Architecture and Ekphrasis: Space, Time and the Embodied Description of the Past - Paperback

by Dana Arnold (Author)

This well-illustrated, accessibly written book examines how eighteenth-century prints and drawings of antique architecture operated as representations of thought. Combining original archival material with cultural theory, the book considers the idea of the past and the role of space and time in the visual ekphrasis or description of its architecture.

Front Jacket

'This provocative, highly readable book explores the potent exchange between visual and verbal description, considering what the visual allows us to explore and convey that the verbal does not and vice versa. Using a wide range of scholarly, pictorial and technical sources, Dana Arnold examines how words and writing help make us understand the object being described.' Diane Favro, Distinguished Research Professor, Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA 'Dana Arnold critically examines the relation of architectural theory to the images used in its illustration. Analysing verbal and visual approaches to description from a phenomenological point of view, she demonstrates the ways in which they both parallel and are yet distinct from one another. She also explores the psychic and somatic investments of their creators, revealing unacknowledged philosophical and gendered commitments.' Keith Moxey, Barbara Novak Professor of Art History, Barnard College Architecture and ekphrasis examines how eighteenth-century prints and drawings of ancient architecture operated as representations of thought with their own syntactical, linguistic and cultural qualities. Beginning with the idea that the spatial world of the image and the temporal world of the text share common ground as embodiments of human cognition, the book questions how they are brought to bear on the spatial and temporal aspects of the architecture of antiquity as evident in prints and drawings made of it. Following on from this, the book explores how this pan-European currency of visual descriptions influenced architectural theory. The idea of embodiment is used to investigate the various methods of describing architecture, including graphic techniques, measurement and perspective, all of which demonstrate choices about different modes of description or ekphrasis.

Back Jacket

'This provocative, highly readable book explores the potent exchange between visual and verbal description, considering what the visual allows us to explore and convey that the verbal does not and vice versa. Using a wide range of scholarly, pictorial and technical sources, Dana Arnold examines how words and writing help make us understand the object being described.'
Diane Favro, Distinguished Research Professor, Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA

Author Biography

Dana Arnold is Professor of Art History at the University of East Anglia