Visual Time by Keith Moxey

Visual time The Image in History

keith moxey

Visual Time he Image In hIsory

Keith Moxey

D Uivit P

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D  L

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2013

© 2013 D Uivit P  A it v Pit i t Uit Stt  Aic  ci- ci pp ♾ Di  Ht H  pt i A P   ti St, c. Li   ti-iti-i-Picti Picti Dt Mx, Kit P. F., 1943–  Vi ti : t i i it / Kit Mx. p. c c iipic c  ix. Isbn 97 9788-00-82238223-53545354-66 (ct : . pp) Isbn 97 9788-00-82238223-53695369-00 (p. : . pp) 1. At—Hitip. At—Hitip. 2. i  t. . it. n7480.m69 2013 707.2′2—c23 2012048671

Conens

ix Lit  tti xi Act 1 tcti Part i

Time

1.  Mit Mtip? 2. D W Sti N  Ri Ric? c? 3. tp tpit’ it’ Htc Htcicit icit Part ii

11 23 37

HisTory

4. Vi Sti  t cic  5. B B’’  6. Mii  c cc c 7. pi Ditc 173 ci 177 Biip  199 x 

53 77 107 139

IllusraIons

1.1. 2.1. 2.2.. 2.2 2.3.. 2.3 5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4. 5.5. 6.1. 6.2. 6.3. 6.4.. 6.4

G St, wo Friends , 1941 13 Rt pi, Merode Altarpiece Altarpiece , c. 1425 27 Act Dü, Sel- Portrait   Portrait  , 1500 29 F Aic, Annunciatio  Annunciationn with Saint Peter Pete r Martyr  Mart yr  , c. 1440–45 30 Pit B t E E,, Te Battle between Carnival and Lent  , 1559 81 Hi Bc, Te Garden o Earthly Delights , c. 1510 85 Pit B t E, Christ Carrying the Cross , 1564 88 Pit B t E, Te riumph o Death , 1562–63 92 Pit B t E, Te Return o the Hunters , 1565 97 T D, Window , 1998 110 T D, Glass , 2002 111 Hii Sit Sit,, Henry VIII  , 1999 112 ic  H Hi t Y,  Portrai  Portraitt o Henry VIII  o England , 1540 112 6.5. i S, Untitled #213 , 1989 113 6.6. H Hi t Y,  Portrait o o Derich Born , 1533 116 6.7. H P, Georg Gra von Löwenstein , c. 1460 118 6.8. J Gt, Carondelet Diptych: Jean Carondelet  , 1517 119 6.9. J Gt, Carondelet Diptych: Virgin and Child , 1517 119 6.10. H Hi t Y, Te Ambassadors , 1533 123 6.11. Lc c t E  Lc c t Y, Crucixion and Allegory o Redemption , 1555 128 6.12. Lc c t E E,,  Lamentation under under the Cross Cross , 1503 128

6.13. Lc c t E, Martin Luther  , 1533 130 o Rotterdam , 1523 130 6.14. H Hi t Y,  Erasmus o 7.1. Mtti Gü, Crucixion (xti  t  Isenheim  Altarpiece), c. 1512 147 7.2. G Gz, “Shut Up and Do Your Duty,”  1927 148 7.3. G Gz, “Silence!,” 1935–36 148 7.4. Act Dü, Knight, Death, and the the Devil , , 1513 152 7.5. Act Dü, Melencolia I  , 1514 157

x

—  List o Illustrations

aCknowledgmens

Te ideas contained in these chapters have been developed over

    i it v  vi cti. T thrust o my argument, addressed at the current shape o art

it,      i   t pvicii  it Ectic i. Ti  ppt  t p t i tt tc t c it     ticti itc t  cipti t  “iv”   ti.   tt t  ivv i t vpt  xcti   t ct c c  tit “Mtip Miti,” t pp  Et Pzt t i Uivit i 2006  repeated by Susan Vogel in 2009. Tis course brought a num ber o the aculty together to discuss modern and contemporary  art in “non- W “non- Western” estern” cultures. I learned an immense amount

 t ptti   c  ppt  t tict  i t t iicc  t “t”  tiv  t  pjct  t it  t. T iti  vc   pticipti i  p c “tpit” iz t t  At titt     Sit i 2009. Sit’ Sit’ i  ti i ctp  t tt v ic t i    picti tit  . T tt  t   t, t ,    t   t t pi  t ivitti   their hospitality: hospita lity: Maria Vest Vest Hansen and an d Hanne Kolind Poulsen

