The Discovery of Pictorial Composition: Theories of Visual Order in Painting, 1400-1800

Puttfarken, Professor Thomas; Puttfarken, Thomas

ISBN 10: 0300081561 / ISBN 13: 9780300081565

Published by Yale University Press, 2000

About this Item

326 pp., 27 x 21 cm. color illustrations. Brand new copy. No bumps or marks.In this illuminating book, art historian Thomas Puttfarken examines how pictorial composition and attitudes toward it changed between the early Renaissance and the beginning of the nineteenth century. Before 1600, a painting's overall composition was hardly ever discussed. As far as art theory and criticism were concerned, pictorial composition was a "discovery" of the seventeenth century, the author explains. In the first part of the book, Puttfarken investigates why pictorial composition did not figure in earlier accounts of the art. In Italy artists and patrons focused on large-scale wall paintings or altarpieces and on the presentation of life-size saints or protagonists whose physical proportions and interactions in narratives were considered more important than notions of overall effect or pictorial format. The second part of the book discusses the discovery of composition and its consequences for both the theory and practice of painting, understood as the production of tableaux, or easel pictures. Puttfarken considers the effects on paintings of size, location, perspective, and relief, the relationship between ground and figures and between image and frame, and the different traditions defining Italian and Northern art. For readers with an interest in the theory and history of European art, this book is full of rich insights and fresh analyses.

Seller Inventory # DL 5a20

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Discovery of Pictorial Composition: Theories of Visual Order in Painting, 1400-1800
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300081561
• ISBN 13: 9780300081565
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Weight: 1.5 kilograms
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art history

About this title

Synopsis

In this book, Puttfarken traces the changing nature of attitudes towards composition from the early Renaissance to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Using examples as diverse as Giotto, Rembrandt and Poussin, he reveals how artists 'put together' the various elements of their pictures to create an harmonious whole - and how the practice varied from place to place and from era to era (Leonardo's Last Supper, for example, is conceived in a totally different way from, say, Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus, in which the figures are no longer grouped along the side of the table, facing out towards the spectator, but are grouped, more naturalistically, around the table, some with their backs to us). He examines the significance of the use of frames, perspective, size and location, and shows how analysis of these became incorporated into general theories of art. This stimulating book offers a major contribution to studies in art theory, and will become essential reading for all students and scholars of that field.

About the Author

Thomas Puttfarken is professor of the history and theory of art at the University of Essex, England. He was the author of Roger de Piles's Theory of Art, published by Yale University Press.