cover image Words, Script, and Pictures: Semiotics of Visual Language

Words, Script, and Pictures: Semiotics of Visual Language

Meyer Schapiro. George Braziller, $30 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8076-1416-7

Schapiro, who died this year, was one of the most erudite, renowned art historians. This volume presents two lectures by the Columbia University professor dating from 1969 and 1976, the latter published for the first time. In ""Words and Pictures,"" Schapiro examines how changing norms of representation influence artists' rendering of a text. He follows the biblical story of Moses at the battle with the Amalekites, from a fifth-century Christian mosaic in which Moses' outstretched hands were intended as a sign of the Cross, to more secular medieval renditions that precluded a Christian interpretation. Using examples ranging from Roman catacomb paintings to Giotto frescoes, Schapiro argues that the representation of human figures in frontal or profile positions embodies such dualities as sacred/profane, active/passive, good/evil. The second essay, ""Script in Pictures,"" considers medieval book art as a field for the invention of styles and the expression of individual sensibilities. It also explores the shifting relation between words and images in Goya, Chagall, Picasso, Braque, Winslow Homer. With subtlety and scholarship, this masterful book deepens our understanding of the iconography of Western art. (Oct.)