Understanding Pictures

There is not one but many ways to picture the world – Australian `x-ray’ pictures, cubist collages, Amerindian split-style figures, and pictures in two-point perspective each draw attention to different features of what they represent. The premise of Understanding Pictures is that this diversity is the central fact with which a theory of figurative pictures must reckon. Lopes argues that identifying pictures’ subjects is akin to recognizing objects whose appearances have changed over time. He develops a schema for categorizing the different ways pictures represent-the different kinds of meaning they have-and he contends that depiction’s epistemic value lies in its representational diversity. He also offers a novel account of the phenomenology of pictorial experience, comparing pictures to visual prostheses like mirrors and binoculars. The book concludes with a discussion of works of art which have made pictorial meaning their theme, demonstrating the importance of the issues this book raises for understanding the aesthetics of pictures. Additional ISBNs0199272034, 019824097X, 9780199272037, 9780198240976Understanding Pictures is written by Dominic Lopes and published by Clarendon Press. ISBNs for Understanding Pictures are 9780191543999, 0191543993 and the print ISBNs are 9780199272037, 0199272034. Additional ISBNs include 0199272034, 019824097X, 9780199272037, 9780198240976.