Jak wyjaśnić obraz?
How to explain a picture?

Methodological clues in art history in the epoch of Ernst H. Gombrich

Author(s): Stanisław Czekalski
Subject(s): Philosophy, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Special Branches of Philosophy, History of Art, Philosophy of Education
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: art history; picture; methodology; philosophy of science; historical explanation; theory of interpretation
Summary/Abstract: The book provides a synthesis of the methodological issues in art history as a discipline that in the 20th century chose the methodical and objective explanation of images as one of its main tasks. Since the time when W. Dilthey's methodology distinguished the humanities, the most eminent art historians have sought to strengthen its position among these sciences by relying on the rigors of scientific objectivity and empiricism, accuracy and correctness, verifiability and cognitive certainty, in line with the natural science model. Can and if so how can an interpretation come closer to the explanatory model, and how can it fulfill the role of a historical explanation of the works of painting? How should it be based on the solid ground of facts and the logic of inferences? What research methodologies can ensure the correctness of explanations, verifiability and the accuracy of the results? Such methodological issues were connected with the reflections of a number of scholars. Among whom E. Gombrich played a special role, first as a spokesman for the turn in iconology towards Popper’s deductionism, and then as an inspiration and point of reference for the next generation of academics, some of whom followed the rigors of normative methodology, while others looked for alternatives or developed a narrative methodology. The book presents significant relationships linking methodologically oriented art history not only with various concepts of general methodology and the philosophy of science, but also with another important source of inspiration, namely the models of inference used by detectives in crime novels.

• Details
• Contents