This essay investigates the special way in which a spectator might engage imaginatively with one work of art when the work is experienced in light of other works by the same artist. In particular, it addresses the idea that we might imaginatively identify with an unrepresented spectator in the picture after we have experienced others in which the…

In "The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective," one of Samuel Edgerton's claims is that Filippo Brunelleschi and his contemporaries did not develop a three-dimensional style of representing the world in painting as much as they reappropriated a way to depict the natural world in painting that most mirrored the human perception of it.…

The author will begin his investigation of Wassily Kandinsky's painting "Composition VI" with Kandinsky's own commentary on the painting. He will then turn to the analysis of Kandinsky and the "Compositions" in John Sallis's book "Shades." Using this analysis as his point of departure, the author will consider how "Composition VI" resonates with…

With regard to general aesthetic education, the university liberal studies curriculum is designed to provide a balance of the humanities and sciences. Beyond offering a balanced curriculum, there is the current trend for universities to offer a liberal studies curriculum that interfaces the sciences and the humanities. A prime example of this is…

Both John Dewey and Martin Heidegger thought that art's audience had to take a detour in order to appreciate or understand a work of art. They wrote about this around the same time (mid-1930s) and independently of one another, so this similar circumstance in the history of aesthetics is unusual since they come from very different philosophical…

Neurological studies of the recently discovered mirror neuron system have allowed insights into the important connections between empathy, objects of art and material culture, and human understanding. Such insights reinforce an original connection between aesthetics and empathy, or "Einfuhlung", dating from 1873. Mirror neurons, empathy, and…

It is a mainstream view within the ontology of art that there are singular as well as multiple artworks, but it is also a view that is contested. In this article, the author investigates whether the singular/multiple distinction can be sustained and argues for a new way to determine the category to which an artwork belongs. The author stresses…

The methods by which environmental issues are aestheticized in late-twentieth-century film is directly and historically related to those established for grand manner painters by Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) and taught at the French academy from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. That these fundamentals were part of the training of…

Recent theories of the aesthetic appreciation of nature or natural environments have done much to clarify what might be essential to such appreciation. Such accounts are incomplete, however, as they depend on a strict separation between works of art and nature itself. This paper shows how classical Chinese landscape painting offers a way to…

In consulting on or creating a Web site designed to use works of art for teaching purposes, it is extremely important to be aware of the differences between seeing an artwork "in the flesh" and in reproduction. Museum educators are highly aware of this disparity and are therefore eager to have students visit museums to experience authentic works…

The "all-over" abstract canvases that Jackson Pollock produced between 1943 and 1951 present a pedagogical challenge in how to account for their apparently chaotic structure. One reason that they are difficult to teach about is that they have proved notoriously difficult for art historians to come to terms with. This is undoubtedly a consequence…

Cephalopods have a visual language that may be considered artful; they flash color-forms on their hides to communicate intents and emotions. Formalist inspired artists and their critic-expositors describe abstract pattern-painting as though it were a visual language equal to that of the cephalopod. In this article, the author argues that although…

Several sections in this article begin with a foundational discussion of the connection between art and the general curriculum, including how the effectiveness of that curriculum may then be measured. Continuing with a working definition of "critical thinking", the author demonstrates how Rembrandt's work relates particularly well to the social…

This paper will examine an unresolved tension inherent in the question of art and argue for the idea of a singular rule as a natural resolution. In so doing, the structure of a singular rule will be fully outlined and its paradoxical constitution will be resolved. The tension I mention above unfolds both as a matter of history and as a product of…

Because beauty has for a long time now been politically incorrect (at least among certain influential critics and academic historians) the art of Henri Matisse has recently suffered from a kind of benign neglect. His goals were luxury, calm, and voluptuousness, not social critique. Liberated from any vital connection with everyday life, they often…