Girl with Dead Bird

Life and death in a sixteenth-century masterpiece

The portrait we have come to call Little Girl with Dead Bird is an enigma. On the one hand, we hardly know anything about this sixteenth-century masterpiece. But even so, on the other hand, the picture fascinates viewers to this day. This painting's indeterminate yet compelling status provides Volkmar Mühleis grounds to look beyond its historical significance and to explore its anthropological scope as well, from an intercultural perspective and, moreover, against the backdrop of its complex of themes concerning life and death. To do so, Mühleis returns to the conceptual premises that frame the relationship between the history of art and the anthropology of images, along with those that juxtapose Western and Eastern philosophies.

Little girl with dead bird
Art-historical considerations

Thoughts on life and death (I)

Intercultural comparisons

Thoughts on life and death (II)

Art and anthropology

Thoughts on life and death (III)

Notes

List of illustrations

Bibliography

Format: Monograph - paperback

Size: 216 × 140 × 15 mm

180 pages

7 black & white images

ISBN: 9789462701373

Publication: March 20, 2018

Languages: English

Stock item number: 121245