Lasse Hodne - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Lasse Hodne
Springer eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
Near where you live, there may be a park with one or more statues or busts of famous people. Take... more Near where you live, there may be a park with one or more statues or busts of famous people. Take a trip there, or to a museum where photography is allowed. Stand in front of the statue and, first, take a photograph of the depicted person from the front, as shown in this photo.
Publications of the English Goethe Society, Sep 2, 2022
The book The Tyranny of Greece over Germany (1935) by Eliza Marian Butler is about the developmen... more The book The Tyranny of Greece over Germany (1935) by Eliza Marian Butler is about the development of German intellectual life in the period from Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) onwards. Winckelmann is often seen as the man who gave the impetus to a wave of philhellenism in Germany. According to Butler, German intellectuals’ nostalgic longing for Greece and lack of interest in real societal problems bears much responsibility for the cultural collapse of interwar Germany and the rise of Nazism. The ideas that Butler put forward have been of great importance for those who criticize the political use of classical art in public monuments. Discussing Butler’s points of view, this article will take a critical look at her reasons for attributing such a central role in the cultural decline of interwar Germany to Winckelmann’s philhellenism.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2022
A key question in the art debate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was whether color sho... more A key question in the art debate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was whether color should be used for sculpture. Recent archaeological research had shown that the sculpture in ancient Greece was polychrome, but skepticism about applying paint to one’s own work was widespread among modern sculptors. Some scholars explain this reluctance as a consequence of racial prejudice: the Greek athlete was an image of white Europeans. This article will try to show that a re-reading of Johann Gottfried Herder’s book on sculpture can give us a different and more probable explanation. Herder shared Roger de Piles’s view that the essence of sculpture was form, while color was most characteristic of painting. What set Herder apart from his predecessor, however, was his attempt to give the theory a scientific rationale. He found this in contemporary accounts of visually impaired persons’ relationship to the sensory world and not least in empiricist philosophy’s distinction between primary ...
CLARA, 2020
A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman... more A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman art. Marble statues of deities or heroes from Classical Antiquity, and important works in painting and architecture from different historical epochs, have traditionally made up the canon of Western art. In recent years, critics have claimed that this tradition represents an idealisation of the white, Caucasian body type which excludes other races from the concept of beauty. Although we today know that ancient statues in marble were often painted in vivid colours, they say that art theorists have either been ignorant of, or glossed over, this fact. While the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann has often been regarded as a proponent of our Western predilection for whiteness, the French archaeologist Antoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy is by many celebrated as the first to realise the extent and importance of ancient polychromy. In this paper, I will try to show that this ...
The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2020
The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient... more The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient Greece and Rome for their collections was stimulated largely by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. In the past decade, a number of articles have claimed that Winckelmann’s glorification of marble statues representing the white, male body promotes notions of white supremacy. The present article challenges this view by examining theories prevalent in the eighteenth century (especially climate theory) that affected Winckelmann’s views on race. Through an examination of different types of classicism, the article also seeks to demonstrate that Winckelmann’s aesthetics were opposed to the eclectic use of ancient models typical of the fascist regimes of the twentieth century.
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 1970
Ci chiediamo quali sono e qual è il significato dei due edifici piramidali che si trovano sullo s... more Ci chiediamo quali sono e qual è il significato dei due edifici piramidali che si trovano sullo sfondo di una serie di rappresentazioni della Crocifissione di S. Pietro nel trecento e nel quattrocento. È naturale vederli come le due mete inter quas, secondo le fonti, fu martirizzato l’apostolo. La maggior parte degli studiosi hanno identificato le due mete con monumenti situati nella zona tra l’attuale Castel S. Angelo e la Basilica di S. Pietro. Nel presente articolo propongo invece che una delle mete è da identificarsi con la Piramide Cestia, una volta ritenuta la tomba di Remo. In questo modo i pittori hanno voluto sottolineare il rapporto non tanto tra Pietro e Remo, quanto tra l’apostolo ed entrambi i fondatori di Roma. Dal discorso sull’ubicazione delle due mete nasceranno, a loro volta, le nuove teorie nel tardo medioevo sul luogo del martirio di Pietro, più precisamente la sua nuova collocazione presso Montorio.
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 1970
In medieval art, there are numerous examples of pictorial programmes composed according to a syst... more In medieval art, there are numerous examples of pictorial programmes composed according to a system of typological opposition between scenes from the Old and the New Testaments, in which scenes from the New are seen as the typological fulfillment of prophecies from the Old. Normally, scenes from both Testaments are juxtaposed, so that the fulfillment under Christ can be seen together with the scene that prefigures it. In the works of the Florentine painter Fra Angelico, this system is softened. His series of 36 small panels from the Armadio degli argenti, now in the Museo di San Marco (Florence), is apparently a quite conventional representation of “highlights” from the Gospel story. However, the inscriptions that accompany each panel reveal a typological scheme at heart of the pictorial programme. This paper studies the compositional and expressive devices applied in Fra Angelico’s subtle rendering of well-established theological concepts. Further, the paper argues that the same de...
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 1970
This study is devoted to the symbolic significance of shadow and light in two works by Filippo Li... more This study is devoted to the symbolic significance of shadow and light in two works by Filippo Lippi: The Annunciation in the Martelli Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence and the painting of the same subject in the Frick Collection in New York. In the Renaissance, the shadow that appears in the Annunciation is often associated with the procreative power of God. The fact that Filippo Lippi makes use of this sense of the shadow is particularly evident in his Frick Annuciation. It is less well known that in the art of Filippo the shadow has a dual meaning. In fact, the contrast between light and shade in these pictures was not a result of experimentation with natural light; nor is it a difference - as some have argued - caused by the fact that the two halves of the picture were originally intended to be installed separately like the wings of an organ or an "armadio" (closet for ex voto). Instead, I believe that the difference in the way in which the two parts of t...
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 2019
Previous research conducted by the author revealed a clear preference for profile and half profil... more Previous research conducted by the author revealed a clear preference for profile and half profile view in paintings of secular persons. Frontal view (full-face or en face) was usually restricted to representations of Christ. In this paper, the results will be applied to the study of the paintings of one particular artist: the German-born fifteenth-century painter Hans Memling. Adopting methods from traditional art history as well as cognitive psychology, the aim is to show how Memeling's systematic distinction between sacred and profane, using the frontal view only for representations of Christ, can be explained by reference to psychological studies on the effects and values usually associated with the frontal view of a face. Keywords: Hans Memling, portraits, man of sorrows, holy face. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Mon...
As large cities claimed apostolic founding of their churches, the Roman church declared that it w... more As large cities claimed apostolic founding of their churches, the Roman church declared that it was constituted on the “double apostolate” of Peter and Paul. The concordia apostolorum which results from the final agreement between the “former rivals” in this city is also seen as the foundation of the Roman church. The term concordia apostolorum has been applied to at least two image types which show the two apostles together. I propose that this name is more appropriate as a title for the well known Roman apse image of Christ flanked by the apostle princes than the traditional traditio legis, since the concordia and the double apostolate are concepts which relate the church to the city of Rome. Hence, the scheme with the two apostles which decorates so many Roman apses from Late Antiquity until the age of Paschal I can be seen as an emblem precisely of the Roman church.
The article concentrates on the “Coronation of the Virgin” in medieval art. This image is based o... more The article concentrates on the “Coronation of the Virgin” in medieval art. This image is based on the Bride and Groom theme from the Canticles. However, whereas this text from the Old Testament was examined already by the Church Fathers in their exegetical writings, a “canonical” representation of it was coined only in the 12th century. This “late introduction” reflects deeply rooted changes in religious life which profoundly changed church history. The turtle dove which sings in the Canticles is, according to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, not only a symbol of faithfulness but also of chastity. This chastity must, in turn, be connected with the chastity of the clergy and the development of the idea of celibacy precisely in this period. Hence, the “Coronation”, besides being a symbol of the Church, is also an expression of a precise conception of the Church, namely a body constituted of men who maintain their virginity as brides awaiting the arrival of the Groom.
CLARA Special issue: Perceiving Matter. Visual, Material and Sensual Communication from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 2020
A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman... more A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman art. Marble statues of deities or heroes from Classical Antiquity, and important works in painting and architecture from different historical epochs, have traditionally made up the canon of Western art. In recent years, critics have claimed that this tradition represents an idealisation of the white, Caucasian body type which excludes other races from the concept of beauty. Although we today know that ancient statues in marble were often painted in vivid colours, they say that art theorists have either been ignorant of, or glossed over, this fact.
The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2020
The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient... more The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient Greece and Rome for their collections was stimulated largely by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. In the past decade, a number of articles have claimed that Winckelmann's glorification of marble statues representing the white, male body promotes notions of white supremacy. The present article challenges this view by examining theories prevalent in the eighteenth century (especially climate theory) that affected Winckelmann's views on race. Through an examination of different types of classicism, the article also seeks to demonstrate that Winckelmann's aesthetics were opposed to the eclectic use of ancient models typical of the fascist regimes of the twentieth century.
Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History
Springer eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
Near where you live, there may be a park with one or more statues or busts of famous people. Take... more Near where you live, there may be a park with one or more statues or busts of famous people. Take a trip there, or to a museum where photography is allowed. Stand in front of the statue and, first, take a photograph of the depicted person from the front, as shown in this photo.
Publications of the English Goethe Society, Sep 2, 2022
The book The Tyranny of Greece over Germany (1935) by Eliza Marian Butler is about the developmen... more The book The Tyranny of Greece over Germany (1935) by Eliza Marian Butler is about the development of German intellectual life in the period from Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) onwards. Winckelmann is often seen as the man who gave the impetus to a wave of philhellenism in Germany. According to Butler, German intellectuals’ nostalgic longing for Greece and lack of interest in real societal problems bears much responsibility for the cultural collapse of interwar Germany and the rise of Nazism. The ideas that Butler put forward have been of great importance for those who criticize the political use of classical art in public monuments. Discussing Butler’s points of view, this article will take a critical look at her reasons for attributing such a central role in the cultural decline of interwar Germany to Winckelmann’s philhellenism.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2022
A key question in the art debate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was whether color sho... more A key question in the art debate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was whether color should be used for sculpture. Recent archaeological research had shown that the sculpture in ancient Greece was polychrome, but skepticism about applying paint to one’s own work was widespread among modern sculptors. Some scholars explain this reluctance as a consequence of racial prejudice: the Greek athlete was an image of white Europeans. This article will try to show that a re-reading of Johann Gottfried Herder’s book on sculpture can give us a different and more probable explanation. Herder shared Roger de Piles’s view that the essence of sculpture was form, while color was most characteristic of painting. What set Herder apart from his predecessor, however, was his attempt to give the theory a scientific rationale. He found this in contemporary accounts of visually impaired persons’ relationship to the sensory world and not least in empiricist philosophy’s distinction between primary ...
CLARA, 2020
A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman... more A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman art. Marble statues of deities or heroes from Classical Antiquity, and important works in painting and architecture from different historical epochs, have traditionally made up the canon of Western art. In recent years, critics have claimed that this tradition represents an idealisation of the white, Caucasian body type which excludes other races from the concept of beauty. Although we today know that ancient statues in marble were often painted in vivid colours, they say that art theorists have either been ignorant of, or glossed over, this fact. While the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann has often been regarded as a proponent of our Western predilection for whiteness, the French archaeologist Antoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy is by many celebrated as the first to realise the extent and importance of ancient polychromy. In this paper, I will try to show that this ...
The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2020
The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient... more The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient Greece and Rome for their collections was stimulated largely by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. In the past decade, a number of articles have claimed that Winckelmann’s glorification of marble statues representing the white, male body promotes notions of white supremacy. The present article challenges this view by examining theories prevalent in the eighteenth century (especially climate theory) that affected Winckelmann’s views on race. Through an examination of different types of classicism, the article also seeks to demonstrate that Winckelmann’s aesthetics were opposed to the eclectic use of ancient models typical of the fascist regimes of the twentieth century.
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 1970
Ci chiediamo quali sono e qual è il significato dei due edifici piramidali che si trovano sullo s... more Ci chiediamo quali sono e qual è il significato dei due edifici piramidali che si trovano sullo sfondo di una serie di rappresentazioni della Crocifissione di S. Pietro nel trecento e nel quattrocento. È naturale vederli come le due mete inter quas, secondo le fonti, fu martirizzato l’apostolo. La maggior parte degli studiosi hanno identificato le due mete con monumenti situati nella zona tra l’attuale Castel S. Angelo e la Basilica di S. Pietro. Nel presente articolo propongo invece che una delle mete è da identificarsi con la Piramide Cestia, una volta ritenuta la tomba di Remo. In questo modo i pittori hanno voluto sottolineare il rapporto non tanto tra Pietro e Remo, quanto tra l’apostolo ed entrambi i fondatori di Roma. Dal discorso sull’ubicazione delle due mete nasceranno, a loro volta, le nuove teorie nel tardo medioevo sul luogo del martirio di Pietro, più precisamente la sua nuova collocazione presso Montorio.
