(University of the Free State, 2000) Visagie, Johann
English: This article derives from what was originally a methodological model for the figurative analysis (in terms of images, metaphors, symbols, etc) of discourses, not simply with reference to their supposed origin but also by highlighting the "archaeological" function chat such figures may have in their own right: structuring the way we observe, conceptualise and reflect on things. The aim of the investigation is to establish whether such an image archaeology, where "image" is an umbrella-term for a certain set of tropes, can provide perspectives useful for the kind of analysis practiced by art historians. The result is a proposed network of complexly interrelated images, within which a painting originates and exists for the viewer.