Distant viewing in art history

by K. Bender, independent researcher

An example of a quantitative approach

in art history based on

a digital thematic research collection of

the iconography of Venus

from the Middle Ages to Modern Times

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"Vortragsreihe zur Digitalen Kunstgeschichte" Institut für Kunstgeschichte

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Tuesday 24 June 2014, 7 p.m.

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https://sites.google.com/site/venusiconography/ with webpages:

*Topical Catalogues

*Data Analysis

*Connectivity Maps

*Aphrodite/Venus Art Exhibitions and other Events 3

http://kbender.blogspot.be/ Iconography in Art History, a Blog to discuss:

1° Thematic Research Collections or Topical Catalogues, their compilation methodology and their use among art historians. 2° Papers, articles or blogs and websites where the iconography is of importance. 3° 'ut pictura poesis' (poetry resembles painting and vice-versa) or inter-art analogies and differences between literature (poetry, theatre, prose) and visual arts and other 'sister' arts ( music, dance, etc). With special attention to the iconography of Aphrodite/Venus

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Synopsis

• 1. A thematic collection and its compilation

• 2. Descriptive statistics

• 3. Regional and temporal frequency distributions

• 4. Distribution of artworks and artists

• 5. Frequency distributions of topics

• 6. A curious observation: Lotka’s law in art history

• 7. Distant viewing or macro-analysis: conclusion

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation: sources

• Museum catalogues and ‘catalogues raisonnés’ of artists are the common sources in art history

Not appropriate to study the iconography of a specific subject across artists, periods and regions

• Exhibition catalogues or monographs do not contain exhaustive subject lists

• Compilation of sales catalogues from the 17th century onwards, death inventories, myriads of bibliographical references and the Internet

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation: topical catalogues

• Topical catalogues categorize this endless information into 'topics‘, sub-topics, etc., possibly chronologically ordered.

• Few printed topical catalogues exist, they are not illustrated and not digitized.

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation: Topical catalogues

• 'Barockthemen - Ein Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts

by A. Pigler

Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, second edition 1974

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation: Topical catalogues

• 'The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300-1990s‘

by Jane Davidson Reid

Oxford University Press, NY/Oxford 1993)

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation: catalogues on-line

• Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, founded in 1913

• Warburg Photographic Collection, since 1933 in London

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation: catalogues on-line

• Iconclass with a hierarchical structure and alphanumeric classification codes

• Ten main divisions:

0 Abstract, Non-representational Art 1 Religion and Magic 2 Nature 3 Human Being, Man in General 4 Society, Civilization, Culture 5 Abstract Ideas and Concepts 6 History 7 Bible 8 Literature 9 Classical Mythology and Ancient History

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation: catalogues on-line

Warburg Photographic Collection

• Eleven main divisions 1 Antiquities 2 Architecture 3 Gods and Myths 4 History 5 Literature 6 Magic and Science 7 Ornament 8 Portraits 9 Religious Iconography 10 Secular Iconography 11 Social Life

Iconclass

• Ten main divisions

0 Abstract, Non-representational Art

1 Religion and Magic

2 Nature

3 Human Being, Man in General

4 Society, Civilization, Culture

5 Abstract Ideas and Concepts

6 History

7 Bible

8 Literature

9 Classical Mythology and Ancient History

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1. A thematic collection and its compilation:

six Topical Catalogues with mutually exclusive entries

• Total: 14155 artworks sculptures, reliefs, paintings, frescoes, drawings, prints and illustrations

from 5421 identified artists in 9 European regions

• Volume 1.1 'The Italian Venus' 1840 artworks of 649 identified Italian artists. 156pp. (2007)

• Volume 2.1 'The French Venus‘ 2997 artworks of 977 identified French artists. 194 pp. (2009)

• Volume 3.1 'The Venus of the Low Countries' 2636 artworks of 728 identified artists of the Low Countries.

202 pp. (2010)

• Volume 4.1 'The German, Swiss and Central-European Venus'

3198 artworks of 1506 identified artists of Germany, Switzerland and Central-Europe. 302 pp. (2012)

• Volume 5.1 'The British and Irish Venus' 2113 artworks of 912 identified artists of Great Britain and

Ireland. 197 pp. (2013)

• Volume 6.1 'The Venus of Eastern, Southern and Northern European Regions'

1371 artworks of 629 identified artists of the Eastern, Southern and Northern European Regions. 154 pp. (2014)

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An example of VELAZQUEZ’s ‘Rokeby Venus’ and copies or imitations

(from Volume 6.1 'The Venus of Eastern, Southern and Northern European Regions')

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2. Descriptive statistics ordering of observations, selection of scales,

presentation in contingency tables and graphical visualization

• number of artists = unknown

• number of artworks of the selected theme = indefinite > population

• information about the population through sampling

• if all artworks have equal chance to be selected > ‘sampling at random'

