Selected Short Books for Download
Iconoclasts and Their Motives (Second Horst Gerson Memorial Lecture, University of Groningen). Maarssen: Gary Schwartz, 1985. Reprinted in Public, Toronto, 1993.
The Prints of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Tokyo: Tokyo Shimbun, 1989. Exhibition catalogue with introduction and essays; also includes essays by K. Moxey, J. van der Stock, and L. Vergara, and catalogue contributions by K. Belkin and B. Huvane.
Joseph Kosuth: The Play of the Unmentionable. New York: The New Press, 1992.
Peter Paul Rubens: Oil Paintings and Oil Sketches. New York: Gagosian Gallery, 1995. Catalogue with essay of an exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery.
Selected Articles for Download
“Johannes Molanus on Provocative Paintings.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 34 (1971): 229-245.
“The Representation of Martyrdoms during the Early Counter-Reformation in Antwerp.” Burlington Magazine 118 (1976): 128-138.
“The Problem of Images in Northern Europe and Its Repercussions in the Netherlands.” Hafnia: Copenhagen Papers in the History of Art; Proceedings of the 7th International Colloquium in the History of Art, 25-45. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 1976.
“The Structure of Byzantine and European Iconoclasm.” In Iconoclasm, edited by Anthony Bryer and Judith Herrin, 165-177. Birmingham: Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, 1977.
“Rubens as a Painter of Epitaphs, 1612-1618.” Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis 24 (1976-78): 51-71.
“A Source for Rubens's Modello of the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin in Leningrad: A Case Study in the Response to Images.” Burlington Magazine 120 (1978): 432-441.
“The Origins and Development of the Flemish Madonnas in Flower Garlands: Decoration and Devotion.” Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 32 (1981): 115-150.
“The Hidden God: Image and Interdiction in the Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century.” Art History 5 (1982): 133-153. Translated into Japanese by Michiko Fukaya and Masaya Wakabayashi and comments by Toshiharu Nakamura, Studies in Western Art 6 (2001): 51-76.
“Prints and the Status of Images in Flanders.” In Le Stampe e la diffusione delle immagini e degli stili: Atti del XXIV Congresso internazionale di storia dell'arte, 1979, vol. VIII, edited by Henri Zerner, 39-54. Bologna: CLUEB, 1983.
“Fame, Convention and Insight: On the Relevance of Fornenberg and Gerbier.” The Ringling Museum of Art Journal: Papers Presented at the International Rubens Symposium, 1982 (1983): 236-259.
“Paintings or Prints? Experiens Sillemans and the Origins of the Dutch Grisaille Sea-Piece: Notes on a Rediscovered Technique.” Print Quarterly 1 (1984): 149-168 (with Aviva Burnstock and Alan Phenix).
“De Kunst en de Beeldenstorm, 1525-1580: De Noordelijke Nederlanden”/“Art and Iconoclasm, 1525-1580: The Case of the North Netherlands.” Kunst voor de Beeldenstorm. Noordnederlandse Kunst 1525-1580, edited by J.P. Filedt Kok et al., 39-84. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; ‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsuitgeverij, 1986.
“The Problem of Classicism: Ideology and Power.” Art Journal 47, no. 1 (1988): 1-6. Introductory essay to volume of the Art Journal devoted to The Problem of Classicism, edited by David Freedberg.
“Allusion and Topicality in the Work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The Implications of a Forgotten Polemic.” In The Prints of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, edited by David Freedberg, 53-65. Tokyo: Tokyo Shimbun, 1989.
“From Hebrew and Gardens to Oranges and Lemons: Giovanni Battista Ferrari and Cassiano dal Pozzo.” In Cassiano dal Pozzo: Atti del Seminario Internazionale di Studi, edited by Francesco Solinas, 37-72. Rome: De Luca, 1989.
“Cassiano dal Pozzo, Natural Historian” and “Cassiano dal Pozzo’s Drawings of Citrus Fruits.” In Il Museo cartaceo di Cassiano dal Pozzo: Cassiano naturalista (Quaderni puteani 1), 10-36. Milan: Olivetti, 1989.
“Science, Commerce and Art: Neglected Topics at the Junction of History and Art History.” In Art in History, History in Art: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Culture, edited by David Freedberg and Jan de Vries, 376-428. Los Angeles: The Getty Center, 1991. Updated and better-illustrated version published as “Science, Trade and Art.” In Brazil and the Dutch 1630-1654, edited by Paulo Herkenhoff, 192-217. Rio de Janiero: Sextante Artes, 1999.
