Hubert Damisch: The Origin of Perspective (1987–) [EN, CR]

“In part a response to Panofsky’s Perspective as Symbolic Form, The Origin of Perspective is much more. In France it is considered one of the most important works of art history to have appeared in the last twenty years. With the exception of Michel Foucault’s analysis of Las Meninas, it is perhaps the first time a structuralist method such as the one developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss in The Way of the Masks has been thoroughly and convincingly applied to Western art.

The task Damisch has set for himself is to refute both the positivist critics, whose approach makes up the bulk of perspective studies and is based on a complete repression of Panofsky’s early work, and the current pseudo-avant-gardist position (whether in the field of cinema studies or in literary criticism), which tends to disregard facts and theoretical analysis. Damisch argues that if a theoretical analysis of perspective is possible, using all the tools of structuralist semiotics, it is only possible in the context of a close look at its appearance in history, beginning with the details of the ‘invention’ of perspective.”

Originally published in French as L’Origine de la perspective, Flammarion, Paris, 1987.

Translated by John Goodman
Publisher MIT Press, 1994
ISBN 0262041391, 9780262041393
477 pages

Review: Wood (The Art Bulletin, 1995).
Commentary: Iversen (Oxford Art Journal, 2005).

WorldCat (EN)

The Origin of Perspective (English, 1994, chapter 14 missing, 24 MB, no OCR)
Porijeklo perspektive (Croatian, trans. Zlatko Wurzberg, 2006, added on 2018-7-8)

Anne Hollander: Seeing Through Clothes (1978)

“Seeing Through Clothes is a vivid pictorial history of the changing images of ourselves in fashion. From classical Greek sculpture through the photographs of Avedon, Anne Hollander shows us how art has determined, rather than reflected, our concept of beauty and fashion. She examines the evolution of underclothes, hair as a sexual symbol, the difference between ‘naked’ and ‘nude,’ the role of black clothing, the meaning of mirror images, and how our concept of the perfect figure changes, and thus has altered fashion through the ages.” (from the back cover)

Publisher Avon Books, New York, 1978
ISBN 0380487772
504 pages

Review (Kirkus Reviews, n.d.)
Commentary (Dan Piepenbring, The Paris Review, 2014)
Commentary (Valerie Steele, Artforum, 2014)

WorldCat

PDF (86 MB, no OCR)
PDF (38 MB, OCR’d version via Marcell Mars added on 2014-11-30)