Hans Belting

Luca Vargiu

2021-01-01

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Abstract

Hans Belting began his career as a historian of Byzantine and medieval art. During his almost sixty years of research, he gradually broadened his interests, both in terms of content, ranging from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, and in terms of reflection, by questioning the methods and the role of art history and of the institutions of the art world (the museum, the exhibitions, etc.) in the contemporary context. The results of this reflection lead at first to a farewell from a traditional art-historical study to promote an approach addressed to the history of the image within a contextualist and functionalist framework. In a second moment, Belting took leave also from a continuist historical perspective, to arrive at the elaboration of an anthropology of the image centered on the conceptual triad “image–medium–body”. In more recent years, Belting intensified the relationship between image and visual studies, deepening the issues related to gaze and vision. At the same time, he continued his reflections on the institutions of art in the current context, with an eye to the acquisitions of postcolonial thought.