"Enlivening and - Dividing": An Aporia of Illumination

Contemporaneity: historical presence in visual culture

Hans Christian Hnes

关键词: Antiquarianism;    Artificial Illumination;    Art Appreciation;    Historism;   

DOI  :  10.5195/contemp.2015.73

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: University of Pittsburgh * University Library System

【 摘 要 】

In 1798, Karl August Bttiger paid a nocturnal visit to the Gallery of Antiques in Dresden, illuminating the statues with a torch. At first glance, this seems to be yet another example of a popular practice for visiting galleries c.1800. Illuminating the sculptures by torchlight was a popular means of enlivening the objects, set in motion by the light flickering on their surfaces. The collections were thus meant to become a place where cold, white stone comes to life, and where the beholder becomes part of a revived antiquity.This was precisely what Bttiger intended, too. But to him, the effect of the torchlight appeared to be, as he wrote, nlivening and ?dividing!?The torchlight highlighted not only the beauty of the sculptures but also their modern restorations. Bttiger apparently failed to experience the living presence of the antique celebrated by many of his contemporaries (e.g. Goethe, Moritz).This essay focuses on the consequence of such a perception of sculptures as historically multi-layered objects. Bttiger experience resulted in a problematic situation. In trying to view the sculptures as contemporaries, he hoped to become ancient himself. But this operation failed in the moment when the sculptures themselves appeared to be anachronistic, impure palimpsests. In consequence, galleries may not only be the place were art history as chronological Stilgeschichte was born. They may also be the site where this perception changed into the experience of a more chaotic shape of time.

【 授权许可】

CC BY