(p), Oivi Mti (Mt), Hi Vt (At), Mq Sit  J M (L),

 Ac Ov (Bct),  St Spt (Mxic it). Te resulting texts dealing directly with time in part I o the book have  beneted rom readings by Alexander Alberro, Hagi Keenan, and Miguel

 A Hz Nv. A A  t v  qt itct  ti iip i c ppcit.  ppcit. A vi  “D W W Sti N  Rnaissance?” appeared in Crossing Cultures: Conict, Migration and Conver gence. Te Te Proceedings o the 32nd International Congress o the History o Art  ,

it  Ji A (M: M Uivit Pii, 2009), 233–38. M tt ti t t cic  cic t   ttic xpic  t   t t     t i iptc o ideas o agency or “presence” in the literature o both art history and  visual studies. Tese ideas ideas structure the chapters chapters assembled in part II. Kreši-

i P  Ž Pić (Z)  t t Jé Li B (Mi) pvi  it pptiti t t t t vpt. T sulting article, “Visual Studies and the Iconic urn,” rst appeared in the  Journal o Visual Studies 7, no. 2 (2008): 131–46. I thank Marquand Smith and James Elkins or their suggestions. It was translated into Spanish or  Estudios Visuales 6 (2009): 8–26  Jé Li B,  it Fc  Intermédialités 11 (2008): 149–68 by Johanne Lamoureux, to whom I am most

grateul. Te importance o this “ontological turn” is urther explored in

cpt 5, 5 , “B’ .” .” Occi t vp ti txt tx t      Asbjørn Grønstad and Øyvind Vågnes (Bergen (Bergen), ), Beat Wyss (Karlsruhe),  Jan von Bonsdor (Uppsala), Dan Karlholm (Stockholm), Gabriela Siracusano (Buenos Aires), Christine Bernier (Montreal), and James Elkins

(ic). A vi pp i  Balances, perspectivas perspectivas y renovaciones disci plinares de la historia del arte: V Congreso Congreso Internacional de eoria e Historia del Ati   Arte , it  Mc G t . (B Ai: t Ati

 vestigadores de Arte, Arte, 2009). 2009). Te work’s capacity to haunt our our consciousness is urther explored in a chapter on the mimetic power o Hans Holbein’s

ptit. Ti txt  t vp   t,   t Mc Lit (Paris), Susanna Burghartz and Maike Christadler (Basel), and Mar Bo-

i (Mi)  pptiti pptiti t   vit  it ic. It appeared in  Art History 32, no. 1 (2009): 52–78, thanks to David Peters Corbett and Samuel Bibby, and was translated into Spanish in  El siglo de  Durero: Problemas Problemas historiogracos historiogracos , it  M Bi, 109–31 (Mi:

T-Biz TBiz M, 2008). x

—  Acknowledgments

Fi, t i  ti t   itti  t   t iti,  cti  itic iti’ cpcit t iz t pt i t present. What is it that drives historians to attempt this impossible task,

   t tit t   ic tt t ic i t pt i t  izti tt ti citi i pc i t pt? pt 7       t  P t t  At titt i Wiit, Mctt.  cti t  t t M  Hxt  Mc Sip  i   c. t  pi  “pi Ditc: Pt  Pt i t St  Dü  Grünewald” in  Art Bulletin 86 (2004): 750–63, where it beneted rom

i  Jp K  Li G. A t vi  included in Te Essential Dürer  , edited by Larry Silver and Jerey Chipps

Sit, 279–310 (Pipi: Uivit  Pvi P, 2009). M  t t t ’ i, v,   p. F     v   t ct  it icp c,   t t t  t   it ii, ptic Li Gv, K Bc,  S Rp,  ti ii -t - t itc.  t  tt t t pi vi   t txt v  tti t  vi  ici i ti v.   t t c Stp Mvi  ici t ctemporary French philosophy, and the graduate students in my seminars at Columbia on such topics as “Te Iconic urn,” “How Images Tink,”

 “i  t ”  it xc t t t  t  vi ti. Gi Sz   ci  titi itc i ccti pt  pii  t itti.    it t t c tip cit it t B Nv i  t    B . Mt iptt, iptt, v,   t itct  vt  it Mic A H i  cpcit  St Dict   the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program. Tis exciting, multidimensional enterprise has proven an invaluable source o insights and

i. S , v, , ct p,  it v    t txt. Ti   t  i   t .

