Art History Research Articles

Future (Re)view : Re-ing and (Re)reading “Future (Re)vision: A Few Reflections on Recollection, Reception and Response in Practice-Based Art Research or: Hindsight isn’t always 20/20”

This paper presents re-ing as a critical and creative method for experience-based learning. In this reflective dialogue between an art researcher and an art historian, re-ing is considered vis-à-vis the conference themes of Art of Research VIII (2023): re-placing, re-interpreting and re-visioning. The holistic significance of research in art and design is also explored from the perspective of practice, and the journey from Ph. student to PhD supervisor. The exchange draws on work by the artist featured in The Art of Research II (2012), a legacy publication in The Art of Research series.  

Finding Yourself in the Narrative

The Emic staff interviewed with Dr. Dori Griffin, Associate Professor in the School of Art + Art History at the University of Florida.

Understanding Breast Cancer Images in Art History as a Form of Health Communication

Can art and visual images meant for public consumption (museums, galleries, social media platforms) serve as a critical form of health communication for breast cancer patients? For their clinicians? For the population at large? Art history research methods are applied to a range of breast cancer images in western art in order to understand what the images communicate to us about patient experience, agency, and inequity in health care at the time of their construction. The following is a selective look at western art as it reflects and informs our understanding of breast cancer over time.

Aesthetics and symbolic meaning of ancient Chinese snowy landscapes from the IV to the XX century.

The article examines the aesthetic and symbolic aspects of ancient Chinese snowy landscapes, covering the period from the IV to the XX century. The focus of the research is Guohua painting, representing classic snowy landscapes, compositions with birds and flowers, as well as snow portraits. An in-depth analysis of the symbolism and meaning of elements such as "four seasons", "snow", "snowy mountains", "three friends of cold time" and "cold beasts" was carried out, as well as the narrative characteristics of snowy landscapes were studied. It was revealed that snow scenes reflect the vitality and stability of a person, causing reflections on life difficulties. The work highlights how snowy landscapes have become a means of expressing emotions, reflecting sadness, but also demonstrating strength, well-being, morality and the sublimity of cultural values.  The study uses the methodology of symbolism and iconology analysis to study the aesthetics of ancient Chinese snowy landscapes. A comparative approach is applied to various eras and techniques, including ink painting and engraving, to assess the cultural and emotional meanings of snow in Chinese art. The research touches on a rarely covered topic in the history of art — the aesthetic and symbolic depth of ancient Chinese snowy landscapes, from the IV to the XX century. Introducing into scientific discourse a deep analysis of changes in the perception and image of snow, the work presents a comprehensive study using iconology and semiotics to uncover hidden meanings in Chinese Guohua painting. She reveals how artists have reflected the emotional and philosophical aspects of life through snowy landscapes, demonstrating their influence on cultural representations of nature, man and society. The innovation of the study lies in the fact that it connects the aesthetic elements of snow with cultural and historical changes in China, showing their importance for understanding Chinese identity and aesthetic perception. This study not only enriches the academic understanding of Chinese painting, but also highlights the layering of symbols and metaphors in traditional art, reflecting a unique combination of natural phenomena and cultural meanings.

From Gaze to Rebel: A Study of Female Figures in Art History

This paper discusses the evolution of women's portrayal in art, from objectified figures in early history to empowered subjects in modern times. Initially, women were depicted through the male gaze, embodying idealized beauty or fulfilling societal roles. During the Renaissance, this trend continued with artists like Raffaello Santi, who focused on physical beauty but often overlooked real-life women's experiences. The paper then highlights a shift to representing everyday women, as seen in works like Jean Franois Millet's "The Gleaners," yet these portrayals still echoed traditional gender norms. The narrative progresses with the emergence of female artists challenging these conventional depictions. Figures like Kathe Kollwitz and Sylvia Sleigh reversed the male gaze, empowering women as active subjects in art. The paper concludes by emphasizing the transformation in art from objectifying women to portraying them as autonomous and influential, mirroring societal shifts in gender roles and perceptions.

Toward a theory of perspective perception in pictures.

