Art and the Roman Viewer. The Transformation of Art from the Pagan World to Christianity. - ELSNER, J.,

the transformation of art from the Pagan world to Christianity

KORTE INHOUD

'Like many art historians before him, Elsner sets out in this book to explain the well-known stylistic transformationof art in the Roman Empire from an essentially naturalistic and illusionistic style in the first century to an increasingly abstract and symbolic style in Late Antiquity and the Early Christian period. Because ?meaning depends as much on what the viewer brings to interpretation as it does on the actual object he or she interprets?, the most useful key to explaining this change, he proposes, is not formal analysis of stylistic changes but rather an understanding of how ancient viewers were predisposed to look at art. About half of the book is therefore devoted to an exploration of ancient texts in order to discover ?the different conceptual frameworks which interpret what is seen to make it meaningful??, and the remainder is devoted to illustrating how these modes of viewing can help us to understand both the form and content of a select group of major monuments. In essence E. Discovers two fun...
1995Taal: Engelszie alle details...

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1995Uitgever: Cambridge University Press375 paginasTaal: EngelsISBN-10: 0521453542ISBN-13: 9780521453547

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