KAIROS OR OCCASION AS PARADIGM IN THE VISUAL MEDIUM: NACHLEBEN, ICONOGRAPHY, HERMENEUTICS
KAIROS OR OCCASION AS PARADIGM IN THE VISUAL MEDIUM: NACHLEBEN, ICONOGRAPHY, HERMENEUTICS

Summary/Abstract: A complex concept that even Cicero found difficult to translate, the Greek term kairos expresses an idea of ‘grasping the right moment’, which travelled through art, literature, and philosophy. This article explores the artistic reception of this complex notion in the visual arts by bringing insights from Nachleben and classical reception studies, iconology and anthropology together. The essay brings together the hitherto largely disconnected ‘textual’ and ‘visual’ research traditions about kairos in order to explore, more systematically than has been attempted before, the Nachleben of this motif in the visual realm with specific attention to the transformation processes it underwent (such as Latinization, re-gendering, etc.). As the figure of kairos has been interpreted variously throughout history, from antiquity to the modern era, this research line problematizes the widespread idea that iconographies are essentially stable and static.

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