Explores what we actually see, touch, and experience when looking at art

Typically, art history is an enterprise of recovery—of searching out the provenance, the original intentions, the physical setting, and historical conditions behind a work of art. The essays in Compelling Visuality address some of the other questions that are less frequently asked—and, in doing so, show how much is to be learned and gained by going beyond the traditional approaches of art history.

In particular, the contributors take up the commonly unexplored question of what is actually present in a work of art—what we see, touch, and experience when confronted with Renaissance or Baroque works that have survived the vicissitudes of time. International and interdisciplinary, this volume conducts readers into an ongoing discussion of the value and significance of personal response to works of art. Contributors: F. R. Ankersmit, U of Groningen; Mieke Bal, U of Amsterdam and Cornell U; Oskar Bätschmann, U of Bern; Georges Didi-Huberman, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris; Michael Ann Holly, Clark Art Institute; Donald Preziosi, UCLA and Oxford U; Renée van de Vall, U of Maastricht.

Are the humanities still relevant in the twenty-first century? In the context of pervasive economic liberalism and shrinking budgets, the importance of humanities research for society is increasingly put into question. This volume claims that the humanities do indeed matter by offering empirically grounded critical reflections on contemporary cultural practices, thereby opening up new ways of understanding social life and new directions in humanities scholarship. The contributors argue that the humanities can regain their relevance for society, pose new questions and provide fresh answers, while maintaining their core values: critical reflection, historical consciousness and analytical distance.