The Language of Art: Studies in Interpretation

by Moshe Barasch

Overview

Moshe Barasch, an authority on art theory, tackles the complex question of how art works as language. Barasch shows how, once an art work is seen and understood, a new, communicative function is effectively added to the work. In an engaging style Barasch moves from the art and civilization of Ancient Egypt to that of modern Europe, and effortlessly shows a full and surprising range of language in art—from the magical to the impious, from the ambiguous to the didactic, from the scientific to the propagandistic. Barasch contemplates a variety of mediums including sculpture, painting, mural, statuary, woodcuts, bas-relief, even music. Over one hundred illustrations are included as an integral part of the discussion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814712559
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1997
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Moshe Barasch is Jack Cotton Professor of Architecture and Fine Arts at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is author of numerous books including Icon, Theories of Art and Modern Theories of Art I and II, all published by NYU Press. A winner of the Israel Prize in 1996, he was recently elected corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Introduction: The Language of Art	3
	Language of Art: Some Historical Notes	10
	Idioms
1	Visual Idioms	27
2	The Image of the Ruler in Gnostic Imagination	40
	Ambiguities
3	Visual Syncretism: A Case Study	55
4	Disguised Symbolism	73
	Models
5	Job: The History of an Exemplum Doloris	93
6	The Dreamland in Renaissance Imagination	112
	Modes of Representation
7	The Dream in the Art and Lore of Late Antiquity	131
8	De Risu: Laughter in Renaissance Psychology, Literature, and Art	172
	The Spectator
9	The Demonization of Classical Art	209
10	Symbols of Authority: Roman Imperial Images in the Middle Ages	227
	Rhetorics of Art
11	Time in the Visual Arts	245
12	The Veil: Representations of the Secret in the Visual Arts	266
13	How the Hidden Becomes Visible	288
14	The Spectator and the Eloquence of Renaissance Painting	302
	Notes	319
	Index	359

Editorial Reviews

Barasch (architecture and fine arts, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem) argues that the communicative function of the work of art can be thought of as a language that places it beyond the domain of aesthetics alone. Not only is there an iconographic element (visual imagery that has sign-character) to art as a language, but more importantly there are motifs and configurations that represent states of minds and intensities of experience. The author contends that there are established traditions that image these emotional intensities and supports this contention with examples from sculpture, paintings, murals, woodcuts, bas-relief and music. Small (mostly) b&w reproductions of art works<-->104 of them<-- >help elucidate the text. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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