Matters of Weight: Force, Gravity, and Aesthetics in the Early Modern Period

by David Young Kim (Editor)

Overview

To speak of weight is to acknowledge artistic agency and ambition, the deliberate calibration of materials and support which involves risk, at times to the point of collapse. Weight ultimately deals with the 'force' of works of art, their heaviness and thus their presence, a physical and metaphorical characteristic that informs our aesthetic comprehension of things in the world. The book examines the theory and exploitation of weight as an aesthetic category in works of art, 1350-1700. Drawing from the interdisciplinary expertise of specialists in the history of mechanics, painting, prints, sculpture and architecture, this volumes probes the deployment of weight as a compelling denominator in objects of study - be they scientific instruments, canvas paintings, marble sculptures or buildings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783942810234
Publisher:	Dietrich Reimer Verlag
Publication date:	01/01/2014
Series:	humboldt-schriften zur kunst- und bildgeschichte Series
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

David Young Kim is Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Traveling Artist in the Italian Renaissance (Yale University Press, forthcoming 2014) as well as articles on cross-cultural exchange, geography, and art literature.