67 pages • 2 hours read
John BergerWays Of Seeing
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Chapter 4
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Chapter Four is composed of reproductions of both pre-Renaissance and Renaissance paintings. Most of the paintings are figurative, although a few of them are object studies. Many of them depict Christian subject matter or are explicitly religious iconography. Others are mythology paintings. Still others are aristocratic portraits, while others are depictions of dead bodies. All of the object studies depict food or animals.
Chapter 4 Analysis
This chapter is most probably a primer for Chapter Five, designed to be both a visual prelude and a resource that is revisited after Chapter Five is fully understood. Many of the paintings can be easily used to prove the central arguments of Chapter Five—namely, Berger’s assertion that oil painting was obsessed with rendering monetized and propertized objects in order to flatter and affirm the ruling class’s position and legitimize the global growth of capitalism as both an economic and philosophical and moral system.
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