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Venus auf dem Weg zur Fotografie. Zur Spezifik der Bildlichkeit bei Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

2007; De Gruyter; Volume: 42; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1515/arca.2007.013

1613-0642

Larissa Polubojarinova,

Art, Aesthetics, and Perception

Abstract Goethe's and Lessing's analyses of antique statues of Venus illustrate the classical concept of representation in art. The Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836–1895) deconstructs this concept. In his novella ‘Venus in Furs’ (1870), in which the Medici Venus statue plays a prominent role, Masoch changes the relation of signifier and the signified: not the statue but Vanda, the beautiful beloved of the protagonist, incarnates perfect beauty and serves as an analogue of the statue. Masoch's novel reverses the common process of creating a picture: the picture is staged first, and only afterwards is it projected on the canvas. The procedure imitates the phenomenology of photography.