A "Product Description," from the book itself snatched from Amazon:
"The foundational question this book explores is: What happens when
portraits are interpreted as imitations or likenesses not only of
individuals but also of their acts of posingwhen the observers
attention is redirected so that the primary object the portrait
imitates becomes the likeness not of a person but of an act, the act
of sitting for ones portrait? This shift of attention involves
another: from the painters to the sitters part in the act of
(self-)portrayal."
While this opens the door to all sorts of deconstructive analysis,
historical, aesthetic, political, etc... It's specifically limited to
portraiture of a specific kind, and even more specifically, to
Rembrandt's portraiture. Analyses of this sort seem to become more
various as they move along as opposed to becoming conclusive as
traditional analysis does. The individual bits may be of great
interest, but I doubt anything new is discovered about the subject of
the analysis. Moreover, the ideas don't strike me as entirely new, the
ability of our species to portray ourselves in different ways from
moment to moment has already been written about at length (although
not specifically in the context of portraiture) I believe.
So... the ideal doesn't really knock me out, but if other list members
are up for it, I'd go along. Have to act fast though, there are only a
few used pb copies available for $18.95 & new is $36.85 and we'd have
to agree to a 'critical mass,' ie how many list members would it take
to make the project a go.
