This volume is the first to address the concept of spontaneity from an art-historical perspective. The term, located in the creative field today, became more frequent in the visual arts during the 19th century, when 'spontaneous images' emerged with photography. But notions of the artistic act of creation associated with spontaneity - its speed, immediacy, and freedom, up to and including a rather autonomous genesis of the work, had existed for a long time. How the respective attributions relate to the production process is discussed on the basis of exemplary works since the early modern period. Separate contributions are devoted to the much older discourses on the spontaneous image in China and Japan, the reception of which is little-known in the West. - First examination of the concept of spontaneity from an art-theoretical perspective Spontaneity in western and Eastern Asian art Critical examination of the attributions of immediacy, speed, freedom and the autonomous genesis of works

Yannis Hadjinicolaou, art historian, University of Bonn. Monika Wagner, art historian, University of Hamburg