Visual codes in art from the
historical point of view.
Assist. Prof. Mehmet Kahyaoğlu
Yaşar University
The Venus of Willendorf
28,000-25,000 BC
Limestone, painted in red 11.1 cm
Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna
Perforated relief of King Ur-Nanshe
Ur, 3rd Dynasty (2600-2330 BC)
Limestone, 39 x 46 cm
Louvre Museum, Paris
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
2,254-2,218 BC
Limestone
h. 2 mt.
Louvre Museum, Paris
Law Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon
(detail)
ca. 1,780 BC
Bazalt
h. 2.25 mt.
Louvre Museum, Paris
Panofsky vs. Mannheim
Sociology of culture that Mannheim was to develop during the same
period as Panofsky codified the methodology of iconography and
iconology.
Both Panofsky and Mannheim start from, but seek to go beyond, Riegl’s
concept of Kunstwollen in developing a theoretically coherent account of
the relationship between cultural objects and their larger contexts.
The incipient sociological elements in Mannheim’s ‘Interpretation of
Weltanschaung’ afforded Panofsky a more practical interpretative
schema than that developed in his earlier account of the concept of
Kunstwollen, but the social elements theoretically essential to
Mannheim’s conceptualization remain a residual category in Panofsky’s
interpretive framework.
Mannheim was able to characterize ‘worldview’ in more systematically
historical and sociological terms, largely by building on precisely the
psychological and collective dimensions of the concept of Kunstwollen
that Panofsky had rejected.
In his essay on ‘The concept of artistic volition’, Panofsky sought to
establish an ‘Archimedean point’ for the interpretation of individual
works of art in intrinsic terms, rather than by reference to such extrinsic
phenomena as developmental stylistic or typological series.
Images are made to communicate.
Leonardo da Vinci. Last Supper.
1495–1498.
Tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic. 460 cm × 880 cm.
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.
What does an Aborigine think of that painting?
Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights.
1480-1490 or 1503-1504. Oil-on-wood triptych.
220 cm × 389 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
Robert Capa (1913-1954). Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano,
September 5, 1936
Timothy O'Sullivan, Harvest of Death (4th July, 1863)
Margeret Bourke-White (1904-1971), Gandi. 1946
Bryan Organ
Diana, Princess of Wales
1981
Acrylic on canvas
177.8 x 127 cm.
National Portrait Gallery, London
Sir Joshua Reynolds.
George Augustus Eliott, Lord
Heathfield. 1787.
Oil on canvas. 142 x 113.5 cm.
National Gallery, London, UK.
Hyacinthe Rigaud. Louis XIV. 1701
Oil on canvas.
Musée du Louvre, Paris
J-S. Duplessis. Louis XVI. c. 1770
Oil on canvas.
Musée Carbavalet, Paris
Fyodor Shurpin.
The Morning of Our Native Land. 1948.
Oil on canvas. State Gallery of Tretyakov, Moscow.
Art gives clues …
Hunting scene from the tomb of Nebamun. c. 1350
British Museum, London
But it may not be real as it may seen…
Robert Capa (1913-1954). Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano,
September 5, 1936
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Eugène Delacroix
Paganini
Paganini
1819, Karakalem
1831, Karton üzerine yağlıboya
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Turkish Bath
1862, Tuval üzerine yağlıboya, Museé du Louvre,
Paris
OBJECT OF INTERPRETATION
ACT OF INTERPRETATION
EQUIPMENT FOR
INTERPRETATION
http://w3.gril.univ-tlse2.fr/Proimago/LogiCoursimage/panofsky.htm
CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF
INTERPRETATION
(Hist. of Tradition)
OBJECT OF INTERPRETATION
I Primary or natural
subject matter
(A) factual,
(B) expressional constituting the
world of artistic
motifs
ACT OF INTERPRETATION
Pre-iconographical
description
EQUIPMENT FOR
INTERPRETATION
CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF
INTERPRETATION
(Hist. of Tradition)
History of style (insight
into the manner in
Practical experience
which, under varying
(familiarity with objects historical conditions,
and events).
objects and events
were expressed by
forms).
OBJECT OF INTERPRETATION
ACT OF INTERPRETATION
I Primary or natural subject
matter –
(A) factual,
Pre-iconographical
(B) expressional description
constituting the world of
artistic motifs
II Secondary or conventional
subject matter, constituting
Iconographical analysis
the world of images, stories
and allegories.
CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF
EQUIPMENT FOR INTERPRETATION INTERPRETATION
(Hist. of Tradition)
History of style (insight into
Practical experience
the manner in which, under
(familiarity with objects and varying historical conditions,
events).
objects and events were
expressed by forms).
Knowledge of literary
sources (familiarity with
specific themes and
concepts).
History of types (insight into
the manner in which, under
varying historical conditions
specific themes or concepts
were expressed by objects
and events).
OBJECT OF
INTERPRETATION
EQUIPMENT FOR
ACT OF INTERPRETATION
INTERPRETATION
I Primary or natural subject
matter –
(A) factual,
Pre-iconographical
(B) expressional description
constituting the world of
artistic motifs
CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE
OF INTERPRETATION
(Hist. of Tradition)
History of style (insight into
Practical experience
the manner in which, under
(familiarity with objects and varying historical conditions,
events).
objects and events were
expressed by forms).
History of types (insight into
the manner in which, under
varying historical conditions
specific themes or concepts
were expressed by objects
and events).
II Secondary or conventional
subject matter, constituting
Iconographical analysis
the world of images, stories
and allegories.
Knowledge of literary
sources (familiarity with
specific themes and
concepts).
III Intrinsic meaning or
content, constituting the
Iconological interpretation
world of "symbolical" values.
History of cultural symptoms
or "symbols" in general
Synthetic intuition (familiarity
(insight into the manner in
with the essential tendencies
which, under varying
of the human mind),
historical conditions,
conditioned by personal
essential tendencies of the
psychology and
human mind were
"Weltanschauung"
expressed by specific
themes
Caravaggio,
The Crucifixion of St. Peter,
1601
Oil on canvas
Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome