On Composition as Method and Topic

This book discusses the composition in paintings of Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens and Picasso; it discusses the contribution of composition to the representation of subject matter. In the case of Raphael and Rubens, it examines also how a composition was conceived and worked out. It also deals with the comprehension of composition in the treatise of L. B. Alberti, in comparison to the reflections on composition by Cennini, Lionardo and Dolce. The last chapter aims at qualifying the paintings of Lionardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, according to their specific rank, as 'Classic'. These lectures, which were delivered in Tel Aviv University, have the intention of shedding light on the significance and the virtue of the Art of Composition in painting, as well as presenting the analysis of Composition as a method of interpreting works of art. A further study, which concerns the problem of composition in sculpture, brings into discussion sculptures made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini und Ignaz Günther and appears in the appendix of this book.

Autorentext

The Author: Rudolf Kuhn is Professor of History of Art at Munich University. Promotion 1966 (Dr. phil.), Habilitation 1971. Books of the author, already published, are: Michelangelo. Die sixtinische Decke, Berlin: de Gruyter 1975; Komposition und Rhythmus, Beiträge zur Neubegründung einer Historischen Kompositionslehre, Berlin: de Gruyter 1980; Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Gesammelte Beiträge zur Auslegung seiner Skulpturen, Frankfurt: Peter Lang 1993. Forthcoming: Erfindung und Komposition in der Monumentalen Zyklischen Historienmalerei des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts in Italien, Frankfurt: Peter Lang 2000. He is editing a series of Studies in the History of Art: Ars Faciendi, Frankfurt: Peter Lang 1992 sqq., 9 vols, and he was coeditor of the Festschrift Lorenz Dittmann, Frankfurt: Peter Lang 1994.

Inhalt

Contents: Analyses of composition in paintings of Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens and Picasso - Composition in Raphael's Designing Procedure - Figure, Chiaroscuro and Colour in Rubens' Making of a Painting - Alberti's Theory of Composition as the Art in Painting - On the History and Analysis of Composition as Method and as Topic - On the Classic in the History of Art - Sculptures with Three Distinct Views by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Ignaz Günther.