The Secret of England's Greatness

The Secret of England's Greatness is a portrait by Thomas Jones Barker of Queen Victoria meeting an African envoy and presenting him with a copy of the Bible. Painted around 1863, it has become an icon of British imperialism in this period and of the justification of colonial expansion in terms of the transmission of the values of the Bible. As such, the portrait appears confident and unambiguous: the secret of England's greatness is unravelled and the truth is exposed. This article seeks to disturb the apparent absence of mystery in this painted encounter and to examine what remains concealed in the meeting between the white sovereign and the black emissary. Moving from Barker's painting to William Mulready's The Toyseller, which was completed in the same years and depicts a black pedlar trying to sell a wooden toy to a white mother and child, the article uncovers, within the language of painting and its surrounding discourses, a different kind of disturbing and exhilarating secret, concerned with racial identity and mid-Victorian desire. Working from a reading of the surface of the paintings to related representations of blackness in nineteenth-century science and culture, the article considers how The Toyseller negotiates the proximity of the figures of the black pedlar and the white mother and child and the significance of the compositional gap between them and suggests that Mulready's painting visualizes many of the issues that were at the heart of British imperialism in the middle of the nineteenth century, following the abolition of slavery.     

Upwardly Mobile Footnotes: German References in the Encyclopédie des gens du monde 1

Images should be released from the monopoly of art history and integrated into the study of history itself. For culture, in the strict sense of the term, is an essential aspect of political history, especially in a state as centralised as 18th- and 19th-century France. This is the context in which visual images of Napoleon should be explored. Under the Directory, he began shrewdly to exploit paintings and engravings in his first campaign to win over public opinion, rapidly achieving renown by putting a face to his name. The development and profusion of images under the Consulate and Empire reveal the way, or ways, in which Napoleon sought to present himself to contemporaries and posterity. They also illustrate his main objectives: the strengthening of his power and the consolidation of his dynasty. The number and variety of these images suggest that he was acutely aware of his lack of legitimacy. Napoleon himself realised just how much he resembled a 'colossus with feet of clay'. In order to base this colossus on firmer foundations he set to work all the means at his disposal, not least painting and sculpture.     

Intersections between philosophy and art: expressions of immanence in the seventeenth century — Spinoza and Vermeer*

ABSTRACT

Spinoza's philosophy of immanence represents a turning point that radically changed our conception of human agency and its relation to infinity. Hans Blumenberg rightly called the principle of immanence “a general hypothesis of the epoch”, a principle that applies to philosophy no less than to the sciences and arts in the seventeenth century. This article looks at Dutch paintings by drawing parallels between Spinoza's philosophy and Vermeer's work. Spinoza and Vermeer both deny a dualistic conception of the world and a hierarchical structure between inner and outer spheres. With the example of Vermeer's painting the Milkmaid, this article shows how an analysis of light and colour, time and space, reveal a vision of immanent infinity, with the human agent at its centre.     

时空转换中的行宫图像——对几件《盘山图》的研究

本文以清代乾隆帝《盘山图》轴为主要研究对象,分析画面空间处理方式,并着重解读画上的题诗,从题诗的时间顺序、位置布局、主题内容、诗体形式、诗后钤印等方面,结合历史背景,剖析乾隆帝在漫长岁月中的心理变化,指出《盘山图》轴通过大量有纪年的题诗,将时间的流逝留驻于空间的布置之中,使画与历法联系起来,从而使这幅普通的山水画具有了更为深层的意识形态价值。此外,作者也研究了董邦达创作的《田盘胜概图》册和《盘山十六景图》卷,与《盘山图》轴和《盘山志》版画插图等材料进行对比分析,发现画法精细的《田盘胜概图》册在写实的表象之下具有高度风格化的倾向;《盘山十六景图》卷同样对空间作了风格化的处理,通过压缩、位移等技术手法,加上观看必需的时间过程,使画面空间与时间维度联系起来,这是长卷构图固有的特性,与《盘山图》立轴式的时空交融方式形成了对比。乾隆帝不选择适于书写题跋的《盘山十六景图》卷拖尾题诗,而选择在《盘山图》轴上局促的空白处题诗,更证明了他对《盘山图》轴有特殊的意匠经营。     

The landscape of Metztitlan,Mexico: Power and control in a sixteenth century Spanish administrative painting

