Showing time : continuous pictorial narrative and the Adam and Eve story : in memory of Alberto Argenton

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. Introduction About This Book A Note on Alberto Argenton Alberto Argenton and the Creative Freedom of Science A Brief Preamble to the Study Contents Part I: The Study Chapter 1: Pictorial Representation of Stories 1.1 Theoretical Premises 1.1.1 The Perspective from Art History: Narrative Modes 1.1.2 The Perspective from Psychology and Neighbouring Fields 1.1.3 A Third Perspective: The View from the Psychology of Art References Chapter 2: A Study Project on Continuous Pictorial Narrative 2.1 The Project’s Core 2.1.1 Aims, Hypotheses, Method and Phases of the Study 2.2 The General Repertoire of Continuous Pictorial Narrative 2.3 The Thematic Repertoire of the Story of Adam and Eve 2.3.1 Comparison of the General Repertoire and the Thematic Repertoire on the Story of Adam and Eve References Chapter 3: First Research Phase on the Story of Adam and Eve 3.1 Pictorial Space and Scene Organisation 3.1.1 Identification and Classification of Episodes 3.1.1.1 Frequency of Scenes 3.2 Configuration of the Artworks of the Thematic Repertoire 3.2.1 Context 3.2.2 Number of Scenes 3.2.3 Narrative Progression 3.2.4 Spatial Disposition References Chapter 4: Second Research Phase on the Story of Adam and Eve 4.1 Perceptual–Compositional Arrangement 4.1.1 Segmentation of Episodes 4.1.2 Space/Time Separating Cues 4.1.3 Identification of Repeated Protagonists 4.1.4 Vectors of Direction 4.2 Data Analysis Results on Perceptual–Compositional Arrangement 4.2.1 Analysis of the Segmentation of Episodes 4.2.2 Analysis of the Space/Time Separating Cues 4.2.3 Analysis of the Identification of Repeated Protagonists 4.2.4 Analysis of the Vectors of Direction 4.2.5 Essential Considerations of the Results 4.3 Pictorial Identity and Variability: Iconographic Models 4.3.1 An Example: Michelangelo’s Fall and Expulsion References Part II: Reference Materials of the Study Chapter 5: General Repertoire of Artworks of Pictorial Continuous Narrative Chapter 6: Images of the Story of Adam and Eve Chapter 7: Narrative Apparatus of the Story of Adam and Eve Author Index Subject Index