its profoundly different principles of religious art.In this transitional period of the Russian cultural life, characterized by the transformation of the medieval worldview and the formation of new artistic ideals, appeared parsuna (a rough Russian transliteration of the Latin word “persona”) - an early secular portrait of a lay person in the iconographic style that represents an important transition in Russia’s art history. The first pasruna were painted, most probably, by the iconographers of the Moscow Kremlin Armoury in the 17th century. The painters of these portraits were usually monks that tended to be anonymous, showing a humility.Although the stylized forms used in parsuna reveal a lack of concern with preserving the actual features of a person, but rather their overall image (special attributes and signatures allow to define represented), it still can be viewed as one of the very first attempts to look at person not only through the rigid iconographic canons, but also through a prism of psychological interpretation. Thus, this transitional image may be concerned as the initial fundamental step on the way to the further introduction fo the European portrait tradition in Russia.In this study, we would like to consistently trace how parsuna, thanks to its completely new stylistic value, can be considered one of the earliest stages on the way to the secularization of the Russian art in the early 17th century, which led to the separation from the strict iconographic religious canons and, consequently, to the rapprochement with the European art.

scholarly journals Tradition and historical reconstruction in modern Church art on the example of the “Apocalypse” by Nikolai Masteropulo (from the point of view of the Medievalist)

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-89
Author(s):  
Yu. N. Buzykina
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Wall Painting ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Church Art

The article deals with Apocalypse cycle of cloisonné enamels created in the early 2000-s by Russian and Greek artist Nilolaos Masteropoulos. The article analyses the concept of this creation, conceived as an actual art work made by medieval tool — ancient technique of cloisonné enamel, reconstructed and reconceived by the artist. The choice of the old technique which disappeared in byzantine tradition in 13th century is united with the subject which was not typical for byzantine art at all and appeared only in the early 15th century in the wall painting of Annunciation Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin, ordered by Russian prince and painted by Byzantine artist Theophanes the Greek. This union, demonstrating the artist’s deep knowledge in the art history and scientific literature, does not turn this Apocalypse into intellectual rebus or kind of historical reconstruction. Reviving ancient techniques and using ancient symbols, Nikolaos Masteropulos created an actual art work, intended for beholding by his contemporaries.

Concepts of Theatricality in Contemporary Art History

1995 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Art History ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Theatre History ◽  
Master Narratives

Theatre historians often turn to art history, not only for information about source images that can help with the speculative reconstruction of lost performances, but also for lessons in historiographic method. Historians from both disciplines have long shared the difficulties of ‘ekphrasis’, i.e. the translation of nondiscursive images into descriptions, and vice versa, as well as other vexing problems of general history like periodization, documentation of events, and so on. Unlike theatre history, art history has a recognized pantheon of interpreters, which has been subjected to overview studies like Michael Podro'sThe Critical Historians of Artas well as specific treatments of major critics and their influence, like Michael Ann Holly's work on Panofsky. Theoretical concerns about historiography, sometimes assumed by literary critics of ‘master narratives’ to be synonymous with postmodernism, developed somewhat earlier in art historical writing, which would appear to be an advantage.

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