Gazing Hands and Blind Spots

Galileo as Draftsman

Bibliographic Data

ID4516168
AuthorsHorst Bredekamp (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume14
Issues1
Pages153-192
Publication date2001-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience in Context (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0269889701000333
OpenAlexW2127064982
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited27

The ArgumentThe article deals with the interrelation between Galileo and the visual arts. It presents a couple of drawings from the hand of Galileo and confronts them with Viviani's report that Galileo had not only wanted to become an artist in his youth but stayed close to the field of visual arts throughout his lifetime. In the ambiance of these drawings the famous moon watercolors are not in the dark. They represent a very acute and reasonable tool to convince the people who trusted images more than words. The article ends with Panofsky's argument that it was Galileo's anti-Mannerist notion of art that evoked a repulsion of Kepler's ellipses. It tries to show that it was again an aesthetical prejudice that hindered Einstein from accepting Panofsky's theory

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Galileo (satellite navigation · Geography · The arts · Visual arts · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Architecture and Art History Studies · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · Medicine · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access