• always limited information sources > 'convenient sampling‘

• sample representativeness

• sample size

• artworks compiled and described = observations

• numbers of observations = frequencies

• ordered in an interval scale (time scale) and in a nominal scale (regions and topics)

• table of ordered frequencies = contingency table with marginal totals and grand totals of frequencies

• frequencies divided by their marginal or grand totals = relative frequencies (frequency percentages)

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2. Regional and temporal frequency distribution

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2. Regional and temporal frequency distribution

3D presentation Cumulative frequency curves

(S-curves)

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2. Regional and temporal frequency distribution

skewness of the distribution a steady rise of the distribution

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2. Regional and temporal frequency distribution Coping with uncertainty of dates of artworks

• *date of creation of an artwork : often uncertain , active life of the artist

• *interval of 50 year is questionable

• *calculation of moving averages of overlapping intervals of 50 years.

• *= arithmetic average of frequencies of intervals 1500-49 and 1550-99 > frequency of new interval 1500-99

• *= average frequency of intervals 1550-99/1600-49 > interval 1550-1649

• *= till the last interval 1900-99.

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4. Distribution of artworks and artists

• the demography of artists > interdisciplinary research

• serious estimates better than no estimates at all

• 'The Demography of Art in Western Europe, 1300-1899' (DAWE) by Paul Taylor (Warburg Institute)

• estimates number of painters and sculptors active per decade between 1300 and 1899 in ten West-European countries: Italy, Spain & Portugal, Austria/Hungary, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, British Isles, Scandinavia

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4. Distribution of artworks and artists

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The rise and fall of the frequencies of Venus-artworks in Italy and in the Low Countries

is correlated to the numbers of both Venus-artists and DAWE-artists

4. Distribution of artworks and artists

Both numbers of Venus-artists and DAWE-artists in France follow the time-lag of the production of Venus-artworks, with 'Boucher'-effect in period 1750-99 (skewed distribution)

Distinct time distribution of Venus-artworks with continuous rise in Germany, Switzerland and Central-Europe, reflected by both numbers of Venus-artists and DAWE-artists

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5. Frequency distributions of topics

• categorization of all artworks in 18 main

topics (entries mutually exclusive)

• detailed questions: e. g. how did the popularity of the myth of Venus with her classical companions evolve in the five regions ?

Examples

• ‘ Venus and Adonis ‘ : most popular topic in the Low Countries, Italy and France, second popular in Great Britain & Ireland and third in Germany & neighbours

• 'Judgement of Paris‘ most popular in Germany & neighbours and in Great Britain & Ireland , second popular in the Low Countries and in France

• 'Venus and Mars‘ : popular in the Low Countries, second popular in Italy and in Germany and neighbouring countries

• etc

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6. A curious observation

• average number of Venus-artworks created by the artists

= total number of artworks/ total number of artists

=between 2,1 and 3,6 or about 2,7 overall

• actual numbers per artist are quite different

• Graph Fig.4 from Research Paper 1 (webpage Data Analysis) 24

6. A curious observation: Lotka’s law

• percentage of artists, who produced only once in their lifetime a work depicting Venus, is very high:

always near 60%

• phenomenon is well described by the so-called

Lotka’s law in bibliometrics

y = C/x a

y: proportional number of artists C: constant approximately = 0,6 x: number of works a: exponent approximately = 2

• law of productivity : success breeds success, i.e. the artist will

continue to depict Venus if his/her first work was successful

• Graph Fig 11 from Research Paper 5 (webpage Data Analysis)

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7. Distant viewing or macro-analysis • Paul Moretti: literature is not a 'sum of

individual cases', but a 'collective system'

• in 'distant reading' the canon disappears into the larger literary system

• in traditional art history:

focus on works considered as the greatest

masterpieces of art

• lesser artists and their works are often forgotten

• quantity in the arts cannot be dismissed: it is part of the historical complexity of art production

• art historians were aware about the shifting popularity of the Venus-myth in different time periods and countries

• 'distant viewing‘ or ‘macro-analysis ‘ offers knowledge and aggregate large quantitative data

• of interest for advanced analysis and interdisciplinary research 26

Conclusion

• Distant viewing is a condition of knowledge

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Postscriptum

• The female species ‘Aphrodite/Venus’

• The female species ‘Aphrodite/Venus’

of the genus ‘Greek-Roman Gods’

in the family of ‘Gods and Myths’ is

very persistent in evolutionary art history

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Postscriptum

• “The irrational delight in the beauty

of the object is a precondition

for successful observational science” Konrad Lorenz

quote in TLS June 6, 2014 p.24

• Art history : an observational science

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