MA | Methods & Theories, important concepts and authors from lectures

Winckelmann

first art history, schools and periods

connoisseurschip

object-oriented

formalism

elements of a painting have their own autonomous meaning/expressiveness. Affect us independently from subject matter (see also Clement Greenberg)

zeit- and volksgeist

style of artwork is not decided by individual artist, but also by the time and place they live in. Hegel sees a progress in zeitgeist

Wölfflin

formal principles, every artwork has 3 components: individual style, regional/national/group style, zeit style

Rushkin

temperance (discipline, self-control), intemperance (lavish, decadent)

Gombrich

styles change because of competition, the most famous works of art are often the greatest

Panofsky

disguised symbolism, pre-iconographical description, iconographical analysis, iconological interpretation

Aby Warburg

visual culture

T.J Clark

linking art history to society and politics

global art

how does globalization shape how art is created, understood and circulated?

world art

more ethnic art, within own traditions

new criticism (W&B)

shifting the primary object of criticism away from the author and towards the work itself

internal evidence (W&B)

in the work, shared structures of language and culture

intermediate evidence (W&B)

author’s particular relationship to language and meaning

external evidence (W&B)

circumstances in which the author produced the work

structuralism

Barthes, shift attention away from the individual expression towards the systems that make meaning possible

synchronic

original context, specific point in time as a self-contained system

diachronic

unavoidable gap between the present observer and the object in the past

properties

inalienable

property

alienable

Barr-chart

formalistic approach, one development

Greenberg

medium-specificity, objectivity of taste, distance in time gives us the chance to only look aesthetically at a work, universal standard, beauty is inherently in the work and does not depend on context

frame

see also Owens, refers to the conditions in which the artwork is presented

alterity

being different, other, unique

Robert Jensen

measuring canons

aesthetic relativism

everyone has a subjective taste

revisionism

can be triggered by new perspectives or by pressure from various groups

material literacy

ability to understand, engage with, and clearly express the physical qualities, histories, and behaviours of tangible materials

conservation research and connoisseurship

scientific analysis

history of science and technology

intellectual history, sociology (tacit knowledge), anthropology

materiality studies

anthropology, economic history, affective history