Johannes Grave

The display of artefacts always implies an external mediation that influences, and often codifies, the reception of the exhibits. Objects are manipulated, restored, appropriated, staged, in short displayed, through various representational strategies that include pedestals, labels, and showcases. These elements, which we could define as parerga, are often ignored because of their utilitarian function. Yet, they play an important role in the history of the artefacts and define the setting in which the objects can exert their agency. They not only shape their meaning, but also determine the effect that these artefacts have on their viewers. Framing devices create the conditions for interactions between the individual and the object to take place. This publication aims to explore the relation between artefacts and viewers as they are manifested in framing devices, and to develop a new theoretical framework for thinking about the power of objects on display.

In Italian art of the fifteenth century, novelties in painting and architecture appear to have mutually supported each other in a remarkable way. Even before Renaissance architecture dominated the building practice along a broad front, its pictorial representation served to instruct and disseminate the new ‘classical’ art of construction. At the same time, the reference to the canonized architectonic idiom of form from antiquity also promoted the establishment of linear perspective in painting. The efficiency and efficacy of perspectival representation could be demonstrated especially impressively by the example of clearly subdivided constructions. Without rational architectonic structures, the persuasive conquest in the Quattrocento of visual spaces would have scarcely been conceivable. Renaissance perspective hence found its congenial object in Renaissance architecture.

The eminent importance attached to architectural representation and its innovations during the early Renaissance could not be without its consequences in the way images were understood. Because, in principle, every picture is situated within real architectonic surroundings and must respond to this context, special—if not singular—status must be attached to the pictorial representation of architecture. In Italian painting of the Quattrocento, this special status of architectural representation had to be fundamentally renegotiated because a building and its structural elements simultaneously acted as the guiding pictorial motifs contributing toward establishing the way linear perspective represented, and hence had a share in, the development of a new conception of pictures. Consequently, it was a matter of determining the relation between the pictorially represented architecture and the image’s real architectonic surroundings.

These ‘aesthetic’ implications of architectural representation in the early Renaissance are at the focus of the study “Architectures of Vision. Buildings in Quattrocento Painting.” The point of interest is less the history of motifs or the share that pictures had in the history of architecture, therefore their influence on the theory and practice of architecture of the fifteenth century. The question to be raised is rather: What understanding of images could be formed and articulated in a pertinent depiction of architecture? What conception of the conditions, possibilities, and limits of visual representation is articulated in the “architectures of vision” which were to become so characteristic of Quattrocento painting?

The analysis broaches the lead issue of the conception of images during the early Renaissance in a series of specifically chosen typologically intercoordinated case studies that examine more closely the usage of architectural representation and its relation to each of the concrete architectonic surroundings. Analyses of frescoes and panel paintings, works in sacred as well as profane contexts, individual pictures as well as groups, show that architectural representation by no means exclusively served to make visual representation unambiguous and ‘transparent’. The analyses of these works concentrate wholly in this sense on aspects that have been marginalized in the theory of Renaissance art and—as a consequence—also in art historical research.

The analyses reveal that representation of architecture mostly has the dual function of not only creating an illusionistic spatial depth, as a ‘stage’ of pictorial representation, but also, at the same time, structuring the image plane in such a way that the illusion of space is partially retracted again. In many cases it is deployed to raise irritating doubts about the boundaries between architectural representation in a picture, the architectonically designed framings of the image, and the architectonic instrumentation of real space. Subtle infractions of the rules and leaps in architectonic logic also add special potential to the pictorial representation. Not least of all, pictures of the Quattrocento use architectonic elements to effectuate a mise en abyme in the image, by embedding an element, e.g., an architectonic framework, within the pictorial representation that reflects the basic structure of the entire image. Representations of architecture in pictures of the Quattrocento thus prove to be productive, variously deployable visual operators. In many cases their primary service is not elucidation but exploration of the character of reality of what is being displayed in the picture. Thus the representation of architecture often stimulates protracted observation and reflection. Only by this means does painting do justice to the special challenge inherent in the subject matter which in the fifteenth century is mostly religious: Biblical events or saints can be presented without committing them to a presence in the here and now.

Close readings of three central texts of the Quattrocento precede the case studies, in order to be able to profile the variety of ways in which architectural representation is used in painting, as an independent contribution toward contemporary discourses on images from the Quattrocento. The report that Antonio di Tuccio Manetti gave of Filippo Brunelleschi’s first demonstrations of perspective; Leon Battista Alberti’s comparison between a picture and a window; and the consideration of images portrayed by Nicolaus Cusanus at the beginning of his text De visione Dei ought to reveal essential potentials as well as problems with representing architecture.

