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National Art Education Association
Art History Inquiry Methods: Three Options for Art Education PracticeAuthor(s): Jacqueline ChandaReviewed work(s):Source: Art Education, Vol. 51, No. 5, Critical Lenses (Sep., 1998), pp. 17-24Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193717 .
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A r t HiStor
Three
Art
thods:
sfor
= T_ _ hefieldofart ducationasprogressivelyoved owardsmorenquiry-based
approachoteaching,earning, nd hinkingaboutart.Eachdiscipline onnectedwith
thestudyof the visualarts-production,criticism, esthetics,andhistoryofart-offers
differentmodesofinquiry.Thehistoryofart, nparticular,rovides numberof
diversemodesofinquiryhatenablehistorians oquestion raditionalssumptions ndmindsets,and
openunderstandingsonew issues andproblems.These samemodes ofinquiry an offerarteduca-
torsnewwaysofthinkingabout,ookingat,andanalyzing ictorial henomena.
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866L 138W31d3S / NOllVOnG(l 18V
'SeAUe UOI! 'AjOnluao lLo 'aP!gS!H ue ultOUJVUUEAO!91oA UBAer
i
I
r, ^ */
",I'-
.. ;
~f'Q
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Arthistoricalmodesof nquiry avenotremainedhe sameover ime.Each
generation'siewof artandhistory
determinesheprevailingutlook n,andproblemsnd nterestsn thevisualarts Antal,949;Bryson,Holly,&
Moxey,1994).Themodeof nquiryn
the16thand17th enturies,orexam-
ple,emphasizedhe artist iography.Thisapproach as nitiatedyGiorgioVasari, nItalian-bornrtist ndwriter.In his book, TheLivesofthePainters,
Sculptors, ndArchitects,irstpublishedin1550,he wrotebiographiesfwell-known rtists rom he14th o the16th
centuriesVasari,963).The 18th en-tury aw hedevelopmentf cultural rt
historynGermany ith heworksof
JohannWinckelmann. inckelmannwas hefirst oput hewordsartand
history ogether, nd hus ormulatedhistoricalrocesswhich xaminedhe
origin, rocess, hange, nddownfallfartwithin culturalontext.The19th
centuryaw heemergence f aestheticand ormalistpproaches.ormalistrt
historyollowed nart-for-art's-sakedoctrinend
emphasized atheringdatarom he closeexaminationftheworkof art o the exclusion f contextu-al orextrinsicnformation.hegoalofthisapproach as o determinehe
chronologyfstylecycles(Antal,1949).Theearly 0thcenturyawan
emphasis nformalism,tyle,andpsy-choanalysissprimarymodesof
inquiry. ormal nd tylistic nalysisexcluded aturalistictandards,he
cycle,andculturalontext Ferie,1995).Onceagain,ivesof ndividual
artists ecamemportant,swellastheir ontributionsostylesandmove-
ments,determinedypsychoanalysis
which tudiedheunconsciousmental
processes fthe artist.
Bythemid-20thentury, variety f
methods uchasiconography,conolo-gy,and ocialarthistory adbeen
developed.conography,hesystemat-icstudyand dentificationfsubjectmatter sopposeostyle,hadalwaysbeenused nthehistory f art Femie,1995).However, rwin anofsky,German-bornrthistorian,roughtnewdimensionoiconographyyana-
lyzingttheoreticallyndcorrelatingtwithhumanistdeaswhichpostulatethatworksofartcommunicate eaning
about ultures, rtists, nd ocieties.Thiscombinationroducedconology,the nterpretationfsubject-matteriathestudyofthebroad ulturalndhis-torical ontext. ocial rthistory, n
approach hich mphasizedherela-
tionship f theworkofart o socialandeconomic istories, evelopedromtheories fKarlMarx rominentnthe19th entury.twas heseminalworkofArnoldHauser,TheSocialHistory fArt
(1951),hatbroughthe deasofthe
sociologyfart otheforefront.
In he atter art fthe 20thcentury,"new rthistories"egan odevelop(Rees&Borzello, 986).Thenewarthistories mphasize strongerommit-ment ostudyinghebroader ulturalcontext fworksof art roma more he-oretical osition. number f different
approachesavedevelopeds reac-tions oformalism,onnoisseurship,andasimplisticiewof conography.These nclude:a)deconstructionismorpoststructuralism,napproachhat
challengesixed nterpretationsnddenies hegeniusandcontributionfthe ndividualrtist;b)semiotics,he
studyofhowsignsystemsproducemeaning nd erveparticularocial
functions;c)structuralism,eaning
derivedim esx..e oia tatomyofanobje- sii-po tetenand(d)feivd
fromafemalai ve (Minor,1994).Even h6ougite approachesarecalled"new,"heyarenothistorical-
lyrecentor, notherdisciplinesuchas literaturendhistory,heyhavebeen n use since he ate19thandeary20thcenturies. h howe wtoarthistory ecauseheybeginwithdifferent otions bout rt.The artistic
products no onger he solution utahistorical nd deological roblemo bestudiedRees&Borzello, 986).
