joseph Koerner | Harvard University (original) (raw)
Papers by joseph Koerner
Common Knowledge, 2022
When confronted by a question, every form of life strives to supply an answer without delay or de... more When confronted by a question, every form of life strives to supply an answer without delay or deliberation. The model of stimulus/response is a drastic simplification of things and events, yet it is the latent ideal for the be hav ior of organisms. Man alone demonstrates the opposite tendency. He is the creature who hesitates. Life would not forgive that flaw if the resulting loss were not compensated for by an expanded range of activities, the outcome of which we call experience [Erfahrung]. Man perceives not only signals but things; this means that he has learned to waitto wait in expectation of that which is yet to happen. To risk indecision before the alternatives of fleeing or attacking is to renounce quick solutions, the shortest ways. Although never detectable in any
Wer hat zu entscheiden, wohin ich gehöre?, 2017
Amsterdam University Press eBooks, May 6, 2021
Art Bulletin, Mar 1, 1991
In 1989, The University of Chicago Press published two works that sought, each in its own way, to... more In 1989, The University of Chicago Press published two works that sought, each in its own way, to refute and move past the focus on style and 'aesthetics' the authors believed had traditionally dominated the study of the history of art. One explored the range of reactions to, perceptions of, 'responses' to various forms of images throughout the world over the last two millenia.' The other, Keith Moxey's Peasants Warriors and Wives, had a much more modest goal: to explore the 'cultural function' (p. 3) of three specific woodcuts that had been printed in sixteenth-century Nuremberg, 'the social transactions they enabled'. (p.4) Moxey anchors the three woodcuts in a specific 'historical horizon', delimiting possible responses by circumscribing them within a specific 'social reality'. (p. 4) For Moxey, 'images actively articulated the structure of social relations' (p. 4); they are 'the site of the production of cultural meaning'. (p. 5) This is not a monograph, per se, but a collection of essays: three chapters serve to introduce Moxey's theoretical argument, the context of the woodcuts he will analyse-the town of Nuremberg-and the medium of woodcuts; three chapters analyse specific images to which the title of the work refers; and a conclusion. In the Introduction, Moxey puts forth the theoretical framework within which the following chapters are to be read. Invoking Erwin Panofsky, Moxey states that his 'interpretive strategies'(p. 5) take as their point of departure a semiotic approach to the images: Moxey views each woodcut as 'a structure of ideological sign systems'. (p. 8) For Moxey, such an approach frees him from any discussion of what constitutes a great work of art-he can turn to 'simple' art, woodcuts. He can address not their aesthetic value, but their 'active role in defining and manipulating class relations'. (p. 8) He is, in fact, primarily concerned not with the 'signs' themselves, but with the images'signalling, the ways in which the particular images he will address designate social relations, structure relations between peasants and lords, between mercenaries and political communities, and between husbands and wives. The following two chapters provide background against which the three woodcuts are to be placed: the social and intellectual landscape of Nuremberg (Chap. 1); and the 'Media' of woodcuts and broadsheets (Chap. 2). In the second chapter Moxey makes the confusing distinction between the woodcut and the broadsheet as forms, rather than as medium and form, respectively.' In turning to the artists, Moxey underlines his concern to get to 'popular' art, giving little attention to the most famous of the Nuremberg woodcut designers, Albrecht Diirer, and turning instead to the Beham brothers, whose lives have received close study by the East German scholar, Herbert Zschelletschky, for their possible involvement in the War of 1525.' The next three chapters all turn to individual woodcuts: 'The Large Peasant Holiday'by Sebald Beham (Chap. 3); 'A Column of Mercenaries', by Erhard Schon (Chap. 4); and 'There Is No Greater Treasure Here on Earth Than an Obedient Wife Who Covets
Art Bulletin, Sep 1, 1994
In this groundbreaking and elegantly written study, Joseph Koerner establishes the character of R... more In this groundbreaking and elegantly written study, Joseph Koerner establishes the character of Renaissance art in Germany. Opening up newmodes of inquiry for historians of art and early modern Europe, Koerner examines how artists such as Albrecht Durer and Hans Baldung Grien reflected in their masterworks the changing status of the self in sixteenth-century Germany. "[A] dazzling book. . . . He has turned out one of the most powerful, aswell as one of the most ambitious, art-historical works of the last decade." Anthony Grafton, "New Republic" "Rich and splendid. . . . Joseph Koerner's book is a dazzling display of scholarship, enfolding Durer's artistic achievement within the broader issues of self and salvation, and like [Durer's] great "Self-""Portrait" it holds up a mirror to the modern fable of identity." Bruce Boucher, "The Times" "Remarkable and densely argued." Marcia Pointon, "British Journal of ""Aesthetics" "Herculean and brilliant. . . . Will echo in fields beyond the Sixteenth-Century and Art History." Larry Silver, "Sixteenth Century ""Journal" "May be the most ambitious of recent American reflections on the mysteries of German art. His elegantly written book deals with the fateful period in the history of German art when it reached its highest point. . . . Offers deeper and more disturbing insights into German Renaissance art than most earlier scholarship." Willibald Sauerlander, "New York Review of Books""
