Resemblance
Traditionally, depiction is distinguished from denotative meaning by the presence of a mimetic element orIllusion
The most famous and elaborate case for resemblance modified by reference, is made by art historian Ernst Gombrich. Resemblance in pictures is taken to involve illusion. Instincts in visual perception are said to be triggered or alerted by pictures, even when we are rarely deceived. The eye supposedly cannot resist finding resemblances that accord with illusion. Resemblance is thus narrowed to something like the seeds of illusion. Against the one-way relation of reference Gombrich argues for a weaker or labile relation, inherited fromDual invariants
A more frankly behaviouristic view is taken by the perceptual psychologist James J. Gibson, partly in response to Gombrich. Gibson treats visual perception as the eye registering necessary information for behaviour in a given environment. The information is filtered from light rays that meet the retina. The light is called the stimulus energy or sensation. The information consists of underlying patterns or 'invariants' for vital features to the environment. Gibson's view of depiction concerns the re-presentation of these invariants. In the case of illusions or trompe l'oeil, the picture also conveys the stimulus energy, but generally the experience is of perceiving two sets of invariants, one for the picture surface, another for the object pictured. He pointedly rejects any seeds of illusion or substitution and allows that a picture represents when two sets of invariants are displayed. But invariants tell us little more than that the resemblance is visible, dual invariants only that the terms of reference are the same as those for resemblanceSeeing-in
A similar duality is proposed by the philosopher of art Richard Wollheim. He calls it 'twofoldness'. Our experience of the picture surface is called the 'configurational' aspect, and our experience of the object depicted the 'recognitional'. Wollheim's main claim is that we are simultaneously aware of both the surface and the depicted object. The concept of twofoldness has been very influential in contemporary analytic aesthetics, especially in the writings ofOther psychological resources
The appeal to broader psychological factors in qualifying depictive resemblance is echoed in the theories of philosophers such as Robert Hopkins, Flint Schier and Kendall Walton. They enlist 'experience', 'recognition' and 'imagination' respectively. Each provides additional factors to an understanding or interpretation of pictorial reference, although none can explain how a picture resembles an object (if indeed it does), nor how this resemblance is then also a reference. For example, Schier returns to the contrast with language to try to identify a crucial difference in depictive competence. Understanding a pictorial style does not depend upon learning a vocabulary and syntax. Once grasped, a style allows the recognition of any object known to the user. Of course recognition allows a great deal more than that – books teaching children to read often introduce them to many exotic creatures such as a kangaroo or armadillo through illustrations. Many fictions and caricatures are promptly recognised without prior acquaintance of either a particular style or the object in question. So competence cannot rely on a simple index or synonymy for objects and styles. Schier's conclusion that lack of syntax and semantics in reference then qualifies as depiction, leaves dance, architecture, animation, sculpture and music all sharing the same mode of reference. This perhaps points as much to limitations in a linguistic model.Notation
