Illusion in Painting - An Attempt at Philosophical Interpretation

This book aims to present trompe-l'oeil painting, which epitomizes the myth of the illusionistic image - an early modern way of thinking about pictures, according to which it is possible to create an image identical to what it represents that at the same time preserves its own pictorial identity. Trompe-l'oeil, despite being a marginal genre, embodied an ideal that painting should attain, and therefore is a good point of departure for analyzing issues such as (aesthetic) illusion in art. As the myth undermines Plato's aesthetics, it is his philosophy of art, with its dichotomies of appearance/reality or mimesis/diegesis that offers the most useful context for the discussion of this topic and shows that trompe-l'oeil is a playful and ironic genre, which has cognitive value as well.

List of contents

Contents: Gombrich's Illusion - Trompe-L'oeil: the Aspects - Plato's Defence - The Irony of Representation - The Metaphor of the Model - Conclusion.

About the author

Mateusz Salwa graduated in art history and philosophy from the University of Warsaw, obtained a PhD and since then has been working as an assistant professor at the Chair of Aesthetics, Institute of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw.

Product details

• Authors: Mateusz Salwa
• Assisted by: Katarzyna Pisarek (Translation)
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2014
• EAN: 9783631640524
• ISBN: 978-3-631-64052-4
• No. of pages: 252
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 21 mm x 210 mm
• Weight: 430 g
• Series: Modernity in Question; Modernity in Question
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works