“Censorship Revisited.” Res 21 (1992): 5-11.
“Iconoclasm and Idolatry.” In A Companion to Aesthetics, edited by David E. Cooper, 207-209. Oxford: Blackwell Reference, 1992.
“Ferrari on the Classification of Oranges and Lemons.” In Documentary Culture: Florence and Rome from Grand-Duke Ferdinand I to Pope Alexander VII; Papers from a Colloquium Held at the Villa Spelman, Florence, 1990 (Villa Spelman Colloquia 3), edited by Elizabeth Cropper, Giovanna Perini, and Francesco Solinas, 287-306. Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1992. Translated and revised as "Gli agrumi di Giovanni Battista Ferrari." In Miti, arte e scienza nella pomologia italiana, edited by Enrico Baldini, 127-155. Rome: Consiglio Nazionale di Ricerca, 2008.
“Cassiano on the Jewish Races of Rome.” Quaderni puteani 3, II (1992): 41-56.
“Cassiano and the Art of Natural History.” In The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, 141-154. Ivrea: Olivetti; London: The British Museum, 1993.
“Imitation and Its Discontents.” In Künstlerischer Austausch/Artistic Exchange: Akten des XVIII. Internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte, Berlin, 1992, edited by Thomas W. Gaehtgens, 483-491. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993.
“Painting and the Counter Reformation in the Age of Rubens.” In The Age of Rubens, edited by Peter C. Sutton, 131-146. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1993.
“Kunst und Gegenreformation in den südlichen Niederlanden, 1560-1660.” In Von Bruegel bis Rubens: Das goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei; Eine Ausstellung des Wallraf-Richartz-Museums, Köln, des Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen und des Kunsthistorischen Museums, Wien, edited by Ekkehard Mai and Hans Vlieghe, 55-71. Cologne: Locher; Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1993.
“Van Dyck and Virginio Cesarini: A Contribution to the Study of Van Dyck’s Roman Sojourns.” In Van Dyck 350 (Studies in the History of Art 46), edited by Susan J. Barnes and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 152-174. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1994.
“The Failure of Colour.” In Sight and Insight: Essays on Art and Culture in Honour of E.H. Gombrich at 85, edited by John Onians, 245-262. London: Phaidon, 1994.
“Poussin et Sienne.” In Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665, edited by Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, 62-68. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1994. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1995.
“Holy Images and Other Images.” In The Art of Interpreting (Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University), edited by Susan C. Scott, 68-87. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, 1996.
“Poussin, Ferrari, Cortone et l'Aetas Florea.” In Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665): Actes du colloque organisé au Musée du Louvre par le Service culturel, 19-21 octobre 1994, vol. 1, edited by Alain Mérot, 337-362. Paris: La Documentation Française, 1996.
“Ferrari and the Pregnant Lemons of Pietrasanta.” In Il Giardino delle Esperidi: Gli agrumi nella storia, nella letteratura e nell'arte, edited by Alessandro Tagliolini and Margherita Azzi Visentini, 41-58. Florence: Edifir, 1996.
“Rubens and Titian: Art and Politics.” In Titian and Rubens: Power, Politics, and Style, 29-66. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1998.
“Iconography between the History of Art and the History of Science: Art, Science and the Case of the Urban Bee.” In Picturing Science, Producing Art, edited by Peter Galison and Caroline Jones, 272-296. London: Routledge, 1998.
“De l’effet de la musique, aux effets de l’image; ou pourquoi les affetti ne sont pas les modes.” In La Jérusalem délivrée du Tasse: Poésie, peinture, musique, ballet; Actes du colloque organisé au Musée du Louvre par le Service Culturel en collaboration avec l’Instituto Italiano di Cultura de Paris les 13 et 14 novembre 1996, edited by Giovanni Careri, 311-338. Paris: Klincksieck; Musée du Louvre, 1999.
“Les images dans les rêves.” In Crises de l'image religieuse/Krisen religiöser Kunst, edited by Olivier Christin and Dario Gamboni, 33-53. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 1999.
“Del nominare i fiori: Ferrari, Poussin e la storia della storia naturale.” In Quaderno di dieci anni, Gruppo Giardino Storico dell'Università di Padova, edited by Luciano Morbiato, 57-84. Padua: Gruppo Giardino Storico, 2000.
“The Power of Wood and Stone.” The Washington Post, Outlook, Sunday, 25 March, 2001, B2. On Taliban destruction of art.
