Iconic Art Research Articles

Fighting Words: Four New Document Finds Reignite Old Debates in Taijiquan Historiography

Martial arts historiography has been at the center of China’s culture wars and a cause celebre between traditionalists and modernizers for the better part of a century. Nowhere are the stakes higher than with the iconic art of taijiquan , where, based on a handful of documents in the Chen, Wu, and Yang lineages, traditionalists have mythologized the origins of taijiquan, claiming the Daoist immortal Zhang Sanfeng as progenitor, while modernizers won official government approval by tracing the origins to historical figures in the Chen family. Four new document finds, consisting of manuals, genealogies, and stele rubbings, have recently emerged that disrupt the narratives of both camps, and, if authentic, would be the urtexts of the taijiquan ‘classics’, and force radical revision of our understanding of the art. This article introduces the new documents, the circumstances of their discovery, their contents, and the controversies surrounding their authenticity and significance, as well as implications for understanding broader trends in Chinese culture and politics.

Urban preservation and the queerying spaces of (un)remembering: Memorial landscapes of the Miami Beach art deco historic district

Based on a case study on Miami Beach’s acclaimed iconic art deco architectural district, this article critically dovetails intersecting hegemonic spaces of preservation, memorial practices and social and sexual identities. It argues how commemorative narratives are selectively encrypted in the local urban environment and its artefacts deemed of historical significance. It especially reveals the tensions arising between art deco (i.e. architectural) preservation and gay (i.e. social) urban preservation, as well as its under-studied largely entrepreneurial nature and attraction for a mainstream, cosmopolitan class under neoliberalism. Drawing from extensive archival, policy, observational, participatory and interview data over 2013–2015, the article revisits in historical perspective how the art deco area, incarnated in the 1920s, developed across class-, ethnicity-, religion- and age-inflected social fragmentations and how this legacy, from the late-1970s onward, segued into the local gay-led preservation movement and select commemorations of the art deco scene. To this background, the study employs the tenet of ‘queerying’ to address the under-researched coalescing frictions in preservation between perceived authentic and engineered trajectories of (gay) place (re)makings alongside reminiscences selected over others. The findings uncover and challenge (un)intentional ‘(un)rememberings’ of the local early history and the recent past, where socially fragmented fault lines and the more recent gay-led preservation track remain overly homogeneously imprinted in dominant preservation communications and performance.

Iconic art infusion in luxury retail strategies: Unveiling the potential

ABSTRACTThis research investigates art infusion, a phenomenon in which artistic elements contribute to enhance the perceived value of consumer goods, in the retailing sector. An experiment conducted with 188 consumers suggests that individuals with high dispositional greed are more interested in shopping in luxury stores that promote products through artworks representative of an artist’s iconic, that is, most recognizable, style. Results show that greed determines consumers’ store preference through an externalized luxury tendency, that is a tendency to purchase luxury goods to show off social status. Such an effect proved to be stronger for extroverted than for introverted consumers.

The Battles between Ramesses III and the “Sea-Peoples”

Summary: While building on previous works by such scholars as Heinz and Spalinger, the article presents a new methodology specifically devised for the analysis of Egyptian war reliefs. The article contends that many historical reconstructions regarding the “Sea-Peoples” have ignored the basic principles of ancient Egyptian iconic art and preferred intuitive interpretations of the reliefs. This has led to historical misconceptions about the battles and aggressors. The new analysis provides a holistic reading of the reliefs within their context and is thereby able to present new insights as to the location of the battles and the nature of the “Sea-Peoples”.

The New Face of Tate Modern

Expanding Tate Modern, London’s iconic art museum housed in a former power plant, required ingenuity as engineers sought to support a 10-story structure atop aging infrastructure on a site with little space to spare.

