The Research Of Wolfflin Vision Historicism Of Art History

The study of visual art history is,to a large extent,the study of historical change in modes of seeing.W?lfflin is known as a pioneer in manifestations of visual historicism.He highlighted the"image" of visual arts and on this basis explored the inherent changes in visual perception of different times,nationalities,localities as well as individual artists,reflecting various kinds of human consciousness.This change finds its final expression in the style of visual arts.In his interpretation of vision history as optical strata of different modes of seeing,and his analysis of"modes of perception" according to "the most general representation forms" and "vision type",a humanistic perspective of vision historicism took its shape:due to differences in visual perceptions,each time or nationality sees different things and the outlook demonstrated by artistic visual forms differs.Wolfflin's study of style in vision historicism corresponds with the German humanism in highlighting organic development,a static national characteristic,theory of experiential life and cultural and artistic multiplicity.Based on vision historicism,the thesis attempts to give a comparatively wholesome and distinctive presentation of Wolfflin's thoughts of art history that gave rise to the maturity of visual historicism in post-Wolfllin era.In a synchronic light,Wolfflin studied visual form as the core of art history.All his discussions were based on the visual form of art.The inherent development of visual form consists in a paradigm focusing on the inherent laws of art history and conceiving visual forms as the ontology of art.He explored "pure visual symbols",an inheritance from Konrad Fiedler's "pure vision" theory which viewed the reproduction of visual forms as modes of cognition and lays the foundation for the study of art in art history.These symbols—the signifiers signifying nothing-effect specific modes of seeing and consist in a basic visual schema.When the visual experience of specific artworks agrees with the schema,art history takes on a distinct style or outlook.Wolfflin discussed the change in modes of seeing in art history.The study of art history took it as its priority to reveal "optical strata" of vision history and relied on the change in modes of seeing effected by the inherent changes in visual forms of concrete artworks in different times.The change in modes of seeing was based on psychological or perceptual changes effected by visual forms,and viewed visual form as transference of psychological and emotional status.An individual's transference could be applied generally.Wolfflin adopts the two polarization criticism in both visual form and visual modes,in line with the adoption of dichotomy or polarization principles prevalent in current areas like philosophy,culture,aethestics and psychology.Apparently,Wolfflin's two polarization criticism took its root in Western classical philosophy as well as the social context of nation-state,nation politics discussions since the 18th-century Europe.Wolfflin emphasized that the historical roots of two polarization criticism in artistic styles between 16th-century and 17th-century Italy,between South-European and North-European nationalities,and finally crystallized between classical and non-classical.But polarized criticism gave no place to non-classical styles other than Baroque and was anything but the reality of arts,so seeking a perspective beyond the pattern of dichotomy-based polarized criticism was inevitable.Historical conceptions emphasized by Wolfflin such as "everything is but a transition" and "people see what they seek" inspired multiplicity of artistic criticism.Wolfflin's study of style in visual arts had its inheritance and roots in the tradition of historicism characteristic of the German,The root of the double roots of his artistic style lay in the belief that a nation's characteristic remains "static" and that there exists "a nation's eye" for style in visual arts.That Wolfflin's "a nation's eye" was the root of style corresponds with what historicists Herder and Meineck believed as the stability of an organic nation and the "national"feature of genuine literature and arts.The nationalist tendency was also evident in polarized perceptions of visual styles between Renaissance and South-European—a static and stable classical style,and Baroque and North-European nations—a modern dynamic style.In studying Wolfflin's art history theory,the thesis attempts to make the following breakthroughs.First,viewing Wolfflin as an artistic theoretician who based his art history study on perceptions of visual experiences rather than formalism.With forms only,artworks are no more than abstract formalism;with visual life experiences only,artworks are but a chaos of impressions.The cognition theory of visual perceptions in art aims to identify vitality and historical atmosphere through the search and reproduction of visible forms.Second,elaboration of vision historicism in visual art history and a new paradigm in post-Wolfflin study of visual art history—which emphasizes vision-centred art type and effectively represents the optical strata of historical multiplicity.