This document discusses synchronic and diachronic analysis in contextual analysis. Synchronic analysis considers meanings generated by elements within a single moment in time, while diachronic analysis takes into account meanings generated over time through accretion and depletion. The examination of tree rings is provided as an example of whether it would involve synchronic or diachronic analysis. Diachronic analysis is said to be important for cultural objects as their meanings are dynamic and change over time.

1. MODULE 7
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Art 100
Understanding Visual Culture

2. Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

3. Piece, as installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

4. What are the key signifiers in this piece?

5. detail of mouth

6. synchronic [syn=together]

7. synchronic
Both formal and semiotic analyses are synchronic in nature: they
consider meanings generated by an arrangement of elements within
a single moment in time.

8. Synchronic
understanding
of a tree’s
functions

9. diachronic
dia=across

10. diachronic
understanding
of a tree
[dimension of
time is
present]
Dia=across or through time
Diachronic analyses take into account meanings generated over
time, including the accretion and depletion of meanings.

11. diachronic
understanding
of a tree
[dimension of
time is
present]
Dia=across or through time
Diachronic analyses take into account meanings generated over
time, including the accretion and depletion of meanings.

12. Examination of tree rings:
Synchronic or diachronic analysis?

13. Diachronic analysis
takes change into
account.
Meanings of cultural
objects are dynamic
over time.
New meanings
accrue to images,
old ones fall away
and have to be
painstakingly
recovered, if at all.

14. Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a Young Man in Front of a White Curtain
c. 1508, oil on wood, 16 1/2 x 14 inches

15. Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, c. 1482

16. Botticelli, Venus and Mars, c. 1483

17. Gentile daFabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matthew+2

18. Lorenzo Lotto, Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1534
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Luke+2

19. To what do we attribute these
differences?

20. Possible explanations
Individual style?
Artist’s biography and preferences?
Patron’s biography and preferences?
Social, political, cultural, religious surroundings