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| 1. Are images vital
sources of historical knowledge that have been insufficiently exploited? |
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images
as sources Lynn Hunt, 5-31-03, 5:48 PM |
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RE: images as sources Wayne
Hanley, 6-6-03, 9:29 AM |
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RE: Images as Sources (June
22, 2003) Barbara Day-Hickman, 6-22-03,
4:40 PM |
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reading
images Lynn Hunt, 6-23-03, 10:44 PM |
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historical knowledge Vivian
Cameron, 7-5-03,
5:15 PM |
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Some belated comments Warren
Roberts, 7-9-03,
10:53 AM |
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A postscript Warren
Roberts 7-9-03, 11:28 AM |
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More on images as sources Joan
B. Landes, 7-12-03,
2:33 PM |
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RE: More on images as
sources Vivian Cameron
7-26-03, 4:22 PM |
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| Subject: |
RE: images as
sources (June 22, 2003) |
| Posted
By: |
Barbara Day-Hickman |
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| Date
Posted: |
6-22-03, 4:40
PM |
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The possession and display of visual art was, of course,
a distinctive mark of status among bourgeois or aristocratic
customers who could afford to purchase fine paintings,
sculpture, and engravings. But visual imagery was also
a primary medium of communication among commoners in
Latin Catholic France. In addition to church hagiography
that portrayed bishops, patrons, and local saints,
sculptural art and relief work conveyed the basic tenets
of Christian redemption for a widespread populace in
both urban and provincial France. Similarly, secular
prints, canards, and broadsides incorporated visual
and symbolic formulae geared to inspire devotion, to
convey a moral, to inform, entertain, or in some cases
disconcert viewers with sensational stories of unbelievable
horror. It stands to reason that the new revolutionary
government would consider “secular” sculpture,
rituals, and engravings to be an important way to memorialize
and advertise the great events of the revolution. Consequently,
it is incumbent upon those of us brought up in and
around Protestant textual traditions to expand our
research domain beyond the literary so as to treat
visual evidence as a viable source of historical knowledge.
But I would concur with Lynn that historians should
consider images beyond the illustrative and instead
treat visual material as legitimate historical documentation.
I would likewise agree with Wayne that in addition
to studying the evolution of themes, symbols and visual
tropes, it is important to consider what may have been
the motivation/purpose of the artist, the character
of the designated audience, and how the image may have
been read by contemporaries. The latter is a daunting
task with anonymous and undated prints, but scholars
can address a given interpretation by studying clusters
of images on a given theme, or date such images by
the technical style of the print or the costumes portrayed.
Has anyone else found a better avenue to identify and
interpret anonymous imagery? |
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