Showing Time: Continuous Pictorial Narrative and the Adam and Eve Story: In Memory of Alberto Argenton

ISBN-13: 9783031136610 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023 / 429 str.

Laura Messina-Argenton; Tiziano Agostini; Tamara Prest

Opis

How does a visual artist manage to narrate a story, which has a sequential and therefore temporal progression, using a static medium consisting solely of spatial sign elements and, what is more, in a single image? This is the question on which this work is based, posed by its designer, Alberto Argenton, to whose memory it is dedicated. The first explanation usually given by scholars in the field is that the artist solves the problem by depicting the same character in a number of scenes, thus giving indirect evidence of events taking place at different times. This book shows that artists, in addition to the repetition of characters, devise other spatial perceptual-representational strategies for organising the episodes that constitute a story and, therefore, showing time. Resorting to the psychology of art of a Gestalt matrix, the book offers ha formattato: Italiano (Italia) Codice campo modificato ha formattato: Italiano (Italia) ha formattato: Italiano (Italia) researchers, graduates, advanced undergraduates, and professionals a description of a large continuous pictorial narrative repertoire (1000 works) and an in-depth analysis of the perceptual-representational strategies employed by artists from the 6th to the 17th century in a group of 100 works narrating the story of Adam and Eve.

Spis treści

Foreword, by Laura Messina Argenton

Notes on Alberto Argenton, by Ian Verstegen

A personal memory, by Tiziano Agostini

A Brief Preamble on the Research, by Tamara Prest

1. Continuous Pictorial Narrative

1.1. The Perspective from Art History: Narrative Modes

1.2. The Perspective from Psychology and Neighbouring Fields

1.3. A Third Perspective: The View from the Psychology of Art

2. A Study Project on Continuous Pictorial Narrative

2.1. Aims, Hypotheses, Method and Phases of the Study

2.2. Data Relative to the General Repertoire

3. Research on the story of Adam and Eve: General Framework

3.1. Research Phases

3.2. Comparison of the General and Thematic Repertoires

4. First Research Phase on the Story of Adam and Eve

4.1. Identification and Classification of Episodes

4.1.1. Frequency of Scenes

4.2. Configuration of the Artworks of the Thematic Repertoire

4.2.1. Context

4.2.2. Number of Scenes

4.2.3. Narrative Progression

4.2.4. Spatial Disposition

5. Second Research Phase on the Story of Adam and Eve

5.1. Perceptual-representational Arrangement

5.1.1. Segmentation of Episodes

5.1.2. Space/Time Separating Cues

5.1.3. Identification of Repeated Protagonists

5.1.4. Vectors of Direction

5.2. Data Analysis Results on Perceptual-representational Arrangement

5.2.1. Analysis on the Segmentation of Episodes

5.2.2. Analysis on the Space/Time Separating Cues

5.2.3. Analysis on the Identification of Repeated Protagonists

5.2.4. Analysis on the Vectors of Direction

5.2.5. Essential Considerations of the Results

5.3. Pictorial Identity and Variability: Iconographic Models

5.3.1. An Example: Michelangelo’s Fall and Expulsion

Plates: Story of Adam and Eve (100 images)

Thumbnails: works included in the thematic repertoire on the story of Adam and Eve with the classification codes of the scenes represented

References

Appendix 1. General repertoire of pictorial continuous narrative distinguished by themes

Appendix 2. Chapters of the Bible considered in the thematic repertoire on the story of Adam and Eve

O autorze

Dr. Laura ​Messina Argenton, Senior Scholar, University of Padua, Padua, Italy