Icons and Croatian Painting in the Early 20th Century

In this paper the Byzantine and Creto-Venetian icons will be presented as an important source of inspiration in Croatian painting in the early 20th century. The author places that phenomenon within the context of European primitivism, a tendency of searching for inspiration in tribal, folk and medieval art in order to find an authentic, primordial expression. Intuitively recognising the spiritual dimension of icons some Croatian artists such as Jerolim Miše, Maksimilijan Vanka, Jozo Kljaković and Ljubo Babić used a number of Byzantine elements in some of their paintings, such as the flatness and linearity of design, hieratic posture and the flawless symmetrical frontality of a displayed character, the intense gaze directed at the observer, the golden background and the halo of light around the head. At the same time Iljko Gorenčević emphasised the connections and the similarities between the old icon art and the contemporary Expressionism, and Jerolim Miše recommended Russian and Byzantine art as a source of inspiration, for its deep spiritual insight. Kosta Strajnić explained this trend as an interest in other Slavic cultures, directed towards the creation of a new South Slavic culture in the period before the formation of a new Yugoslav state in 1918.

The development of the Ukrainian icon during the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries

There are very few monuments of icon art of the 13th-15th centuries, but they give a great opportunity to learn a lot about the state of the Ukrainian Church of that time, about the strengthening of faith, and also about the stylistic quest for Ukrainian artists. The development of the iconography of those centuries in Ukraine marked the Tatar-Mongol invasion. When a person or a whole nation falls into a difficult situation, faith in God grows, spirituality rises. Monuments of culture of the XIII-XV centuries record especially jealous hope in God, the strengthening of the religiosity of different sections of the people. From this time there is hardly any secular art: everything preserved is permeated with Christian religiosity. In these years, such great temples are not already built, as in the early centuries of Christianity in Russia, but small, but well-fortified churches throughout Ukraine are built. There are also various centers of icon-painting. Their masters focused mainly on the ancient art of Kiev, introduced in their samples many local elements. Icons painted in various spiritual centers, in particular in the monasteries, are striking by their monumentality and severity, which reflected that day (See: The History of Ukrainian Art, Vol. 6, vol., 1968).

Manual of Cupule Replication Technology

Throughout the world, iconic rock art is preceded by non-iconic rock art. Cupules (manmade, roughly semi-hemispherical depressions on rocks) form the major bulk of the early non-iconic rock art globally. The antiquity of cupules extends back to the Lower Paleolithic in Asia and Africa, hundreds of thousand years ago. When one observes these cupules, the inquisitive mind poses so many questions with regard to understanding their technology, reasons for selecting the site, which rocks were used to make the hammer stones used, the skill and cognitive abilities employed to create the different types of cupules, the objective of their creation, their age, and so on. Replication of the cupules can provide satisfactory answers to some of these questions. Comparison of the hammer stones and cupules produced by the replication process with those obtained from excavation can provide support to observations. This paper presents a manual of cupule replication technology based on our experience of cupule replication on hard quartzite rock near Daraki-Chattan in the Chambal Basin, India.

Culture-led city brands as economic engines: theory and empirics

Cultural re-imaging through iconic art museums aims to create symbolic capital for a place in the form of creative images, reputation and associations with innovation. While literature has long identified architectural uniqueness as a potential driver of brand competitiveness, we argue diffusion of that image is equally important. This work draws upon economic concepts from other cultural industries (such as film, music and art) to develop a framework for understanding how cultural brands are built: How reproducible images of singular architecture accumulate in the media to strengthen a brand. We then test an art brand’s impact on visitors. This work aims to offer evidence that the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao brand generates tourism to the city of Bilbao. By understanding how iconic cultural infrastructures create symbolic capital, policy makers may better tailor similar culture-led branding strategies to other places.

