#x98;The#x9C; visible and the invisible on seventeenth century Dutch painting

On the Relationship of Language to Image The book addresses the scientific debates on Rembrandt, Metsu, Vermeer, and Hoogstraten that are currently taking place in art history and cultural studies. These focus mainly on the representation of gender difference, the relationship between text and image, and the emotional discourse. They are also an appeal for art history as a form of cultural studies that analyses the semantic potential of art within discursive and social contemporary practices. Dutch painting of the seventeenth century reflects its relationship to visible reality. It deals with ambiguities and contradictions. As an avant-garde artistic media, it also contributes to the emergence of a subjectivity towards the modern “bourgeois”. It discards subject matter from its traditional fixation with iconology and evokes different imaginations and semantizations - aspects that have not been sufficiently taken into account in previous research. The book is to be understood as an appeal for art history as a form of cultural science that analyses the semantic potential of art within discursive and social contemporary practices, and, at the same time, demonstrates its relevance today. Works by Rembrandt, Metsu, Vermeer, Hoogstraten, and others serve as exemplary case studies for addressing current debates in art history and cultural studies, such as representation of gender difference, relationship between text and image, and emotional discourse. * A new cultural studies perspective on Dutch painting of the 17th century * Examines the possibilities and limits of the historical representation of gender difference Contents Preface Part I: Visible becomes Invisible Gender Construction in Rembrandt’s Works 1 On Female Representation or On the disappearance of male protagonists from the field of representation An alternative to traditional patterns of femininity? — Bathsheba Reversals — Woman in Bed Discourses on femininity Dangerous gazes — Susanna Fatal looks and a laughing nymph — Diana and her Nymphs Bathing, with Actaeon and Callisto Where have all the men gone? On the discourse of rape — Lucretia Sources and their re-interpretations Lucretia fever Social practice Rembrandt — An entirely different Lucretia? Radical positions Querelle des Femmes 2 On Male Representation or On the disappearance of female protagonists from the field of representation Differences The impossible reversal I — women as ‘rapists’ or Potiphar’s Wife The impossible reversal II — erotic images of men for a female gaze? Self-Images — Self-Portraits De Staalmeesters or Public representation is male Historical summary The group portrait De Staalmeesters 3 Asymmetry. Gender Relations in the Field of Sexuality Danaë or How the male sex partner was made invisible Pornography? One objection and three possible answers — Rembrandt’s erotic graphic works 4 Summary Part I: Plates 1 – 8 Part II: Invisible becomes Visible Painting, not Mimesis 1 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall ... Woman before the Mirror by Frans van Mieris 2 The Picture within the Picture or Conveying the world through media Woman Holding a Balance by Vermeer The Final Judgment as the norm? The balance A Catholic work of art? Aesthetic staging New views on Vermeer Contemporary discourses — Spinoza The Final Judgment as an outdated image 3 Farewell to Lessing’s Laocoon: Leaving behind a Methodological Dispute Gabriel Metsu’s A Woman Reading a Letter (Love)Letters Metsu’s A Woman Reading a Letter Language and images — a methodological dispute among art historians The dichotomy of language and image Farewell, Laocoon ... 4 The Gender of Letters 5 Affect / Emotion / Imagination Affects: Dirck Hals Emotion: Rembrandt Affect awareness (Affekt-Wissen) Interiorization: Vermeer Imagination: Hoogstraten Coda Part II: Plates 9 –14 Literature Illustrations Image credits Publisher’s note Addresses the debates on Rembrandt, Metsu, Vermeer, and Hoogstraten that are currently taking place in art history and cultural studies. This book focuses on the representation of gender difference, the relationship between text and image, and the emotional discourse.