- In-Person
- $150
In this course, we examine five episodes of European intellectual history focusing on the intersections between art and science.
Following the tradition of the Grand Tour, our exploration starts in Renaissance Italy and concludes in Interwar France (1918-1939). Along the way, we visit early modern Britain and Freud’s Vienna. Rather than breezing through these exciting times and places, we take the time to look into the social milieu that gave rise to the artistic and scientific works discussed.
Here are some puzzles to guide us:
- Is Leonardo da Vinci indeed a lonely scientist among artists, and a lonely artist among scientists?
- What of Leon Batista Alberti whose interest in renaissance perspective and painting did not diminish his interest in cryptography?
- What links white cockatoos, British public interest in science, and Hobbesian permanent state of war?
- How did nineteenth century instruments of measuring and recording change our view of the world?
- Did Darwin matter to the painters of Freud’s Vienna?
- What do discoveries in neurology have in common with surrealism?
In each session, we explore one of these questions through presentations and discussions of historical context and visual examples of art and science of the time.
JASMINA KARABEG is an interdisciplinary researcher who explores boundary zones where arts and sciences mesh. Her current research is focused on Surrealism, particularly surrealists’ engagement with science and surrealists’ political interventions. Previously she explored similar themes—relations of art, science, and politics – as they played out in early modern Naples.