The Eye of the Draftsmen. Art and Perception in the Early Modern Age

• Applicant: Dr. Claudia Steinhardt-Hirsch
• Subject Area: Art History ; History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 255431412

My project investigates the epistemic function of drawing in early 17th century Italy as well as the connection between art and perception by exploring a comprehensive stock of drawings that weren't primarily subject to the processes involved in producing a preparatory study. Rather, they prove to be visual exercises in the context of the era's art theory, epitomized by Federico Zuccari's disegno concept. The roman artist and theorist made drawing in 1607 for the first time in full consequence into a major principle to investigate the world. Some decades before in Bologna the natural scientist Ulisse Aldrovandi and the cardinal and art theorist Gabriele Paleotti pointed out to the important role of drawing in empiric observation and precise representation of the real. Parallel to this development, as the world view became increasingly mechanized starting in the early 17th century and as scientific breakthroughs were achieved in the field of optics, the importance of the eye was gradually set apart from the other senses and began writing its own success story.The project investigates the historical preconditions of this development by concentrating on drawing as a category. It combines three main approaches that can be described as follows: the methodological basic concepts of connoisseurship, the phenomonology of the drawing as a material construct, and the evidential character of epistemic visualizations.The most important objective of my work is to explore the interaction between perception, visual imagination and productive realization. The fact that perception has been described as a level of consciousness that relies on sensory contact with images of whatever kind and materializes in the drawing as a cognitive construction leads us to a cycle of questions pointing to the center of the production of drawings in the early 17th century and concerning important aspects of current art history research and the common ground it shares with visual cultural studies. My project functions as a cultural history of early 17th century drawing in Italy. Its goal is to contribute to the current research into modern drawing. It hence fills a significant gap in art history research in Italian baroque drawing, providing answers to questions regarding the status of visual creativity and image conception, questions particularly pertinent in this day and age. My method follows historical sources. It is my goal, to demonstrate the fundamental importance of drawing for generating knowledge and understanding in early 17th century Italy and to visualize the interferences that drawing has with contemporary esthetical, philosophical and graphological discourses of that time.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants