What are the challenges to the historian of visual and material evidence, and in what ways does this evidence enhance our understanding of the past? (original) (raw)
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This course is an introduction to art history as a field of cultural production. The readings and conference discussions will be directed towards exploring not only the paradigmatic works of art and architecture from antiquity to post-modernity but also the interpretive texts produced about them. Emphasis will be placed on the shift of practices of artifact production with skilled crafting in pre-industrial societies towards modern definitions of art and visual culture with their distinctive socio-cultural status in the contemporary world. Case studies are thus drawn from ancient Near Eastern and classical antiquity as well as the Western post-industrial art. While the development of the discipline form 18th century onwards will be problematized, core discursive issues in art history such as representation, iconography, narrative, technology, style, museum studies will be addressed.
The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2010
The paper argues that something is art only if (i) it belongs to a special kind of internal history and (ii) needs to be understood and appreci ated in the light of such history. This goes against both the traditional view that art has a timeless, ahistorical essence and the historicist view that there can be no ahistorical perspective for understanding art. The paper draws on Hegel's view that art needs to be understood through its history, but rejects the idea that the history of art has an end in the double sense of a goal and an end point. It also rejects Arthur Danto's Hegelinspired claim that the ahistori cal essence of art is revealed at the end of its history and opens the door to a natural alliance between philosophers of art and art historians.
Painting History: Picture, Witness, and Ancient Historiography
History and Theory, 2024
This article treats an analogy that is used persistently in the history of historiography: the equation of historiography with painting and the identification of the historiographer with the painter. In examining the conceptual stakes of this (auto)identification, the article mobilizes the analogy in order to explore larger issues of historical theory and, through the prism of historical painting, reflects on the problem of representation and narrativist approaches to history as text. The article argues that the historiographic desire surfacing in a comparison with painting does not concern painting’s ability to capture the past; rather, it concerns its ability to capture the viewer. Opening with a brief survey of the ut pictura historia analogy in the history of historiography, the article makes this claim by analyzing historiographical engagements with the analogy in antiquity (turning to Herodotus and Polybius) and by exploring ancient history painting itself (offering pride of place to the Alexander Mosaic). In thus engaging with the theory of historiography via concrete historical material, the article leverages a historical episode of interaction between textual media and visual media to find that they are structured by the same simple desire that continues to exert its force today: the desire to see for oneself.
The Paucity of Art History in Historical Practice
Manaviki
One of the most obvious sources of history especially for pre and proto historical periods has been art. Yet, it seems that the historians marginalized this historical source as more and more textual evidence was found. Writing holistic histories demands that all possible sources be explored. Just like the written material, art also has its own problems and limitations for use as a historical source. Art which is increasingly becoming a mere collaborative source needs to be analyzed in its own right. This article focuses on the divorcing of art history from history writing with an insight into the benefits of using art for writing better histories.