The article focuses on the complex interaction between gold and light in the very specific medium of mosaic in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. Studying the metaphoric qualities of light/gold and its qualitative distinctions in early Christian and Byzantine sources leads us to an understanding of the complex function of gold or golden tesserae in script and images. As gold is understood as light, mosaic seems to be a more or less perfect medium as it is not stable, but dependent on the changing light. The gold ground is transformed in every moment by light. Mosaic can thus be understood as the medium with the greatest capacity to bridge – virtually – the gap between the visible and the invisible divine light.

December 30, 2016

Eingehüllt in Gold und Bein – Die techné des Chryselephantin als ›Mitstreit‹ im Mittelalter

Stefan Trinks

Page range: 481-507

Abstract

Gold and ivory were considered to be among the most valuable materials in the Middle Ages. Whereas ivory would represent skin or bone tissue, gold could simultaneously signify and disguise the presence of God. Their iconology is tied to the objects they are attached with, heightening their value. What has not been studied in great depth so far, however, is the range of combinations and the nature of the relationship of both combined as “chryselephantine” in the antique manner. In examples of mostly Carolingian and Ottonian front covers and reliquaries made from gold and ivory between the ninth and eleventh centuries, it is evident that both were treated as equally valuable and that their combination results not in a paragone but a synagon , or aesthetic comradeship.

December 30, 2016

Bild, Ding, Material: Nimben und Goldgründe italienischer Tafelmalerei in transkultureller Perspektive

Vera-Simone Schulz

Page range: 508-541

Abstract

With a special focus on processes of artistic transfer between the Apennine peninsula and other regions in the Mediterranean and beyond, this paper sheds new light on haloes and gold grounds in thirteenthto fifteenth-century Italian painting. By means of case studies, it analyzes both (1) the role of haloes and gold grounds within the specific logic of the images, and (2) the impact of imported artifacts (their techniques, decoration, and materiality) on Italian panel painting as well as the complex interplays between imports and local production. Elucidating the intersections, frictions, and fields of tension between visual and material culture, this paper contributes to discussions on transmedial and transmaterial dynamics, transcultural art history, and the multireferentiality of gold.

Aufsätze

December 30, 2016

Haptik und Optik Jean-Siméon Chardins Malerei als ›Schule des Sehens‹

Anita Hosseini

Page range: 542-563

Abstract

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers explored the idea of sight through mind games and practical experiments. Investigating initial vision and tackling the problem of (actual and hypothetical) blindness, they eventually realized that sight itself only transmits the idea of forms and colors. In conclusion, the visual understanding of plasticity and distance postulates an exchange between optical and tactile experiences. Beholding paintings requires the same correlation, as the painted canvas also evokes the illusion of space and body. In his still lifes, Jean-Siméon Chardin uses colors in an activating manner and creates paintings that oscillate between real and represented matter. But they also show the presence of light and air and visually dematerialize the painted objects. Hence, these seem to disperse in light and color and to float in a sphere between painting and beholder. The outcome of this is an experience of a mere vision.

Buchbesprechungen

December 30, 2016

Quale Francesco? Il messaggio nascosto negli affreschi della Basilica superiore ad Assisi

Julian Gardner

Page range: 564-566

December 30, 2016

Die Ausstellungskopie. Mediales Konstrukt, materielle Rekonstruktion, historische Dekonstruktion

Angela Matyssek

Page range: 566-571

December 30, 2016

Jenseits des Spiegels. Das Sehen in Kunstgeschichte und Visual Culture Studies

Kristin Marek

Page range: 571-575

About this journal

Founded by Wilhelm Waetzold and Ernst Gall in 1932, the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte is published quarterly by Deutscher Kunstverlag. As the leading international German-language journal of art history it is one of the foremost periodicals of the academic discipline world-wide. Scholarly articles undergo a double-blind peer review by two independent experts; contributions are accepted in German, English, French, and Italian.

The Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte is a journal covering the whole range of art-historical matters. It offers a space for contributions dealing with all epochs and subjects, and using all methodical approaches. Open to art-historians from all points of the compass, it should at the same time serve to retain the polyglot nature of the discipline.

Organisation

The editorial office of the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte is located at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich. Since January 2020, Gerrít Walczak is Managing Editor.

The publisher delegates editorship to five Editors covering different areas of the discipline. For the sake of openness and plurality, Editors will generally serve for five years. The annual withdrawal of a member of the editorial board, and the subsequent by-election of a new Editor, assures steady change while maintaining continuity.

The Editors are nominated by an advisory committee, whose members are recruited from the institutes of art history at German universities, or operating outside higher education, and from the three German art historical research establishments at Florence, Paris, and Rome. Each institute or research establishment is invited to send a representative. Additionally, the board of directors of the Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker, the directorate of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte and Deutscher Kunstverlag are represented each by a consultative member. All members serve on the committe for six years unless their term is extended.

Submissions

The Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte accepts only contributions that have not been published elsewhere. Submissions are welcome in German, English, French, and Italian. Translations of essays either previously published or about to be published as well as outtakes from books in the making will not be processed. The editorial office assumes that articles and reviews are not parallely submitted to other journals. Articles will first be assessed by the editorial office and the editorial board, then passed on anonymously to two external referees