Leggere le illustrazioni - estratto da "Il filo del tempo" (2001) From: Louis Paladin, Laura Pasinetti The thread of time between colors and yellowing pages. Illustrators and books for children and teens from the late nineteenth century to today, Roccafranca (BS), The Fellowship of the Press Massetti Rodella Publishers, 2001 .
read drawings What is the picture, as we read, how to taste When the mid-eighties in Italy spread the thought of Bruno Bottelheim through one of his major works, The Uses of Enchantment, there were those who, especially among teachers and librarians, took a critical view of the great educator-psychologist towards the use and meaning of illustraizoni in books for children.
The step, taken several times and subjected to different interpretations, is as follows:
"... children should be given the opportunity to slowly take possession of a fairy tale and an introduction by apposition of their associations . E 'for this reason, incidentally, that the illustrated story books, so daadulti favorite is both modern children do not serve the main needs of the child. The illustrations help instead of being distracting. Studies on picture books for primary schools show that the illustrations distract from the learning process rather than facilitate it, why mislead the child's imagination the way he expresses the story on their own. The illustrated story is deprived of much of the content of personal meaning that could be made disopnibile applied only to the child that their visual associations rather than illustration. " was a need for further surgery by the same author clear that critical reflection was restricted to a particular genre, fairy tales, and even more to the traditional fairy tales. Those born from oral tradition and popular, accompanied by troublesome alle illustrazioni e limiterebbero l'immaginazione autonoma e personale dei bambini.
L'intervento chiarificatore fa da premessa a una nuova raccolta de "Le favole di Federico" che riunisce dodici tra leprincipali opere ideate da Leo Lionni, geniale architetto che si dedicò con straordinaria passione alla realizzazione di libri illustrati per bambini.
- Perchè ai bambini piacciono tanto i libri illustrati? Che valore vi attribuiscono e quale fascino ne subiscono?
Rispondendo, definisce anche la sua posizione sui libri illustrati. Il saggio è concentrato di concetti, tutti diretti a sostenere con forza il valore delle illustrazioni in children's books:
"in a real book demonstrates how in a dream in the imagination of a child, the visual image is the primary and secondary text." images are Leo Lionni stories with respect, tell the child things that have meaning for him. This not only stimulate the senses, but also suggests something deeper. Arricchisono his fantasy life and give greater meaning to his existence. "And then he continues:
"
the images should be given the deeper meaning of the story . "
The current image that society relies on the code an iconic increasingly large part of responsibility in the dissemination of information, can not help but recognize the illustrations a specific and important role in trasmissinoe feelings, emotions, imagination.
The paradox is that this particular code is poorly studied, and little recognition in the publishing field, often used only as landscaping to increase sales.
The meaning and communicative function of the illustrations are not taught in school as you study the grammar of the written text, but too often in books by reading excerpts from the school books for children and teens are accompanied by other pictures, thus violating the original symbiosis between text and image. In this way the work is no longer such, being tampered with, it's like a king without clothes, a song that is removed the original music and added an improvised background.
But what an illustration? And as we read? The illustration is a painting not a painting, it is rather similar to a cycle of frescoes, such as graffiti or as cave paintings of the great medieval churches.
The illustration should be considered a specific code of communication, as well as transmitting information, brings with it deep componenti emotive, affettive, così da coniugare il piacere dell'informazione a quello estetico. Ma la sua più profonda specificità consiste nell'interagire con le altre illustrazioni che la precedono e che la seguono, e nel legarsi in
simbiosi col testo . Le illustrazioni non sono serve del testo, ma parti essenziali di una comunicazione che appare completa solo se testo e illustrazioni sono presenti così come sono state pensate dall'autore e dall'illustratore.
A differenza di un quadro, la singola illustrazione non ha la pretesa di "racchiudere tutto" all'interno di un'unica cornice, ma rinvia sempre: ora al testo, ora a una successiva immagine, so that enriches and is enriched with meanings, new textures, and more detailed interpretations. can be compared to a frame of a film. Again the individual images of a film you can observe and appreciate the rhythm of succession and are measured in relation to other codes that accompany them, verbal and musical.
