Title:
Drawn from life: science, art and image in the depiction of Canada, 16th to 19th centuries.
Creator:
Dickenson, Victoria
Date Created:
1995
Degree Awarded:
Doctor of Philosophy
Subjects:
Natural History Pictorial Works Pictorial Works digital computer graphics
Geographical Focus:
Canada
Supporting Materials:
n/a
Description:
The use of images as evidence in historical writing has been largely neglected by historians. Recent interest in the importance of visualization in scientific literature demands a reappraisal of the value of images. Images can be examined from a number of perspectives, including that of material history which seeks not oniy to understand the specific content of the image but also its context. Michzl Foucault has suggested that images can be analyzed as discourse particularly in relation to his igegas concerning the archaeology of knowledge, which privileges persistence as much as change. The thesis examines a particular set of images related to Canada from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. These images are of the sort traditionally identified as "scientific illustration," and include images from early maps and books, as well as representations of flora and fauna from the seventeenth and eifihteenth centuries, and illustrations to exf?edition accounts from the nineteenth century. The way in which images define the experience of the New World for Europeans is discussed. Of particular interest as well is the use which scientists and scholars have made of images for communication and for the visualization of complex data. Prior to the advent of colour printing in the mid-nineteenth century, many scholars relied upon mnuscrigfoor hand-coloured printed images for information. This practice is documented from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. The notion of accuracY is examined in looking at images painted "from life." Verisimilitude is not a wa?'s the key criterion which cFe?:rmines the nature of the representation, particularly in scientific illustration. This understanding is related to current concerns among scientists working with compu:‘esresraphics and the means by which digital representation and simulation are as tools in scientific research.
Source
Preferred Citation:
Dickenson, Victoria. 1995. "Drawn from life: science, art and image in the depiction of Canada, 16th to 19th centuries.", Department of History, Carleton University
Link to this page:
https://cuhistory.github.io/grads/items/hist_223.html
Rights
Rights:
Copyright the author, all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.