Canarteducators enefitrom earn-ingabout rthistoricalmodesof
inquiry?ddisandErickson1993)agreetha l ?s- roaches and
metho aog -s 'ti`s-:ory can
incr i :fiI 1iilessldi;fte ieldof arted i.t Itn a-ar iwould like to
exire w: IVeeiEe Tove-men-
tio. Ktir ^lrzricesses-iconology,iconlCeg a- iart history-cane-e -:i5 tI:orsodevelopinteresi andrelevant edagogical
approacMwrhe
studyof art.
Thethreeaoaches, even houghnotallapart f the":ne:wt:i e--"
speak o someofthe ssues hatcon-cern"new rthistorians." ldermeth-ods ike conographynd conology,or
example, peak oandareconnectedwith he more ontemporaryoncernsofsemiologyFemie,1995;Holly,1984;Preziosi, 989).Social rthistoryreemerges odayntheformof"visual
culture,"hestudyof art ntermsofsocialuse and deologies Heller, 997).
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THREE ART HISTORY
METHODS
ICONOLOGYNDICONOGRAPHY
Iconology s usuallygroupedunderthe general headingoficonog-
raphy.Manyhistoriansof artwilldis-
cuss iconographynthe samebreath
as iconology(Femie, 1995).Or,
ignore iconology altogether(Preziosi,
1996;Roskill,1989).Kleinbauer
(1987)definesiconographys inquiryintothe contentof the visualarts,while Femie (1995)defines it as the
studyofmeaningsofimages.
Iconography,ccording o Panofsky
(1955), s the naturalandconvention-almeaningofobjects n a work of art.
Itis "adescriptionandclassification f
imagesmuch as ethnographys a
descriptionand classification f
humanraces"(Panofsky,1955,p.31).
Iconology,n the otherhand,relates
to the discoveryand nterpretation f
possibleunderlyingphilosophicalideasinherent n thecompositions,
forms, motifs, mages,stories,and
allegoriespresent nthework of art.
Panofskygoes further o differentiatethe twobyconsidering heir suffixes
"graphy"nd"logy." Graphy"
denotessomethingdescriptivewhile
"logy"s derived rom ogos,havingto
do withthinkinganddrawing nfer-
ences and conclusionsfrom acts.The iconographic/iconological
inquiryrequires hreesteps.The first,
pre-iconographic,ntails he identifi-
cationofthe objects,motifs,and sub-
jectmatterpresent na work of art.
The identification houldbe done
throughpersonal nsightsand magi-nation.If,however,personalexperi-ence does not allowus to recognizethe objectencountered,we must
widen the rangeof ourpractical xpe-
rienceby consultingsources thatwillenable us to identify he object.For
example, nthe paintingGiovanni
Arnolfiniand His BridebyJanVan
Eyck (Figure1),ourpersonalexperi-
ence helpsus identify he objectat the
feet of the woman asadog. However,ifwe were from acountrywheredogswere notprevalent,we mighthave to
verify hatthis object rulyrepresentsa dogby comparing t withobjectsof
the same sort found n otherpaintingsor with documentsthatdescribeandnamethe object.
