The Fertile Ground of Painting: Seventeenth-Century Still Lifes and Nature Pieces

The Fertile Ground of Painting: Seventeenth-Century Still Lifes and Nature Pieces Karin Leonhard Pages: 304 p. Size:225 x 300 mm Illustrations:162 col., 5 maps b/w Language(s):English Publication Year:2021 ? 190,00 RETAIL PRICE ISBN: 978-1-912554-06-5 Hardback Available Still Life painting thematizes the ability of Nature and Art to produce similarities and is therefore predestined for a theorization of mimetic strcutures of Art in general. BIO Karin Leonhard is professor of art history at the University of Konstanz. SUMMARY 17th-Century Netherlandish Still Life painting actively participated in the intellectual discourse of natural philosophy and the natural sciences, even though art history until recently described it, somewhat simplifying, as realistic-representative painting. We urgently need a rehabilitation of the notion of Mimesis. The author restarts the discussion, by putting more emphasis on the historical notions of Nature and Image. She examines how mimetic structures acquired a biotic reproductive capacity in the 17th century. Still Life painting thematizes the ability of Nature and Art to produce similarities and is therefore predestined for a theorization of mimetic strcutures of Art in general. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One - The Picture as Species Chapter Two - The Picture as Pharmakon Chapter Three - The Picture as Palingenesis Chapter Four - The Picture as Ephemeron