Goethe's and Lessing's analyses of antique statues of Venus illustrate the classical concept of representation in art. The Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895) deconstructs this concept. In his novella 'Venus in Furs' (1870), in which the Medici Venus statue plays a prominent role, Masoch changes the relation of signifier and the signified: not the statue but Vanda, the beautiful beloved of the protagonist, incarnates perfect beauty and serves as an analogue of the statue. Masoch's novel reverses the common process of creating a picture: the picture is staged first, and only afterwards is it projected on the canvas. The procedure imitates the phenomenology of photography.
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch / Gabriella Rovagnati - In: Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie (DBE). 2., überarbeitete Ausgabe / AA. VV. ; [a cura di] Hrsg. von Rudolf Vierhaus. - München : Saur, 2007. - ISBN 3-598-25030-4. - pp. 659-660
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
Gabriella Rovagnati
2007
Abstract
Goethe's and Lessing's analyses of antique statues of Venus illustrate the classical concept of representation in art. The Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895) deconstructs this concept. In his novella 'Venus in Furs' (1870), in which the Medici Venus statue plays a prominent role, Masoch changes the relation of signifier and the signified: not the statue but Vanda, the beautiful beloved of the protagonist, incarnates perfect beauty and serves as an analogue of the statue. Masoch's novel reverses the common process of creating a picture: the picture is staged first, and only afterwards is it projected on the canvas. The procedure imitates the phenomenology of photography.
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