Page 204 - Masters

ELRIC MIAULTTARIS

The elaboration of philosophical concepts and of Man’s thought follows representation. Therefore we can consider this discipline the study of the
the course of the whole history of art, from ancient times to the present historical, social, religious, philosophical, and cultural content, of which
day: therefore it is necessary to search for the links among the various subjects and images are direct expression, even if sometimes unrelated
classical branches of knowledge in order to interpret artistic movements to the one who has used those subjects. The role of iconology is, in a
and the works which characterize them critically and correctly considering certain way, lined up with the iconographic method of Aby warburg
them in their connection and in their development in time. who studies the programmatic, literary and learned aspects of works of
Undoubtly it is a required condition to seek the reasons why a work of art art in “contraposition” with formal analysis. It is related to the theory of
becomes a subject of knowledge, a phenomenon, or an idea because any ’symbolic forms’: it is an analysis which goes beyond the explicit meanings
artistic creation can not be considered separately, but should be thought of works of art, beyond their ultimate and essential content, identifying
of as a moment and a result of historical - artistic process in whose context those fundamental principles which reveal the basic line of a nation, a
we will be able to understand its full meaning. In this way the history of art period, social class, a religious or philosophical concept, unconsciously
itself becomes a way of researching and of viewing the world. Among these qualified by a personality or abridged in one work. Iconology aims at
considerations of a general nature the more strictly aesthetical question interpretation those symbolic values sometimes ignored by the artist
can not be left in the background: how we can identify the nature of the himself and which may differ, even manifestly, from what he consciously
beautiful and the nature of art? In fact since Plato and Aristotle the problem wanted to express.
of nature-art relation has taken on specific and fundamental valences. The subject of a symbol can reveal a meaning consciously bestowed by
The concept of imitation and the purifying-or rather educational-role of the artist, if this desired significance is at the same time also deliberately
art that was constitutional to ancient greek philosophy hidden; here the iconographical analysis is necessarily
changed into medieval and Renaissance speculation. The transformed into a sort of deciphering.
Middle Ages emphasized the nature of the subordination The significances have simply turned from “unconscious”
of beauty to truth and justified art as an allegory; the into secret ones. The ideas projected by the artist into his
Renaissance gave more autonomy to natural beauty but work include the interpretation of the artistic phenomenon
it always considered art as imitation, and the principle of itself or, at least, they should not be transcended in the
verisimilitude as its it’s fundamental rule. research of the intrinsic, inner significance. Anyway it is
In our modem times, not only a philosophical, but even a required to reveal the philosophical prejudices, which lie
psychological approach is absolutely inevitable to aim at the behind the visual form.
definition and classification of the artistic phenomenology In order not to reduce the value of the interpretation of
and at the identification of their values. when considering the single artistic event it is necessary for the approach
a work of art we should identify the connections, the to be sensible and rational, facing the specific culture in
interdisciplinary requests between it and the thought of which a particular artistic work is inserted. we need to
that particular historical moment, but not only that, as it wonder whether or not the symbolic meaning of a given
is possible to contribute to the enlightenment of either a motif is usual in a certain figurative tradition, whether an
pictorial or literary work by comparing authors of different iconographical interpretation may be justified with certain
periods and belonging to trends, as T.S. Eliot established texts or if it consistent with the ideas that can be alive in
in his essays of poetic criticism. The re-visitation of these that period and can presumably be known by artists, and to
disciplines, the following attempt of reconciliation, can certainly give what extent this symbolic interpretation agrees with the historical position
raise to origin new elaborations in order to stem the intellectual waste and the personal tendencies of each artist and to his particular creative
of the present, probably due just to the frantic pursuit of success. The disposition. To achieve this we must try to penetrate the essential sense
contribution of art criticism should awake an incentive to art itself, should of a work of art so as to be able to grasp the unit that composes it. This
be a reason for a new vital sap especially in a historical time such as this is possible when we manage to grasp and to consider the whole of the
one, when men witness powerless the ’Faustian’ devastation of nature, moments of its emanation: subject, icon, and formal element.
and the decadency of post-industrial society. Icnology, as being essentially interdisciplinary and strictly related to general
Art can not absolutely be passive towards these problems. The symbolism, has become in this way the best example of the solidarity and
methodologies of a critical study and research for a correct understanding complementary of all the interpretations in their mutual, interpretative
should be deeply involved in the analysis about the connection among and analytic task of the various artistic languages, both rational and hype
art, nature, reality and anthropology in order to further examine the rational, which, in the course of time, have expressed the complicated
considerations on philosophical aesthetics, in this way bringing out the relationship of Man with Nature and the number of images of Man himself
difficult relationship of an artist’s style of life in the modem world. It that Nature reflects. Iconology aims at clearly expounding principles,
could be a significant contribution to art (and its history) in order to give methods, structures and at defining the terminology of certain artistic
it the strength to be “the soul of the world and the intelligence to be the phenomenology’s contributing to develop its study. As previously stated,
meaning of reality”. A science like iconology rightly aims, in a transverse the methodological approach to a symbol is not less important to artistic
way, to understand and consolidate the connections that exist among the creations than the analyses of its anthropological and technological
various disciplines. In this way it contributes to keeping art in a position functions. In fact from the point of view of epistemology the process of
of privilege. As Erwin Panofsky pointed out, iconology is the study of the symbolizing intervenes on many levels of experience, from the complicated
purpose that belongs to images and to the selected subject in their artistic mechanism of our perceptions to the highest degrees of elaboration
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masters of today