The second stepis the iconograph-ic analysis, he identification f con-
ventionalmeaningsofthe subjectmatterderived romtexts and histori-
cal and cultural ontext.Anicono-
graphicanalysisrequires,according
to Panofsky,knowledgeofliterary
sources, themes, andconceptsthat
appear nother artworksof the same
time andplace.Returningo the dogportrayednthe paintingbyJanVan
Eyck,whatmeaningcan we attribute
to the dog in thispainting?This analy-sis wouldrequireconsultingother
works of artthathavedogs inthe fore-
groundanddetermining-based on
writtensources ororal radition-the
meaningof the dog inthatsocietyat
thatparticularime.Inthe case of
GiovanniArnolfini nd HisBride,a
numberofmeaningshave come to
light.According o Panofsky(1934),the dog may represent he conceptof
marital idelity.Seidel (1993) ndi-
cates thatthe dog representsmore
preciselythe fidelityofthe wife to the
husband, or "themedievalwife, ike
the dog... wasexpectedto lickthe
hand that smote her"(p.124).The thirdandfinalstep, iconology,
is the interpretation funderlying
philosophicaldeasexpressed
throughthe composition,motifs,
images,stories,or
allegoriesound
during he iconographic tage.It is
the synthesisofthe informationound
inthe previous wosteps.Basedon
iconological tudies conductedby
Panofsky(1934),Bedaux(1986)and
Seidel (1993)we get a sense of the
possible underlyingphilosophiesrela-
tive to marriage n 15th-centuryFlandersas revealed nJanVan
Eyck'sGiovanniArnolfini ndHis
Bride.InPanofsky's nterpretation,
marriagewas asacrament,a meansof
grace; orBedaux, twas a ritualizeddomestic act thatfollowed he lawsof
the church;and forSeidel, twas an
economicventurebetween twofami-
lies.
i RT EDUCATION / SEPTEMBER 1998
h e f r t i s t i c p r o d u c t is n o l o n g e r t h e
s o l u t i o n b u t h i s t o r i c a l a n d
ideological p r o b l e m to b e s t u d i e d .
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Zaire,dopfKing Bomosh.". 17thentury, ood, : 97/16"49.cm). rooklynuseum,ewYork.
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o c i a la r t historians
v i e w
w o r k so f a r t a s o b j e c t s t h a t a r e
connected to a n d condit ioned
b y a n e c o n o m i c b a s e .
CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS
ICONOGRAPHYNDICONOLOGY
The pedagogythatwillbe described
inthe followingsectionhas been devel-opedfrom old andnew arthistory
inquiryprocesses.The instructional
strategiesmaynotlook like arthistoryas we have known t,however,they typifythe arthistoricalprocessandcan
enrich thewaywe studyworks of art.
SOCIALARTHISTORY
Socialarthistoriansview works of
artas objectsthatare connectedto andconditionedby an economic base.They
studyworksinlightoftheir collective
political, conomic,religious,scientific,and socialbackground.Aestheticquali-ties are of minor mportance.Minor
(1994) ndicates hree different
approaches o a sociologicalstudyof
art: he causal, he expressive,and the
anecdotal.The casualapproach tates
that artexists for the benefit ofapartic-ularsocial class or economic base.
Historiansofart,consequently,
ook at
the contentofworksofartand relate
thatto some social event or circum-
stances. Whateconomic baseprovidesthe impetus or the creationof
GiovanniArnolfini nd HisBride?
According o Seidel (1993),thispaint-
ing representsatestimonyofthe
numerouseconomic transactions hat
tookplace during he courseof
betrothalsandmarriagesbetween two
wealthy amilies, hose of Arnolfini nd
Giovanna. t is thus a productof the
newbourgeoisculture nFlanders
(Antal,1949).The expressivemethodpositsthat
worksof artshouldexpress some cul-
turalvalue or crisis. Inshort,artreflects
social lls,problems,andtriumphs.
What socialill,problem,ortriumph sdepicted n GiovanniArnolfini nd His
Bride?Panofsky(1934) ndicates hata
numberof lawsuits ookplaceduringthe medievalperiod"inwhichthe valid-
ityof amarriagecould be neither
provednordisproved or wantofreli-
ablewitnesses"(p.124).Apparentlyn
those daysa "validmarriage...wasone
inwhichindividualsreelyexchangedvows withone another,withoutcon-
straint, ven ifthis act had been per-formed
privately,utside the church"
(Seidel, 1993,p.56).This lack of legalor ecclesiasticalevidence wasconse-
quentlyproblematic ndprovoked
manya marital awsuit nthe 15thcen-
tury.The anecdotalmode drawsparallels
between the socialclimateor mood.
Historiansof art husunveil,so to
speak,the social climateorcondition
hidden n works of art.Fromafeminist
sociologicalperspective, he composi-tionalelements and motifsfound n Van
Eyck'spaintingparallel he inferiorandsubmissive statusof women in 15th-
centuryFlanders(Seidel, 1993).
Howcould teachersuse the icono-
graphicapproachnthe classroom?