 Acknowledgments

—

x

InroduCIon

 Where and when is the time o the history o art? Tis book 

 t i i ti    t ti  t i— the temporal constructs erected to account or the history o 

 vi jct  ti it tp ptti. T cpc pters circle around the questions posed by these two issues or the history o art. One argument posits that historical time is

t iv t tcic, tt ti  t v t t  p i it pc. T it  t c t iconcerting possibility that the time it imagines, history’s very  architecture, architectu re, is neither uniorm nor linear but rather multivalent

 icti. H  iti t t t tiv  titic cti i it pt  t ? Wt  t prospects or a world or a global art history in circumstances

tt ciz t iciit  it ti  ct titi? T t t p  t cronism involved in the experience o works o art, the awareness that regardless o the moment o their creation they still

v t p t ct t pt. Appci   t as capable o creating their own time, anachronic or aesthetic

ti, iit  t   t itic iz i ic ti cpti t pc. Integral to the arguments described above is the idea o  translation. ranslation is, or example, the means by which

tpiti itct it c t. t  pvi  cmon, though inadequate, metaphor or the transormation o 

 what we see into into what we read. ranslation is as impossible impossible as it is necessary: necessary: impossible because, as Walter Benjamin points out, every translation rom

  it t ivv t cti ct i   ti tt cp  it it,  necessary c t i  t   ccivi t piiit  tct cicti  t ptti  ti t i t t . ti ti it t  cc   itic tiv t t,  c it qt t vii it t i.  invoke it to suggest the difcult process by which incommensurable dis-

c  i t t  t, tii ti ccpi ctici i t.  i it heterochrony. T it  t  titi titi  pt c  it ti ttpti t   t t cic cti ct i  t  jct it c c  it .  it t t cti  t t,    t  them more susceptible to attributed meaning, works o art are inevitably  assigned a sequential location within a teleological system. Embedded in metonymic horizons, they acquire the distance deemed necessary or socalled historical interpretation. Can art history conceive o time in any other

t?  c  ivc  it iticti it  tivt tiv t tp tjct  iicc i tict t E- Aic E- Aic ct? T ci pjct, it  it ic t Wt Wt i  it it  cici, i cti it i. A J Fi , it   pi  Wt Wt p t pi t ct t t  t ’ ct i t  cctiz cct iz t   pti xtic t   tp   c. i’ i’ cti, t pc  ti tt,  i t Wt.  Art history cannot easily abandon its investme investment nt in an idea o time em-

  i  ccpt  it tct   Hi tiv tt   tiqit t iqit,, t t Ric,   t it. it. T i itt pc i ti c  t   tpit tpit.. A  it tpi, t it i ixtic i t  ti  t  i t icci it  i  tc ( ti xiti at the same time). Modernism fnds it necessary to believe that time is going

—pp v tt it   . t ct ccpt tt t it   t  “p”  ti,  it  ic p  t ti   ttiv.  i  c t  ,  i t it  t t  it tcicit, t ti tt t  tip   ti,  tt 2

—  Introduction

they do not necessarily relate to one another? Can the discipline, or ex-

p, ccpt tt t i  t t - W - Wt t pppiti  Wt t, tt t iti  t ptiti  t tt  it,  tt t “ct” i t  cpi  it pp t t “i”? T iticti t it   pcic Wt   i i  t pt,  it it   iti  iv,  t tip tiv  p c vc c citic. T ic  c, titi it’ vii cc, i t  t  tt ti   pp   .  t itries are to be recognized, time’s passing cannot itsel have meaning, and

t tt  t ti tt  t t ti  jti   ti i ct p p.. p p ic, v, tt  c  t   ic i ic  pt  x  itic itptti i t ct pt.  c, ticit,    ci i pct  itic tiv, t iv, t tc’ tc’ ci tt ti i   itict ct cctitic t   t it citi. i xt t t   t i i t pcti  ti,  csider its implications or art’s history. Te discipline has overwhelmingly 

ict it c t ti t  i t t i ic it was created. It is no surprise then that the discipline should have been tempted to treat the image as something dead and inert, an object more like a text than something whose visuality rendered it ultimately inacces-

i t txt ti.  t ti t i  t  i t t  tict t t iz  it cti, t it tt   t i t cti   it  cpti, it anachronic p, i t. T “pc”   t   t—it tic xitc, t  it t cp i t pt pv  ti it  itptti—c itptt i—c t t . Ti vi  t ti  t  t it itic itptti i  t  t itptiv citt  t c   t ttit ct. T citic iititiv tt  t itic tti i ti pi t t ittit t vi  ci t    art to a maniestation o social orces and cultural attitudes. In the wake o iconography and iconology, the impulse to devise adequate schemes that might capture every aspect o a work’s original meaning led to ever-