ABSTRACT

The concept of landscape has been studied mostly as the view of a space with particular interest in its aesthetics, originating at the turn of the sixteenth century. However, I argue that in fourteenth century northern Europe, the concept was focused on polity rather than aesthetics. This article examines this lesser-known tradition by analysing the painting of Metztitlan, a sixteenth century town in Mexico, and arguing, first, that unlike all the other representations in the Relaciones Geográficas to which it belongs, it is the only landscape, and second, that this painting is associated with an administrative procedure common in Spain to gain control over imperial lands. I review European practices regarding the representation of towns under the Spanish Crown. Then, I present the results of the fieldwork carried out to locate several heights which probably served as vantage points to paint the landscape. Based on this research, I analyse the intentions of the painter to argue that it should be considered within the same tradition as the paintings made in Spain by Flemish painter Anton van de Wyngaerde, as part of the Spanish Empire's Germanic tradition of describing places with the intention of exerting control over them.     

古书画保护修复中的二次脱色现象及预防

中国古书画源远流长,在长期的收藏和传承历史中会出现各种各样的病害,传统书画修复技术因此得到发展。在书画修复中,观察和分析作品的病害情况是制定修复计划的重要前提,但保护修复中发生的脱色现象是后出现的二次病害,在修复计划中易被忽略以致画心被破坏,失去色泽变得暗淡,甚至出现部分内容缺失,对书画伤害极大,故而对修复中的二次脱色现象进行研究并优化相关修复技术是至关重要的。本工作以实践经验为基础,对古书画修复中的二次脱色现象进行全面的阐述和研究,从材料和工艺的角度分析了病害成因,将常见的修复中人为造成的脱色现象进行了分类,提出了修复中二次脱色现象发生的预防判断标准,优化了修复技术,为古书画病害的研究、书画修复技术的优化提供参考。     

西藏拉萨大昭寺转经廊壁画制作工艺研究

古代壁画是一定时期政治、经济、文化、艺术和科技发展水平的物质反映,因此,利用现代科技分析手段提取其信息并将之与古代文献结合,则可逆推其制作工艺和判定其制作时间,进而确定其历史价值、科学价值和艺术价值,为艺术史研究和保护修复提供信息。本工作利用拉曼光谱(Raman)、偏光显微镜(PLM)、扫描电子显微镜与能谱仪(SEM-EDS)、红外光谱(FT-IR)和X射线衍射(XRD)在西藏大昭寺转经廊壁画样品分析中获取的信息,结合文献,确定西藏拉萨大昭寺转经廊壁画绘制于清代晚期至20世纪80年代之间。此幅壁画地仗使用了阿嘎土,与文献记载一致;白粉层使用立德粉、碳酸镁和方解石等,与文献记载用白胶浆或者黄胶浆相异。同时发现壁画颜料采用藏族传统绘画配色方法。     

Annual Report and Accounts for 2015

Abstract

This paper presents a case for identifying the Westminster Retable as the thirteenth-century high altarpiece of Westminster Abbey. It considers the evidence of the construction and size of the panel, and argues for the suitability of a panel painting for the high altar dossal at so comparatively early a date. The apostolic and eucharistic iconography of the paintings is also held to argue for such a function.     

Social Science and the Discovery of a 'Post-Protestant People': Rowntree's Surveys of York and their other Legacy

Abstract

Despite the bitter criticism it evoked, both from clerical professionals and lay experts on its publication in 1951, Rowntree's and Lavers's English Life and Leisure survived to become an enduring classic of modern British social science. Yet, in many ways, the respectability it eventually achieved now masks the true radicalism of its findings. Building on fifty years of his own social survey work in York, Rowntree (and his collaborator) were able to show the full extent of the decline of church organization, affiliation and attendance in twentieth-century Britain. They also demonstrated just how these processes had particularly affected the Protestant community — most notably the Nonconformist Protestant community — in England. Finally, they went on to demonstrate how that — institutional — decline was increasingly related to changes in, and a diminution of, specifically Christian beliefs amongst the population as a whole. Their results anticipated many of the conclusions of the 'pessimistic' sociologists of religion in the 1960s. They also constitute a profound critique of 'optimistic' historical revisionism in more recent years. As such, they are perhaps more relevant than ever.     

