Call for Papers for Volume 16
Intersections Yearbook for Early Modern Studies
The Artist as Reader: On Education and Non-Education of Early Modern Artists
Published by Brill, Leiden
The Netherlands
The volume is scheduled to appear in 2009. Proposals, about 300 words,
should be sent (preferably electronically) no later than October 1st
2007 to one of the following email addresses:
Claus Zittel, [log in to unmask] /Heiko Damm, [log in to unmask] /
Michael Thimann, [log in to unmask] Vera Koppenleitner,
[log in to unmask]
(Kunsthistorisches Institut/Max-Planck-Institut, Florence, Italy)
The authors of the proposals that have been accepted will be invited
to write a paper before 1 October 2008. The final decision on the
acceptance of any paper will be made by the editors following receipt
of the complete text.
In the reconstruction of the history of knowledge of the Early Modern
Period there is a tendency to overlook that books as primary sources
of memorising knowledge were not only consulted by scholars, but
likewise, for instance, by artists and artisans. Due to their
practical approach to art, they had other knowledge claims and
consequently had their own way of dealing with written information.
The outstanding role of books for the development of an artistic
competence of discourse is indisputable, however great the cleavage
between the theoretical reflection of the doctus artifex and an
unscholarly practical approach may be.
Written media are a means of developing talent and systematizing
studies, but also of forming an identity and of self-reflection. They
can trigger the creative process, or paralyse it; they can be of
purely practical use or of value as objects of collection, thus
becoming a status symbol. The contributions to the volume in
preparation attempt to examine the specific forms of this influence
from the perspectives of different disciplines (history of art,
literature, theory of drama, history of knowledge, philosophy,
history). For all contributions, the following questions are central.
1. What books were read by painters, illustrators, goldsmiths, garden
designers, constructors of instruments or architects of fortresses? To
what extent did the composition of the reference libraries correspond
to the range of authors recommended by theoreticians? What importance
must be ascribed to individual preferences?
2. What particular use did artists make of their books? How could a
specifically "artistic" practice of reading be defined? How, and to
what consequence, does an artist, as a reader, differ from other
readers? Can particular forms of sceptic rejection or productive
adoption of texts (e.g. Palissy?s critic of Cardano?s natural
philosophy or Carracci?s critic of Vasari?s Disegno-doctrine) be
discerned, that are typical of an artist?s way of reading? In other
words, is there a specific "artist?s knowledge"? Does a more or less
educated artist react and respond differently to written information
than an ordinary learned reader?
3. In what forms does the knowledge imparted by books show up in the
process of artistic creation and in the work of art itself? Is the own
reading reflected in the work of art? What comprehension of the text
is revealed in illustrations of books, for instance? How is the
proportion of own observation and conceptions suggested by books to be
rated in representations of nature in paintings?
In many cases the hiding and the revelation of discursive knowledge in
a picture is closely linked to the problem of the artist?s library.
Since Jan Bialostocki?s groundbreaking essay (Doctus artifex and the
library of the artist in XVIth and XVIIth century, 1984) the knowledge
about the libraries of artists was increased by numerous monographs
and archive publications.
To the book collections long known, like those of Leonardo da Vinci,
Velázquez or Andrea Sacchi, further significant discoveries of legacy
inventories and sale catalogues have been added, among which the
libraries of so different personalities as the architect Giovanni
Antonio Rusconi, the painter Durante Alberti or the allround-talents
Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona.
Starting from this enhanced research basis, the volume deals with the
question of books in the hands of artists and, therewith, the links
between archive, history of knowledge and artistic practice. The
volume, therefore, does not aim at simply listing up the contents of
libraries; starting out from materially reconstructible particular
cases, it wishes to examine the topical order of knowledge, its
availability and its productive implementation. In order to get a
broad view of the possible reading habits, the individual example
merits the same attention as the standardisation of the acquisition of
knowledge promoted by the academies.
Basically, the specific "logic of collecting", which is to say the
function of books next to art, for art and as art, must be focused on.
Moreover, the question arises, what special means of acquiring,
keeping and generating knowledge an artist disposes of, that set him
apart from ordinary scholars. In this matter, the library in its
system and materiality is just as much of concern as the individual
trace of perusal: comments and notes of ownership reveal much of how
books and authors were dealt with. The annotations of and extracts
from texts on science, artistic theory, (natural) philosophy, poetry
or theology are as important as the genuine methods of visual
archiving and conceptualisation, in a sketchbook, for instance, or in
a picture atlas. At the same time, the artist himself becomes an
object of interest, as the author of theoretical as well as poetic or
(auto-) biographical texts.
The volume is to be prepared by a series of lectures, organised by the
Independent Junior Research Group "The Conscious Image. The
Epistemological Foundations of Secular Representation, 1400-1850" at
the Institute for Art History in Florence / Max-Planck-Institute, - in
cooperation with the Biblioteca Leonardiana (Vinci) and the Zentrum
zur Erforschung der Frühen Neuzeit (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am
Main).
INTERSECTIONS brings together new material on well considered themes
within the wide area of Early Modern Studies. Contributions may come
from any of the disciplines within the humanities: history, art
history, literary history, book history, church history, social
history, history of the humanities, of the theatre, of cultural life
and institutions. The themes are directed towards hitherto little
explored areas or reflect a lively debate within the international
community of scholars.
Volumes published to date: vol. 1 (2001) Karl Enenkel et alii,
Recreating Ancient History. [?]; vol. 2 (2002) Toon van Houdt et alii,
On the Edge of Truth and Honesty. Principles and Strategies of Fraud
and Deceit in the Early Modern Period; vol. 3 (2003) Arie-Jan
Gelderblom et alii, The Low Countries as a Crossroads of Religious
Beliefs; vol. 4 (2004) Karl Enenkel ? Wolfgang Neuber, Cognition and
the Book. Typologies of Formal Organisation of Knowledge in the
Printed Book of the Early Modern Period; vol. 5 (2005) Alister
Hamilton et alii, The Republic of Letters and the Levant and vol. 6
(2006), Karl Enenkel and Jan Papy, Petrarch and his Readers in the
Renaissance. Paul Smith ? Karl Enenkel, Montaigne and the Low
Countries ; vol. 8 ( 2007 ) . Vol. 7 Enenkel ? Kolfin ? Smith,
Zoology. Representations of Animals in the Early Modern Period will
appear 2007.
Editorial Board
Prof. dr. W. van Anrooij (Dutch; University of Leiden)
Prof. dr. B. Blondé (History; University of Antwerp)
Prof. dr. K.A.E. Enenkel (general editor; Classical Studies and
Neo-Latin; University of Leiden)
Prof. dr. R.L. Falkenburg (Art History; University of Leiden)
Dr. J.L. de Jong (editorial secretary; Art History; University of Groningen)
Dr. E.E.P. Kolfin (Art History; University of Amsterdam; Free
University of Amsterdam)
Prof. dr. W. Neuber (German; Free University of Berlin)
Prof. Dr. H. Roodenburg (Meertens Institute)
Prof. dr. P.J. Smith (French; University of Leiden
Prof. dr. R.K. Todd (English; University of Leiden)
Prof. dr. M. van Vaeck (Dutch; Catholic University of Louvain)
Prof. dr. Claus Zittel (German; Philosophy; Firenze/ Frankfurt am
Main/ Olsztyn)
www.brill.nl /inte
Prof. Universität Frankfurt)
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