-iti iti   ci it  it.. Pitic vt i ci  Introduction

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3

c  t t ctxtizti    t  pvi  cc  t titic pcti   pivi c  iiz p, c  tic iiti  . T p     t itic c i t icti o the aesthetic—where the art historical project began. oday the gap

 t    t  it vi i  ifct t itii. it ii. Appc   t i it  it, t t   cti  ct attitudes, the work is treated as a collaborator in the production o meaning.

 W  ctxt ttit  t      jct     cpt t t t  cti   iic   t  , ti  ct piti  it  t pi tt itptti p   xc xc  t t   it vi. N t , ti i it t t  t t vt   a historiographic pendulum that has characterized art history’ history ’s research and

pic pctic  t pt ct   . T ti t t ppt cicti —t citi  t pcicit    ’ ttic pc  t itptti  it ci  ct iicc— pctiv it t itic itt i t pt,  it cti t  t. Te rhetorical contrasts oered by contemporary art historical writing raise many provocative questions about historical interpretation. Where,

 xp,  t “pitic”  itptti?  t pitic  i t ctt  t   t, i it p t cti  iit ci  ct i,  i it p t xc t iitti    t ct  xpiti   it ?   cti  itii  t t? W   it t c tt? Bt p  ti itcti it vi i  t  ti ic.   t i  t ttic i t ctt it pitic itptti      t, i it t t  vit tt  ct viv itt itt t t?  A  t ti px, it  t , i i t i  diference.  ierence was understood in the art history o the 1980s as a orm o iden-

tit pitic—    i ttti t t i  c, , x pc, c, ticit,  ti ii—it i iv i ti txt t c ttti t t tit  tpiti. Rt t x  ti t it ti z, v, t c i  ti ierentials—the ever-shiting ever- shiting power dynamics that serve both to reiy and transorm relations among temporalities. Te word diference is used here 4

—  Introduction

 t t ctt   ti t i  t t tt ti    pc cici in ways that hinder eorts to disentangle disen tangle them. Te word is also used to contrast the aesthetic time created by the object rom the temporal conventions o the location in which that th at response is lodged. Te exper experience ience o the image

i itict  t ti tt  it. A  c c  tp  i  tc,  t p,  iit tt  c    pcpti tt i  tt  t ctxt i ic it pp. Diference t ttpt t cpt t pcpt  tt tpiti pc  pc  p  it. t t t t t-t- -   xpic, t  tt t i c objectivity  civ tt    cqc  it ct it  jct. T t cti i ti ctxt t cctiz titi  ti i t  cci tt tp iticti c  it  ci  . Part I, “ime,” contains three chapters that turn attention directly to

tc: t qti  t itic ti i  ptci itti. “ Mit Mtip?”  t, i    i     t iz t  ct itcti iit  t cicit  t ctp (t ct tt ti  t  t t  speed in all places), it is possible to escape the shadow o the ideological

c pi  titic i.  t tt  cizti, economic, technological, military, and cultural actors still serve to main-

ti t ti  Wt Ep  Nt Aic  tt it ic all others are calibrated. Whether these hierarchies are accepted or chal-

, it i tpi t pt t  t xit. T pit  ti  i t  t t i  c,  iti it t  tt q, it   v  it vti ctti.  t p  ti tt,  tt, it i t     cip ,  ti pc c   tti: tti  ti it txt  it ti it txt tx t tt it   itii t  t. Ev i tti t  t t p ti  ,    xti t t  p ttit t t vi  pp t t txt, tx t, it     tt i tp t tci   i  c tjct t jct  ti’ i. “D W Sti N  Ric?” xi t piizi tti o the history o art, its chronological structure, in order to discuss their

it itic v. E iti  cic qc,  such classicatory terms useul outside the evolutionary logic with which  Introduction

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5

t  i? t i c,  xp, tt t i  t Ric  undergone continual transormations since its “invention” in the nineteenth

ct  tt  iti c v cpt t c  tt itt, zzi . Bt c   itt it? “tpit’ Htcicit” cti t ici  pi“tpit’ izti  vii t ct t  t t  ctp  art in the context o a postcolonial awareness o time’s heterochronicity.