Case studies on selected pictures of the Quattrocento build upon the considerations that were developed in the wake of Brunelleschi, Alberti, and Cusanus. Exemplary works are examined in nine chapters for how they define the relation between the pictorially represented architecture and the real building contexts of the images. The selection of analyzed images encompass well-known ‘icons’ of painting of the early Renaissance, such as Masaccio’s Trinity, the sketch books of Jacopo Bellini, Giovanni Bellini’s Pala di Pesaro, Cosmè Tura’s Roverella altar, and the Berlin ‘ideal city’ panel. In addition, there are paintings by Domenico Veneziano and Piero della Francesca, as well as frescoes by Andrea Mantegna, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Filippino Lippi. Less well-known works are also taken into account, such as by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano and Bartolomeo Montagna, which in light of the examined question prove to be surprisingly innovative and complex. These case studies are designed to be readable also as independent contributions to the analysis and interpretation of relevant artwork. In all these cases, an analysis of the pictorial architectures open up a new avenue toward interpreting the images involved.

The study’s readings and exemplary case studies offer fundamental critique of the comparison, still topical today, made between a Renaissance picture and a view from a window. In 1435 Alberti parenthetically compared the perspectivally designed picture with a finestra aperta—an analogy that implicitly suggests a clear differentiation between image and surroundings, namely between the image space and real space. Although Alberti assigns to architecture the function of offering to pictorial representation a clear and unambiguous structure, analyses of the exemplary pictures draw attention to other, partly contrary effects. The purposeful use of complex architectural depictions frequently allows contradictions to be experienced and stimulates irresolvable processes of perception. Differentiations between various levels of reality are repeatedly subjected to revision throughout the observation, so none of these differentiations can become permanently and bindingly fixed.

Hence, as the object of visual representation, not only does architecture open up and structure illusionary spaces, but it also simultaneously draws these window views into question by letting the flatness of the image become conspicuous or by challenging the picture’s relation to its frame and surroundings. These ambivalent visual phenomena have the consequence that the viewer cannot set the representation in the picture unquestioningly into a presence in the here and now. The complex, persisting processes of perception in which the viewing becomes entangled in the ambiguities rather let him or her experience another time, the temporality of actually viewing the picture. A closing outlook on the study therefore takes these observations about the representation of architecture during the Quattrocento as an opportunity to present what profit might be gained by a systematic analysis of the temporality of an image’s reception aesthetics. The closing chapter sketches, on one hand, the outlines of this approach toward picture analysis, which specifically pursues the question of how pictures influence the temporal extension of the perceptual process and arouse the recipient’s awareness that the picture is not fully accessible to him or her in a single instant. On the other hand, the closing chapter pleads that a precise analysis of the temporality of viewing pictures will permit a differentiated response to questions regarding the much-discussed ‘power’ of images: The “architectures of vision” in the Quattrocento show that images can exert ‘power’ on us by entangling us in lengthier perceptual processes that are not entirely under our control.

»Selig sind, die nicht sehen und doch glauben.« Ein Vers aus dem Johannesevangelium, scheinbar beiläufig von Caspar David Friedrich in einer frühen Porträtzeichnung zitiert, markiert das Kernproblem, um das seine Kunst kreist. Die biblische Kritik an einem falschen Vertrauen in den Sehsinn wird zum Ausgangspunkt eines neuen Bilddenkens, das Glauben und Sehen auf anspruchsvolle Weise miteinander verknüpft.
Seine Bilder illustrieren nicht bestimmte Gedanken, sondern überführen sie in eine genuin bildliche Form des Denkens. Sie entfalten eine Bildkritik, die den protestantischen Vorbehalt gegen die Sinnlichkeit ernst nimmt, sich dazu aber des Bildes bedient und dessen Möglichkeiten in radikaler Weise auslotet. Dabei erschließt sich nicht allein eine neue religiöse Bildkunst, sondern ein Verständnis des Bildes, das weit über seine historische Bedingtheit hinaus von ungebrochener Aktualität ist.