“Apollo, David, Santa Cecilia: Musica y pintura en algunas obras de Poussin en el Prado.” In Historias Inmortales, 239-260. Madrid: Fundación Amigos del Prado; Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2002.
"Apollo, David, St Cecilia: Music and Painting in Some Works by Poussin in the Prado" [Original text for "Apollo, David, Santa Cecilia: Musica y pintura en algunas obras de Poussin en el Prado," as above].
“Damnatio Memoriae: Why Mobs Pull Down Statues.” The Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2003, D10.
“La ‘Danza de aldeanos’ de Rubens en el Prado.” In Historias Mortales: La vida cotidiana en el arte, 128-142. Madrid: Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado; Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg/Círcolo de Lectores, 2004.
"Rubens's Peasant Dance in the Prado" [Original text for "La ‘Danza de aldeanos’ de Rubens en el Prado," as above].
“Pathos a Oraibi: Ciò che Warburg non vide.” In Lo sguardo di Giano: Aby Warburg fra tempo e memoria, edited by Claudia Cieri Via and Pietro Montani, 569-611. Turin: Nino Aragno, 2004.
“Pathos at Oraibi: What Warburg Did Not See” [Original text for “Pathos a Oraibi: Ciò che Warburg non vide,” as above].
“Warburg’s Mask: A Study in Idolatry.” In Anthropologies of Art, edited by M. Westerman, 3-25. Williamstown: Clark Institute, 2005. Translated into Polish in Konteksty: Polska Sztuka Ludowa 65 (2011), 2-3 (293-4), 70-82; and into French as “La masque de Warburg: Une étude sur l’idolatrie.” In Penser l’image II: Anthropologies du visuel, edited by Emmanuel Alloa, 103-150. Dijon: Les Presses du Réel, 2015.
“Composition and Emotion.” In The Artful Mind, edited by Mark Turner, 73-89. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
“Why Connoisseurship Matters.” In Munuscula Amicorum: Contributions on Rubens and His Colleagues in Honour of Hans Vlieghe, edited by Katlijne van Stighelen, 29-43. Turnhout: Brepols, 2006.
“Empatia, movimento ed emozione.” In Immagini della Mente: Neuroscienze, arte, filosofia, edited by Giovanni Lucignani and Andrea Pinotti, 13-68. Milan: Cortina, 2007.
David Freedberg and Vittorio Gallese. “Motion, Emotion and Empathy in Esthetic Experience.” Trends in Cognitive Science 11, no. 5 (May 2007): 197-203. Translated into Italian in Prometeo 26, no. 103 (2008): 52-59; and again, with commentary, in Teorie dell'immagine: Il dibattito contemporaneo, edited by Andrea Pinotti and Antonio Somaini, 331-351. Milan: Cortina, 2009.
Vittorio Gallese and David Freedberg. “Mirror and Canonical Neurons Are Crucial Elements in Esthetic Response.” Trends in Cognitive Science 11, no. 10 (October 2007): 411.
Roberto Casati and Alessandro Pignocchi. “Mirror and Canonical Neurons Are Not Constitutive of Aesthetic Response.” Trends in Cognitive Science 11, no. 10 (October 2007): 410.
“Empathy, Motion and Emotion.” In Wie sich Gefühle Ausdruck verschaffen: Emotionen in Nahsicht, edited by Klaus Herding and Antje Krause Wahl, 17-51. Berlin: Driesen, 2007.
“Antropologia e storia dell’arte: La fine delle discipline?” Ricerche di Storia dell’arte 94 (2008): 5-18. Translated into Spanish as “Antropología e Historia del Arte: ¿El fin de las Disciplinas?” in Revista Sans Soleil – Estudios de la Imagen 5, no. 1 (2013): 31-46.
“Choirs of Praise: Some Aspects of Action Understanding in Fifteenth Century Painting and Sculpture.” In Medieval Renaissance Baroque: A Cat’s Cradle for Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, edited by David A. Levine and Jack Freiberg, 65-81. New York: Italica Press, 2009.
“Los retratos de Van Dyck en el Prado: Las conexiones españoles y flamencas.” In La Senda Espanola de los Artistas Flamencas, 287-306. Madrid: Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado; Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2009.
"Van Dyck's Portraits in the Prado: The Spanish-Flemish Connection" [Original text for "Los retratos de Van Dyck en el Prado: Las conexiones españoles y flamencas," as above].
“Immagini e risposta emotiva: La prospettiva neuroscientifica.” In Prospettiva Zeri, edited by Anna Ottani Cavina, 85-105. Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2009.
