L1: introduction
Reading visual culture
Visual texts
- We are surrounded by images
o News
o Politics
o Entertainment
o Education
o …
- But we have been trained to interpret and analyse written texts
- And the ‘muchness’ of the visual often leads us to ‘view’ rather than ‘read’
- This course is about how we can conceive of and approach images as ‘visual texts’
o Classic theories of visual analysis to understand different approaches
o Back-and-forth between theory and method
Visual literacy
- Reading visual texts requires ‘visual literacy’
o Visual literacy is more than the ability to read alone
o Visual literacy presumes insight in ‘styles of reading’ too
- Evaluative approach to theory
o We look at the dis/advantages of approaching visual culture from specific
perspectives
o Combining the theory of method with the practice of looking
- Visual literacy’s ‘double use’
o Crucial social scientific competence
o Crucial civil competence
After visual culture
- From ‘viewers’ to ‘analysts’
o Refining and applying visual literacy
o Challenging our ‘way of seeing’
- Being critical individuals in a world increasingly dominated by images means being mindful of
o The power of visual representation
o Our socio-cultural reliance on the visual
1
,L2: iconology: what is in an image?
Images & subject matter
The Haywain (Constable, 1821)
- Landscape
o Rural area
o Nature
o Weather
o …
- Characters
o Cart driver
o Washwomen
o Animals
o …
- No (art) historical knowledge needed, just common sense
o No education of Constable, romanticism, landscape painting,…
- Simply from the evidence presented by the text itself
o Natural cues (e.g. weather, nature,…)
o Factual cues (e.g. characters, time,…)
Cues inside visual texts
- Primitive but useful method
o Giving structure to primary interpretation of images
o Disciplined ‘dissection’ of unfamiliar images
7 ‘stops’ to make an informed conclusion (ideal for use on ‘what you see is what you get’)
1. Genre (type, kind of image)
o E.g. still life, portrait, nude, landscape, genre piece (scene from everyday life)
2. Subject matter (content, theme)
o Describes what you see, what goes on in the picture?
o E.g. politics, nude woman, sea, skull, cup, stationary, woman, umbrella, seaside, hills,
sea, forest
3. Setting (location, environment)
o E.g. writing table, Belgian coast, seaside, Mediterranean
4. Era (timeframe, period)
o E.g. today, 16th-17th century, late medieval, early 20th century
5. Season (time of year, occasion)
o E.g. summer, winter, fall, spring, whenever
6. Time (moment in the day, hour)
o E.g. whenever, evening, noon, morning
o Notice shadows: short = midday
7. Moment (instance, event)
o E.g. reflection, fallen asleep, boredom, sunbathing, sowing
Began broad, gradually increased focus towards the particular and specific
2
,‘7 stops’
- Easy to apply, but many problems arise
o Use of common sense: using external knowledge to make sense of the image (e.g.
agricultural, religious)
o Codes, conventions & canon: interpretation is being guided by cultural and historical
frames (e.g. assumption that Jesus is tall and bearded but he is never described in
the Bible, the dove for peace, owl for wisdom,…)
- ‘meaning’ of image conjures something external to it
- We can never trust images to tell their story and we can never reduce images to their
content, images can’t speak for itself
Erwin Panosfky & iconology
Disguised symbolism
- Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (Van Eyck, 1434)
o Panofsky’s interpretation: depicted objects have deeper
meaning and a double existence (2 kinds of existence)
Realistic existence: literal objects represented
Symbolic existence: objects carry deeper, conventional meaning
o Full meaning of an image transcends the factuality of the ‘7 stops’
Conventional meaning of signs (e.g. dogs, loyalty)
Cultural significance of objects (e.g. colours & status; green = pure)
- To fully understand Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, it requires
o Basic knowledge of Medieval painting
o Basic knowledge of Christian theology
o Basic knowledge of Medieval social conventions
o E.g. Christian symbols
- ‘7 stops’ fails to fully account for the meaning of images because
o They are produced with a (knowledgeable) audience in mind
o They (un)consciously reflect social and cultural logics of the context they emerge
from
Erwin Panofsky
- = celebrated art-historian
- Hamburg & Princeton University
- Specialist in late-Medieval & Renaissance painting
- Seminal work: Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (1939)
- Key arguments iconology
o = concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art
o Renaissance art is marked by a belief in human potential and dignity
