For Those Not in the Know
For Those Not in the Know

Summary/Abstract: Details of artworks are among the most fascinating phenomena of art history. Reproductions of such details highlight elements which we tend not to notice when looking at the whole, and thus draw our attention to them. Drawing attention inevitably involves interpretation. The interpretation of the detail must, however, necessarily come into conflict with the whole insofar as it isolates an element from its larger context. Such oppositions relating to both content and style have always proved particularly fruitful opportunities for meditation on works of art. With the unprecedented proliferation of reproductions of details, they have now been raised to a highly sophisticated level of reflection. Occasionally, in the detail of a work of art, one discovers the historical style of another, often later period, or even features of astonishing modernity.

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