Caspar David Friedrich est regardé comme le maître des peintres romantiques de paysage, comme le rénovateur d'un art très profondément religieux et, en même temps, comme le créateur de tableaux qui semblent déjà faire signe en direction de la peinture abstraite du XXe siècle. Comment ces caractéristiques apparemment antinomiques du peintre de Dresde se laissent-elles concilier ? Le présent ouvrage propose de partir d'une idée relativement simple pour aborder son œuvre : c’est en images et par les images que Friedrich s’interroge sur ce que veut dire montrer quelque chose dans un tableau. Être à l’œuvre, travailler sur la toile est sa façon propre de réfléchir à l’image et, en particulier, à son rapport à la religion. Les peintures de Friedrich n’illustrent pas telle ou telle idée déterminée, mais elles les transposent en une forme de pensée authentiquement iconique – une pensée qui aura trouvé, spécialement dans ses chefs-d’œuvre, le Retable de Tetschen, le Moine au bord de la mer et l’Abbaye dans un bois de chênes, une expression efficace et puissante.

Die Philosophie - so scheint es auf den ersten Blick - begegnete dem Bild lange Zeit nur mit Skepsis oder gar mit offener Ablehnung. Diese verbreitete, meist mit Platon einsetzende philosophiehistorische Erzählung blendet jedoch aus, dass der Bildbegriff auf produktive Weise zum Gegenstand philosophischer Reflexion wurde.
'Denken mit dem Bild' bringt in bildtheoretischer Perspektive Philosophen zur Geltung, die dem Begriff des Bildes eine zentrale Stellung eingeräumt haben: Platon, Plotin, Augustinus, Eckhart, Cusanus, Kant, Fichte und Hegel.

Mit Beiträgen von David Ambuel, Michel Fattal, Johann Kreuzer, Thomas Leinkauf und Birgit Sandkaulen sowie einem Nachwort der Herausgeber.

The article takes Cornelius Castoriadis’ concept of the ‘political imaginary’ as an invitation to reflect on the role of pictures in politics and in facilitating alternative policies. For this purpose, pictures are not understood as merely rhetorical or propagandistic representations of political statements, which are actually to be thought of independently of the particular picture. Instead, by means of their specific pictorial qualities, pictures also influence the ways politics are negotiated or pursued and, moreover, they can stimulate alternative forms of political thinking. In order to argue for this understanding of the politics of pictures, the article proceeds in three steps: a brief review of the research on political iconography is followed by thoughts on Jacques Rancière and his concept of the ‘distribution of the sensible’. On this basis, an understanding of pictorial politics is finally sketched that asks for genuinely political potentials that are directly linked to the specific qualities of the image: its duality, its vagueness, and its temporality.

Grave J. Schiffbruch ohne Zuschauer. Caspar David Friedrichs 'Eismeer' als Katastrophenbild. In: Bertsch M, Trempler J, eds. Entfesselte Natur. Das Bild der Katastrophe seit 1600 (Kat. zur Ausst. der Hamburger Kunsthalle, 29.6.-14.10.2018). Petersberg: Imhof; 2018: 71-79

Grave J. Schiffbruch ohne Zuschauer. Caspar David Friedrichs 'Eismeer' als Katastrophenbild. In: Bertsch M, Trempler J, eds. Entfesselte Natur. Das Bild der Katastrophe seit 1600 (Kat. zur Ausst. der Hamburger Kunsthalle, 29.6.-14.10.2018). Petersberg: Imhof; 2018: 71-79

Seine ausfuhrlichsten Bemerkungen uber das Sammeln von Kunst schrieb G. in einer Zeit nieder, in der er seine eigenen sammlerischen Bemuhungen auffallig einschrankte. In den Jahren 1798/99 arbeitete er, angeregt durch gemeinsame Gesprache mit Schiller, ein literarisches »Familiengemalde der Kunstfreunde und Sammler« aus, das schlieslich 1799 im zweiten Band der Propylaen unter dem Titel Der Sammler und die Seinigen erschien. Es scheint, als habe G. Abstand von den Bemuhungen um die eigenen Sammlungen gesucht, um uber deren Sinn nachzudenken.

Vom Dialog zwischen G. und Caspar David Friedrich haben sich erstaunlich zahlreiche und vielfaltige Spuren erhalten. Uber einen langeren Zeitraum hinweg verfolgte G. von Weimar aus den Werdegang des Malers; gerade zu Beginn von dessen kunstlerischer Laufbahn versuchte er, Friedrich zu fordern und seine Entwicklung zu beeinflussen. Friedrich wiederum suchte immer wieder Anerkennung von Seiten G.s, auch wenn er letztlich auf seinen kunstlerischen Vorstellungen beharrte. Dennoch ist das Verhaltnis zwischen G. und Friedrich uberwiegend nach dem Muster jener polarisierenden Gegenuberstellung von Klassik und Romantik beschrieben worden, die die Goethe-Forschung uber lange Zeit gepragt hat. Der meist fluchtige Blick auf die Bekanntschaft zwischen Dichter und Kunstler scheint bereits etablierte Vorurteile tendenziell noch verstarkt zu haben. Aus der Perspektive der Friedrich-Forschung erschien G. als intoleranter Klassizist; der Goethe-Forschung musste Friedrich entsprechend als naiver, eigensinniger Ignorant gelten, der sich nicht produktiv in intellektuelle Debatten einbrachte.

