Art History and its Methods
A Critical Anthology
Published on 7. September 1995
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-7148-2991-3 (ISBN)
Description
Approaches to the history of art are probably more varied and more debated than in any other branch of history, and a study of different historical approaches has become an increasingly important component of many student courses. This critical anthology brings together the work of 27 influential art historians and writers from the Renaissance to the present day; key texts have been chosen in which the authors reflect on the nature of their subject and on their own methods of inquiry. Included are texts by Vasari, Winckelmann, Burckhardt, Wölfflin, Panofsky, Gombrich and Pollock, among others. The introduction is a lucid and readable summary of art-historical methods, and each of the texts is accompanied by a commentary that places it in context and discusses the issues it raises. A glossary of terms and a select bibliography make this book an invaluable resource in the study of art history.
Reviews / Votes
"A book destined to become a standard work"-The Art NewspaperMore details
Person
Eric Fernie was formerly Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London and Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh.
Content
Texts on methods with introductions; Critical glossary of concepts; Bibliography; Index. Giorgio Vasari - lives of the artists, 1958; Carel van Mander - Dutch and Flemish Painters, 1604; Giovanni Bellori - the idea of the painter, the sculptor and the architect chosen from the higher natural beauties of nature, 1672; Johann Winckelmann - history of ancient art, 1764; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Von deutscher Baukunst, 1772; Jakob Burckhardt - reflections on history, 1872; Giovanni Morelli - Italian painters, 1880; Alois Tiegi: late Roman art industry, 1901; Heinrich Wolfflin - principles of art history, 1915; Paul Franki - principles of architectural history, 1914; Roger Fry - reflections, 1920; Henri Focillon - the world of forms, 1934; Alfred H. Baff - chart of modern art, 1936; Erwin Panofshky - the history of art as a humanistic discipline, 1940; Nikolaus Pevsner - an outline of European architecture, 1943; Arnold Hauser - the scope a limitations of sociology of art, 1959; Susan Sontag - against interpretation, 1964; E.H. Gombrich - in search of cultural history, 1967; William Fagg - studying primitive art, 1973; T.J. Clark - the conditions of artistic creation, 1974; John Onians - art history, Kinstegschichte and historia, 1978; Michael Baldwin, Charles Harrison and Mel Ramsden - art history, art criticism and explanation, 1981; Svetlana Alpers - interpretation without representation, or the viewing of Las Meninas, 1983; Hans Belting - the end of the history of art?, 1984; Griselda Pollock - Feminist interventions in the history of Art, 1988.