Perpetual motion : transforming shapes in the Renaissance from da Vinci to Montaigne
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Perpetual motion : transforming shapes in the Renaissance from da Vinci to Montaigne
（Parallax : re-visions of culture and society）
Johns Hopkins University Press, c2001
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Note
Originally published as Perpetuum mobile : Métamorphoses des corps et des œuvres de Vinci à Montaigne, c1997 éd. Macula, Paris
Bibliography: p. 299-309
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The popular conception of the Renaissance as a culture devoted to order and perfection does not account for an important characteristic of Renaissance art: many of the period's major works, including those by da Vinci, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Ronsard, and Montaigne, appeared as works-in-progress, always liable to changes and additions. In Perpetual Motion, Michel Jeanneret argues for a sixteenth century swept up in change and fascinated by genesis and metamorphosis. Jeanneret begins by tracing the metamorphic sensibility in sixteenth-century science and culture. Theories of creation and cosmology, of biology and geology, profoundly affected the perspectives of leading thinkers and artists on the nature of matter and form. The conception of humanity (as understood by Pico de Mirandola, Erasmus, Rabelais, and others), reflections upon history, the theory and practice of language, all led to new ideas, new genres, and a new interest in the diversity of experience.
Jeanneret goes on to show that the invention of the printing press did not necessarily produce more stable literary texts than those transmitted orally or as hand-printed manuscripts-authors incorporated ideas of transformation into the process of composing and revising and encouraged creative interpretations from their readers, translators, and imitators. Extending the argument to the visual arts, Jeanneret considers da Vinci's sketches and paintings, changing depictions of the world map, the mythological sculptures in the gardens of Prince Orsini in Bomarzo, and many other Renaissance works. More than fifty illustrations supplement his analysis.
Table of Contents
Contents: List of Illustrations Translator's Note Introduction Chapter 1: Universal Sway 1 Form and Force: Du Bartas 2 Natura naturans 3 Earth Changes: Leonardo da Vinci Chapter 2: Primeval Movement 4 Chaos 5 "Grotesques and Monstrosities" Chapter 3: Culture and Its Flow 6 "We Are Never in Ourselves" 7 The Hazards of Art: LeRoy 8 Language Inflexions Chapter 4: Works in Progress 9 On Site 10 Geneses Chapter 5: Creative Reading 11 Reshuffling the Cards 12 Works to Be Done Notes Bibliography Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
