Art History: Back to basics part two

Here is the second part of the test, called Approaches. I may have cried doing part of this because it made my brain hurt. I think it was ultimately rewarding though and once again I used the internet only in an emergency - rediscovering  indexes and glossaries.

Can you explain what the following terms mean: chiaroscuro, the gaze, iconography, the canon, ekphrasis, polyptych, hegemony, contrapposto, readymade, paradigm? (You should be aware that some of these terms are not narrowly art-historical but are also used in scholarship in the humanities more generally).

Chiaroscuro: Italian technical term meaning light/shade, used especially when they are strongly contrasting. Joseph Wright of Derby in his paintings of scientific experiments makes full use of the dramatic effects of light and dark. 

The Gaze: Refers to the viewer’s visual engagement with the art object. However sometimes the subject returns our gaze and challenges the viewer’s perceptions, for example in the works of Edouard Manet. He played with viewpoints and gazes, so that the viewer sometimes became part of the painting, ‘A Bar at the Folies—Bergère’.

Iconography: The study of meanings in images. Pioneered by Erwin Panofsky in the 1930s, for example he used the various symbolic objects –the dog, bed, oranges etc - in Van Eyck’s ‘Arnolfini Portrait’ to present an argument that it depicted an actual contract of marriage.

The Canon: The 5th century BC sculptor Polykleitos made a ‘canon’ or model statue and other artists used it as a standard setting outline. Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man could also be described as a ‘canon’ of human proportion. The term is now more likely to refers to a judgement of value or quality. Depending who is doing the judging and valuing, the Canon can vary.

Ekphrasis: Another Greek word; a type of rhetoric that presents vivid descriptions of works of art. These descriptions can be useful if the art no longer exists, or can offer information about places/buildings/art that can’t be found elsewhere.

Polyptych: A collection of smaller paintings which go to make up a bigger piece; like an altar piece. The National Gallery says, ‘an altarpiece which consists of a number of panels is called a polyptych, 'poly' meaning many in Greek’

Hegemony: Ideas associated with Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, meaning power or control, a predominance of one social class over another

Contrapposto: An Italian technical term meaning ‘positioned opposite’, usually to describe the twisting of the upper body away from the lower body for dramatic effect. A good example is Michelangelo’s David.

Readymade: In 1915 Marcel Duchamp coined the term readymade in relation to art to describe his creation of sculpture out of everyday manufactured objects.

Paradigm: A pattern or model; a set of practices that define a particular discipline.

In what ways would a formalist and a contextualizing account of a work of art differ from each other?

Formalism concerns itself with composition, line, texture, tone, shape, colour, perspective, medium rather than the subject matter. The leading proponent of formalism Roger Fry disparaged the importance of narrative art or the belief that it should have a moral or educative purpose.

A contextualising account would look at the ‘why how who when’ of the art work and the subject would be central to this understanding.

Who wrote ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ and what is the central claim put forward in this essay?

Walter Benjamin wrote this in 1936. It explored how photographic technology had fundamentally changed the status of the art object and its wider cultural meaning. If an original had a particular ‘aura’, how would a reproduction be affected? For Benjamin this offered possibilities for new types of art.

Can you name any art historian, whether working in the past or in the present, and give an account of his/her approach?

James Elkins is currently E.C. Chadbourne Chair in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. His writing focuses on the history and theory of images in art, science and nature.

He is interested in the way art history is taught but I find him fascinating because he writes about all types of visual analysis and all types of art (photography, film etc) – his merging of art history and visual studies is particularly thought provoking.

He also looks at non-western art traditions with the view that you cannot use European art history techniques to describe them. This is a controversial view and has led to debates with Ladislav Kesner, an expert in Chinese art.

On what grounds would you present a case for displaying an African mask in an art museum as opposed to an ethnographic museum and vice versa.

An African mask in an art gallery exhibition

1. To demonstrate, compare and contrast worldwide craft techniques
2. To demonstrate, compare and contrast items of worship, ritual, objects of power and control
3. To show how certain items have influenced art: ‘Use of masks in art’
4. Art objects of Africa…in collaboration with art galleries overseas. Cultural exchange…
5. Shown in association with scholarly cultural research, to demonstrate how it is/was used, to get people thinking about objects
6. To play with ideas and say something new in contemporary art…if an artist can use a mask in a different way and make people gasp, think, enjoy, puzzle then why not

An African mask in an ethnographical museum

1. To demonstrate, compare and contrast worldwide craft techniques
2. To demonstrate, compare and contrast items of worship, ritual, objects of power and control
3. To show how certain items have influenced art: ‘Use of masks in art’
4. Art objects of Africa…in collaboration with ethnography overseas. Cultural exchange…
5. Shown in association with scholarly cultural research, to demonstrate how it is/was used, to get people thinking about objects

I think the arguments for should be identical. Many objects in art galleries are out of context and belong in churches or homes. Whether it is a statue of a virgin Mary or an African mask, both should be treated appropriately and with respect not only as religious cultural artefacts but as examples of woodwork, metal work etc.

This question got me thinking about the British Museum and its role in education, preservation and display. Many items there are aesthetically pleasing but also serve a dual cultural purpose. An illuminated manuscript can serve so many functions and it is this interconnectedness that galleries are now exploring.

What is the difference between ‘feminist art history’ and ‘a history of women’s art’?

Feminist art history challenged the traditionally male dominated subject and set out to explore radical approaches to gender in art. Linda Nochlin’s 1971 essay ‘Why have there been no great women artists’ was the most influential pieces of writing regarding feminist theory.

History of women’s art takes into account the art and artists which have been neglected by commentators. The art because it is seen as craft and not fine art, and the artists because they were not seen as important or as influential.

With which of the following intellectual traditions is the term ‘commodity fetishism’ most closely associated: Psychoanalysis, Marxism, Structuralism?

Marxism. I started to explore this but I find it a very hard theory to grasp. The section of Capital that discusses commodity fetishism is here. “The value of a thing is just as much as it will bring.”

In what country is the modern discipline of art history generally considered to have been established? Can you name any representatives of this tradition of art history?

German Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68) was hugely influential in both his own time and remained so into the 20th century. He is generally regarded as the founder of modern art history because of his attempts to apply scientific methodology to the study of sculpture and architecture. 

Feel free to argue with me. Here is looking forward to the next art piece. Happy studying!