Authors: Bredekamp, Horst; Whyte, Iain Boyd

Source: Art In Translation, Volume 1, Number 2, July 2009 , pp. 285-301(17)

Publisher: Berg Publishers

Abstract:

The starting point of Horst Bredekamp's text “The Simulated Benjamin: Medieval Remarks on its Actuality” is Walter Benjamin's celebrated essay “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility.” Rejecting as historically unsustainable Benjamin's key argument, that the multiple reproduction of an image destroys its aura or ritual power, Bredekamp points to the production around 1400 of hundreds of copies of devotional figures of the Virgin, each of which was invested with magical healing powers. As Bredekamp notes, the healing power of the reliquary was transferable and the same was true of the work of art. Through reproduction, the power of holiness and healing could be transferred. Basing his argument on this insight, Bredekamp then challenges postmodern readings of this text, particularly by Jean Baudrillard.

Keywords: Benjamin; reproducibility of art; Baudrillard; auratic; reception of images; simulacra; relics; medieval art in the Rhine region; Hans Morovac; chaos theory; Derrida

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175613109X462717

Publication date: 2009-07-01

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• Art in Translation has been awarded a Highly Commended Certificate in the 2009 ALPSP Award for Best New Journal.

  Global in scope and extensively illustrated, this unique and innovative new e-journal demonstrates the vitality of art historical and visual culture scholarship undertaken outside English-speaking territories and cultures. Offering high quality English language translations of seminal works presently available only in their source language, Art in Translation offers a fresh perspective on global art practices, history and theory. It covers all areas of the visual arts including painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, design, and electronic media.

  Supported by generous funding from The Getty Foundation.

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