Panofsky(1955)has providedaframe-
workforstudyingworks of artthat can
be used withmost childrenbeyondfirstgrade.Children ould startwiththe
pre-iconographictep, developingan
inventoryof a workof artby identifyingand istingall the objects ound n the
work.They could ustify heir dentifica-
tionsby generalknowledgeorby com-
paring he objectswithphotographsof
realobjects, herebyverifyingor facili-
tating heir dentifications.The motifs
andobjects dentifiedcouldthenbe cat-
egorizedintogroupsof attributes-
characteristics faperson
orthing
like
the "S"hatdesignates Superman-and/or symbolic cons-images that
could stand or abstract deas,such as
the heartshapethat standsfor love.
Sinceattributes an also be symbolicsome objectsmightbe mentioned
twice. Once this is accomplished,chil-
drencouldbeginto speculateabout he
meaningsofthe attributesand cons,thusbeginningthe iconographicanaly-sis stage.When Iused this strategywith agroupofsecondand third
graders n Columbus,Ohio,the chil-dren dentified he swordfound on a
Kuba tatue (fig.2) romZaireas both
an attribute nda symbol.Studentscanbrainstorm bout he
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meanings fthe temsontheir istbasedon theirown nsights nd magi-nations. ollowinghis,studentsould
beprovidedheopportunityo discoverprobablenterpretationsasedon theartwork'sistorical ndculturalon-text.The teacher ouldprepare ocu-mentationhatwould ndicatewhat hevarious ttributesnd consmighthavemeant nd ymbolizednthe cultureand ime romwhich heycame.Once
theyhave oundhepossible ultural
interpretationsftheattributesnd
icons, hechildrenoulddeterminehethemeorstorydepictedntheworkof
artandwhy heworkofartwascreat-ed.InColumbus,orexample, groupofsecondand hird raders nalyzedthesymboliclements na woodenKubaigurineromZaire sing he
processes f conography.nitially,theydeterminedmeanings ftheattributesnd ymbols.Forexample,theydecidedhat he swordwasanattributef thekingand hat trepre-sentedpower.Then hey dentifiedhethemeofthestatuebasedonthe nter-
pretationsf all he attributesnd ym-bols.Theydecided hat he themewas
kingship.Whenasked osynthesizethe nformationheyhadgatheredfrom he discussion ndanswerhe
question,whywouldpeople reatesuchastatue, nesecond-gradetu-dentresponded,Well,maybencase
theydied hiswouldbeasymbolorememberhem."Duringhe courseofthestudy,he studentswerenotpro-vided nformationbouthestatue'suseorwhy twasmade Chanda&
Basinger, 994).In he conologicaltepchildren
would ynthesizehe nformationnddraw onclusions boutphilosophicalideasexpressed ytheworkofart nrelationo aparticularimeandplace.Questionsouldbeasked uchas,whatdoesthisworkof art ellus about
thepolitical,conomic, rreligious hi-losophy f thisparticularulture ta
particularime?Or,whatdoes he
work eveal boutheperceptionsfwomen,men,orchildren uringhattime?Ananalysis fvisual ndwrittendata athered uring ne orseveralclasssessionscanallow tudentso
speculateboutworksof art nthemanner fthearthistorian.
SOCIALARTHISTORY
Thestudyof art rom heperspec-tiveof socialarthistorywouldbe
designedmore orsecondaryrhigh
school tudents.Like he socialhistori-anofart, he studentwouldneed o seetheworkof artas a documentf tstime hatpossiblyeflects:a) heeco-nomicorsocial ystems hat ausedtheworkof art o becreated,b)a cul-tural risisor riumphsossiblyllus-tratedntheworkofart,or(c)the
relationshipetweenhesocialmoodorclimate nd he artist rworkofart.
Inorder odetermineow heworkofartreflects neormoreoftheabove,a studentwouldhave o examine he
interdependenceetweenheworkofartand iteraryvidence, rtist nd
patronelationship,ocialandeconom-icenvironment,ndpractical urpose(Antal,949).Literaryvidencerom
poetry, ovels,newspapers, aga-zines,or etters anbe correlated ith
images o determineheculturalrisis,socialmood,oreconomic onditionsthatmayhave nitiatedhe creation ftheworkofart.Thereareplenty fpastandpresentworksofartconnected
with iteraryources. haveworkedwithhighschool tudents ostudyworksof artvisuallynorderodeter-mine he content. hisactivity as ol
lowedbyagamewhere heymatched
literaryourcewith heartworksheyhadstudied isually. tudentswere
intriguedthownearor ar heycametothe evidence rovidednthe iterarysource.
Once herelationshipasbeenestablishedetween possibleiterarysourceand heworkofart, tudentscanbe asked o assessorspeculatewhyapatronmighthaveaskedanartisto create uchan mage.Informationbout hepatronanbe
providedntheformof an nterviewwhere heteacher retendsobethe
patron r ntheformoffictitiouset-ters,discoverednanattic,hat evealinformationbout hepatron.
