A methodological approach to the analysis of works of art.

• Main Author: Alejandra Val Cubero
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Complutense de Madrid 2010-01-01
• Series: Arte, Individuo y Sociedad
• Subjects: Metodología; Sociología del arte; Ánálisis crítico
• Online Access: http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ARIS/article/view/6574

This article presents a number of models which enable to analyze the works of art from a critical perspective. These models are the School of Warburg and specifically the iconographic model presented by Erwin Panofsky, the sociological model of Pierre Bourdieu, and the genealogical model or historical sociology, a model developed by Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault, among others, and implemented by Julia Varela and Fernando Alvarez-Uría. We consider that works of art are cultural artefacts with features that vary depending on the historical period in which they are analyzed. For this reason, we need to use tools which keep us away from formal conceptions and which allow us to reveal the complex relationships established between art and its producers, buyers, audiences, critics and cultural industries which today more than ever compose a confused picture that is necessary to uncover.