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 1970
In medieval art, there are numerous examples of pictorial programmes composed according to a syst... more In medieval art, there are numerous examples of pictorial programmes composed according to a system of typological opposition between scenes from the Old and the New Testaments, in which scenes from the New are seen as the typological fulfillment of prophecies from the Old. Normally, scenes from both Testaments are juxtaposed, so that the fulfillment under Christ can be seen together with the scene that prefigures it. In the works of the Florentine painter Fra Angelico, this system is softened. His series of 36 small panels from the Armadio degli argenti, now in the Museo di San Marco (Florence), is apparently a quite conventional representation of “highlights” from the Gospel story. However, the inscriptions that accompany each panel reveal a typological scheme at heart of the pictorial programme. This paper studies the compositional and expressive devices applied in Fra Angelico’s subtle rendering of well-established theological concepts. Further, the paper argues that the same de...
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 1970
This study is devoted to the symbolic significance of shadow and light in two works by Filippo Li... more This study is devoted to the symbolic significance of shadow and light in two works by Filippo Lippi: The Annunciation in the Martelli Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence and the painting of the same subject in the Frick Collection in New York. In the Renaissance, the shadow that appears in the Annunciation is often associated with the procreative power of God. The fact that Filippo Lippi makes use of this sense of the shadow is particularly evident in his Frick Annuciation. It is less well known that in the art of Filippo the shadow has a dual meaning. In fact, the contrast between light and shade in these pictures was not a result of experimentation with natural light; nor is it a difference - as some have argued - caused by the fact that the two halves of the picture were originally intended to be installed separately like the wings of an organ or an "armadio" (closet for ex voto). Instead, I believe that the difference in the way in which the two parts of t...
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 2019
Previous research conducted by the author revealed a clear preference for profile and half profil... more Previous research conducted by the author revealed a clear preference for profile and half profile view in paintings of secular persons. Frontal view (full-face or en face) was usually restricted to representations of Christ. In this paper, the results will be applied to the study of the paintings of one particular artist: the German-born fifteenth-century painter Hans Memling. Adopting methods from traditional art history as well as cognitive psychology, the aim is to show how Memeling's systematic distinction between sacred and profane, using the frontal view only for representations of Christ, can be explained by reference to psychological studies on the effects and values usually associated with the frontal view of a face. Keywords: Hans Memling, portraits, man of sorrows, holy face. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Mon...
As large cities claimed apostolic founding of their churches, the Roman church declared that it w... more As large cities claimed apostolic founding of their churches, the Roman church declared that it was constituted on the “double apostolate” of Peter and Paul. The concordia apostolorum which results from the final agreement between the “former rivals” in this city is also seen as the foundation of the Roman church. The term concordia apostolorum has been applied to at least two image types which show the two apostles together. I propose that this name is more appropriate as a title for the well known Roman apse image of Christ flanked by the apostle princes than the traditional traditio legis, since the concordia and the double apostolate are concepts which relate the church to the city of Rome. Hence, the scheme with the two apostles which decorates so many Roman apses from Late Antiquity until the age of Paschal I can be seen as an emblem precisely of the Roman church.
The article concentrates on the “Coronation of the Virgin” in medieval art. This image is based o... more The article concentrates on the “Coronation of the Virgin” in medieval art. This image is based on the Bride and Groom theme from the Canticles. However, whereas this text from the Old Testament was examined already by the Church Fathers in their exegetical writings, a “canonical” representation of it was coined only in the 12th century. This “late introduction” reflects deeply rooted changes in religious life which profoundly changed church history. The turtle dove which sings in the Canticles is, according to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, not only a symbol of faithfulness but also of chastity. This chastity must, in turn, be connected with the chastity of the clergy and the development of the idea of celibacy precisely in this period. Hence, the “Coronation”, besides being a symbol of the Church, is also an expression of a precise conception of the Church, namely a body constituted of men who maintain their virginity as brides awaiting the arrival of the Groom.
CLARA Special issue: Perceiving Matter. Visual, Material and Sensual Communication from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 2020
A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman... more A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman art. Marble statues of deities or heroes from Classical Antiquity, and important works in painting and architecture from different historical epochs, have traditionally made up the canon of Western art. In recent years, critics have claimed that this tradition represents an idealisation of the white, Caucasian body type which excludes other races from the concept of beauty. Although we today know that ancient statues in marble were often painted in vivid colours, they say that art theorists have either been ignorant of, or glossed over, this fact.
The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2020
The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient... more The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient Greece and Rome for their collections was stimulated largely by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. In the past decade, a number of articles have claimed that Winckelmann's glorification of marble statues representing the white, male body promotes notions of white supremacy. The present article challenges this view by examining theories prevalent in the eighteenth century (especially climate theory) that affected Winckelmann's views on race. Through an examination of different types of classicism, the article also seeks to demonstrate that Winckelmann's aesthetics were opposed to the eclectic use of ancient models typical of the fascist regimes of the twentieth century.
Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History