This paper reviews projection models and their perception in realistic pictures, and proposes hypotheses for three-dimensional (3D) shape and space perception in pictures. In these hypotheses, eye fixations, and foveal vision play a central role. Many past theories and experimental studies focus solely on linear perspective. Yet, these theories fail to explain many important perceptual phenomena, including the effectiveness of nonlinear projections. Indeed, few classical paintings strictly obey linear perspective, nor do the best distortion-avoidance techniques for wide-angle computational photography. The hypotheses here employ a two-stage model for 3D human vision. When viewing a picture, the first stage perceives 3D shape for the current gaze. Each fixation has its own perspective projection, but, owing to the nature of foveal and peripheral vision, shape information is obtained primarily for a small region of the picture around the fixation. As a viewer moves their eyes, the second stage continually integrates some of the per-gaze information into an overall interpretation of a picture. The interpretation need not be geometrically stable or consistent over time. It is argued that this framework could explain many disparate pictorial phenomena, including different projection styles throughout art history and computational photography, while being consistent with the constraints of human 3D vision. The paper reviews open questions and suggests new studies to explore these hypotheses.

A new canvas of learning: Enhancing formal analysis skills in AP art history through AI-generated Islamic art

This study explores the use of AI art generators to enhance formal analysis skills in AP Art History students, with a focus on Islamic Art and Architecture. Students, often entering the course with high academic achievements, find the unique challenge of articulating detailed visual descriptions of artworks. The study’s approach involves using AI image-generation websites, like wepik.com, where students create AI images resembling Islamic artworks studied in class. This method aims to refine their descriptive skills, focusing on visual evidence rather than relying on identifying details. The choice of Islamic Art, markedly different from other historical periods covered in the curriculum, is intended to boost retention and learning engagement. The results show that students were more successful in describing architectural artworks compared to two-dimensional narrative pieces, with limited site access and the need for iterative description refinement being key challenges. Successful attempts were marked by precise vocabulary usage and detailed descriptions, resulting in AI images closely matching the original artworks. In contrast, less successful attempts revealed deficiencies in comprehensive and detailed descriptions, particularly in narrative artworks. These outcomes highlight the potential and limitations of AI tools in art history education, suggesting that their effectiveness depends largely on the depth and precision of student inputs. The study not only demonstrates the innovative application of AI in education but also underscores the importance of detailed visual analysis, pointing towards future enhancements in AI-assisted educational methodologies.

The Night Banquet of Han Xizai in the Perspective of Socio-Historical Criticism

The purpose of this article is to explore in depth the historical background, iconographic content, and its historical value and significance of Han Xizai's Night Banquet through the perspective of socio-historical criticism. The article firstly analyzes the socio-historical situation of the Five Dynasties period, especially the political and cultural background of the Southern Tang Dynasty, as well as the association between Han Xizai and the Southern Tang Dynasty royal family. Secondly, it provides a detailed pictorial interpretation of Han Xizai's Night Banquet in terms of its picture content and scene arrangement, character image and costume props, artistic style and presentation method. Finally, the historical value and significance of the painting are discussed. Han Xizai's Night Banquet not only reflects the social and political background of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, but also reveals the relationship between Han Xizai and the royal family of the Southern Tang Dynasty. With its fine brushwork style and unique narrative technique, the painting shows the prosperity of the court culture and the luxury of aristocratic life in the Southern Tang Dynasty. At the same time, the painting also has important value in art history, painting technique, cultural relics and collection history. As a precious historical document, The Night Banquet of Han Xizai not only helps to enrich our understanding of ancient history, but also enhances our appreciation of ancient art, and has certain reference value for historical and artistic research.

Through the Eyes of the Beholder: Motifs (Re)Interpreted in the 27th Dynasty

This paper aims to highlight examples of artistic motifs common throughout Egyptian history but augmented in novel ways during the 27th Dynasty, a time when Egypt was part of the Achaemenid empire and ruled by Persian kings. These kings represented themselves as traditional pharaohs within Egypt’s borders and utilized longstanding Egyptian artistic motifs in their monumental constructions. These motifs, however, were manipulated in subtle ways to send targeted messages to audience(s) of this art. Art historians tend to situate visual styles and motifs within the longue durée of artistic tradition and pick a singular, official, and centralized perspective to narrate the history and reception of that art. In the case of Egypt, this perspective is often that of the king, and there is an assumption that there was a monolithic message sent to his people. But we are not dealing with a homogenous people; a diverse population would have had varied reactions to and interpretations of this visual signaling. By highlighting both the augmentation of traditional motifs undertaken by the Achaemenid administration and the multiplicity of perspectives they held for their audience(s), we can better understand ancient art as being dynamic in function and interpretation, rather than as a static snapshot of carbon-copied royal authority.

