Pictorial Narratives

Resumo: O presente artigo discorre sobre o fenômeno da descrição figurativa. Nomeia-se a descrição como uma técnica de tradução interartística e diferencia-se a descrição verbal da descrição figurativa. Para tal empreendimento, o romance Les Travailleurs de La Mer do escritor francês Victor Hugo, bem como as 36 pinturas que "derivam" da obra literária são analisadas neste trabalho. Após isso, observa-se que as pinturas inspiradas pelo romance se utilizam da descrição figurativa traçada e da descrição figurativa colorida em sua construção. Ambos os tipos de descrição são técnicas do trânsito entre Literatura e Pintura. Logo, a descrição tanto pode ser um elemento narrativo quanto um elemento plástico das artes em cotejo.
Palavras-Chave: Descrição figurativa; Victor Hugo; Les Travailleurs de La Mer; Pintura; Literatura.

Résumé: Cet article traite du phénomène de la description figurative. La description est nommée comme une technique de traduction interartistique et la description verbale est différenciée de la description figurative. Pour un tel but, le roman Les Travailleurs de La Mer de l'écrivain français Victor Hugo, ainsi que les 36 tableaux qui "dérivent" de l'oeuvre littéraire sont analysés dans ce travail. Après cela, on observe que les peintures inspirées du roman utilisent la description figurative esquissée et la description figurative colorée dans sa construction. Les deux types de description sont des techniques de trafic entre la littérature et la peinture. Par conséquent, la description peut être à la fois un élément narratif et un élément plastique des deux arts en comparaison.
Mots-clés: Description figurative; Victor Hugo; Les Travailleurs de La Mer; Peinture; Littérature.

This paper analyzes different styles of presenting pictorial narratives in Assurbanipal's reliefs. Two distinctive compositional arrangements, " linear arrangement " and " centric arrangement, " are focused on in order to elucidate their features in depicting narratives from the point of view of the time and place at which the represented events occurred. A close examination of the centric arrangement as applied to the lion hunt reliefs on the southwest wall of Room C of the North Palace at Nineveh reveals that the hunting scenes incorporate two different hunts which would have been carried out at different times and possibly in different places. A similar practice of pictorial integration is also observed on the relief showing the presentation scene after the fall of Babylon. This includes not only a depiction of a parade of war spoils removed from the Babylonian palace, but also shows four foreigners lined up in front of Assurbanipal in a posture of supplication or of paying homage to the Assyrian king. The simultaneous occurrence of these events is not, however, supported by textual evidence. The centric arrangement is characterized by its potential to combine multiple incidents within a manipulated visual framework that creates a new dimension of historical events. This feature may already have been known at the time of Assurnasirpal II, when symmetrically-arranged reliefs were created to adorn the wall of the throneroom of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud.

According to Erwin Panofsky, linear perspective transformed “psychophysiological space into mathematical space”. To him, it meant a Durchsehung, or “looking through”. The purpose of this workshop is to reconsider the traditional conception of pictorial space in Western art from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Renaissance, in the fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. How might we bring a more material and social significance to such an abstract consideration as perspective?

Project Directors Laraine Fletcher and George Scheper introduce the "Worlds in Collision" NEH-funded Institute for the summer of 2020, and welcome interested academics and potential applicants.
See our website at < http://WorldsinCollision2020.com >

An NEH-funded Institute to be held at Adelphi University July 19 - Aug 9, 2020. Eleven visiting scholars will present research on the “New Conquest History,” exploring the newly accessible archives concerning 16th century Mexico, which include multiple forms (maps, pictorial histories and annals), many by indigenous and mestizo authors.  Three weeks of daily seminars, enhanced by frequent round-table discussions, will explore the ways in which these newly translated and interpreted documents can be integrated into existing and/or new curricula involving the encounter of cultures in 16th century Mexico.  We will make a special outreach to seek applicants from community colleges, including adjunct faculty and qualified graduate students. Application Deadline March 1, 2020.

The essay focuses on the transposition of cultural models between literature and visual arts, verbal and visual media, in particular on the relation between narrative scenarios or scripts (similar to the cognitive scripts) and pictorial models (historically determined schemes of visual representation typical of the poetics of an epoch, region or author, as introduced by Tamar Yacobi). The interaction of both cultural models in the structure of a literary work is demonstrated by the novelette Zahořanskýhon (The Hunt in Zahořany) by the realist writer Alois Jirásek, and a short story by the modernist František Langer, Zuzana v lázni a starci (Susanna and the Elders). This approach makes it possible to revisit also the interpretations of both texts seemingly safely located within the literary tradition and to uncover their attractiveness for the contemporary reader.
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Studie soustřeďuje na přenos kulturních modelů mezi literaturou a výtvarným uměním, verbálním a vizuálním médiem, a to na vztah tzv. narativních scénářů (obdoba kognitivních scénářů, tzv. scripts) a piktoriálních modelů (historicky určených schémat výtvarné reprezentace v rámci poetiky epochy, regionu či autorské, jak je zavedla Tamar Yacobi). Interakce obou kulturních modelů ve struktuře díla je pak doložena novelou Zahořanský hon realisty Aloise Jiráska a povídkou Zuzana v lázni a starci modernisty Františka Langera. Tento přístup dovoluje revidovat intepretace textů zdánlivě bezpečně usazených v literární tradici a odhalit jejich aktuální čtenářskou atraktivitu.