Abstract

Invoking the notion of the fragment discussed by Linda Nochlin, Henri Zerner, and Charles Rosen, this article examines how Félix Nadar’s La main du banquier D. exploits the body fragment to comment on identity and representation in the modern period. Exploring the limitations and devices of conventional portraiture, Nadar’s photograph of a banker’s hand suggests that one’s likeness and character can be read from a single body part. Nadar presents this hand as a portrait, but also as a ‘study in chirography’, an assertion that further situates the photograph in the interstice of word and image. As an exploration in both handwriting and hand-reading, La main du banquier D. looks to the medium of photography to reveal how personality manifests beyond the face. This article reframes Nadar’s image as a response to discourses on palmistry, physiognomy, and photography in 1860s France and considers how the photograph both deploys and complicates these empirical practices. Ultimately, through Nadar’s photograph, the hand emerges as cipher, synecdoche, and metaphor for the self, and this article argues that the image is symptomatic of what Zerner and Rosen have identified as a preference for metonymic representation in the modern period.

摘要

调用由琳达·诺克林，亨利Zerner和查尔斯·罗森讨论的片段的概念，本文将探讨如何费利克斯·纳达尔的香格里拉主要杜banquier d。利用身体碎片来评论近代的身份和表征。在探究传统肖像画的局限性和手段时，纳达尔的一张银行家手的照片表明，可以从一个身体部位读取一个人的肖像和性格。纳达尔将这只手呈现为肖像，也呈现为“手法研究”，这一主张进一步将照片置于文字和图像的间隙中。作为对手写和阅读的探索，La main du banquier D。借助摄影媒介来揭示个性如何从脸部表现出来。本文对Nadar的图像进行了重新构图，以回应1860年代法国关于手相，相貌和摄影的论述，并考虑该照片如何部署和使这些经验实践变得复杂。最终，通过Nadar的照片，这只手以密码，句法和自我隐喻的形式出现，并且本文认为，该图像是Zerner和Rosen在现代时期已识别出对转喻表示的偏爱的症状。