Overview

"Perspective determines how we, as viewers, perceive painting. We can convince ourselves that a painting of a bowl of fruit or a man in a room appears to be real by the way these objects are rendered. Likewise, the trick of perspective can prevent us from being absorbed in a scene. Connecting contemporary critical theory with close readings of seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture, The Rhetoric of Perspective puts forth the claim that painting is a form of thinking and that perspective functions as the language of the image. Aided by a stunning full-color gallery, Hanneke Grootenboer proposes a new theory of perspective based on the phenomenological aspects of non-narrative still-life, trompe l'oeil, and anamorphic imagery. Drawing on playful and mesmerizing baroque images, Grootenboer characterizes what she calls their ""sophisticated deceit,"" asserting that painting is more about visual representation than about its supposed objects. Offering an original theory of perspective's impact on pictorial representation, the act of looking, and the understanding of truth in painting, Grootenboer shows how these paintings both question the status of representation and explore the limits and credibility of perception.  “An elegant and honourable synthesis.”—Keith Miller, Times Literary Supplement"

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9780226309682

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Reviews

A fresh turn with the thoughts and methods of Heidegger, Pascal, Barthes, Lacan, and Merleau-Ponty . . . . Tightly focused and yet broadly significant, The Rhetoric of Perspective represents a bold act of historiographic experimentation'. . . . Admirably, the book enacts some of the very traits of its subject -- moderation, modesty, and restraint-about specific images that in turn generate a persuasive clarity about greater ideas. Grootenboer advances, in a sterling exposition, the worthy project of understanding the genre of still life. . . . A book respectable in every detail. -- John Hagood Art Libraries Society of North America (06/01/2006)

A fresh turn with the thoughts and methods of Heidegger, Pascal, Barthes, Lacan, and Merleau-Ponty . . . . Tightly focused and yet broadly significant, The Rhetoric of Perspective represents a bold act of historiographic experimentation . . . . Admirably, the book enacts some of the very traits of its subject -- moderation, modesty, and restraint about specific images that in turn generate a persuasive clarity about greater ideas. Grootenboer advances, in a sterling exposition, the worthy project of understanding the genre of still life. . . . A book respectable in every detail. --John Hagood Art Libraries Society of North America (06/01/2006)

A fresh turn with the thoughts and methods of Heidegger, Pascal, Barthes, Lacan, and Merleau-Ponty . . . . Tightly focused and yet broadly significant, The Rhetoric of Perspective represents a bold act of 'historiographic experimentation'. . . . Admirably, the book enacts some of the very traits of its subject -- moderation, modesty, and restraint--about specific images that in turn generate a persuasive clarity about greater ideas. Grootenboer advances, in a sterling exposition, the worthy project of understanding the genre of still life. . . . A book respectable in every detail. --John Hagood, Art Libraries Society of North America --John Hagood Art Libraries Society of North America (06/01/2006)

A fresh turn with the thoughts and methods of Heidegger, Pascal, Barthes, Lacan, and Merleau-Ponty . . . . Tightly focused and yet broadly significant, The Rhetoric of Perspective represents a bold act of 'historiographic experimentation'. . . . Admirably, the book enacts some of the very traits of its subject -- moderation, modesty, and restraint--about specific images that in turn generate a persuasive clarity about greater ideas. Grootenboer advances, in a sterling exposition, the worthy project of understanding the genre of still life. . . . A book respectable in every detail. --John Hagood Art Libraries Society of North America (06/01/2006)

Author Information

Hanneke Grootenboer is lecturer in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

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