The Artificial Eye. Art Theory and Optical Revolution in Early Modern Europe.

Research Seminar

  • Public event without registration
  • Data: 10.09.2024
  • Ora: 11:00 - 13:00
  • Relatrice: Valérie Kobi
  • Luogo: Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome
  • Contatto: katja.hackstein@biblhertz.it
The Artificial Eye. Art Theory and Optical Revolution in Early Modern Europe.
Image: Louis-Léopold Boilly and François Seraphin Delpech, Les amateurs de tableaux, crayon lithograph in black on wove paper, 1823, Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art
While it is well known that the optical revolution completely changed our perception of the world, thanks in particular to the invention of the telescope and the microscope, its importance for the development of art history remains largely underestimated. However, the sources at our disposal clearly reveal that art connoisseurs and theorists of the 17th and 18th centuries were quick to exploit advances in optics to improve their own protocols for reading art objects.

This research seminar will analyze this phenomenon and demonstrate that these practices led to another scientific revolution, this time in the field of art history, resulting in a new way of looking at and theorizing works of art.

Valérie Kobi received her Ph.D. in art history in 2014 (Prix Nexans) from the Université de Neuchâtel where she is assistant professor and leads the FNS PRIMA research group Bibliothèques et musées en Suisse entre 18e et 19e siècles. Between 2016 and 2021, she was a Fellow of the Young ZiF in Bielefeld. Kobi is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including from the Getty Research Institute, the Swiss Institute of Rome, and the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2023, she was awarded the Hamburger Lehrpreis by the Hamburg Ministry for Science, Education, Research and Equality.


Scientific Organization: Ariella Minden

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