Thorvaldsen's Shadow: Silhouette Portraits Revisited as Visual Culture 1800-1850
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Thorvaldsen's Shadow : Silhouette Portraits Revisited as Visual Culture 1800-1850. / Dam Christensen, Hans.
Mind and Matter: Selected Papers of Nordik 2009 Conference for Art Historians. red. / Johanna Vakkari. Sastamala : Society of Art History in Finland, 2010. s. 100 (Taidehistoriallisia Tutkimuksia, Bind 41).Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapport › Bidrag til bog/antologi › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Thorvaldsen's Shadow
T2 - Silhouette Portraits Revisited as Visual Culture 1800-1850
AU - Dam Christensen, Hans
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - This article takes its starting point in a silhouette portrait of the sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), by far the most famous artist of the so-called Golden Age in the history of Danish art. The main purpose is to outline the importance of silhouette portraits in the Danish Golden Age as well as their importance in a more general history of visual culture. First and foremost, the article points to the fact that silhouettes once were a very popular way of making portraits, which has been neglected by posterity. Next, it discusses silhouette portraits in a wider context that invites a consideration of similarities with for example, from a traditional point of view, neo-classical aesthetics and, from a more critical point of view, racism. Further, the article contest a modern "post-photographic" reception, which makes the silhouettes uninteresting or tedious, in order to promote a "pre-photographic" reception of silhouette portraits, where the indexical representation (in a Peircean sense) of a beloved, deceased or missed person is stressed; this "pre-photographic" reception is a mode of affective reception which we nowadays seem to overlook. In other words, the article argues that silhouette portraits could be a way of picturing memory and loss in the 19th century. In conclusion, this approach also invites a consideration on the challenge of silhouettes to the current photographical noem (in a Barthesian sense).
AB - This article takes its starting point in a silhouette portrait of the sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), by far the most famous artist of the so-called Golden Age in the history of Danish art. The main purpose is to outline the importance of silhouette portraits in the Danish Golden Age as well as their importance in a more general history of visual culture. First and foremost, the article points to the fact that silhouettes once were a very popular way of making portraits, which has been neglected by posterity. Next, it discusses silhouette portraits in a wider context that invites a consideration of similarities with for example, from a traditional point of view, neo-classical aesthetics and, from a more critical point of view, racism. Further, the article contest a modern "post-photographic" reception, which makes the silhouettes uninteresting or tedious, in order to promote a "pre-photographic" reception of silhouette portraits, where the indexical representation (in a Peircean sense) of a beloved, deceased or missed person is stressed; this "pre-photographic" reception is a mode of affective reception which we nowadays seem to overlook. In other words, the article argues that silhouette portraits could be a way of picturing memory and loss in the 19th century. In conclusion, this approach also invites a consideration on the challenge of silhouettes to the current photographical noem (in a Barthesian sense).
KW - silhouet
KW - visuel kultur
KW - Guldalder
KW - Thorvaldsen
KW - silhouette; Thorvaldsen; Golden Age; visual culture
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 978-952-5533-13-2
T3 - Taidehistoriallisia Tutkimuksia
SP - 100
BT - Mind and Matter
A2 - Vakkari, Johanna
PB - Society of Art History in Finland
CY - Sastamala
ER -
ID: 47070348