Erratum to: Breastfeeding in Byzantine icon art

Erratum to: Breastfeeding in Byzantine icon art

Breastfeeding in Byzantine icon art

The Mary Galaktotrophousa is a representation of the Virgin breastfeeding the infant Jesus. The origin of this theme goes back to Antiquity when images of gods feeding humans were considered as an example that should be imitated by human. In the early days of Christianity, the Fathers of the Church recognized on the feature of Mary the ideal exemplary of maternity. The image of the Virgin breastfeeding the Holy Child, except the theological interpretation of the gesture, underline the fact that breastfeeding represents one of the most substantial gestures in the woman nature.

Motiv raja v Poslednji sodbi Fra Angelica

This article defines the possible sources for the unique depiction of paradise in the painting The Last Judgment by Fra Angelico. It defines the artist’s notion of paradise, which developed into a specific eschatological concept under the infl uence of apocalyptic writings during the Middle Ages, promising eternal blessedness to those that followed the steps of Christian moral values. Furthermore, an iconological analysis provides a possible explanation of the motif through the painting’s liturgical function. An extraordinarily rich theological, literary, and artistic tradition informed the artist’s conception of the Last Judgment. The doctrine and the iconographic features are supported by many passages from the apocalyptic sections of Bible, which, together with Dante’s intense visual imagery and various hymns, provided a source for the artist’s interpretation of the motif. Fra Angelico in general followed traditional iconography, but gave a unique depiction of paradise consisting of two parts: terrestrial paradise and Heavenly Jerusalem. In the early writings of the fathers of the Greek church, the notion of the third heaven can be found. It is the place of waiting for the righteous souls, but not the final destination. In the writings of Aquinas, the distinction between the earthly paradise and caelum empyreum is presented. Dante’s epic masterpiece also makes the same distinction. Earthly paradise is placed at the top of the mount of Purgatory, a reward for proper moral behavior. The unusual depiction of terrestrial paradise—in which the elliptical movement of dancing souls on fl owery meadows in a calm and serene composition, in which realism is strongly accentuated, is realized in the painting—has no visual parallel elsewhere. Because of its liturgical character, the painting carries the character of mystery far beyond the narrative function. Following the conventions of Byzantine-derived iconic art and based on Dominican knowledge, the painting is not an illustration of textual exegesis, but provides a field for exegetical inventions. Therefore it does not illustrate the succession of past events of Christian salvation history, but instead incorporates the events into the sacrament. As a liturgical art connected to liturgical action and the liturgical environment through the mass, it transports the audience into the mystical presence of God and engages them more deeply in the mystery of salvation. The liturgical presence therefore contains eschatological hope within, giving assurance of the world to come.

Sensory exploitation and cultural transmission: the late emergence of iconic representations in human evolution

Iconic representations (i.e., figurative imagery and realistic art) only started to appear consistently some 45,000 years ago, although humans have been anatomically modern since 200,000-160,000 years ago. What explains this? Some authors have suggested a neurocognitive change took place, leading to a creative explosion, although this has been contested. Here, we examine the hypothesis that demographic changes caused cultural "cumulative adaptive evolution" and as such the emergence of modern symbolic behavior. This approach usefully explains the evolution of utilitarian skills and tools, and the creation of symbols to identify groups. However, it does not equally effectively explain the evolution of behaviors that may not be directly adaptive, such as the production of iconic representations like figurines and rock art. In order to shed light on their emergence, we propose to combine the above-mentioned cultural hypothesis with the concept of sensory exploitation. The concept essentially states that behavioral traits (in this case iconic art production) which exploit pre-existing sensory sensitivities will evolve if not hindered by costs (i.e., natural selection). In this view, iconic art traditions are evolved by piggy-backing on cumulative adaptive evolution. Since it is to date uncertain whether art has served any adaptive function in human evolution, parsimony demands paying more attention to the primary and a functional mechanism of sensory exploitation as opposed to mechanisms of models based exclusively on secondary benefits (such as Miller's, for instance, in which art is proposed to evolve as a sexual display of fitness).

Father Arseny, 1893–1973: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father • Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witnesses

Father Arseny, 1893–1973: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father • Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witnesses