Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures

by Michael Baxandall

Book Overview

An enquiry into the historical understanding of pictures - something sought not only by art historians but by anyone who looks at a picture in the knowledge that it is old or comes out of a culture... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300034652
• ISBN13: 9780300034653
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 147 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Elegant explication of art historical issues

Through three well-chosen case studies, Baxandall examines the question of artistic intention: how the constraints of the culture, the artistic medium, and the intended use of a work of art shape the process of its creation. Particularly penetrating is his "excursus on influence", in which he argues that participants in an artistic tradition shape and change how their predecessors are understood. This is an ingenious and satisfying book: I read it twice for two different college classes, and expect to read it again and continue to profit from it.