“Movement, Embodiment, Emotion.” In Cannibalismes disciplinaires: Quand l’histoire de l’art et l’anthropologie se rencontrent, edited by Thierry Dufrêne and Anne-Christine Taylor, 37-61. Paris: INHA; Musée du Quai Branly, 2009.
“Memory in Art: History and the Neuroscience of Response.” In The Memory Process: Neuroscientific and Humanistic Perspectives, edited by Suzanne Nalbantian, Paul M. Matthews, and James L. McClelland, 337-358. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.
Fortunato Battaglia, Sarah H. Lisanby, and David Freedberg. “Corticomotor Excitability during Observation and Imagination of a Work of Art.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 5 (2011): 1-6.
Davide Massaro, Federica Savazzi, Cinzia Di Dio, David Freedberg, Vittorio Gallese, Gabriella Gilli, and Antonella Marchetti. “When Art Moves the Eyes: A Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Study.” PloS ONE 7, no. 5 (May 2012).
“The Case of the Spear.” Art South Africa 11, no. 1 (September 2012): 36-41.
M. Alessandra Umiltà, Cristina Berchio, Mariateresa Sestito, David Freedberg, and Vittorio Gallese. “Abstract Art and Cortical Motor Activation: An EEG Study.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6 (2012): 1-9.
“Art after Iconoclasm: Painting in the Netherlands between 1566 and 1585.” In Art after Iconoclasm: Painting in the Netherlands between 1566 and 1585, edited by Koenraad Jonckheere and Ruben Suykerbuyk, 21-49. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012.
Beatrice Sbriscia-Fioretti, Cristina Berchio, David Freedberg, Vittorio Gallese, and M. Alessandra Umiltà. “ERP Modulation during Observation of Abstract Paintings by Franz Kline.” PLoS ONE 8, no. 10 (October 2013).
“Pathos en Oraibi: Lo que Warburg no vio.” In David Freedberg, Las máscaras de Aby Warburg, 45-82. Introduction by Luis Vives-Ferrándiz Sanchez and translation by Marta Piñol Lloret. Barcelona: Sans Soleil Ediciones, 2013.
“Dürer’s Limbs.” In The Young Dürer: Drawing the Figure, edited by Stephanie Buck and Stephanie Porras, 37-56. London: Courtauld Gallery; Paul Holberton, 2013.
“Zu den Märtyrerbildern Antwerpens im späten 16. Jahrhundert.” In Autopsia: Blut-und Augenzeugen; Extreme Bilder des christlichen Martyriums, edited by Carolin Behrmann and Elisabeth Priedl, 181-211. Munich: Wilhelm Finck, 2014.
“Drei Episoden ohne Aby.” Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 8, no. 3 (2014): 97-104.
“Feelings on Faces: From Physiognomics to Neuroscience.” In Rethinking Emotion: Interiority and Exteriority in Premodern, Modern, and Contemporary Thought (Interdisciplinary German Cultural Studies, vol. 15), edited by Rüdiger Campe and JulFortunatoia Weber, 289-324. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
Ulrich Kirk and David Freedberg. “Contextual Bias and Insulation against Bias during Aesthetic Rating: The Roles of VMPFC and DLPFC in Neural Valuation.” In Art, Aesthetics and the Brain, edited by Joseph P. Huston, Marcos Nadal, Francisco Mora, Luigi F. Agnati, and Camilo J. Cela-Conde, 158-173. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Carmen Concerto, Mohomad Al Sawah, Carmenrita Infortuna, David Freedberg, Eileen Chusid, Eugenio Aguglia, and Fortunato Battaglia. “Neural Circuits Underlying Motor Facilitation during Observation of Implied Motion.” Somatosensory and Motor Research (September 30, 2015): 1-4.
Carmen Concerto, Carmenrita Infortuna, Ludovico Mineo, Manuel Pereira, David Freedberg, Eileen Chusid, Eugenio Aguglia, and Fortunato Battaglia. “Observation of Implied Motion in a Work of Art Modulates Cortical Connectivity and Plasticity.” Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation 12, no. 5 (2016): 417-423.
“The Fear of Art: How Censorship Becomes Iconoclasm.” Social Research 83, no. 1 (2016), 67-99.
“From Defamation to Mutilation: Gender Politics and Reason of State in South Africa.” In Images of Shame: Infamy, Defamation and the Ethics of Oeconomia, edited by Carolin Behrmann, 193-216. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016.