Grave J. Ein romanischer Bronzekruzifixus aus dem Umkreis Rogers von Helmarshausen. In: Riedel P, ed. Beharren und Fortschreiten. Beiträge zur regionalen Kulturgeschichte und Denkmalpflege. Rudolf Breuing zum 75. Geburtstag. Steinfurt; 2002: 102-111

Grave J, Holm C, Kobi V, van Eck C, eds. The Agency of Display. Objects, Framings and Parerga. Parerga und Paratexte. Vol 2. Dresden: Sandstein; 2018.The display of artefacts always implies an external mediation that influences, and often codifies, the reception of the exhibits. Objects are manipulated, restored, appropriated, staged, in short displayed, through various representational strategies that include pedestals, labels, and showcases. These elements, that we could define as parerga, are often ignored because of their utilitarian function. Yet, they play an important role in the history of the artefacts and define the setting in which the objects can exert their agency. They not only shape their meaning, but also determine the effect that these artefacts have on their viewers. Framing devices create the conditions for interactions between the individual and the object to take place. This publication aims to explore the relation between artefacts and viewers as they are manif...

Pictures—like other objects—undoubtedly shape an interior, lending expression to un equivocal individuality. Not infrequently, the choice and arrangement of diverse depictions articulate preferences and personal taste, whether intended to follow conventions or purposefully to thwart them. Yet, pictures do not just serve to display an individual aesthetic attitude. More importantly, they can become crystallization points for personal memories within an interior décor. Not every picture in a living space figures as an aesthetic confession; however, memories almost unavoidably attach themselves to them. This applies not only to pictures representing persons or events from the life of their owner or even to ones made at specific biographical instances. Any picture that becomes a part of an interior and therefore of a living space can potentially become charged with memories. It may, for instance, lead one to think back on experiences that took place in that room or else to recall the day it gained entry to that room. When an interior becomes a locus that shapes and displays its inhabitant’s self-understanding, pictures play a not insignificant part—irrespective of whether their selection and arrangement was intentional or relied solely on chance. By displaying something that is not there itself or, at any rate, is present only in altered, dated form, pictures open the interior out to an exterior at the same time. They connect it with times and places that reach beyond the here-and-now of the immediate environment and thereby contribute essentially toward the subject’s ability to mark and express personal individuality—purposefully or subconsciously—in that interior. Comparable to doors and windows, pictures act together with other objects as sluices or thresholds to the outer world, so to speak. Their ambivalent nature within an interior also arises from this: They are essentially involved in the interior’s constitution and design precisely by such external references and their charges of reminiscences. At the same time, they can cause disruptions or irritation, if aspects about them that question the integrity of the interior become conspicuous. Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki added such a picture in his ironic depiction of an Evening Gathering at Reverend Bocquet’s (fig. 1).1 The portrait of a clergyman, shown in a corner of the room on

ZusammenfassungIn vielen literarischen Texten umkreist Goethe problematische Effekte von Bildern und Bildpraktiken. Bilder können dazu einladen, das bildlich Dargestellte für einen Teil der Wirklichkeit zu halten, sie können Gegenstand fragwürdiger Projektionen werden oder aber dazu beitragen, die Wirklichkeit selbst bildhaft erstarren zu lassen. Diese Gefahren im Umgang mit Bildern sind nicht zuletzt auf deren spezifische temporale Verfasstheit zurückzuführen, insbesondere wenn die physische Präsenz eines Bildes genutzt wird, um Vergangenes oder Abwesendes zu vergegenwärtigen. Der Beitrag entfaltet diese Problemlage an verschiedenen exemplarischen Texten Goethes. Am Beispiel des Aufsatzes »Ruysdael als Dichter« skizziert er eine alternative Form des Umgangs mit Bildern, die nicht allein auf deren Präsenzeffekt setzt, sondern eine dem Bild eigene Temporalität im Prozess des Sehens und Reflektierens zur Geltung bringt.