South African Journal of Art History Volume 13 (1998)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/14574

South African Journal of Art History, Volume 13, (1998)
Content
SAJAH Volume 13	Cover, general information
Maré, Estelle A.	Between Heaven and Earth: the Symbolism of the Angelic Realm, with Reference to Christian Art
Van der Merwe, Johann	Barthesian Eco/s ; The fine art of detecting boeuf
Van den Berg, Dirk	Pictorial textuality: The imaginative reading of pictures
Cornew, Clive	From "Misery" to "Disaster": perceptions of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century warfare in the etchings of Jacques Callot and Francisco Goya*
Van Eeden, Jeanne	Irma Stern's first exhibition in Pretoria, 1933

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From "misery" to "disaster" : perceptions of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century warfare in the etchings of Jacques Callot and Francisco Goya
(Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 1998) Cornew, Clive; Van den Berg, Dirk Johannes
This article deals in the main with Jacques Callot's early life in Italy and with his later life in Lorraine where he produced his famous series of eighteen etchings which narrate his perception of seventeenth-century warfare known as "Les Miseres et les Malheurs de la Guerre" (1633). In contrast to Callot's point of view, the article closes with a brief account of Goya's "Los desastres de la guerra", a series of eighty-odd etchings produced in the early nineteenth-century, which can be used to explain a shift in the meaning and experience of warfare between these two centuries: from "misery" to "disaster".
Between heaven and earth : the symbolism of the angelic realm, with reference to Christian art
(Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 1998) Mare, Estelle Alma
The purpose of this article is to examine two significant symbolic systems relevant to the meaning of angels in Christian art. In the first part, a brief overview of Christian angelology is given in order to contextualise the close link between Christian art and angelology. The belief in angels, as well as the ways in which they have been depicted was shaped by means of various influences found in winged antique prototypes. The belief in beings existing in the intermediary realm between heaven and earth originated more than two millennia before CE [common era]. In this regard the research focuses on the influence of Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian and Persian belief systems and more especially on the way in which figures depicted with wings were assimilated in the iconography of Christian art. The vertical movement and flamelike, mystical being of angels became distinctive motifs in Italian Renaissance art. The second part of the article is devoted to the angelic hierarchy which was conceived and represented as a remarkably geometric system. In conclusion, reasons are proposed for the disappearance of angels from Western art.
Irma Stern's first exhibition in Pretoria, 1933
(Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 1998) Van Eeden, Jeanne
This article focuses on the reception of Irma Stern's first art exhibition in Pretoria in 1933. Although Stern had by that time gained a considerable reputation as an artist in informed circles, her Modernist work was still regarded with some incomprehension by spectators in general. This exhibition in Pretoria attempted to redress this by trying to make Stern's work more accessible. Although favourable critical response was elicited from many formerly sceptical critics, the complexities of modernism as manifested in Stern's oeuvre still made her work problematic concerning both style and subject-matter. The decision by the Town Council of Pretoria to buy two paintings by Stern was significant for its endorsement of Stern, and the author concludes with a short discussion of these two works.
Pictorial textuality : the imaginative reading of pictures
(Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 1998) Van den Berg, Dirk Johannes
The notion of multiple, concurrent readings is used to explore the status of pictorial textuality as a model for the art of painting. Being encapsulations of materiality, visuality, artefactuality and narrativity, paintings require distinct modes and levels of reading. The value of the model is tested with reference to an extreme case of reading - Antonin Artaud's gnostic interpretation of a sixteenth century painting of "Lot and his daughters".
Barthesian Eco/s : the fine art of detecting boeuf
(Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 1998) Van der Merwe, Johann
This article discusses the means by which a visually creative, artistic language can imitate the communicative abilities of a written/spoken language, making it possible to "read" a work of art as a visual text. Comparing Barthes' critique of myths with Eco's use of denotative and connotative systems leads to the conclusion that allowing for dissimilarities, the two systems can be read as texts with similar goals. Reading certain works of art through the mediation of Barthesian Eco/s, it becomes clear that a visual language can successfully copy the semantic modes of a social linguistic system and achieve the same ends.
South African Journal of Art History, volume 13, 1998
(Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 1998) Allen, N.P.L. (Nicholas P.L.)

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