Reception aesthetics - the viewer is in the picture

„Der Betrachter ist im Bild“

http://www.integrale-kunstpaedagogik.de/assets/ikp_kwm_3_kwm_rezeptionsaesthetik_2015.pdf

Joachim Penzel, Rezeptionsästhetik – Der Betrachter ist im Bild

(Informationen für Lehrende)

Reception aesthetics - the viewer is in the picture (Information for teachers)

“The viewer is in the picture” - the aesthetic reception of the work

In its overall structure, every picture is an offer for a certain, usually clearly defined type of viewing.

Observation does not mean interpretation, i.e. the subjective understanding of the content of a work of art, but rather the type of perception given by the image and the linkage of the individual picture elements to a visual order controlled by the image. Art-historical or visual reception aesthetics are concerned with this control of the viewing process based on the image.

The term aesthetics in the traditional sense means the doctrine of perception, while the term reception characterizes the relevant form of appropriation of reality, in the case of pictures, as a rule, as viewing, in the case of texts in the form of reading.

In order to conceptually identify the direct connection between an image (what is perceived) and its viewer (the perceiver), the founder of the art-historical reception aesthetics, Wolfgang Kemp, speaks of an "implicit" or an "image-immanent viewer".

This means that the viewer's point of view in relation to both the image and in the image is determined by the image itself that brought to the catchy phrase "The viewer is in the picture". Since images come into direct contact with the viewer's body, aspects of the body subject are analyzed by means of the reception aesthetic method on the one hand and certain layers of meaning that affect the cultural subject are revealed on the other.

For the way in which the viewer's point of view is given by the image, the aesthetic receptionist art history has examined various image features that are listed under summarized in the generic term of the reception requirements and which are explained in more detail below with reference to the picture examples of the work sheets.

Image detail and perspective

The great art theorist of the Renaissance Leone Battista Alberti compared the picture with a window on reality. In such a “picture window”, the limits specified by the artist determine how close one can get to the selected section of reality. This is easiest to understand in the case of portraits. While a full-body portrait and thus a large image section the viewer automatically towards the Keeping the portrayed at a distance, we develop when looking at a chest or even a pure head portrait, i.e. a small excerpt from reality, the feeling of closeness and intimacy. The selected image section can therefore be used as with the zoom of the camera bring them up to the sitter or keep them at a distance.

It is also crucial which perspective an image provides. With perspective, the Image denotes the vanishing point, i.e. the intersection of the geometric construction lines the image space or the central body. Since this point is always at eye level Image viewer, it is also called a point of view. With the perspective, that is Vanishing point or focal point, the position of the viewer in relation to the picture is determined. In this way, a portrait can be seen on an equal footing with the other person

or show what is represented from a slightly lower perspective automatically puts us in a subordinate position - a pictorial tool that is particularly useful in Representations of rulers from the Baroque period were used (worksheet 1).

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p. 5: Reception aesthetics - information text for students

This process is based on the assumption that the meaning of images is only established in the viewing process. However, viewing is not an arbitrary act, but a structured process that is controlled by the image itself. The aesthetics of reception ask consequently according to the control processes of image viewing integrated in the image. In every picture there are figures of contact and identification that address the viewer directly; there are gaps that offer him a personal place in the picture or paths that connect the picture and the viewer space. This is how images mostly create too very specific role offers for their viewers - sometimes you belong to the court of a king, sometimes to the fighters of a battle, sometimes to the actors of a computer game world.

This method has also been brought up to the catchphrase: "The viewer is in the picture"

Reception aesthetics poses the following questions to a work: 

Are we asked to enter the image? 

Are there figures in contact with the viewer in the picture?

What role could we play as viewers in the picture?

In the method of reception aesthetics, the picture is viewed like a window - the audience looks out into the world through the frame or into the neighboring room like through a door.

As a viewer, we therefore also belong to the world of images, because this continues through paths into the world of the viewer, because there are figures who make contact with us.
--
pp. 13-14: The painting shows how a Christian congregation in Rome was surprised by soldiers of the emperor during a baptism (at that time people were baptized in large, basin-like baptismal fonts) and the apostle Matthew, who was a priest, was stabbed to death.
Because he died for his faith, God sent an angel who presented him with a palm frond as a symbol of martyrdom.
Work stimulation 1)
• Describes and analyzes how Carravaggio portrayed the murder of Matthew.
How was the sequence of actions implemented in the picture?
• What role do the individual characters play in the picture?
In each case, are their actions clear and appropriate for the gruesome event?
• How would you behave as a witness in this situation?
Work stimulation 2)
• Form a three-dimensional model out of clay or modeling clay, which illustrates the spatial structure of the picture. Also show how you imagine the room in front of the picture.
In what role do the viewers act?


Three-dimensional model after Carravaggio's "Murder of St. Matthew" - the red wool thread marks the border of the Image. The viewers would also have to sit in the baptismal font as participants in the scene. (Work result of a Teacher training at Lisa Halle)