The future of Canadian art history and visual culture at York University

The future of Canadian art history and visual culture at York University

Violencia de Obregón desde los lentes revisionistas de los estudios del género

Violencia (1962) by Alejandro Obregón is a milestone in the history of art in Colombia. It is regarded as an artwork that found a way to symbolize the violence suffered throughout Colombia’s territory and history through modernist tropes. The fusion of body-woman with territory-mountain has been analyzed as a formal strategy to solve the need for a non-literal image of war, but this iconic work has not yet been problematized from the perspective of gender studies. Body politics, studies on the male gaze, and ecofeminism provide the theoretical apparatus that will allow me to argue that Obregón’s painting poses a simultaneous process of territorialization of the body and feminization of the territory, where both body-woman and territory-nature are represented with analogous passive traits.

Study of the Impressions of the Guanfo Statues in the Longmen Grottoes and Social and Cultural Changes

The Dharma seal expressed in the Buddha statues is according to certain rules. The image of the provider represented is not only the image of the Buddhists who make and worship Buddha statues, but also an image for them to establish their own existence as a subject of the emperor, a member of the state. The image of the provider represented is not only the image of the Buddhists who make and worship Buddha statues, but also an image for them to establish their own existence as a subject of the emperor, a member of the state and society. The role of Dharma seal originated from the Shakya sect in ancient India, and in the early Mahayana Buddhist portraits and statues, There are usually only five impressions. This paper expounds the main types of Buddhist statues (taking the statues in the Longmen Grottoes Museum as an example) and summarizes their main functions. This paper expounds the main types of Buddhist statues (taking the statues in the Longmen Grottoes Museum as an example) and summarizes their main functions. By taking part in the field investigation, the author finds out the similarities and differences between the same By taking part in the field investigation, the author finds out the similarities and differences between the same type of prints by using the method of comparative historical argumentation, summarizes the social and cultural changes in the history of art, and puts summarizes the social and cultural changes in the history of art, and puts forward a new viewpoint.

The Other Side of Language, Literature, and Living: A Call to Hedge the Dying Art

A written document is no longer treated as a piece of literature; rather, readers' needs have surpassed the limits of traditional expectations, beyond the purview of common scrutiny. A piece of writing has become a stale reminder of the time spent; the recurrent images of everyday life and living, the bread and butter of the populace, their anguish and pain, the contours of traditional moorings, nuances and nemesis, rituals and rebuttals clubbed together have become the choice of the present time. The big question, therefore, is to bring in necessary modifications to our notions and approaches towards literature, without which it amounts to infidelity with the readership. The present paper aims to highlight how different elements of behavioural knowledge are intelligibly incorporated in the verses of Ghodanacha and how they influenced the life and living of Kaibartas/Keuts for ages as scriptures of inspiration, encouragement, and discipline. This will connect the art's history, evolution, and current state as it stands at the gateway to its own graveyard.

Bamboo, Landscape, Monumentality: Guan Daoscheng's View by the Bamboo and Streams Scroll

In this paper, I aim to reappraise the status of Guan Daoshen, one of the most well-known women artists across Chinese art history. Previous scholarship on her and her works has not only been scarce but also limited to her identity as a woman. I attempt to enrich the academic conversation on Guan through an examination of her painting View by the Bamboo and Stream Scroll (竹溪攬勝軸, 1309 b.c.). I argue that she contests the canonical modes to represent bamboo and the established conventions associated with the formats of scrolls. Specifically, the painting illustrates Guan’s innovative interpretation of shu hua tong yuan and obfuscation of the boundaries between hanging scrolls and handscrolls. In conclusion, the innovations presented by this painting broadened the repertoire of Yuan Dynasty literati paintings, which posits her as a significant figure within the genealogy of Chinese art history instead of a mere female counterpart of the male-dominated literati milieu. 

Analysis of Matisse's Painting Style

Henry Matisse is an important representative of contemporary "Fauvism" and a revolutionary figure in Western art history. The artistic concept he advocated broke free from the constraints of traditional painting, broke free from traditional colors and forms, and achieved a revolutionary innovation. "The Harmony of Red" is an important work by Mattis, who abandoned traditional views and created a harmonious, relaxed, and peaceful atmosphere by linking colors with vine patterns. This transformation has had a profound impact on contemporary painting.

