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1. Concept and problemA work is considered plagiarism if it derives wholly or in part from the work of another author while deliberately concealing its source, permitting the definition of a “pretence of intellectual originality” [2. 1152]. Plagiarism is thus distinct from cryptomnesia (the unintended reproduction of something the author has forgotten having read) and the forms of parody and montage, in which disclosure of the source(s) is intended and crucial to reception. Whereas artistic forgery entails passing off one’s own w…

1. Philosophy 1.1. Concept and overviewThe term eclecticism (from Gk. …

1. Erotic literatureIn seeking a definition of literary erotica, the theme of love is of little use, because it is one of the most commonplace in the literature of all epochs. Nor are the usual terms “erotic,” “pornographic,” or “obscene” literature any more helpful, for they make distinctions not so much on the basis of the thematic or stylistic criteria they pretend to assert as on the basis of value judgment. It would be more useful to focus on the property intended to distinguish these texts f…

1. Definition and historyMimesis (“[imitative] representation”) is a crucial, but polyvalent concept in literary theory, art theory, and other fields, the meaning of which has changed much through the course of history and remains controversial to this day. An extremely fluid spectrum of connotations was already in place in Greek antiquity. Mimesis (Greek mímēsis) is derived from  mímos (“mime”), and in the fifth-century BCE it meant portraying something in such a way as to resemble something else. Plato first gave it an aesthetic, although distinctly double-edged meaning [5. 120]: in philosophy, mimesis had a positive connotation, for it directed the mind towards a higher reality, but in art it was disparaging, for poets and painters were chided for creating mere copies of other works. In the  Poetics of Aristotle, the concept of mimesis is crucial, being used to define the specific quality of the transformative action of poíesis as …

1. Concept Illusionism relies on an intentional effect of deceiving the senses in a work of art. The illusion is usually based on tricking the sense of vision by means of precise naturalistic imitation and perspective techniques. The aim is to elicit momentary confusion between art and reality in the viewer. The illusion is not intended to be lasting, but to elicit an ensuing revelation that the seen effect is a work of art [5]; [6]. Artists also use illusionism to demonstrate that they are capable of surpassing nature by conjuring an appearance of reality.An ancient artist anecdote on …

1. ConceptIn Italian art, disegno (“design”; French  dessin) from the early Renaissance already meant more than just “drawing”. Artistic expertise in practice and theory combined in the concept of disegno to found a concept of artistic creativity. Disegno refers on the one hand to the drawing, from the first strokes of the pen in the draft stage to the pictorial final drawing - in other words, the process of demonstrating one's ability and invention by preparing a piece of work. On the other hand the term also denotes the imagi…

1. Ancient conceptIn sculpture and painting, contrapposto denotes an attitude motif of the human figure consisting of a particular ponderation. Ponderation is the distribution and attitude of the limbs and the body weight either stationary or in motion. It may be static and balanced about a vertical core of the attitude depicted (e.g. standing straight), or it may be displaced radically away from the center of gravity (e.g. in dynamic motion that displaces the upper body). Contrapposto is thus a motif of attitude in the standing figure, connoting as it were motion in stillness.In …

1. ConceptMultiple views (French  multiplicité des points de vue, Italian  molte vedute, German  …

1. Definition and terminological historyWith free sculpture or “sculpture in the round,” the relief is one of the two main genres of sculpture (Sculpture [subtractive]). Reliefs are bodies or formal structures in a composition (e.g. figures, landscapes, ornaments) – in any of the materials used in subtractive or additive sculpture (Sculpture [modeling]) – that project out of a flat, concave, or round surface. In subtractive sculpture (e.g. in stone or wood), it is the material that determines the he…

1. Concept and periodizationThe epoch term “Rococo” (French rococo; German  Rokoko), as customarily used in art history, covers the period between around 1715/1730 and 1770/1780, dominated by a European cultural and stylistic phenomenon that spread from France and manifested itself mostly in art, crafts, and architecture, though to some extent also in literature (Galant literature; Anacreontics; Pastoral poetry; Idyll). It is much more difficult, however, to apply the term or define the phenomenon in the…

