Art, Agency and Living Presence: From the Animated Image to the Excessive Object

Throughout history, and all over the world, viewers have treated works of art as if they are living beings: speaking to them, falling in love with them, kissing or beating them. This book is a contribution towards an understanding of such responses, by drawing on ancient rhetoric and the theories of Aby Warburg and Alfred Gell, and by retracing the history of attempts to understand - or even excite - such response.