Sensory World of Italian Renaissance Art

The Renaissance often refers to an era when art, philosophy and other profound expressions of human culture underwent a revolutionary rebirth. New ideas, however, grew in the cradle of old modes of thinking: the Renaissance inherited and developed a medieval conception of the mind based on the assumption that there was nothing in the mind that had not reached it via the senses. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the world of art.In The Sensory World of Renaissance Art François Quiviger explores the ways in which sensations began to take on a new significance in the art of the sixteenth century. He discusses the presence and function of sensation in Renaissance ideas and practices, investigating their link to mental imagery and shows how Renaissance artists made touch, sound and scent palpable to the minds of their audience. He points to the shifts in ideas and theories on representation, which were evolving throughout the century, and explains how this shaped early modern notions of art, spectatorship and artistic creation.By setting art and ideas on representation side by side in the same intellectual environment, The Sensory World of Renaissance Art presents a comprehensive study of the period's theories of art in the context of the actual works. Extensively researched and beautifully illustrated, this book will appeal to students as well as scholars of art history, and indeed to anyone interested in this fascinating cultural period.