Hans Belting: An Anthropology of Images, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Description

In this groundbreaking book, renowned art historian Hans Belting proposes a new anthropological theory for interpreting human picture making. Rather than focus exclusively on pictures as they are embodied in various media such as painting, sculpture, or photography, he links pictures to our mental images and therefore our bodies. The body is understood as a "living medium" that produces, perceives, or remembers images that are different from the images we encounter through handmade or technical pictures. Refusing to reduce images to their material embodiment yet acknowledging the importance of the historical media in which images are manifested, An Anthropology of Images presents a challenging and provocative new account of what pictures are and how they function. The book demonstrates these ideas with a series of compelling case studies, ranging from Dante's picture theory to post-photography

Review

"Belting is one of the most brilliant and most prolific art historians."--Choice

Blurb

"The case for an anthropology of images is very compelling. Belting's insistence on thinking across the received divisions between mental and physical images, virtual and real images, and technical and nontechnical images is refreshing and provocative. He is rightly skeptical of current dogmas about 'new media' as a radical historical break that renders the concept of the image obsolete. Again and again, he rejects rigid antitheses and presentist rhetoric as he argues for a much more nuanced, complex history of images."--W. J.T. Mitchell, University of Chicago
"Highly original and provocative, An Anthropology of Images is integral to today's contentious debates about the nature, history, and domain of images. The book's insights ripple far across the field of art history."--Michael Leja, University of Pennsylvania