Reversing orthodoxy, the philosopher Nelson Goodman starts from reference and attempts to assimilate resemblance. He denies resemblance as either necessary or sufficient condition for depiction but surprisingly, allows that it arises and fluctuates as a matter of usage or familiarity. For Goodman, a picture denotes. Denotation is divided between description, covering writing and extending to more discursive notation including music and dance scores, to depiction at greatest remove. However, a word does not grow to resemble its object, no matter how familiar or preferred. To explain how a pictorial notation does, Goodman proposes an analogue system, consisting of undifferentiated characters, a density of syntax and semantics and relative repleteness of syntax. These requirements taken in combination mean that a one-way reference running from picture to object encounters a problem. If its semantics is undifferentiated, then the relation flows back from object to picture. Depiction can acquire resemblance but must surrender reference. This is a point tacitly acknowledged by Goodman, conceding firstly that density is the antithesis of notation and later that lack of differentiation may actually permit resemblance. A denotation without notation lacks sense. Nevertheless, Goodman's framework is revisited by philosopher John Kulvicki and applied by art historian James Elkins to an array of hybrid artefacts, combining picture, pattern and notation.Pictorial semiotics
Pictorial semiotics aims for just the kind of integration of depiction with notation undertaken by Goodman, but fails to identify his requirements for syntax and semantics. It seeks to apply the model of structural linguistics, to reveal core meanings and permutations for pictures of all kinds, but stalls in identifying constituent elements of reference, or as semioticians prefer, 'signification'. Similarly, they accept resemblance although call it 'iconicity' (after Charles Sanders Peirce, 1931–58) and are uncomfortable in qualifying its role. Older practitioners, such as Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco variously shift analysis to underlying 'connotations' for an object depicted or concentrate on description of purported content at the expense of more medium-specific meaning. Essentially they establish a more generalDeixis
The art historian Norman Bryson persists with a linguistic model and advances a detail of parsing and tense, 'Iconography
Lastly, iconography is the study of pictorial content, mainly in art, and would seem to ignore the question of how to concentrate upon what. But iconography's findings take a rather recondite view of content, are often based on subtle literary, historical and cultural allusion and highlight a sharp difference in terms of resemblance, optical accuracy or intuitive illusion. Resemblance is hardly direct or spontaneous for the iconographer, reference rarely to the literal or singular. Visual perception here is subject to reflection and research, the object as much reference as referent. The distinguished art historian Erwin Panofsky allowed three levels to iconography. The first is 'natural' content, the object recognised or resembling without context, on a second level, a modifying historical and cultural context and at a third, deeper level, a fundamental structure or ideology (called iconology). He even ascribed the use of perspective a deep social meaning (1927). However more recently, a natural or neutral level tends to be abandoned as mythical. The cultural scholarOther issues
Dozens of factors influence depictions and how they are represented. These include the equipment used to create the depiction, the creator's intent, vantage point, mobility, proximity, publication format, among others, and, when dealing with human subjects, their potential desire for impression management. Other debates about the nature of depiction include the relationship between seeing something in a picture and seeing face to face, whether depictive representation is conventional, how understanding novel depictions is possible, theSee also
*Further reading
Books
*Barthes Roland (1969), Elements of semiology (Paris, 1967) translated by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith, (London: Cape). *Bryson Norman (1983) Vision and Painting: The Logic of The Gaze, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press). *Eco Umberto (1980), A Theory of Semiotics (Milan 1976) (Bloomington: Indiana University Press). *Elkins James (1999), The Domain of Images (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press). *Freeman N. H. and Cox M. V. (eds.) (1985), Visual Order: The Nature and Development of Pictorial Representation (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press). *Gombrich E. H. (1989–95), The Story Of Art (15th ed. London: Phaidon Press). *Gombrich E. H. (1960), Art and Illusion (Oxford: Phaidon Press). *Gombrich