Charles H. Carman, Leon Battista Alberti and Nicholas Cusanus: Towards an Epistemology of Vision for Italian Renaissance Art and Culture. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014. Pp. 2018. £65.00 (cloth).
John S Hendrix
Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewsCharles H. Carman, Leon Battista Alberti and Nicholas Cusanus: Towards an Epistemology of Vision for Italian Renaissance Art Culture. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014. Pp. 2018. £65.00 (cloth).John Shannon HendrixJohn Hendrix Search more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis review is written in memoriam. Charles Carman passed away on July 26, 2016. He was a great friend colleague. His contribution our coedited volume Theories (Farnham: 2010) stands as prelude his culminating work, Cusanus. The argument the book that painting should not be seen secular, rationalized, anthropocentric forerunner modernism but rather theological metaphysical continuation medieval art. modern Cartesian view rational irrational, intellectual spiritual, are opposed each other did exist Renaissance. They were intertwined dialectical relationship, evidenced particular writings Spirituality, divine ontology, liminal connection between material, sense experience, higher understanding or wisdom, symbolized one-point perspective represented metaphorically variety devices used painters, including vanishing point, doorway, window, garden, gold background, light. limen sensory threshold, boundary perception.Art historical interpretations use paintings, likes Martin Kemp, Kim Veltman, Karsten Harries, Joan Gadol, J. V. Field, David Summers, Anthony Grafton, dominated rationalist, mechanistic explanations deny any symbolic content ontology emphasize empirical scientific nature Alberti’s explanation treatise On Painting (De pictura, 1439–41). As Harries wrote Infinity Perspective (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001), “Alberti’s art incompatible with spiritual perspective,” looking through material significance. present presents strong counterargument. possibility such has been allowed few, notably Samuel Edgerton S. K. Heninger, Erwin Panofsky, Leo Steinberg, builds upon these. 1924 essay “Die Perspektive als symbolische Form,” saw “transforming ousia (reality) into phainomenon (appearance),” whereby reducing “the mere subject matter human consciousness, very reason, conversely it expands consciousness vessel divine.” explores ambiguities contradiction inherent statement, which opens way book.Alberti Painting: “Mathematicians measure their minds alone forms things separated from all matter. Since we wish object will sensate wisdom (più grassa Minerva).” Through experience can lead viewer transcendent form knowledge (Minerva) beyond (Narcissus). This intellect famous emblem winged eye Family (Della famiglia, 1433–40), describing disembodied vision recalls Paradiso Dante, capacity disconnected nous poietikos, classical philosophy.The dialectic also core Cusanus, especially figura paradigmatica Conjecture coniecturis, ca. 1442), poses series coincidences opposites: sense/intellect, finite/infinite, unity/multiplicity. These opposites define created metaphorical perception understanding, discerning realization invisible visible, infinite finite. For finite reality determined differences, Plato. Cusanus invokes complicato/explicato, unfolding unity God multiplicity matter, space point perspective. points number paintings illustrate this, Tribute Money Masaccio, Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci, Disputa Raphael, Annunciation St. Polyptych Piero della Francesca, Piermatteo d’Amelia. In Supper, reiterated mathematically, triune groupings Trinity become quadripartite world.Alberti’s well-known concept istoria painting, creation narrative, involves making visible concepts, coincidence staged at painted representation. corresponds idea Seeking quaerendo deum, 1445) one able “enlarge sensible presence construct ladder ascent.” understood though images world. must basis art, rarely purely mathematical geometrical exercise, some commentators would have it.According plane infinite, Giovanni Bellini’s Francis. Nature portal mind inner visuality. naturalistic setting, along corporealized figure Francis, allow us see unfolded within world” (85). Cortona Fra Angelico paradise Garden Eden, where functions metaphor promise paradise. Pesaro Coronation Virgin Bellini, earthly image heavenly Jerusalem evokes nature. exploits window plane, staging opposites, does Leonardo, Madonna Rock Vincenzo Foppa, Portrait Old Man Young Boy Domenico Ghirlandaio. Brunelleschi’s experiment scale model Baptistery included. finds doorway highlighted d’Amelia (now Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, attributed Antoniazzo Romano). A background found Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Siena, Eternal Father Pesaro, Romano’s Child Perugia.Carman thus concludes combined theories illustrated constitute convincing epistemology displays “fundamental theology seeing unseen” (163), interaction (sensed) (intuited). James Elkins, Theory (London: Routledge, 2008), stated humanism somehow contaminated rationalism … pervasive, almost irresistible force scholarship.” argues predominately rationalist misinterpretation. There no distinction irrational. displayed DetailsFiguresReferencesCited History Humanities Volume 2, Number 1Spring 2017 Sponsored Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/690584 permission reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports citing article.
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