History told by Visual Narratives

Hertha Firnberg Position T 78 History told by Visual Narrative Barbara ZIMMERMANN 27.06.2000 Traditionally monuments are analysed by an iconografical approach using the method of descriptive interpretation. Considering also stylistic and aesthetic aspects, this process tries to answer the question of the represented content in the work of art. In any analysis this is a necessary first step, though in some cases of pictorial narratives it leaves important aspects which refer to different communicational meanings unconsidered. In pictorial narratives these can only be understood by examining the representative mode. The planned research topic - under consideration of research results of the past decades - is designed to find out whether the choice of using a narrative mode in roman and lateantique artwork can be considered to be intentional in terms of meaning. For this a method starting from the work itself is chosen: Opposite to the tendency of research to apply methods from other sciences as philology and linguistics, the work will base on an exclusive art-historian approach: Do formal inherent criteria referring to the historicity of the shown events exist, or put differently, can a pictorial "`chronical-style" be defined? Analog to the fact that certain topics are represented by specific types, motifs, patterns ecc, which have a high tendency to interchange - above all in Late-Antiquity -, in this case has to be looked for formal criteria, which define a continuos narrative style. Thesis is that choosing a certain type of pictorial narrative was done purposely to impose "historical truth". Which historic events are presented to the viewers by which narrative form? Can the conception of "historic truth" be found in works of art? Did this concept of historic truth change due to the fierce changes in society during the late antique time, and if so how?

The planned research topic - under consideration of research results of the past decades - was designed to find out whether the choice of using a narrative mode in roman and late-antique artwork can be considered to be intentional in terms of meaning. For this a method starting from the work itself was chosen: Opposite to the tendency of research to apply methods from other sciences as philology and linguistics, the work wanted to base on an exclusive art-historian approach: Do formal inherent criteria referring to the historicity of the shown events exist, or put differently, can a pictorial "chronical-style" be defined? Thesis was that choosing a certain type of pictorial narrative was done purposely to impose "historical truth". Which historic events are presented to the viewers by which narrative form? Can the conception of "historic truth" be found in works of art? Did this concept of historic truth change due to the fierce changes in society during the late antique time, and if so how? Traditionally continous pictorial narrative was considered to be genuin to book-illustration. Analysis of late- antique book-illustration made clear that continuous narratives never were connected with full literary texts but only with paraphrased texts. This results brought up the theory that continuous narratives in roman and late antique art are text dependent. Further investigations concentrated on the triumph columns of Trajan with its pictorial narratives on the Dacian- Wars. Studying the formal picture inherent criteria, which define the flow of the narration showed a great correspondence with the only two manuscripts conserved until today (the `Wiener Genesis` and the `Josua-Rotulus`) which both show a heavily paraphrased text reflecting only the most important scenes. Can this imply that the triumph columns of Trajan can be compared to a rolled out rotulus? This thesis, first put forward in the beginning of the 20th century, was heavily opposed to by the studies of the Weitzmann School. The existence of continuous rotuli was heavily disapproved by them. Additionally the spiral relief with stereotype scenes was not at all conceivable as being based on a literary war-report as the study of it would have been hardly bearable. Especially the emphasis on ceremonial and representative scenes and the stereotype sequence showing major attacks would not relate to the dynamics and the dramaturgy of literature, so the general opinion, but from a literary point of view also the texts of the both manuscripts under consideration were illegible. The continuous style is per se narrative, used for official political monuments as the Trajan column it turned out that it was used with the intention to build up the illusion of reality by fixing the representative scenes in time and space. As we today also the people in the antique period lived with the power of pictures dominating their life. Different media presented historical events under certain predetermined ideological points of view. To build up this illusion of reality they did not use film or photos of events as we do today, but a certain narrative documentary form. The reliefs of the Trajan column show to which extent narrative form established this illusion of reality through connecting the happenings to a certain time and space. The ideological message of this `unbiased` reports has influenced society`s thinking then as much as today.