Thinking with Materials: Exploring Materia Praeparata in the Early Modern Theory and Practice of Sculpture

Baptiste Tochon-Danguy, Ph.D.

My research project aims to develop a new history and theoretical framework for the study of Renaissance sculpture. This project challenges the widely acknowledged “hylomorphic” schema by incorporating a central yet frequently overlooked concept from scholastic and Renaissance philosophy: materia praeparata (prepared matter). This concept was widespread in Renaissance philosophy and was also referenced in the Early Modern Theory of Art, from Alberti to Benedetto Varchi. It suggests that an artifact cannot be made from arbitrary materials; instead, it must be conceptualized and crafted using carefully selected and pre-treated materials. This approach offers a fresh, interdisciplinary perspective on Early Modern art theory and invites new inquiries into the process of sculpture-making, focussing on the selection and pre-processing of materials. How does the sculptor's conceptualization evolve in response to the properties of these materials? The first goal is to conduct a systematic review of the technical approaches to sculpture and references to hylomorphism in Early Modern art theory, including the works of Alberti, Francesco Giorgio Martini, Vincenzo Danti, Benvenuto Cellini, Anton Francesco Doni, and Sebastiano Serlio. The second objective is to produce detailed case studies of sculpted works, which implies examining the role of intermediality (such as in the tabernacles of Donatello or Rossellino), the selection of specific bronze compositions or particular types of stone for sculptures, and the different meanings attached to the technical processes, including the crucial distinction between additive and subtractive methods in sculpture.