o Naturalism & perspective emulate individuality and human experience
o Hybridization: blending Christian and mythological themes to reconcile classical
wisdom and Catholicism
o Renaissance art shifts focus to content and subject matter, not just form
o Development of perspective: art no longer represents the world as flat, but imitates
human perception of space and reality
- E.g. medieval art focuses on religious and divine things, not individuals
3
, - Three-tiered method to examine meaning in images
o Primary/natural level: factual (what is shown?), expressional (what does it
communicate?),…
Only the very basic subject-matter of a painting, we do not ned any inside
cultural, conventional or art historical knowledge
Scene depicted, what does it express
o Secondary/conventional level: conventional, social,…
Broader societal context
We have to know what the action means in order to understand what is
being communicated, it does not speak for itself
o Tertiary/intrinsic level: cultural, historical,…
Broader cultural and historical context
Unconscious process (unlike level 1 & 2)
E.g. St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha (Masolino da Panicale, ca 1423)
- Primary level: illusion of depth, tangibility = new in that
time
o E.g. use of graphical, perspective in painting
- Secondary level: changing role of art in renaissance
o E.g. visual art perceived as a domain of
scientific experiment
Civil society focus, not religious = visual art
perceived as scientific experiment, shifting
conventions of art
- Tertiary level: from medieval centered to new society centered, shift away from religious
o E.g. art expresses a broad shift towards premodern notions of society, emphasizing
individual capacity to improve and grow society
E.g. St. Jerome and the Lion (Van der Weyden, ca. 1450-1465)
- Primary level
o Use of practical experience of daily life
What is shown? Man, hat, cave, lion
What does this communicate? Man helping
a lion with a thorn in its paw
Requires interpretation because it’s
uncommon
- Secondary level
o Use of existing literary, artistic & cultural knowledge to interpret image
Whom is shown? St. Jerome
What is meant? Piety, conviction & erudition (developing knowledge,
reading, devoting life to god)
What is meant > what is shown
- Tertiary level
o Use of iconological analysis to place image in broader socio-cultural context
Complex interplay between high Gothic & Renaissance sentiments
Reflects both Christian allegories and the rationalization of (Flemish) society
4
Reading visual culture
Visual texts
- We are surrounded by images
o News
o Politics
o Entertainment
o Education
o …
- But we have been trained to interpret and analyse written texts
- And the ‘muchness’ of the visual often leads us to ‘view’ rather than ‘read’
- This course is about how we can conceive of and approach images as ‘visual texts’
o Classic theories of visual analysis to understand different approaches
o Back-and-forth between theory and method
Visual literacy
- Reading visual texts requires ‘visual literacy’
o Visual literacy is more than the ability to read alone
o Visual literacy presumes insight in ‘styles of reading’ too
- Evaluative approach to theory
o We look at the dis/advantages of approaching visual culture from specific
perspectives
o Combining the theory of method with the practice of looking
- Visual literacy’s ‘double use’
o Crucial social scientific competence
o Crucial civil competence
After visual culture
- From ‘viewers’ to ‘analysts’
o Refining and applying visual literacy
o Challenging our ‘way of seeing’
- Being critical individuals in a world increasingly dominated by images means being mindful of
o The power of visual representation
o Our socio-cultural reliance on the visual
1
,L2: iconology: what is in an image?
Images & subject matter
The Haywain (Constable, 1821)
- Landscape
o Rural area
o Nature
o Weather
o …
- Characters
o Cart driver
o Washwomen
o Animals
o …
- No (art) historical knowledge needed, just common sense
o No education of Constable, romanticism, landscape painting,…
- Simply from the evidence presented by the text itself
o Natural cues (e.g. weather, nature,…)
o Factual cues (e.g. characters, time,…)
Cues inside visual texts
- Primitive but useful method
o Giving structure to primary interpretation of images
o Disciplined ‘dissection’ of unfamiliar images
7 ‘stops’ to make an informed conclusion (ideal for use on ‘what you see is what you get’)
1. Genre (type, kind of image)
o E.g. still life, portrait, nude, landscape, genre piece (scene from everyday life)
2. Subject matter (content, theme)
o Describes what you see, what goes on in the picture?
