Painting, aesthetics of

2. Configuration and representation

It is unlikely that we could define ‘painting’, construed either narrowly or as broadly as is here required, except in terms that themselves import aesthetic considerations. So our inquiry cannot have a definition as a neutral starting point. However, we can usefully note some simple features common to all, or at least very many, of the items that concern us. Our topic is surfaces that have been marked by human hand, with the intention of stimulating the eye. The vast majority of these surfaces represent something. Matisse’s The Dance, for instance, shows a group of circling dancers, holding hands and lost to the music. When surfaces represent, they have two aspects. One, the configurationalaspect, is a matter of what marks lie where. The other, representational, aspect is a matter of what the marks stand for, or represent. We can use this distinction to structure our discussion.