Lühr, Berit (2002) The language of gestures in some of El Greco's altarpieces. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study explores El Greco's language of gestures. The first part will explain the
preconditions for the general development towards rhetorical gestures and draw
parallels with El Greco's artistic development in the sphere of gestures. In addition,
handbooks on gestures are introduced. The second part will analyse how El Greco
applied gestures, using examples of his paintings .. It will reveal how El Greco
developed some gestures over more than thirty years, and how he creates with their
help an intense concentrated mood in his paintings. It will also demonstrate how he
worked by means of hyperbole to evoke an inspiring atmosphere, how he created
space with the help of gestures and gaze, and how he transformed the meaning of
some 'model' gestures he took over from famous Italian painters. Finally, this work
seeks to renew and intensify the analysis of gestures in painting as a way of
approaching the paintings and revealing layers of meaning that can not be found by an
analysis solely focused on iconographic topics. In this study the body is taken as a
mediator of signs, difficult to read, but decipherable. This study is intended to be a
step forward in approaching a deeper understanding of the codified language of
gesture. It should open the way to an intensified concern with the language of
gestures, with the reading of bodily signs in paintings.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > ND Painting
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Greco, 1541?-1614 -- Criticism and interpretation, Gesture in art, Altarpieces, Spanish
Official Date:	September 2002
Dates:	Date Event September 2002 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of History of Art
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	2 v. (241, [77] leaves)
Language:	eng

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