"[T]he true vanishing point of every picture is the death image, the Todesbild. The tomb effigy, the memorial portrait, and the death mask approach a condition of perfect substitutability for the irrevocably absent object, the once-living body. The dead person exchanges his body for an image; that image holds a place for him among the living (p. 29 and chap. 6). Belting describes this exchange, enacted in ancient cults of the dead, as the archetype of the image- body-medium triangle (p. 29). The photograph, the performance, and the statue, in turn, point directly toward that ideal exchange-ability. Essentially, every image wants to be a home for a lost soul. "Without the connection to death," Belting explicitly says, "those images that merely simulate the world of life quickly fall into a pointless circularity and the proverbial accusation of deceptiveness...." (p. 190). Death guarantees the image. Without that strong link to the irreversibly absent yet sharply desired object, the image would be a mere work of art."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Image
60 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Image →
Related Quotes
"Images are much more available now than they were in the 1970s. It's very hard to convey that. Now, people can see wh…"
"An empty canvas is a living wonder -- far lovelier than certain pictures."
"Who will believe us when we say that we do not love these stuffed dummies—carved or painted images—when o…"
"It cannot therefore be true that images are the textbooks of laypersons. For they are unable to learn their salvation…"
"Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God."
"His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. To b…"
"Iconic presence is presence in and as a picture. The physical presence of a picture in our world refers to the symbol…"
"Now, in 2003, virtually every celebrity image you see-in the magazines, in the videos, and sometimes even in the movi…"
"Akin to the monuments of fallen despots in more recent times, religious pictures fell victim to iconoclasms directed …"
"Images are books for the illiterate and silent heralds of the honor of the saints, teaching those who see with a soun…"