Description

This module looks at the representation of the physical world from the Great Plague of 1348 to Galileo Galilei’s Scientific Revolution. It will examine the animals sketches made in Milan by Giovannino de Grassi, the drawings of flowers and insects by Pisanello and in 15th-c Dutch Books of Hours, the use of mathematics by Piero della Franceca, anatomical schemes from the late medieval period to Leonardo da Vinci, diagrams of the movements of hydraulic forces and machines, the dazzling fireworks of the 16th-c French court up to the representation of the cosmos and the first steps of connoisseurship in 17th-c Bologna.

Yet, rather than presenting this corpus in evolutionary terms—thus repeating a positivistic narrative—or to see images as mere instances of texts, this module asks questions on how visual culture inspired the sciences and contributed to making sense of the physical world. While providing a historical overview of technical and scientific images between the late medieval and the early modern periods, this module defines and engages with the visual content of key scientific concepts, such as objectivity, clues, and experiments. By linking the late medieval to the early modern periods, this module finally challenges the notion that the early modern period experienced a radical transformation in Europeans’ understanding of the natural world. Rather, it investigates the late medieval tools of many scientific procedures and ideas. The course will thus examine many key scientific episodes (Leonardo’s sketchbooks, the trial of Galileo, Newton’s experiments on light and gravity, Hooke’s studies with the microscope) through critical perspectives developed in recent history of art and science. These include the place of magic and alchemy and the role of collecting and museums in the development of science. In the module students will also examine issues of trust, gender, science as practice and culture, and the public understanding of scientific images in the early modern period.

Objectives

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of key themes in late medieval and early modern art, technology, medicine and science.
• Demonstrate skill in applying concepts from one field of analysis (Art) to another (medicine/science).
• Provide a critical analysis of key themes in the historiography of late medieval and early modern art.
• Relate issues in the history of early modern science to key approaches in art and technology studies.
• Present integrated studies of early modern art and science in public using written sources, material artefacts, physical geography and cultural geography.
• Demonstrate professional-level research skills that integrate archives, museum collections, and digital resources.

Preliminary Reading

• Thomas F. Glick, Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine (2005)
• Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity (2007)
• Martin Kemp, Visualizations: The Nature Book of Art and Science (2000)
• Field, Piero della Francesca. A Mathematician’s Art (2005)
• W. Lefevre and others, The Power of Images in Early Modern Science (2005)
• Simon Werrett, Fireworks: Pyrotechnic Arts and Sciences in European History (2010)
• Simon Werrett, “Matter and Facts: Material Culture in the History of Science,” in Material Evidence: Learning from Archaeological Practice, eds. Robert Chapman and Alison Wylie (2014), 339-352
• Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution (1996)
• Peter Dear, Revolutionising the Sciences: European Knowledge and its Ambitions, 1500-1700 ( 2001)
• Robert D. Huerta, Giants of Delft: Johannes Vermeer and the Natural Philosophers (@003)
• John Henry, The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science (2002),
• Lawrence M. Principe, The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction (2011)
• Art and Science in the Early Modern Netherlands, edited by Eric Jorink and Bart Ramakers
• Ulinka Rublack, Reformation Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2005);
• Eugene F. Rice Jr and Anthony Grafton, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559 (Norton, 1970);
• Ronald L. Numbers, ed.,Galileo Goes To Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion (Harvard University Press, 2009)