Terms of Style in Art History

Fundamental to art history since Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums, the history of styles literally haunts the discipline. It periodically returns to the heart of criticism. Interdisciplinary approaches have rapidly highlighted the need to think of styles not just as classificatory categories, but as historical concepts in their own right, ready to be used as objects of analysis. This methodological approach is at the heart of the present book on stylistic nomenclatures, which presents the results of an international symposium organized by the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis, the Istituto Svizzero and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for the History of Art. It presents case studies examining the different constructions that have accompanied the emergence and semantic development of certain key terms in art history. It also includes examples from fields often overlooked in the literature on stylistic nomenclature, such as fashion or theater. In short, this book should be understood as a proposal and an encouragement to reflect on the disciplinary legacy left, for better or for worse, by the history of styles in all spheres of visual culture.