E. H. (1963), Meditations on a Hobbyhorse (Oxford: Phaidon Press). *Gombrich E. H. (1982), The Image and the Eye (Oxford and New York: Phaidon Press). *Goodman, Nelson (1968), Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.). *Goodman Nelson and Elgin Catherine Z. (1988), Reconceptions in Philosophy (London and New York, Routledge) *Gregory R. L. (1970) ''The Intelligent Eye'' (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson). *Hopkins, Robert (1998), Picture, Image, and Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). *Husserl, Edmund (1928), Zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins. Halle. (Republished in Husserliana X, The Hague: Nijhoff, 1966). *Husserl, Edmund (1980), Phantasie, Bildbewusstsein, Erinnerung, Husserliana XXIII. (The Hague: Nijhoff). *Hyman, John (2006), The Objective Eye: Colour, Form and Reality in the Theory of Art (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press). *Kulvicki, John (2006), On Images: Their structure and content (Oxford: Oxford University Press). *Lopes, Dominic (1996), Understanding Pictures (Oxford: Clarendon Press). *Lopes, Dominic (2005), Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures (Oxford: Clarendon Press). *Maynard, Patrick (1997), The Engine of Visualization: Thinking Through Photography (Ithaca: Cornell University Press). *Maynard, Patrick (2005), Drawing Distinctions: The Varieties of Graphic Expression (Ithaca: Cornell University Press). *Mitchell, W. J. T. (1980), The Language of Images (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press). *Mitchell, W. J. T. (1986), Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology, (Chicago and London: University Of Chicago Press). *Mitchell, W. J. T. (1994), Picture Theory (Chicago and London: University Of Chicago Press). *Novitz, David (1977), Pictures and their Use in Communication (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff). *Panofsky, Erwin (1955) Meaning in the Visual Arts (New York: Doubleday). *Peirce, Charles Sanders - (1931–58), Collected Papers I-VIII. Hartshorne, C, Weiss, P, & Burks, A, (eds.). (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press). *Podro, Michael (1998), Depiction, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press). *Schier, Flint (1986), Deeper Into Pictures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). *Sonesson, Göran (1989), Pictorial Concepts: Inquiries into the semiotic heritage and its relevance for the analysis of the visual world. (Lund: Aris/Lund University Press). *Walton, Kendall (1990), Mimesis as Make-believe (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press). *Willats, John (1997), Art and Representation: New Principles In The Analysis Of Pictures (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press). *Wollheim, Richard (1987), Painting as an Art (London: Thames and Hudson).Articles
*Alloa, Emmanuel (2010) 'Seeing-as, seeing-in, seeing-with. Looking Through Pictures' Image and imaging in philosophy, science and the arts : proceedings of the 33rd International Ludwig Wittgenstein-Symposium in Kirchberg, Frankfurt:ontos 2010, 179–190. *Abell, Catharine (2005a), 'Pictorial Implicature', ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 63(1): 55–66. *Abell, Catharine (2005b), 'Against Depictive Conventionalism', ''The American Philosophical Quarterly'', 42(3): 185–197. *Abell, Catharine (2005), 'On Outlining the Shape of Depiction', ''Ratio'', 18(1): 27–38. *Abell, Catharine (2005), 'McIntosh's Unrealistic Picture of Peacocke and Hopkins on Realistic Pictures', ''British Journal of Aesthetics'', 45(1): 64–68. *Bennett, John (1971), 'Depiction and Convention?', ''The Monist'' 58: 255–68. *Budd, Malcolm (1992), 'On Looking at a Picture', in Robert Hopkins and Anthony Savile (eds.), ''Psychoanalysis, Mind, and Art'' (Oxford: Blackwell). *Budd, Malcolm (1993), 'How Pictures Look' in Dudley Knowles and John Skorupski (eds.), ''Virtue and Taste'' (Oxford: Blackwell). *Bach, Kent (1970), 'Part of What a Picture Is', ''British Journal of Aesthetics'', 10: 119–137. *Black, M. (1972), 'How Do Pictures Represent', in Black, Gombrich and Hochburg, ''Art, Perception, and Reality'' (Baltimore, Md.). *Carrier, David (1971), 'A Reading of Goodman on Representation?', ''The Monist'' 58: 269–84. *Carrol, Noel (1994), 'Visual Metaphor' in Jaakko Hintikka (ed.), ''Aspects of Metaphor'' (Kluwer Publishers), 189–218; reprinted in Noel Carrol (2001), ''Beyond Aesthetics'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). *Dilworth, John (2002), 'Three Depictive Views Defended', ''The British Journal of Aesthetics'', 42(3): 259–278. *Dilworth, John (2002), 'Varieties of Visual Representation', ''Canadian Journal of Philosophy'', 32(2): 183–205. *Dilworth, John (2003), 'Medium, Subject Matter and Representation', ''The Southern Journal of Philosophy'', 41(1): 45–62. *Dilworth, John (2003), 'Pictorial Orientation Matters', ''The British Journal of Aesthetics'' 43(1): 39–56. *Dilworth, John (2005), 'Resemblance, Restriction and Content-Bearing Features', The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63(1): 67–70. *Dilworth, John (2005), 'The Perception of Representational Content', British Journal of Aesthetics, 45(4): 388–411. *Freeman, N. H., (1986) How should a cube be drawn? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 317–322. *Freeman, N. H. Evans, D., and Willats, J. (1988) Symposium overview: the computational approach to projection drawing-systems. (Budapest, Paper given at Third European Conference on Developmental Psychology, * Gibson, James J. – (1978), 'The Ecological approach To Visual Perception In Pictures', ''Leonardo'', 11, p. 231. *Hopkins, Robert (1994), 'Resemblance and Misrepresentation', ''Mind'', 103(412): 421–238. *Hopkins, Robert (1995), 'Explaining Depiction', ''Philosophical Review'', 104(3): *Hopkins, Robert (1997), 'Pictures and Beauty', ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', XCVII: 177–194. *Hopkins, Robert (1997), 'El Greco's Eyesight: Interpreting Pictures and the Psychology of Vision', ''Philosophical Quarterly'', 47(189): 441–458. *Hopkins, Robert (2000), 'Touching Pictures' ''British Journal of Aesthetics'' 40: 149–67. *Hopkins, Robert (2003), 'What Makes Representational Painting Truly Visual? ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary'', LXXVII: 149–167. *Hopkins, Robert (2003), 'Pictures, Phenomenology and Cognitive Science', ''The Monist'', 86. *Hopkins, Robert (2005), 'What Is Pictorial Representation', in Mathew Kieran (ed.), Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Art (Oxford: Blackwell). *Howell, R. (1974), 'The Logical Structure of Pictorial Representation', ''Theoria'' 2: 76–109. *Hyman, John (2000), 'Pictorial Art and Visual Experience', ''British Journal of Aesthetics'' 40:2 1-45. *Kennedy, J. M. and Ross, A. S. (1975), 'Outline picture perception by the Songe of Papua', Perception, 4, 391–406. *Kjorup, Soren (1971), 'George Inness and the Battle at Hastings or Doing Things With Pictures', The Monist 58: 217–36. *Kulvicki, John (2003), 'Image Structure', The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 61(4): 323–39. *Lehrer, Keith (2004), 'Representation in Painting and Consciousness', Philosophical Studies, 117(1); 1–14. *Lewis, H. P. (1963) 'Spatial representation in drawing as a correlate of development and a basis for picture preference'. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 102, 95–107. *Lopes, Dominic (1997), 'Art Media and the Sense Modalities: Tactile Pictures', Philosophical Quarterly, 47(189): 425–440. *Lopes, Dominic (2004), 'Directive Pictures', The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62(2): 189–96. *Lopes, Dominic (2005), Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures (Oxford: Clarendon Press). *Lowe, D. G. (1987), 'Three-dimensional object recognition from single two-dimensional images', Artificial Intelligence, 31, 355 – 395. *Malinas, Gary (1991), 'A Semantics for Pictures', Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 21(3): 275–298. *Manns, James W. (1971), 'Representation, Relativism and Resemblance', British Journal of Aesthetics 11: 281–7). *Marr, David (1977), 'Analysis of occluding outline', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 197 441–475. *Marr, David (1978), 'Representing visual information: a computational approach.' in Computer Vision, A. R. Hanson and E. M. Riseman (eds.) Academic Press, New York and London, pp. 61–80. *Maynard, Patrick (1972), 'Depiction, Vision and Convention', American Philosophical Quarterly, 9: 243–50. *McIntosh, Gavin (2003), 'Depiction Unexplained: Peacocke and Hopkins on Pictorial Representation', The British Journal of Aesthetics, 43(3):279-288. *Nanay, Bence (2004), 'Taking Twofoldness Seriously: Walton on Imagination and Depiction', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62(3): 285–9. *Nanay, Bence (2005), 'Is Twofoldness Necessary for Representational Seeing?', British Journal of Aesthetics 45(3): 263–272. *Neander, Karen (1987), 'Pictorial Representation: A Matter of Resemblance', British Journal of Aesthetics, 27(3): 213–26. *Newall, Michael (2003), 'A Restriction for Pictures and Some Consequences for a Theory of Depiction', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 61: 381–94. *Nicholas, A. L. and Kennedy, J. M. (1992), 'Drawing development from similarity of features to direction', Child Development, 63, 227–241. *Novitz, David (1975), 'Picturing', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 34: 144–55. *Panofsky, Erwin (1924-5), 'Die Perspective als Symbolische Form' in Vortrage der Bibliotek Warburg. *Pateman, Trevor (1980), 'How to do Things with Images: An Essay on the Pragmatics of Advertising', Theory and Society, 9(4): 603–622. *Pateman, Trevor (1983), 'How is Understanding an Advertisement Possible?' in Howard Davis and Paul Walton (eds.), Language, Image, Media (London: Blackwell). *Pateman, Trevor (1986), 'Translucent and Transparent Icons', British Journal of Aesthetics, 26: 380–2. *Peacocke, Christopher (1987), Depiction, The Philosophical Review, 96: 383–410. *Ross, Stephanie (1971), 'Caricature', The Monist 58: 285–93. *Savile, Anthony (1986) 'Imagination and Pictorial Understanding', Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 60: 19–44. *Sartwell, Crispin (1991), 'Natural Generativity and Imitation', British Journal of Aesthetics, 31: 58–67. *Schier, Flint (1993) 'Van Gogh's Boots: The Claims of Representation' in Dudley Knowles and John Skorupski (eds.) Virtue and Taste (Oxford: Blackwell). *Scholz, Oliver (2000), 'A Solid Sense of Syntax', Erkenntnis, 52: 199–212. *Sonesson, Göran (2001), 'Iconicity strikes back: the third generation – or why Eco is still wrong'. VISIO 9: 3–4. *Sonesson, Göran (Revised August 2006), 'Current issues in pictorial semiotics. Lecture three: From the Critique of the Iconicity Critique to Pictorality' . Third conference of a series published online at the Semiotics Institute Online. January 2006. *Sorenson, Roy (2002), 'The Art of the Impossible' in Tamar Szabo Gendler and John Hawthorne (eds.), Conceivability and Possibility (Oxford: Clarendon Press). *Soszynski, Marek (2006), 'How Do Pictures Represent?', Philosophy Now, 57: 20–21. *Walton, Kendall (1971), 'Are Representations Symbols?', The Monist 58: 236–254. *Walton, Kendall (1974), 'Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism', Critical Inquiry, 11(2): 246–277. *Walton, Kendall (1992), 'Seeing-In and Seeing Fictionally', in James Hopkins and Anthony Savile (eds.), Mind, Psychoanalysis, and Art: Essays for Richard Wollheim, (Oxford: Blackwell), 281–291. *Walton, Kendall (1993), 'Make-Believe, and its Role in Pictorial Representation and the Acquisition of Knowledge', Philosophic Exchange 23: 81–95. *Walton, Kendall (1997), 'On Pictures and Photographs: Objections Answered', in Richard Allen and Murray Smith (eds.), Film Theory and Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 60–75. *Walton, Kendall (2002), 'Depiction, Perception, and Imagination: Responses to Richard Wollheim', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60(1): 27–35. *Wilkerson, T. E. (1991), 'Pictorial Representation: A defense of the Aspect Theory', Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 16: 152–166. *Wilson, B. and Wilson, M. (1977) 'An iconoclastic view of the imagery sources in the drawings of young people', Art Education, 30(1), 4–6. *Wollheim, Richard (1990), 'A Note on Mimesis as Make-Believe', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 51(2): 401–6. *Wollheim, Richard (1998), 'Pictorial Representation', Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56: 217–26. *Wolsterstorff, Nicholas (1991a), 'Two Approaches to Representation – And Then a Third', Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 16: 167–199.References
External links
{{commons category, Depictions