Window Gazes and World Views – from Ancient to Modern Times

The Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation presents an open lecture by Prof. Dr. Daniel Jütte (New York University). 

This lecture will focus on what might at first seem a rather unlikely topic of historical study: the view from the window. Looking out the window—a practice that might now seem monotonous and even trivial—was a favorite pastime in premodern times. It is also a motif with rich connotations in the history of European art, including Danish art.

The lecture will begin with the ancient Near East and ends with the modern West, linked through the story of medieval and early modern Europe, where the practice of looking out the window became a particularly contested issue and sparked larger questions about the visual perception of the world. An interdisciplinary exploration of this type has the potential to open, quite literally, a new window on our understanding of the changing ways in which human societies have viewed the natural and built environment that surrounds them.

The lecture is in English.