Barthes, Roland. “The Plates of
the Encyclopedia.” New Critical Essays, translated by Richard Howard, Hill and Wang, 1980, pp. 23-39, https://pdfslide.net/documents/roland-barthes-the-plates-of-the-encyclopedia.html.
Barthes, in his essay on the eleven volumes of images published in the Encyclopédie, philosophically analyzes the art of the object and image and how the two are portrayed and organized as a whole. He discusses a wide variety of traits and themes associated with the plates such as the idea of creation, the prevalence of wood as a construction material, and the simplicity of images while also analyzing the different organizations of plates throughout the article. Additionally, Barthes focuses on the emotions generated from viewing the plates, especially those that depict a process or object that is no longer in use today. Calling the iconography in the Encyclopédie “poetic”, Barthes spends time discussing the poetics of images in the Encyclopédie and the various messages they can send.
Basic Information
Country of Publication: France
Language: French
Decade: 1990s
Main Classification: Frontispiece
Related Sources
*In Progress*
Notes
1. This source is rather philosophical and advanced in language usage but provides an interesting perspective and analysis on the Frontispiece, nonetheless.
Updates
6/21/2021: Created page.