The Power of Images Studies in the History and Theory of Response
by David Freedberg
University of Chicago Press, 1989
Cloth: 978-0-226-26144-7 | Paper: 978-0-226-26146-1 | Electronic: 978-0-226-25903-1
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226259031.001.0001
ABOUT THIS BOOKTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

"This learned and heavy volume should be placed on the shelves of every art historical library."—E. H. Gombrich, New York Review of Books

"This is an engaged and passionate work by a writer with powerful convictions about art, images, aesthetics, the art establishment, and especially the discipline of art history. It is animated by an extraordinary erudition."—Arthur C. Danto, The Art Bulletin

"Freedberg's ethnographic and historical range is simply stunning. . . . The Power of Images is an extraordinary critical achievement, exhilarating in its polemic against aesthetic orthodoxy, endlessly fascinating in its details. . . . This is a powerful, disturbing book."—T. J. Jackson Lears, Wilson Quarterly

"Freedberg helps us to see that one cannot do justice to the images of art unless one recognizes in them the entire range of human responses, from the lowly impulses prevailing in popular imagery to their refinement in the great visions of the ages."—Rudolf Arnheim, Times Literary Supplement

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

1. The Power of Images: Response and Repression

2. The God in the Image

3. The Value of the Commonplace

4. The Myth of Aniconism

5. Consecration: Making Images Work

6. Image and Pilgrimage

7. The Votive Image: Invoking Favor and Giving Thanks

8. Invisibilia per visibilia: Meditation and the Uses of Theory

9. Verisimilitude and Resemblance: From Sacred Mountain to Waxworks

10. Infamy, Justice, and Witchcraft: Explanation, Sympathy, and Magic

11. Live Images: The Worth of Visions and Tales

12. Arousal by Image

13. The Senses and Censorship

14. Idolatry and Iconoclasm

15. Representation and Reality

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index