Perpetual Motion

Transforming Shapes in the Renaissance from Da Vinci to Montaigne
Erscheinungsjahr 2001
ISBN: 978-0-8018-6480-3
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 626 g

Reihe: Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society

The popular conception of the Renaissance as a culture devoted to order and perfection does not account for an important characteristic of Renaissance art: many of the period's major works, including those by da Vinci, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Ronsard, and Montaigne, appeared as works-in-progress, always liable to changes and additions. In Perpetual Motion, Michel Jeanneret argues for a sixteenth century swept up in change and fascinated by genesis and metamorphosis.

Jeanneret begins by tracing the metamorphic sensibility in sixteenth-century science and culture. Theories of creation and cosmology, of biology and geology, profoundly affected the perspectives of leading thinkers and artists on the nature of matter and form. The conception of humanity (as understood by Pico de Mirandola, Erasmus, Rabelais, and others), reflections upon history, the theory and practice of language, all led to new ideas, new genres, and a new interest in the diversity of experience. Jeanneret goes on to show that the invention of the printing press did not necessarily produce more stable literary texts than those transmitted orally or as hand-printed manuscripts—authors incorporated ideas of transformation into the process of composing and revising and encouraged creative interpretations from their readers, translators, and imitators. Extending the argument to the visual arts, Jeanneret considers da Vinci's sketches and paintings, changing depictions of the world map, the mythological sculptures in the gardens of Prince Orsini in Bomarzo, and many other Renaissance works. More than fifty illustrations supplement his analysis.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jeanneret, Michel

Weitere Mitwirkende

Poller, Nidra

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Translator's Note
Introduction
Part I. Universal Sway
Chapter 1 Form and Force: Du Bartas
Chapter 2 Natura naturans
Chapter 3 Earth Changes: Leonardo da Vinci
Part II: Primeval Movement
Chapter 4 Chaos
Chapter 5 "Grotesques and Monstrosities"
Part III: Culture and Its Flow
Chapter 6 "We Are Never in Ourselves"
Chapter 7 The Hazards of Art: LeRoy
Chapter 8 Language Inflexions
Part IV: Works in Progress
Chapter 9 On Site
Chapter 10 Geneses
Part V: Creative Reading
Chapter 11 Reshuffling the Cards
Chapter 12 Works to Be Done
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jeanneret, Michel
Michel Jeanneret is a professor of French literature at the University of Geneva. He is author of Poésie et tradition biblique au XVIe siècle, Des mets et des mots: Banquets et propos de table à la Renaissance, and Le Défi des signes: Rabelais et la crise de l'interprétation à la Renaissance.