An eye for an eye: ocular motifs and picaresque envisagement in pictures

Abstract

Conjectures regarding portraits of the Fool as performative hyper-icons in the picaresque tradition initiate an investigation of canny performances of duplicity in pictures on display. The focus falls on performances of unexpected convolutions acted out by spectators while looking repeatedly at deceptive pictures. The emphasis is on the role of the eye in visual shaping and in iterated performance of rhetorical roles and on recurrent ocular motifs as typiconic features in the picaresque tradition.