T ppt ipiiit  i ti t  titic pcti, t ci    cizi t cv t  it    ti, i i   ii t citi  tp  ct ic. Ev i t i  t  t  ti t   “” i t  ,  cctizti, v tit, i cci    iti tt ci t  itic. Pt , “Hit,” t t t ptti  t  t ct ti  it —   ti t iti it ttic xpic. H c t t  t vi  pct i t c  t cit t   t ivt it it i? Ti itti i t  cpt. “Vi Sti  t cic ” v   itcti t t c  ctti t t it   ti t image. A predominantly Anglo- American Anglo- American tradition approache approachess the image as cultural product lled with signicance that needs to be deciphered,

 i t ppctiv iiti i t Ei- , Ei- , Fc- , ,  Gpi  vi it   t tt pv i p i it vi. T ic pct  itptti   t ic  dierent perspectives, which cover the spectrum rom semiotics to phe-

, t t ptti  vi ti    it cptiiit it t  v icipi  t it  t. “B’ ” t it t t  t tic pc   “B’ t i i c t t iit  t txt txt  t  it jtic. H  the work continue to inspire interpretations in the course o time? How 

 it cp t ci   tt  ttpt t t it it  words? Why Why,, in in this this case, case, is the historiograp historiography hy o Pieter Bruegel littered with

ttpt t cip  c t i  i pict?   v   t iitiv   itptti t ip t jct tt occasioned it? Does description translate the visual into the verbal or simply 

pc  i it  i? qt  t v  pp i t ct  ti t vi it   i, tti v 6

—  Introduction

  tp  t   itic itptti.   tivt c i t it’ , t i  ic  ti  t pt p, t tti   it cc. In “Mimesis and Iconoclasm,” the ocus o attention lies in the magical power o verisimilitude, its apparent capacity to outrun time in order to maintain its ascination or widely diering historical moments. ConCon temporary artists are as adept at exploiting its power as are those o the

Ric. Wt iit  t  it viiiit’ ci? Te contemporary German artist Tomas Demand, or example, deliber-

t c titi ti tt ii it ip  t iitti  t  pci i pitic ptp  c ctct c . Di ttti t t  i ic iittion is actually a creative process intended to persuade viewers that works o 

t cp it  pcpti c  t ct  t pc  H Hi’ piti Te Ambassadors. Ti  pct  t potential meaning o this charmed picture. Like Demand’s photographs, the

itic ic   Te Ambassadors i it c i  tt pit  t t it ic tt  tt  t  t  it,     t     it t t.. Te fnal chapter in part II, “Impossible Distance, Distance,”” reviews the twentiethcentury historiography histor iography on Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald in order

t xi t   ic c v t ct  cc t t  itic itv tt pt pt  pt. G itic iti  t tit  c p   t tiit tic cit it t t Fit  Sc W W. Ntiit c cp t itic itc tt pt ixtt-ct ixtt- ct G  rom their own time to insist on continuities that established and confrmed

 t G itit. Ei P’ P’ ppc t t tit t the Second World War dwells on the dierences between historical hori-

z t t  t qiti tt t t  t ii. H ci tt t cpcit  t Ric t itii it  ct   pcic t i ti itict  t t Mi A  tiqit,  i  xpicit t t t “icv”  i ppctiv, i, i ct, it  metaphor or the enlightened (rationalist rather than nationalist) historian’s ability to distinguish historical “truth.” Historical distance, whose neglect

c v t itt  cit i, c t   ic the alleged autonomy o the past guarantees the veracity o the historical  Introduction

—

7

record. Te chapter ends by asking whether this cordon sanitaire placed

 t pt t p it t  c  cci it t p  t i t pv it  p, t i  jct  jct  t iti it ttic xpic. Te hinge that unites the two axes around which this book is orga-

iz—t t  it  it ti t t c  c  t i—i  c ti. t  i v tttiv  t t i cti t it  t t, t   tv it pitt qti.  ti i tip t t iv, t it i ict  t iti t ti i t t ti  cct  ti i t parts o the world considered dominant and those that have traditionally   been designated designated subaltern. I an image prompts its own reception, reception, then how 

 t iti t icpt it it  icic tiv?  it i ti  t? tp tii t t   t  t t t  it it c t icipi  it t t   t tt t iicc  ttiv tpiti tt itct it t ivizi piti  it tiv,    t tit it   t i  i  t t  ti cti.

8

—  Introduction