Renaissance Theories of Vision

How are processes of vision perception and sensation conceived in the Renaissance? How are those conceptions made manifest in the arts? The essays in this volume address these and similar questions to establish important theoretical and philosophical bases for artistic production in the Renaissance and beyond. The essays also attend to the views of historically significant writers from the ancient classical period to the eighteenth century including Plato Aristotle Plotinus St Augustine Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) Ibn Sahl Marsilio Ficino Nicholas of Cusa Leon Battista Alberti Gian Paolo Lomazzo Gregorio Comanini John Davies Rene Descartes Samuel van Hoogstraten and George Berkeley. Contributors carefully scrutinize and illustrate the effect of changing and evolving ideas of intellectual and physical vision on artistic practice in Florence Rome Venice England Austria and the Netherlands. The artists whose work and practices are discussed include Fra Angelico Donatello Leonardo da Vinci Filippino Lippi Giovanni Bellini Raphael Parmigianino Titian Bronzino Johannes Gumpp and Rembrandt van Rijn. Taken together the essays provide the reader with a fresh perspective on the intellectual confluence between art science philosophy and literature across Renaissance Europe.