o E.g. politics, nude woman, sea, skull, cup, stationary, woman, umbrella, seaside, hills,
sea, forest
3. Setting (location, environment)
o E.g. writing table, Belgian coast, seaside, Mediterranean
4. Era (timeframe, period)
o E.g. today, 16th-17th century, late medieval, early 20th century
5. Season (time of year, occasion)
o E.g. summer, winter, fall, spring, whenever
6. Time (moment in the day, hour)
o E.g. whenever, evening, noon, morning
o Notice shadows: short = midday
7. Moment (instance, event)
o E.g. reflection, fallen asleep, boredom, sunbathing, sowing
Began broad, gradually increased focus towards the particular and specific
2
,‘7 stops’
- Easy to apply, but many problems arise
o Use of common sense: using external knowledge to make sense of the image (e.g.
agricultural, religious)
o Codes, conventions & canon: interpretation is being guided by cultural and historical
frames (e.g. assumption that Jesus is tall and bearded but he is never described in
the Bible, the dove for peace, owl for wisdom,…)
- ‘meaning’ of image conjures something external to it
- We can never trust images to tell their story and we can never reduce images to their
content, images can’t speak for itself
Erwin Panosfky & iconology
Disguised symbolism
- Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (Van Eyck, 1434)
o Panofsky’s interpretation: depicted objects have deeper
meaning and a double existence (2 kinds of existence)
Realistic existence: literal objects represented
Symbolic existence: objects carry deeper, conventional meaning
o Full meaning of an image transcends the factuality of the ‘7 stops’
Conventional meaning of signs (e.g. dogs, loyalty)
Cultural significance of objects (e.g. colours & status; green = pure)
- To fully understand Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, it requires
o Basic knowledge of Medieval painting
o Basic knowledge of Christian theology
o Basic knowledge of Medieval social conventions
o E.g. Christian symbols
- ‘7 stops’ fails to fully account for the meaning of images because
o They are produced with a (knowledgeable) audience in mind
o They (un)consciously reflect social and cultural logics of the context they emerge
from
Erwin Panofsky
- = celebrated art-historian
- Hamburg & Princeton University
- Specialist in late-Medieval & Renaissance painting
- Seminal work: Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (1939)
- Key arguments iconology
o = concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art
o Renaissance art is marked by a belief in human potential and dignity
o Naturalism & perspective emulate individuality and human experience
o Hybridization: blending Christian and mythological themes to reconcile classical
wisdom and Catholicism
o Renaissance art shifts focus to content and subject matter, not just form
o Development of perspective: art no longer represents the world as flat, but imitates
human perception of space and reality
- E.g. medieval art focuses on religious and divine things, not individuals
3
, - Three-tiered method to examine meaning in images
o Primary/natural level: factual (what is shown?), expressional (what does it
communicate?),…
Only the very basic subject-matter of a painting, we do not ned any inside
cultural, conventional or art historical knowledge
Scene depicted, what does it express
o Secondary/conventional level: conventional, social,…
Broader societal context
We have to know what the action means in order to understand what is
being communicated, it does not speak for itself
o Tertiary/intrinsic level: cultural, historical,…
Broader cultural and historical context
Unconscious process (unlike level 1 & 2)
E.g. St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha (Masolino da Panicale, ca 1423)
- Primary level: illusion of depth, tangibility = new in that
time
o E.g. use of graphical, perspective in painting
- Secondary level: changing role of art in renaissance
o E.g. visual art perceived as a domain of
scientific experiment
Civil society focus, not religious = visual art
perceived as scientific experiment, shifting
conventions of art
- Tertiary level: from medieval centered to new society centered, shift away from religious
o E.g. art expresses a broad shift towards premodern notions of society, emphasizing
individual capacity to improve and grow society
E.g. St. Jerome and the Lion (Van der Weyden, ca. 1450-1465)
- Primary level
o Use of practical experience of daily life
What is shown? Man, hat, cave, lion
What does this communicate? Man helping
a lion with a thorn in its paw
Requires interpretation because it’s
uncommon
- Secondary level
o Use of existing literary, artistic & cultural knowledge to interpret image
Whom is shown? St. Jerome
What is meant? Piety, conviction & erudition (developing knowledge,
reading, devoting life to god)
What is meant > what is shown
- Tertiary level
o Use of iconological analysis to place image in broader socio-cultural context
Complex interplay between high Gothic & Renaissance sentiments
Reflects both Christian allegories and the rationalization of (Flemish) society
4
