Compelling Visuality
The Work of Art in and out of History
Takes up the commonly unexplored question of what is actually present in art—what aspects have survived the vicissitudes of time. International and interdisciplinary, this volume conducts readers into a discussion of the significance of personal response to works of art.
Contributors: F. R. Ankersmit, Mieke Bal, Oskar Bätschmann, Georges Didi-Huberman, Michael Ann Holly, Donald Preziosi, Renée van de Vall.
An impressive collection of essays unified by a common enterprise to present alternatives to the common-sense (but extremely problematic) understanding of art history. Compelling Visuality mounts a powerful critique of the ‘history’ in art history.
Typically, art history is an enterprise of recovery—of searching out the provenance, the original intentions, the physical setting, and historical conditions behind a work of art. The essays in Compelling Visuality address some of the other questions that are less frequently asked—and, in doing so, show how much is to be learned and gained by going beyond the traditional approaches of art history.
In particular, the contributors take up the commonly unexplored question of what is actually present in a work of art—what we see, touch, and experience when confronted with Renaissance or Baroque works that have survived the vicissitudes of time. International and interdisciplinary, this volume conducts readers into an ongoing discussion of the value and significance of personal response to works of art.
Contributors: F. R. Ankersmit, U of Groningen; Mieke Bal, U of Amsterdam and Cornell U; Oskar Bätschmann, U of Bern; Georges Didi-Huberman, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris; Michael Ann Holly, Clark Art Institute; Donald Preziosi, UCLA and Oxford U; Renée van de Vall, U of Maastricht.
An impressive collection of essays unified by a common enterprise to present alternatives to the common-sense (but extremely problematic) understanding of art history. Compelling Visuality mounts a powerful critique of the ‘history’ in art history.
Contents
Art History after Aesthetics:A Provocative Introduction Robert Zwijnenberg and Claire Farago
ONE Ecstatic Aesthetics: Metaphoring Bernini Mieke Bal
TWO Before the Image,Before Time:The Sovereignty of Anachronism Georges Didi-Huberman
THREE Aesthetics before Art: Leonardo through the Looking Glass Claire Farago
FOUR Touching the Face:The Ethics of Visuality between Levinas and a Rembrandt Self-Portrait Renée van de Vall
FIVE Presence and Absence: On Leonardo da Vinci’s Saint John the Baptist Robert Zwijnenberg
SIX Rococo as the Dissipation of Boredom F.R.Ankersmit
SEVEN Mourning and Method Michael Ann Holly
EIGHT A Guide to Interpretation:Art Historical Hermeneutics Oskar Bätschmann
NINE Seeing Soane Seeing You Donald Preziosi
Contributors
