Premium
The Phallocentric Gaze: Leon Battista Alberti and Visual Art
Author(s) -
Sydie R.A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6443.00042
Subject(s) - painting , sculpture , art , perspective (graphical) , visual arts , gaze , promotion (chess) , art history , computer science , artificial intelligence , politics , political science , law
Two questions are addressed: Why did Alberti promote the crafts of painting, sculpture and architecture as liberal arts? How did this contribute to the misogynist nature of fine art theory and practice? The answers proposed are, first, Alberti's promotion was a valuable form of symbolic capital that gave him an innovative route to influence and status with powerful patrons. Secondly, the misogynist contribution was a consequence of a particular approach to perspective in conjunction with a gendered understanding of the artistic ‘eye’. Both answers are anchored in the patriarchal culture of fifteenth‐century Florence.