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Catherine King, Lecturer in the History of Art, interviews Professor E.H. Gombrich, Director of the Warburg Institute. Professor Gombrich's discussion is based on substantial quotations from Renais...sance journals, read by Lyndon Brook. Before and during the Renaissance painting and sculpture "meant" something, and iconography is the study of those meanings. Professor Gombrich is one of the world's most eminent iconographers. In this programme he concentrates in particular on the change in attitude, on the part of Renaissance artists, to the traditional demand that art should tell some story which the title of the work of art reflects. Through quotations from St. Gregory, Dante, Leonardo, Savonarola, a patron of Michelangelo's, and the historian Borghini, he traces the role of the subject in Renaissance art. The opening quotation in the programme shows St. Gregory serenely sure that people look at art only for its meanings; the last quotation tells of a sculptor giving a group a title (and therefore a subject) as an afterthought. Professor Gombrich leads us through the complex history of the meaning of "meaning" between these points and the quotations themselves encapsulate a reversal in attitude which both is and is caused by the Renaissance.
Catherine King, Lecturer in the History of Art, interviews Professor E.H. Gombrich, Director of the Warburg Institute. Professor Gombrich's discussion is based on substantial quotations from Renais...sance journals, read by Lyndon Brook. Before and during the Renaissance painting and sculpture "meant" something, and iconography is the study of those meanings. Professor Gombrich is one of the world's most eminent iconographers. In this programme he concentrates in particular on the change in attitude, on the part of Renaissance artists, to the traditional demand that art should tell some story which the title of the work of art reflects. Through quotations from St. Gregory, Dante, Leonardo, Savonarola, a patron of Michelangelo's, and the historian Borghini, he traces the role of the subject in Renaissance art. The opening quotation in the programme shows St. Gregory serenely sure that people look at art only for its meanings; the last quotation tells of a sculptor giving a group a title (and therefore a subject) as an afterthought. Professor Gombrich leads us through the complex history of the meaning of "meaning" between these points and the quotations themselves encapsulate a reversal in attitude which both is and is caused by the Renaissance.
| Module code and title: | A201, Renaissance and Reformation |
|---|---|
| Item code: | A201; 11 |
| Recording date: | 1971-11-15 |
| First transmission date: | 27-03-1972 |
| Published: | 1971 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OUDA web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:17:52 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Nuala O'Faolain |
| Contributors: | Lyndon Brook; Ernst Hans Gombrich; Catherine King |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Dante; Iconography; Leonardo; Savonarola; St. Gregory |
| Master spool number: | TLN46FM202J |
| Production number: | TLN46FM202J |
| Available to public: | no |