Snakes on a Page: Visual Receptions of the Eden Serpent through the History of Western Art and Their Survivals in Modern Children’s Bibles

Abstract Visual receptions of the Eden serpent throughout the history of Western art have reflected various interpretive attempts to understand the nature of this creature. In the investigation of these receptions, five iconographic categories emerge: the female-headed serpent, the demonic serpent, the dragon-like serpent, the etiological serpent, and the zoological serpent. Of these categories, all but the female-headed serpent survives in modern children’s Bible illustration. Due to the cultural prevalence of children’s Bibles and the tendency of images to inform later readings of texts, these visual receptions of the Eden serpent hold significant interpretive power for the child. Survivals of demonic, dragon-like, and etiological iconographic categories in modern children’s Bibles limit the interpretive possibilities of the child’s subsequent reading of the biblical text. The child is predisposed to regard the serpent as a demonic figure or a fantastical creature, or to regard Genesis 3 as a purely etiological tale, proscribing other interpretive possibilities. In contrast, the survival of the zoological serpent in modern children’s Bibles highlights the interpretive tensions within the Hebrew text of Genesis 3. Rather than proscribing certain interpretations of the Eden serpent, the survival of the zoological serpent in modern children’s Bibles invites the child to interact with the interpretive gaps and ambiguities in both text and image.

Graffiti. The art of disobedience

The flourishing of graffiti culture in modern cities is a multidimensional phenomenon with a complex socio-cultural, artistic and historical genesis. This article attempts to contrast an analysis of the graffiti phenomenon as an organic element of the urban environment with a point of view of mere art history, and to examine the visual narrative of graffiti through the prism of urban poetics in the context of urban everyday life and social communication practices.

Digital reconstruction of partially lost altarpieces. The case of the Rosary’s altarpiece of Sant Pere Màrtir de Manresa.

An important challenge of Digital Cultural Heritage is to contribute to the recovery of artworks with their original shape and appearance. Many altarpieces, which are very relevant Christian art elements, have been damaged and/or, partly or fully, lost. Therefore, the only way to recover them is to carry out their digital reconstruction. Although the procedure that we present here is valid for any altarpiece with similar characteristics, and even for other akin elements, our test bench is the altarpieces damaged, destroyed, or disappeared during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in Catalonia where most suffered these effects. The first step of our work has been the classification of these artworks into different categories on the basis of their degree of destruction and of the available visual information related to each one. This paper proposes, for the first time to our knowledge, a workflow for the virtual reconstruction, through photogrammetry, digital modeling, and digital color restoration; of whole altarpieces partially preserved with very little visual information. Our case study is the Rosary’s altarpiece of Sant Pere Màrtir de Manresa church. Currently, this altarpiece is partially preserved in fragments in the Museu Comarcal de Manresa (Spain). But, it can not be reassembled physically owing to the lack of space (actually the church does not exist anymore) and the cost of such an operation. Thus, there is no other solution than the digital one to contemplate and study the altarpiece as a whole. The reconstruction that we provide allows art historians and the general public to virtually see the altarpiece complete and assembled as it was until 1936. The results obtained also allow us to see in detail the reliefs and ornaments of the altarpiece with their digitally restored color.

Beatrix Potter in Cumbria: Pastoral Pleasures, Classic Commodities, Rural Modernity

ABSTRACT This article claims Beatrix Potter, author of the children’s classic The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), is a woman writer of and for rural modernity whose complex relations to rural and urban places, national and regional identities, fine and commercial arts, raise important questions about the gendering of green places, landscapes, and geographies in constructions of canonical modernism and children’s literature. Analysing research by biographers, rural historians, geographers, art historians, and critics of modernist and children’s literature, it argues that Potter’s acute measurement of the commercial possibilities that lay in the divide between rural real and rural ideal made her one of the most successful women writers of her generation and contributed to the early achievement of classic status of her twenty-three animal Tales (1902–1918). Enlisting close readings of Potter’s words and images in her Tales for an interdisciplinary feminist literary-geographical project, the article situates Beatrix Potter at the centre of studies of rural modernity and rural modernity at the centre of early twentieth-century women’s writing.

From Post-Modernism to Critical Art

“[...]. Human existence – a vast, unlimited space of reflections on life and death, in the fields of philosophy, morals, history, culture... Grzegorz Jarmocewicz, reaching into all these areas and categories, gives us his own interpretations to launch in us layers of associations and references to our own experiences. […]”. Critic, art historian Marek Grygiel. “[...]. Jarmocewicz’s work presents a variety in the form of a search. It contains a modernist tradition, as well as an oppositional, postmodernist tradition. From the psychological side, through a specific form, it is contained between heaven and hell. [...]”. Critic, art historian Dr. Krzysztof Jurecki. “ [...]. (His photographs are) economic reflections of the diversity of cultural codes, which are the artist’s modest contribution to certain areas of reflection, at the same time defining them and remaining outside the framework of the term [...]”. Prof. Jerzy Olek. “ [...]. He fits in with his attitude and creative search in the area of photographers of philosophers who, with the help of their pictures-photographs, reflect on life, death, time, history, culture. [...]”. Prof. Marek Szyryk.