The Infinite Image: Art, Time and the Aesthetic Dimension in Antiquity

by Zainab Bahrani

In the ancient civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean, images were used as a way to create reality and reach out to the infinite. Reviving the fascination that gripped the avant-garde and the surrealists when confronted with the arts of the ancient Near East, The Infinite Image presents a radical new reading of Mesopotamian art as an aesthetic realm defined by objects that transcend time in order to carry traces of the past into the present.
 
Zainab Bahrani’s book opens in the early twentieth century, when artists and intellectuals like Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, and Georges Bataille were captivated by the ancient sculptures they encountered in European museums—before the question of the aesthetic in ancient art was rejected by rationalist scientific archaeology later in the century. She then travels back through the writings of Derrida, Hegel, Kant, and Plato to Mesopotamia, using these thinkers to argue that ancient images formed an aesthetic dimension that was both historical and evolving. She also addresses issues of the politics of cultural heritage important to Near Eastern art in the context of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and current instabilities in the Middle East. With over one hundred illustrations, The Infinite Image will be necessary reading for anyone interested in the questions at the center of contemporary history and the anthropology of art.

Genres: Art, Art History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2014

Reviews

[Shane Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 reads: 18

Rating: 4 stars

Bahrani offers an almost poetic account of time, being, and image in antiquity (mostly Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian), with frequent mirages into the present. This volume largely assumes her previous work, The Graven Image, and so I'm not sure if readers without that prior knowledge would benefit as much. The Infinite Image itself is beautifully supplemented with stunning pictures of her subject matter. Bahrani truly has an ability to question paradigms and frame new ones. On a personal note, Bahrani keeps inspiring me to read the Hebrew and Second Temple literature with fresh, albeit ancient, eyes.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

read an article of Bahrani's for class then read this shortly thereafter. "loved it" feels like an understatement, i really, really, really enjoyed this book. definitely something where i had to read a couple of chapters multiple times to get even 40% of what was going on, but so worthwhile to get that 40%.

[Braden Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

New favourite book. Bahrani is King of art history.

[Jenny Byers · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son gave me this book for my birthday. He has been with us when we visit the Oriental Institute in Chicago every time we visit that city. Over the past 15 (?) years I have come to appreciate more and more the art I see there. I look at the exhibits with an open mind, setting aside my intellectual analysis or desire to explain what I see through current culture and time. What I come away with, more and more in the past couple of years and visits, is a deeper almost subconscious response to the art.

This book is a scholarly work about philosophy, art history and archeology. The author is making a case for a way of looking at the art, as art- not just archeological objects or artifacts.