Vision, Touch, and Memory. Rembrandt’s Aristotle with the Bust of Homer.
Lecture by Jeanette Kohl as part of the exhibition Idols & Rivals at the Kunsthorisches Museum in Vienna.
Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653
A contextualized interpretation of Rembrandt’s famous Portrait of Aristotle with the Bust of Homer (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), this lecture discusses the importance of sculpture as a key medium of memory. A detailed analysis will show how Rembrandt transformed established thought patterns of competition (among the arts, among artists, with antiquity) and traditional art-historical dichotomies (seeing vs. feeling, materiality vs. intellect, presence vs. impermanence) into a remarkably complex play across genres creating a painted philosophy of touch.
Read more (in German) at https://tinyurl.com/2fhyw3jw
View Dr. Kohl’s entire presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=FaZPtIEOwX4