Un viaggio affascinante tra alcuni dei personaggi geniali e tra le diverse epoche storiche.

Este artículo explora si hay algún fundamento sólido para atribuir a Leonardo da Vinci prioridad en la formulación del símil que lleva a concebir el ojo como una cámara obscura. Aquí, se defiende una posición pesimista. No obstante, el artículo resalta algunos aportes del pintor renacentista que pueden considerarse contribuciones a la consolidación del símil.

One of Leonardo da Vinci’s autographed aphorisms states that Aristotle and Alexander were each other’s teachers. Interpreting it in light of those of Leonardo’s readings which instigated him to write it down along with providing him the material he needed to do so, I argue that the aphorism turns against Aristotle as an emblematically boastful, know-it-all man involved in undue occupation of all knowledge throughout history. Leonardo presents Aristotle as if he had been taught by the (...) pernicious conqueror Alexander to act in scholarship in the way the Macedonian king had acted in politics and external affairs. The core of this critique goes back to a traditional anti-Aristotelian point in Antiquity, complies with the 15th- and 16th-century anti-Aristotelianism and goes hand-in-hand with Leonardo’s own view that intelligent men (including himself) are capable of going much further than Aristotle in the direction of discovering the truth. I identify Leonardo’s sources and I argue that Francis Bacon’s repeated bitter remark that the soul of Aristotle was infected by Alexander’s tyrannic character was quite probably based on Leonardo’s aphorism. (shrink)

The interconnection of scientific studies and art represented by Leonardo Da Vinci’s portraiture accentuates his role in documenting and archiving dermatologic conditions. His anatomical dissections, sketches, and paintings, including portraits, were all a means to observe, portray, and understand the nuances of the human body. In two of his most discussed portraits, Ginevra de’ Benci and Elisabetta del Giocondo, the Mona Lisa, Leonardo’s execution of the exterior anatomy is so precise that he may have illustrated manifestations of (...) disease that allow contemporary researchers to theorize diagnoses of dermatologic as well as neurologic, endocrine and vascular conditions. These include hypochromic anemia, muscular disorders, xanthelasma, thyroid disease, lipoma, and frontal fibrosing alopecia. Leonardo’s extraordinary talent in recording his observations of shades and textures of skin and his ability to capture the nuances of subtle variations in the human body have produced a historical record that allows modern dermatology practitioners to make further observations not possible in his time. Here, dermatology and art intersect serving to document and explain the human condition, permanently archived in Leonardo’s masterpieces. (shrink)

RESUMEN Este artículo explora si hay algún fundamento sólido para atribuir a Leonardo da Vinci prioridad en la formulación del símil que lleva a concebir el ojo como una cámara obscura. Aquí, se defiende una posición pesimista. No obstante, el artículo resalta algunos aportes del pintor renacentista que pueden considerarse contribuciones a la consolidación del símil. ABSTRACT The article explores whether there is any solid basis for attributing to Leonardo da Vinci the priority in formulating the (...) simile that leads to conceiving the eye as a camera obscura. Here, a pessimistic position is defended, however, the article highlights some of Leonardo's contributions to the consolidation of the simile. (shrink)

Sigmund Freud was already internationally acclaimed as the principal founder of psychoanalysis when he turned his attention to the life of Leonardo da Vinci. It remained Freud’s favourite composition. Compressing many of his insights into a few pages, the result is a fascinating picture of some of Freud’s fundamental ideas, including human sexuality, dreams, and repression. It is an equally compelling – and controversial – portrait of Leonardo and the creative forces that according to Freud lie behind (...) some of his great works, including the Mona Lisa. With a new foreword by Maria Walsh.  . (shrink)

The literature on Leonardo da Vinci is so extensive that a bibliography alone would make many volumes. Most of what has been written about him, however, are studies in history, art criticism, biography, or natural science. The number of writings on his esthetics and philosophy of culture are considerably fewer. And there are very few Marxist studies on these questions. This is particularly true of works devoted specifically to Leonardo alone.

This paper is devoted to Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Arno Valley Landscape‘. The historical aspect of the subject under study has been considered, as well as the methodological issues in learning the professional drawing techniques in the framework of Leonardo’s ten attributes of sight and the Thinking through Drawing methodology. Our approach allows formulating the figurative and artistic component of the masterpiece and find out Leonardo’s hidden messages, full of mystics and symbolism.

A reconstruction of Leonardo's emotional life from his earliest years, it represents Freud's first sustained venture into biography from a psychoanalytic perspective, and also his effort to trace one route that homosexual development can take.