“From Absorption to Judgement: Empathy in Aesthetic Response."In Empathy: Epistemic Problems and Cultural-Historical Problems of a Cross-Disciplinary Context, edited by Vanessa Lux and Sigrid Weigel, 139-180. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017.
“Necesidad de la emoción: El Cristo muerto sostenido por un ángel de Antonello de Messina.” In Los tesoros ocultos del Museo del Prado, 123-150. Madrid: Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado; Crítica/Círculo de Lectores, 2017.
"The Necessity of Emotion: Antonello da Messina's Dead Christ supported by Angels in the Prado" [Original text for “Necesidad de la emoción: El Cristo muerto sostenido por un ángel de Antonello de Messina," as above].
“Gombrich and Warburg: Making and Matching, Grasping and Comprehending.” In Art and the Mind: Ernst H. Gombrich; Mit dem Steckenpferd unterwegs, edited by Sybille Moser Ernst, 39-62. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018.
“Iconoclasm.” In 23 Manifeste zu Bildakt und Verkörperung, edited by Marion Lauschke and Pablo Schneider, 89-96. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018.
Ludovico Mineo, Alexander Fetterman, Carmen Concerto, Michael Warren, Carmenrita Infortuna, David Freedberg, Eileen Chusid, and Fortunato Battaglia. “Motor Facilitation during Observation of Implied Motion: Evidence for a Role of Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex.” International Journal of Psychophysiology 128 (June 2018): 47-51.
Mel W. Khaw and David Freedberg. “Continuous Aesthetic Judgment of Image Sequences.” Acta Psychologica 118 (July 2018): 213-219.
Mel W. Khaw, Phoebe Nichols, and David Freedberg. "Speed of Person Perception Affects Immediate and Ongoing Aesthetic Evaluation." Acta Psychologica 197 (June 2019): 166-176.
"Seven Keys to Kentridge." Introductory essay in William Kentridge, Why Should I Hesitate: Sculpture, 25-57. Cape Town: Norval Foundation; Cologne: Koenig Books, 2020.
"Rembrandt's O's and Rembrandt's I's: Rembrandt and Contemporary Self-Portraiture." In Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now, 29–59. New York and London: Gagosian/Rizzoli, 2020. Published to commemorate an exhibition presented by Gagosian in partnership with English Heritage, April–May 2019.
Martina Ardizzi, F. Ferron, F. Siri, M.A. Umiltà, A. Cotti, M. Calbi, E. Fadda, D. Freedberg, and V. Gallese. “Beholders’ Sensorimotor Engagement Enhances Aesthetic Rating of Pictorial Facial Expressions of Pain.” Psychological Research 84 (2020): 370-79.
David Freedberg and Antonio Pennisi. “The Body in the Picture: The Lesson of Phantom Limbs and the Origins of the BIID.” Reti, saperi, linguaggi 7, no. 1 (January 2020): 5–50.
Mel W. Khaw, Phoebe Nichols, and David Freedberg. “Uncertainty–based Overestimation in the Perception of Group Actions.” Vision Research 179 (February 2020): 42-52.
Ulrich Kirk, Lau Lilleholt, and David Freedberg. “Cognitive Framing Modulates Emotional Processing through Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Networks: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.” Brain and Behavior 10, no. 9 (September 2020): 1-8.
“Against Portraiture.” In The Visionary Academy of Ocular Mentality: Atlas of the Iconic Turn, edited by Luca del Baldo, 172-78. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.
“Tandem tandem iustitia obtinet: Images, Law, and the Criminal Body during the Revolt of the Netherlands.” In Rule of Law: Cases, Strategies, and Interpretations, edited by Barbara Faedda, 187-219. Monticello Conte Otto: Ronzani Editore, 2021.
Selected Book Prefaces for Download
The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
Preface to the French edition (1998)
Preface to the Polish edition (2007)
Preface to the Second Italian edition (2009)
Selected Review for Download
Verzameld Werk, 4 vols., by J.A. Emmens. Simiolus 13 (1983): 142-146 (review-article).
Selected Interviews for Download
Alessia Cervini. “La natura delle emozioni.” Fata morgana: Quadrimestrale di cinema e visioni IV, no. 12 (2010): 7-19.
Domenica Bruni. “Intervista a David Freedberg.” Rivista per la Formazione, Tendenze - Pratiche - Strumenti 87 (2011): 81-86.
Dionigi Mattia Gagliardi. “Il diologo possibile tra arte e neuroscienze.” Nodes 9-10 (2017): 30-39.