- Image by Pink Sherbet Photography via Flickr
The word “Ofness” (hereafter simply Ofness), previously unknown to me, became a familiar word as I delved into the subject of image subject retrieval. The term is used extensively in art and art history journals. The clearest discussion of its meaning that I have found online can be found in a wonderful book produced by the Getty: An Introduction to Art Image Access by Sara Shatford Layne, Patricia Harpring, Colum Hourihane, Christine L. Sundt, that also contains excellent illustrations. The definition of “of-ness” is given in the glossary as:
“An expression used in the context of subject description to refer to what a work of art depicts. Of-ness may also include a specific identification, as well as a generic description, of what is depicted in a work of art. This expression corresponds to Erwin Panofsky‘s identification and description, the first two levels of subject description outlined in Categories for the Description of Works of Art. For example, “The artwork is of a woman with snakes for hair” (description). “The artwork is of the gorgon Medusa, the creature in classical mythology who turned her beholders to stone” (identification). Compare about-ness.”
The term is often hypenated, as in the Getty publication, but I have seen it just as often unhypenated. I prefer the latter, I guess because it seems less tentative.
It was thus rather startling to me when I discovered that the word “ofness” cannot be found in standard reference works. Meanwhile the word appears in lots of other places. A search at Amazon for “ofness turned up 144 books, including the examples below. [click to continue…]
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