The strange case of the Turkish and Venetian judges in eighteenth-century Mani wall paintings

Abstract

Investigating church wall paintings in Mani, Greece, the author identified a common theme of the Ainoi, the graphic interpretation of Psalms 148–150. Within this scheme there is often a specific depiction of the 'Judges of the Earth' as an Ottoman judge and a Venetian nobleman. This depiction is unique to Mani and is restricted to the mid-eighteenth century and those areas of Mani dominated by the rule of the kapetanoi. The paintings allude to the lack of established legal systems in that period of Mani's history and refer back to times of stable law under Ottoman and Venetian rule.     

Uranium-series dating rock art in East Timor

At many sites throughout the world rock art paintings have been covered by naturally deposited calcite laminations, which we demonstrate can be individually dated by recently improved uranium-series methods. Here we report the application of multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to measure the ages for carbonate coatings that bracket red pigment at Lene Hara cave, East Timor, which could be evidence of human painting. These analyses establish the feasibility of dating milligram samples of finely layered calcite deposits associated with archaeological evidence of human occupation. In addition to confirming an age of less then 6300 years for the visible red paintings on the carbonate surface we also report a substantially older age of 24,000 to 29,300 years for a similar, older red pigment lamination providing possible evidence for an earlier painting episode.     

Monster soup: the microscope and Victorian fantasy

Abstract

The Victorian predilection for the grotesque owed more than is commonly recognised to nature's microdimension. During the heyday of natural history in Britain (c. 1820–70), the microscope revealed myriads of shapes and creatures so utterly unfamiliar that writers on the subject resorted to flamboyant prose in order to render them intelligible. This had reverberations not least for the visual arts. The metaphors chosen by authors attempting to describe the microscopic world soon developed a visual presence, with supernatural features being projected even onto illustrations in supposedly scientific contexts. At the same time, such illustrations share certain motifs and/or stylistic characteristics with fairy paintings and illustrations by artists such as Daniel Maclise (1806–70), Richard Dadd (1817–86), Sir Joseph Noel Paton (1821–1901), and Arthur Hughes (1832–1915). In view of this, the fact that the golden age of British fairy painting coincided chronologically with the Victorian craze for microscopy seems to be the result of more than mere chance. If we acknowledge this, we must also ask whether, in the mid nineteenth century, points of contact between microscopy and the visual arts led to a liberation or else a limitation of fantasy.     

谈清宫皇帝后妃油画半身像

油画对于中国来说是一个外来的画种,经过美术史家多年的努力,它东传的时间和途径已然大致明确。但研究中还是有很多缺环。近些年来对清朝宫廷绘画实物及相关资料的发现,为欧洲油画东传的过程提供了更多的信息。本文通过对流传至今的清宫油画作品进行梳理,提出一些想法,或可补充关于"西画东渐"的叙述。     

Science and theatre in open dialogue: Biblioetica,Le Cas de Sophie K. and the postdramatic science play

Abstract

Judging by the many new ventures into the genre of the 'science play' over the last few years, the surge of interest in science on stage continues unchecked. The most interesting aspect of this trend, however, is not quantity but variety, and the ways in which directors in particular are beginning to challenge the playwright-driven and biographically inflected engagements that have so far dominated science on stage. In this article we discuss two recent productions from two prominent directors: Luca Ronconi's Biblioetica, staged in Turin in February–March 2006, and Jean-François Peyret's Le Cas de Sophie K., given in Paris in April–May. The gulf between these productions and more theatrically conventional plays like Copenhagen and Arcadia is wide, and this new work represents a significant step for science plays in the direction of 'postdramatic theatre', a term used by Hans-Thies Lehmann in his groundbreaking work on the subject. We argue that for many reasons these productions suggest that the interaction of science and the stage lends itself by its very nature to the postdramatic condition.     

The gesture of looking in classical history painting

In this paper, possible functions of the gesture of indicating, either with hands or postures, or with looks or facial expressions, portrayed on the figures found in the history painting of the XVIIth century are studied. Two examples from the paintings of Le Brun and Poussin are analyzed in detail to show how these gestures are signifying elements of the story represented through the dispositio of its figures as well as operative parts of a representational apparatus historically and esthetically defined. The gesture of indicating, intended to articulate and regulate the viewer's reception of the painting, is supposed to constrain how he adheres to the religious, social or political values — that is the ideological background of the scene represented in the painting.     

