Face and mask : a double history / Hans Belting ; translated by Thomas S. Hansen and Abby J. Hansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Belting, Hans, author.

Contributor:

Hansen, Thomas S. (Thomas Stansfield), translator.

Hansen, Abby J., 1945- translator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Facial expression in art.

Facial expression.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (278 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Summary:

A cultural history of the face in Western art, ranging from portraiture in painting and photography to film, theater, and mass mediaThis fascinating book presents the first cultural history and anthropology of the face across centuries, continents, and media. Ranging from funerary masks and masks in drama to the figural work of contemporary artists including Cindy Sherman and Nam June Paik, renowned art historian Hans Belting emphasizes that while the face plays a critical role in human communication, it defies attempts at visual representation.Belting divides his book into three parts: faces as masks of the self, portraiture as a constantly evolving mask in Western culture, and the fate of the face in the age of mass media. Referencing a vast array of sources, Belting's insights draw on art history, philosophy, theories of visual culture, and cognitive science. He demonstrates that Western efforts to portray the face have repeatedly failed, even with the developments of new media such as photography and film, which promise ever-greater degrees of verisimilitude. In spite of sitting at the heart of human expression, the face resists possession, and creative endeavors to capture it inevitably result in masks—hollow signifiers of the humanity they're meant to embody.From creations by Van Eyck and August Sander to works by Francis Bacon, Ingmar Bergman, and Chuck Close, Face and Mask takes a remarkable look at how, through the centuries, the physical visage has inspired and evaded artistic interpretation.

Contents:

19. Overpainting and Replicating the Face: Signs of Crisis

20. Mao's Face: State Icon and Pop Idol

21. Cyberfaces: Masks without Faces

Acknowledgments

Notes

Literature Cited

Index of Names

9. Face and Skull: Two Opposing Views

10. The "Real Face" of the Icon and the "Similar Face"

11. The Record of Memory and the Speech Act of the Face

12. Rembrandt's Self-Portraiture: Revolt against the Mask

13. Silent Screams in the Glass Case: The Face Set Free

14. Photography and Mask: Jorge Molder's Own Alien Face

III. Media and Masks: The Production of Faces

15. The Consumption of Media Faces

16. Archives: Controlling the Faces of the Crowd

17. Video and Live Image: The Flight from the Mask

18. Ingmar Bergman and the Face in Film

Cover Page

Half-title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Introduction: Defining the Subject

I. Face and Mask: Changing Views

1. Facial Expression, Masks of the Self, and Roles of the Face

2. The Cult Origin of the Mask

3. Masks in Colonial Museums

4. Face and Mask in the Theater

5. From the Study of the Face to Brain Research

6. Nostalgia for the Face and the Death Mask in Modernity

7. Eulogy for the Face: Rilke and Artaud

II. Portrait and Mask: The Face as Representation

8. The European Portrait as Mask

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691244594

0691244596

OCLC:

1330717744