The illustrations are in many ways: sometimes they are alone, without text, it is entirely left to the plot, which is apparent from a reading based on single items in the illustration (synchronic reading) and in the succession of illustrations by connecting a full path in the illustrations above with those that follow (diachronic reading) .
Sometimes the illustrations are living in symbiosis with the text, so that one can not live without the other, complementing each other in a game of mutual references.
It mostly works of authors, illustrators like Maurice Sendak, Leo Lionni, Nicoletta Costa, Pinin Carpi, Helme Heine, Eric Carle, Babette Cole, David McKee ...
Other times, the illustrations are entrusted with the task of enhancing some of the highlights of the work. In this case, the illustrations are flanked to the relevant text and are scattered throughout the book or in those parts of the plot that called for more action next illustrator.
The illustration is thus always a code of communication "in relationship" at times with the entire text, sometimes with some moments of the plot and sometimes only with the illustrations above and those below. The most obvious consequence is that the message of the illustrations can be read and enjoyed all alone in that issue that has come to life. The illustrations ilbro live in, their frame is as white as the paper they were printed, they are designed for a specific book form.
Con i caratteri del testo si relazionano in un rapporto di interdipendenza, a volte spostandono i margini, altre volte lasciandoli invadere.
Strumenti docili in mano a specialisti che, attraverso macchine e varie tecniche di stampa, le impaginano e le riproducono in centinaia o migliaia di copie, la loro ricchezza sta nella molteplicità, nel potersi muovere, incontrare in ogni momento e in spazi diversi piccoli e grandi lettori.
Come leggere allora le illustrazioni? Come un codice comunicativo che trasmette l'intenzione artistica e l'interpretazione dell'artista-illustratore, come un secondo livello di lettura, aaccanto a quella del testo scritto, with the specific modalities of the right hemisphere of our brain: originality, space, synthesis. A "Good" is not equivalent to a single illustration beautiful illustrations, it flattens the text, but creates creative and consistent references between one and another, between one and the text, between the writer and illustrator, including them and us, surprised and taken with the desire to return to see.
Al beyond the style and techniques that every illustrator uses, you can report that some elements in the reading of the illustrations should be taken into account in assessing work better illustrated - The complementary text and illustrations , so it is natural to go from code written to that iconic, in a continuous reading and unobtrusively, because each fluid code fills in the gaps of the other. [...] The most significant example is represented by the case of Pinocchio, illustrated by the most and with which generations of illustrators have ventured. The reason for such attention is that Collodi eschews detailed descriptions of his characters, so that every illustrator in this field is open to express their creativity by filling in the gaps of the text. It can thus ammiraer exerted by the Cat and the Fox and realistic in the Cloisters, or those anthropomorphic Accornero.
- The evocative power of images, through the representation of elements of posture, facial expression, facial or context, allows us to capture the moods, feelings, experiences of the protagonists, the atmosphere and causing deep resonances the reader. A significant example is the Ibro "In the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.
- Essentiality, not simple or trivial, but the estrapolzione and the representation of the salient features, archetypal, the mental image that each of us has things , animals, living beings. Essentials such as synthesis, attribution of expressive power to a few central elements. Outstanding examples of this ability to synthesize data are expressed Iela Mari in "The Red Balloon," by Attilio in "Think and think again", by Altan in the "Books of Kika", by Bruno Angoletta in "The wonders of the white house" or Sergio Tofano in "The Adventures of Mr. Bonaventura."
- The ability to inspire a taste for beauty , for good form, the harmony of parts, which combine to create new and original summons and aesthetic emotions, without being never lost the specific communicative value. Think of all the works of Emanuele Luzzati, those of Kveta Pacovska, Lisbeth Zwerger, by Octavia Monaco.
- The choice of perspectives, points of view, the cuts, with details that enhance the communication without weighing it down. Department works illustrated were made by Mussino, Gustavino, Accornero, Innocenti, Sinop.
Perhaps the most pleasant reading, however, is to abandon the enchantment of the illustrated pages, without prejudices and stereotyped
evaluations, eg run time away from the pervasive media images, perhaps with parents, children or grandchildren.