沈阳故宫藏门神赏析

挂门神是中国古代传统的过大年习俗。传说唐太宗经常在睡梦中受到鬼魂的惊扰,就派手下两位大将秦琼和尉迟敬德把守大门,非常有效,于是便将二人的画像贴在门上,后世仿效沿袭,广为流行,称为门神。门神的前身是桃符,又称＂桃板＂。古人认为桃木是五木之精,能克百鬼,故从汉代起即有用桃作辟邪之具的风习,以桃木作桃人、桃印、桃板、桃符等辟邪,     

Painted plaster from Bronze Age Thebes, Boeotia (Greece): a technological study

From the rather difficult excavations that have taken place in Thebes since the beginning of the last century, many fragmentary but often well-preserved paintings on plaster have been unearthed. These belong to several contexts and periods: House of Kadmos (Late Helladic IIIA), Treasury Room (Late Helladic IIIB1) and Oikopedon Spourli (Late Helladic III). Their iconography, style and technology fit well with other paintings from the Late Bronze Age sites found in the vicinity of Thebes (e.g. Gla and Orchomenos). This paper presents a technological study of the Bronze Age painted plaster from Thebes, Greece. The paintings were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction; stereo, reflected light and scanning electron microscopy; some by laser-induced breakdown spectrometry and by micro-Raman spectroscopy, in order to identify the pigments and the composition of the plaster layers, and to determine the painting technique(s) that the artisans may have employed. The plaster layer onto which the paint layer was applied was often the only layer and consisted mainly of calcite, while a clay plaster formed the backing between the lime plaster coat and the actual wall surface. The pigments identified were: yellow ochre, haematite (red), cuprorivaite (Egyptian blue), indigo and possibly riebeckite for blue, charcoal (black), calcite (white), and a combination of black and red for purple. A detailed macroscopic study of the painted surface revealed several features, which indicated that the technique of al fresco painting was employed extensively, a technique already in use since the start of the Late Minoan I phase on Crete. A generally lower level of quality in the appearance of the later paintings (Treasury Room and Oikopedon Spourli) was also noted, but this was not reflected in the materials used or in their overall manipulation.     

一种基于形状和颜色特征的建筑彩画检索方法

为了能够在建筑彩画数据库系统中自动找出与所给事例彩画相似的彩画及各种相关数据资料,需要进行彩画图像检索。给出了一种基于形状和颜色特征的建筑彩画检索方法,第一步是对彩画基本类型进行检测识别,先对彩画图像进行边缘检测,再利用先验模板对边缘图像进行匹配,然后根据匹配结果来识别彩画的基本类型。第二步是在相同的基本类型中进行相似性匹配,主要是在HSV空间中统计颜色直方图特征矢量,以同类型彩画之间颜色直方图矢量的相似度大小作为检索依据,最后给出检索结果。实验表明,本方法的检索结果更符合人眼对相似性的感知。     

Art Museums,Old Paintings,and Our Knowledge of the Past

Art museums frequently remove old paintings from their original settings. In the process, the context of these works of art changes dramatically. Do museums then preserve works of art? To answer this question, I consider an imaginary painting, The Travels and Tribulations of Piero's Baptism of Christ, depicting the history of display of Piero della Francesca's Baptism of Christ. This example suggests that how Piero's painting is seen does depend upon its setting. According to the Intentionalist, such changes in context have no real influence upon the meaning of Piero's painting, and consequently museums can be said to preserve works of art. According to the Skeptic, if such changes are drastic enough, we can no longer identify the picture's original meaning, and museums thus fail to preserve works of art. Skepticism deserves attention, for such varied influential commentators as Theodore Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Maurice Blanchot, Hans‐Georg Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, Hans Sedlmayr, and Paul Valéry hold this pessimistic view of museums. I develop the debate between the Intentionalist and the Skeptic. Ultimately skepticism is indefensible, I argue, because it fails to take account of the continuities in the history of art's display. But Intentionalism is also deficient because it is ahistorical. In presenting the history of Piero's painting, The Travels and Tribulations of Piero's Baptism of Christ shows that we can re‐identify the original significance of Piero's work and the recognizable continuities that obtain through its changes. It thus makes sense to claim that at least in certain circumstances art museums can preserve works of art.