Determininghe social ettingmeans indingnformationbout he
time,place,and ocialandeconomicconditionsnwhich heworkof artwascreated. hiskindof nformationanbelocatednsociology ndhistorytexts fstudents nd eachers akean
interdisciplinaryeapoutside fthewallsoftraditionalrthistory.
The social etting, nceestablished,canrevealnformationbout hepracti-calpurpose ftheworkof art.
Questionsordiscussionmightinclude: as hework reatedo exalta
particularroup rclassofpeople,broadcastsocial risis,describe par-ticularocialmood,ormockan mpor-tantpoliticalvent?Alloftheinformationatheredsho!id.pojtback othefom--d, nf<;"h"'--'"-''....
work. r.
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CONCLUSION
Manyeachers till ocuson the oldstructure farthistory sing hemes,
biographies,ndchronologies;oncen-trating nrememberingames,dates,and imeperiods;rdisseminatingoversimplifiedersions fexpertknowledge.Using hestudyofarthisto-
rymethods s avenues ordevelopingpedagogy ndmethodologiesor heK-12classroom anchangeourunder-
standingndenliven urnotions fart
history.tcanalsoallowus and tu-dents o:(a)engagewithexpertknowl-
edge; b)seemanypoints fview; c)
thinkabout rtandhistory ifferently;(d)enrich ndreinforcehe useofcog-nitiveprocesses uchas closeobserva-
tion,classificationf nformation,communicationf deas,nference
making,nterpretationfdata,ormula-tionofhypotheses,ndconfirmationrdenial fhypotheses asedonspace-timerelationshipsngeneral,nordertothinkandwork nthemanner f anarthistorian;nd(e)be moreopenand
receptiveomultipleruths asedonhistoricalontexts.
Throughnquirymethodswemightbe able o revitalizearthistoricalnderstandingnartedu-cation.
Jacqueline handasanAssociate
Professor,n theDepartmentfArtEducation, heOhioStateUniversity,Columbus.
REFERENCESAddis,S.,&Erickson,M. (1993).Arthistory
and education.Urbana:University fIllinoisPress.
Antal,F. (1949).Remarks n the methodofarthistory.TheBurlingtonMagazine, 1,49-52&73-75.
Bedaux, .B. (1986).Thereality fsymbols:Thequestionofdisguised ymbolismnJanVanEyck'sArnolfini ortrait.Netherlands uarterlyforheHistory fArt,16(1),5-25.
Bryson,N.,Holly,M.A.,&Moxey,K (Eds.).(1994).Visual ulture:mages nd nter-
pretations. ondon:University ressofNewEngland.
Chanda, .,&Basinger,A (1994,April).Understandingfrican rt.Paperpresent-ed atthemeetingoftheNationalArtEducationAssociation,Houston,Texas.
Ferie, E. (1995).Arthistory nd ts methA criticalanthology. ondon: haidonPress Limited.
Hauser, . (1951).The ocialhistory faX(vols,1-4).NewYork:VintageBo4S.
Heller,S. (1997, anuary).Whataretheydoing o arthistory?ARTnews,02-.
Holly,A. H. (1984).Panofskynd the ogntionsofarthistory.thaca,NY:Cornm6
University ress.Kleinbauer,W. E. (Ed.). (1987).Modern er
spectivesn western rthistory: n antholo-
gyoftwentieth-centuryritings nthevisualarts.Toronto:University f TorontoPress.
Minor,V.H.J. (1994).Arthistory's istory.
EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:Prentice-Hall.
Panofsky,E. (1934).JanVanEyck'sArolfiniportrait. urlingtonMagazineorConnoisseurs,4, 117-127.
Panofsky,E. (1955).Meaningn thevisualarts.Chicago:University fChicagoPress.
Preziosi,D. (1989).Rethinkingrthistory.London:YaleUniversity ress.
Rees,A.L.,&Borzello,F. (Eds). (1991).Thenewarthistory. ondon:CamdenPress.
Roskill,M. (1989).Whats arthistory?Amherst:TheUniversity fMassachusettsPress.
Seidel,L.(1993).JanVanEyck'sArnolfinior-trait:Stories fanicon.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity ress.
Vasari,G. (1963).The ivesofthepa:s,sculptorsndarchitectsW.G;A.B.Hinds,Trans.).Londo: i.
ART EDUCATION SEPTEMBER1998
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