Description
Book SynopsisMassey argues that we can only learn how and why certain kinds of spatial representation prevailed by carefully considering how Renaissance artists and theorists interpreted perspective. This discussion shows that the painter’s geometry did not always conform to the rational Cartesian formula, nor did it unfold according to scientific development.
Trade Review“This is a strong, well-articulated argument for the place of embodiment and bodily experience in Renaissance perspective. Lyle Massey is a very unusual scholar, well informed about phenomenological, Lacanian, and structuralist readings of perspective, but just as conversant with the history of geometry and its connections to Enlightenment philosophy. This book is a tonic, just what the field needs to restore some balance and help heal the rift between post-structuralist, psychoanalytic readings and technical, geometric interpretations.”
—James Elkins,The Art Institute of Chicago
“Lyle Massey has done what very few art historians have attempted, which is to develop an expertise that encompasses the history of science, philosophy, and art, in keeping with the organization of knowledge during the early modern and Enlightenment era, while also demonstrating considerable expertise in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory.”
—Claire Farago Renaissance Quarterly
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Corporealizing the Infinite
2 Descartes’s Point of View
3 Straightening Out Anamorphosis
4 The Body and Its Devices
Conclusion: Perspective Split in Two
Notes
Bibliography
Index
