Grillo, Michael
Symbolic Structures

The Role of Composition in Signaling Meaning in Italian Medieval Art.

How do images convey meaning? Traditional scholarship has treated iconography as a vocabulary of relatively fixed symbols. This volume explores how composition, as a framing syntax, formally cues their specific meanings. Establishing its foundation in Italian Early Medieval and Byzantine images, this study examines paintings and relief sculptures from the 12th century to the early 15th century in Italy to investigate the subtle role of composition as a symbolic system that permits images a wealth of expressive capabilities suited to the diverse needs of their times. In its analysis, this inquiry reveals the vital role of ambiguity in the succession from hierarchical composition to perspective in the Italian Late Medieval era. XIII,412 Seiten mit Abb., gebunden (American University Studies. Series XX: Fine Arts; vol. 20/Peter Lang Verlag 1997) Mängelexemplar/near mint