Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte LVII

Band LVII of the "Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte" engages with the relationship between visual representation and social reality. At its centre are questions concerning the connections between art, science and social power relations, whereby not only medieval and early modern, but also modern themes are dealt with. The first six articles are assigned to the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. The introductory text (Mojmit Frinta/New York) is concerned with miniature representations of the "Master of the travels of John Mandeville". On the basis of early modern images of the `three estates`, the following contribution from Tomislav Vignjevic (Ljubljana) shows how social hierarchies were visualised at that time. Ewald Lassnig (Wien) then looks at Durer`s "Melancholie", considering historical aspects as well as the artistic references to Pinder`s theory of cognitive science (Erkenntnistheorie), which have so far been neglected in research. The next article from Marina Haiduk (Berlin) demonstrates how the paragon debate was transferred into a biblical theme in Daniele da Volterra`s painting "David and Goliath". The manner in which catholic reforms in the mid-sixteenth century led to changes in representations of martyrs is revealed by Jörg Martin Merz (Münster). On the basis of Poussin`s late work Henry Keazor (New York), addresses the question of a possible `late style` for the artist: does the notion of such a style belong to the realm of myths or does it have an artistic reality? The following four articles are dedicated to classic modernism. Julia Rüdiger (Wien) shows how a marked artistic change in the work of Amédée Ozenfant took place in the second half of the 1920s. The possibility that Ozenfant`s change was the result of a new, art-theoretical orientation was for long given insufficient attention by scholars. Rüdiger reveals the influence of the natural sciences on the purist artist. On the basis of Brassa`s graffiti- photography, Katharina Steidl (Wien) analyses the connections between ethnography and art in 1920s Surrealism. A critical view of "physiognomisches Sehen" comes from Daniela Bohde (Frankfurt/Main), drawing on an analysis of gestalt psychology by Hans Sedlmayr. The author shows the extent to which Sedlmayr`s interpretation of the totality of an artwork (Totalität des Kunstwerks) was coloured by National Socialist thought - even if it contained no racist language. The concluding article from Michael Viktor Schwarz (Wien) deals with the `New York Strategy` of the emigrant, Max Beckmann. With this thematic and methodological diversity, insights are provided on the interdependence of artistic, scientific- historical and ideological connections and the latest results of research presented.