1. IntroductionMannerism in art, literature, and music is generally defined as the characteristic of a self-consciously elaborate or artificial style, and in art history in particular as an epoch located between the Renaissance and the Baroque. The term was coined in art studies in the late 18th century as a derivative of  “manner” (see below, 2.1.). In this context, it refers to a period between around 1520/30 and 1590/1600, a phase supposedly displaying symptoms of decadence in art and architec…

1. The word Even an approximate definition of the term grotesque is already distinguished by its etymology: the root word is Italian grotta/ grotte, from which the word grottesche was derived toward the end of the 15th century (first appearance 1495; on the word’s semantic development, see 2. below). In the 16th century, it entered all the major European languages as a loanword (French crotesque and grotesque, Eng. grotesque, Span. grutesco, Dutch Gottisen, Ger. Groteske and Krotteschisch) [4]; [5]. In all languages, generally speaking, the word’s definition is to this da…

1. ConceptThe plastic (from the Greek  plassein/ plattein, “to form,” and  plastikos, “malleable”; Latin  plasticus) art of sculpture by modeling (Sculpture, techniques of) involves making works from malleable (clay, wax, papier maché, stucco, pl…

1. Concept and roleThe term “portrait” (French  portrait; German Porträt; Italian  ritratto; Spanish  retrato) is derived from the Latin protrahere (to draw forth; to produce). German also still uses the synonymous Bildnis, but Konterfei has become archaic (from the Latin  contra facere, “set in opposition/contrast,” and French  contrefaire, “imitate”; see Contrafaction). The  Sketchbook of Villard…

1. History 0-1.1. ConceptThe Greek word epochḗ (“suspension, pause”) in everyday speech in Antiquity meant a lull in a speech or a movement, in astronomy the conjunction of two celestial bodies, and in philosophy the suspension of judgment (Skepticism). In the early modern period, the latter two senses were at first dominant. The term only gradually took on a historical sense. As it did so, even until the 18th century, it did not denote a particular span of time, but the event that heralded one. Even …

1. Etymology and definitionThe word physiognomy (German Physiognomik, Middle English  fisnomy) is derived from Greek  physiognomonikḗ téchne; it means the art of perceiving the total nature of a person’s body from outward signs (literally “perception according to nature”). While physiognomics is more concerned with the narrower field of corporeal signs, physiognomy as it developed in the late Middle Ages and early modern period should be understood as a comprehensive theory of the correlation of all natural things. That said, there is no generally accepted usage even today.P…

1. Literature 1.1. DefinitionEver since the term first arose, in Greek antiquity (Greek:  parōdίa, “parallel/side song”; French  parodie; German  Parodie…

1. Thematic foci and key articlesIt was only in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that the collective singular “art” coalesced into an umbrella term for all artistic creations that appeared in the field of “art history” in the emergent scientific…

1. Concept The term iconography derives from the Greek ei kṓn (“image”) and  gráphein (“to write”, “to describe”) and denotes the study of the content of images. However, this sense was acquired in the discipline of art history only in the 19th century. In general, iconography is concerned with all objects, forms, and designs in representations insofar as they comprise a system of signs that can express social, historical, religious, or aesthetic conditions or ideas. Insofar as iconography helps to explain w…

1. TerminologyThe connotations of the term classicism differ among the European nations. In Germany, Klassizismus refers to the epoch in European art from around 1760 to around 1830, an era known in France, Italy, and Britain as neoclassicism, because in those countries it was preceded by national constructs of the European classics and classicism. In literature, the term classicism was first used in the 19th century to denote the comparability of a literary period with Antiquity (Italin  classicismo, 1818; German Klassizismus, 1820; French classicisme, 1823; English classi…