Elena ENE DRĂGHICI-VASILESCU - Memory and Imagination in the context of artistic creation The case of Byzantine art

Elena ENE DRĂGHICI-VASILESCU*

Prof. PhD University of Oxford, UK

Abstract:

Imagination creates, which means it projects into the future. It also informs the past; i.e. it influences memory. For instance, memory and artistic imagination – embodied sometimes in manuals (can we also say in the artists themselves?) – are the agents of the transmission of artistic forms and ideas. Memory is often affective, which means it retains events which have a strong emotional impact on a person; it also triggers the imagination concerning various events and objects when a person is in a high emotional state. The paper elaborates on these issues. My position is that the activation of memory is not simply an act of retrieving passive information, but a creative process.

Keywords:

Byzantium, art, memory, Byzantine icons, iconographer, imagination, Hermeneias, Dionysius of Fourna.

Bibliography:

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