DOC Standing Soldiers; Kneeling Slaves by Kirk Savage in History

Description

Responding to ongoing debates over the role of humanism in the rise of empirical science; Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann explores the history of Renaissance art to help explain the complex beginnings of the "scientific revolution." In a rich collection of new and previously published essays addressing conceptions of the mastery of nature; he discusses the depiction of nature in works of art; scientific approaches to understanding the world; and imperial claims to world control. This interdisciplinary approach elucidates the varying ways art; science; and humanism interact. This book contains a new assessment of the origins of trompe-l'oeil illumination in manuscript painting in response to religious devotional practices; an account of the history of shadow projection in art theory in relation to perspective; astronomy; and optics; an analysis of poems by the painter Georg Hoefnagel demonstrating how religious; philosophical; and political concerns impinge on questions of imitation; ground-breaking interpretations of Arcimboldo's paintings of composite heads as imperial allegories; an account of a poet-astronomer's collaboration with artists; an essay on "Ancients" and "Moderns" in art and science in Prague; and a new review of art; politics; science; and the Kunstkammer.