Chapter 12 - Collingwood’s Influence on Baxandall

Summary

This chapter is concerned with method in art history and focuses on R. G. Collingwood’s impact on Michael Baxandall’s contribution to this subject in Patterns of Intention (1985). It begins with a discussion of Baxandall’s appeal to Collingwood’s notion of “re-enactment” and Karl Popper’s “situational logic,” followed by an explanation of the Collingwoodian roots of his “triangle of re-enactment.” Taking for granted that the proper interpretation of Collingwood’s notion of “re-enactment” is in terms of Peirce’s notion of “abduction,” itself understood in terms of the “Gabbay–Woods schema,” I then offer a reading of chapter IV and Baxandall’s analysis of Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ, that bring to the fore the central influence of Collingwood’s conceptions – the claim being that Baxandall’s successful application of them shows their worth.