1 / 57

Nation and Memory in Eastern Europe

Nation and Memory in Eastern Europe. Lecture 11 History Painting Week 12, Spring Term. Outline 1. Images as historical sources 2. What is history painting? 3. Legitimising power 4. Mobilising the nation 5. Subversive paintings 6. Conclusion.

ashanti
Download Presentation

Nation and Memory in Eastern Europe

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Nation and Memory in Eastern Europe Lecture 11 History Painting Week 12, Spring Term

  2. Outline 1. Images as historical sources 2. What is history painting? 3. Legitimising power 4. Mobilising the nation 5. Subversive paintings 6. Conclusion

  3. Images are part of the culture and cannot be understood without a knowledge of this culture

  4. Panofsky’s theory of iconographyStages of iconographical research 1. Pre-iconographical descriptionthe primary (natural) subject-matter – what is it? – world of objects, events – knowledge of history of style 2. Iconographicalanalysisthe secondary (conventional) subject-matter – what is it specifically? – world of images, stories, allegories – knowledge of history of types 3. Iconologicalinterpretation – the intrinsic meaning or content – what does it mean? – world of symbolic values – knowledge of history and symbols

  5. Critics • Panofsky doesn’t distinguish between the intended and unintended symbolic meanings of an artwork • Too much emphasis on intuition: to explain the unintended meaning we must have deep knowledge of cultural history • Neglect of paintings which do not reflect presupposed view of spirit of epoch Tendency towards over-interpretation • Disregard of social history of art • Neglect of reception and Wirkungsgeschichte (history of effects)

  6. Political Iconography asks about the Wirkungsgeschichte (history of effects) of art as carrier of political messages

  7. What can you get from analysing images? • Information about material culture • Essence of an epoch • Interpretation of specific events • Gestures and facial expressions • History of emotions • And many other things

  8. What should you know? • Who? – Who created the image? • For whom? – Who ordered or bought the painting? Who was expected to look at this image? • When? When was the image created? • What? – Topic of painting, symbols, • Why? – Aim of the painter and client • How does the image compare with other evidence available? Could it be a fake or intended to deceive the viewer? • How was it perceived? Reception and Wirkungsgeschichte (history of effects)

  9. Literature Peter Burke, Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence (London, 2001) Roelof van Straten, Iconography, indexing, ICONCLASS: A handbook (Leiden, 1994)

  10. Outline 1. Images as historical sources 2. What is history painting? 3. Legitimising power 4. Mobilising the nation 5. Hidden meaning 6. Conclusion

  11. History painting The painting of scenes from the past Very often the painting of scenes from classical and Christian history and mythology, but also contemporary scenes The painter as historian

  12. Was the painter an eyewitness? If not: Where did he get his information from? • eyewitnesses • literary sources • earlier paintings or illustrations? What are the conventions? • Did the painter include conventional motives from other paintings? Did he use tropes? • How far does the painting reflect the individual scene, how far is it a topical scene?

  13. Outline 1. Images as historical sources 2. What is History painting? 3. Legitimizing power 4. Mobilization for the nation 5. Subversive painting 6. Conclusion

  14. Louis Caravaque, Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava (1709), 1718

  15. Johann Gottfried Tannauer. Peter the Great During the Battle of Poltava. 1710s.

  16. Nikolai S. Shustov, Ivan III tearing the Khans letter, 1862

  17. Icon of Alexander Nevsky (Saint and Prince), 1879

  18. Prince Alexander Nevsky, painting by Pavel Knorin, 1942

  19. Outline 1. Images as historical sources 2. What is History painting? 3. Legitimizing power 4. Mobilization for the nation 5. Subversive painting 6. Conclusion

  20. Franz A. Rubo (1856-1928) The Battle of Borodino. Panorama 115 x 15 m The Battle at 12:30 on the 7th of September 1812

  21. Jan Matejko The Battle of Grunwald 1410 1878

  22. Jan Matejko (1838-1893), Self-portrait

  23. Jan Matejko, The jester Stanczyk during a Ball at the Court of Queen Bona after the Loss of Smolensk (1512), 1862

  24. The Battle of Grunwald 1410, (Jan Matejko, 1878)

  25. Grand prince Vytautas (Witold), representing Lithuania

  26. Zyndram of Maszkowice, representing the nobility (szlachta)

  27. The Grand Master (Hochmeister) of the Teutonic Order Ulrich von Jungingen, representing the „German“ enemy Two soldiers, representing the people

  28. Saint Stanislav, representing the Church

  29. Exhibition of the Grunwald painting in Warsaw

  30. Jan Matejko The Battle of Raclawice 1794

  31. Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak Panorama of the Battle of Raclawice

  32. Mobilizing for the nation and foreign propaganda

  33. Jan Matejko, Sobieski at Vienna (1683), 1883

  34. Jan Matejko, Rejtan – The Fall of Poland (1773), 1866

  35. Cossacks

  36. Jan Matejko, Khmelnytsky and Tuhaj Bej at Lwow (L‘viv) (1650), 1885

More Related