LA MACCHINA SOGNA: STORIA DIGITALE DELLA STORIA DELL’ARTE NEL WEB 3.01 Case Study: Gli animali di Franz Marc

ABSTRACT • This paper outlines the historical development and methodological challenges of digital visual studies using as a case study the German Expressionist Franz Marc. Although it has been a given that the strength of computer-based art historical research lies in formal rather than subjective analysis, in practice the iconographic encoding of images and the collection of metadata shows that this is not necessarily the case. Scholars and practitioners of digital visual studies have demanded and should continue to demand a thorough critique of its methods. Today, the field encompasses a broad spectrum of formal and iconographic as well as reception-based studies. In the case of Franz Marc, the digital humanities can help to establish critical reflection about an artist whom, it turns out, not all that much is known particularly and paradoxically in terms of the animal images that are his most famous work, and to more broadly evaluate the implications of our “unknowledge” as a core issue for the digital humanities and for all humanities scholarship.