Common Knowledge, 2022
When confronted by a question, every form of life strives to supply an answer without delay or de... more When confronted by a question, every form of life strives to supply an answer without delay or deliberation. The model of stimulus/response is a drastic simplification of things and events, yet it is the latent ideal for the be hav ior of organisms. Man alone demonstrates the opposite tendency. He is the creature who hesitates. Life would not forgive that flaw if the resulting loss were not compensated for by an expanded range of activities, the outcome of which we call experience [Erfahrung]. Man perceives not only signals but things; this means that he has learned to waitto wait in expectation of that which is yet to happen. To risk indecision before the alternatives of fleeing or attacking is to renounce quick solutions, the shortest ways. Although never detectable in any
Wer hat zu entscheiden, wohin ich gehöre?, 2017
Amsterdam University Press eBooks, May 6, 2021
Art Bulletin, Mar 1, 1991
In 1989, The University of Chicago Press published two works that sought, each in its own way, to... more In 1989, The University of Chicago Press published two works that sought, each in its own way, to refute and move past the focus on style and 'aesthetics' the authors believed had traditionally dominated the study of the history of art. One explored the range of reactions to, perceptions of, 'responses' to various forms of images throughout the world over the last two millenia.' The other, Keith Moxey's Peasants Warriors and Wives, had a much more modest goal: to explore the 'cultural function' (p. 3) of three specific woodcuts that had been printed in sixteenth-century Nuremberg, 'the social transactions they enabled'. (p.4) Moxey anchors the three woodcuts in a specific 'historical horizon', delimiting possible responses by circumscribing them within a specific 'social reality'. (p. 4) For Moxey, 'images actively articulated the structure of social relations' (p. 4); they are 'the site of the production of cultural meaning'. (p. 5) This is not a monograph, per se, but a collection of essays: three chapters serve to introduce Moxey's theoretical argument, the context of the woodcuts he will analyse-the town of Nuremberg-and the medium of woodcuts; three chapters analyse specific images to which the title of the work refers; and a conclusion. In the Introduction, Moxey puts forth the theoretical framework within which the following chapters are to be read. Invoking Erwin Panofsky, Moxey states that his 'interpretive strategies'(p. 5) take as their point of departure a semiotic approach to the images: Moxey views each woodcut as 'a structure of ideological sign systems'. (p. 8) For Moxey, such an approach frees him from any discussion of what constitutes a great work of art-he can turn to 'simple' art, woodcuts. He can address not their aesthetic value, but their 'active role in defining and manipulating class relations'. (p. 8) He is, in fact, primarily concerned not with the 'signs' themselves, but with the images'signalling, the ways in which the particular images he will address designate social relations, structure relations between peasants and lords, between mercenaries and political communities, and between husbands and wives. The following two chapters provide background against which the three woodcuts are to be placed: the social and intellectual landscape of Nuremberg (Chap. 1); and the 'Media' of woodcuts and broadsheets (Chap. 2). In the second chapter Moxey makes the confusing distinction between the woodcut and the broadsheet as forms, rather than as medium and form, respectively.' In turning to the artists, Moxey underlines his concern to get to 'popular' art, giving little attention to the most famous of the Nuremberg woodcut designers, Albrecht Diirer, and turning instead to the Beham brothers, whose lives have received close study by the East German scholar, Herbert Zschelletschky, for their possible involvement in the War of 1525.' The next three chapters all turn to individual woodcuts: 'The Large Peasant Holiday'by Sebald Beham (Chap. 3); 'A Column of Mercenaries', by Erhard Schon (Chap. 4); and 'There Is No Greater Treasure Here on Earth Than an Obedient Wife Who Covets
Art Bulletin, Sep 1, 1994
In this groundbreaking and elegantly written study, Joseph Koerner establishes the character of R... more In this groundbreaking and elegantly written study, Joseph Koerner establishes the character of Renaissance art in Germany. Opening up newmodes of inquiry for historians of art and early modern Europe, Koerner examines how artists such as Albrecht Durer and Hans Baldung Grien reflected in their masterworks the changing status of the self in sixteenth-century Germany. "[A] dazzling book. . . . He has turned out one of the most powerful, aswell as one of the most ambitious, art-historical works of the last decade." Anthony Grafton, "New Republic" "Rich and splendid. . . . Joseph Koerner's book is a dazzling display of scholarship, enfolding Durer's artistic achievement within the broader issues of self and salvation, and like [Durer's] great "Self-""Portrait" it holds up a mirror to the modern fable of identity." Bruce Boucher, "The Times" "Remarkable and densely argued." Marcia Pointon, "British Journal of ""Aesthetics" "Herculean and brilliant. . . . Will echo in fields beyond the Sixteenth-Century and Art History." Larry Silver, "Sixteenth Century ""Journal" "May be the most ambitious of recent American reflections on the mysteries of German art. His elegantly written book deals with the fateful period in the history of German art when it reached its highest point. . . . Offers deeper and more disturbing insights into German Renaissance art than most earlier scholarship." Willibald Sauerlander, "New York Review of Books""