The relation between seeing, knowledge, and language has concerned philosophers and artists throughout history. The current article examines the relation between word, image, and knowledge in some prominent Renaissance artworks. It is argued that the shift from revelatory truth in the word to evidence in “seeing the real” as Leonardo da Vinci (1452 -1519) argues in his writings, marks a moment in history in which the human being takes center stage as the interpreter of knowledge. In the search (...) for perfect proportionality and beautiful harmony, Renaissance artists, therefore, did not just create an aesthetic dimension yet were central in a process leading to a reevaluation and alternative modes of knowledge about the human being. (shrink)

The Vitruvian Man of Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most famous and most studied drawings over the world as well as one of the most reproduced ones, e.g. in coins, space suit patches, books and movies. The aim of the present work is to discuss the Vitruvian Man as a figurative representation of the Leonardo’s scientific method. Our analysis is based on scientific elements both present in the drawing and provided by Leonardo in his (...) approach to this drawing. Our thesis is that the square symbolizes the measurable physical world and that the man inscribed within the square refers to the physics measurement process based on the operational definition of quantities, including the measurement unit system and the quantities conversion factors. Therefore, the measurement process is fundamental for the Leonardo’s approach to the scientific knowledge, albeit, the drawing also suggests that this latter does not correspond with the true knowledge. The circle, which has a different center with respect to the square, symbolizes the truth, to which the man inscribed in the square yearns, without ever achieving it, the truth being reachable only by the man inscribed within the circle. (shrink)

RESUMO: Os intérpretes dos manuscritos de Leonardo da Vinci partilham dos mesmos sentimentos de espanto e de fascínio quando examinam sua contribuição para a ciência moderna. Podemos, contudo, perceber uma constante tentativa em prol de uma revisão histórica acerca do papel desempenhado por Leonardo. Observando a história dessas revisões, é possível detectar aspectos significativos das perspectivas históricas e historiográficas dos envolvidos nessa discussão. É o que pretendemos fazer neste trabalho, focando a controvérsia entre Duhem, por um lado, (...) e Sarton, Koyré e Rossi, por outro. Ao fazer isso, buscamos discutir alguns traços que marcam a distinção entre uma historiografia mais antiga e a nova historiografia da ciência, tal como exposta por Thomas Kuhn. ABSTRACT: Interpreters of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts share the same feelings of astonishment and fascination when they examine his contribution to modern science. However, it is possible to perceive an ongoing attempt towards a historical revision of the role played by Leonardo. Observing the history of this ongoing revision, it is possible to detect significant aspects of the historical and historiographical perspectives of those involved in this discussion. This article deals with the controversy between Duhem's point of view, on the one hand, and the views of Sarton, Koyré, and Rossi on the other. It aims to show some features that distinguish an older historiography from the new historiography of science as presented by Thomas Kuhn. (shrink)

The Mona Lisa is probably the most celebrated example of ambiguous expression in art. Soranzo and Newberry demonstrated that a similar ambiguity can be perceived also in La Bella Principessa, another portrait credited to Leonardo da Vinci by many. The paper aims to show that an ambiguous expression can be perceived in a further painting attributed to Leonardo: The Lady with Dishevelled Hair, or La Scapigliata. An experiment was conducted whereby participants rated on a 7-point Likert scale (...) the perceived level of contentment of La Scapigliata and that of a comparable painting created by Andrea di Cione, alias Il Verrocchio. The two artworks were presented in random order to two groups of participants. One group could see the artworks from Close whilst the other group from Far from a Close or Far condition. Results show that the change of distance affected the perceived level of contentment of Leonardo’s figure but not that of Verrocchio’s. Specifically, whilst both artworks received similar ratings of contentment from the close-up condition, La Scapigliata was perceived to be more content from afar. It is concluded that La Scapigliata exhibits an ambiguous expression, and that this ambiguity is similar to the one observed in the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa. This result can be only partially interpreted within the spatial frequency hypothesis advanced by Livingstone and shows that a phenomenological account of Leonardo’s work might be more suited to capture the full extent of the phenomenon. Specifically, it is suggested that the principles of perceptual belongingness may need to be considered to fully capture the extent of the ambiguity depicted by Leonardo. (shrink)

The Commemoration of Leonardo da Vinci To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci occurring in 2019, I propose the following manuscript, in the form of a virtual interview to prof. Giuseppe Maria Pugno (GMP), who commemorated the 500th anniversary of his birth in 1952. The interview, although of a virtual nature, due to the two generations that separate the interviewer (the undersigned, NMP) and the interviewee, is nevertheless based on real answers (...) given by GMP in his writings on Leonardo and the mechanics of solids and structures. The interview is thus confined to this discipline without wishing to touch upon Leonardo’s contributions in other disciplines, or in mechanics itself, e.g. in fluid mechanics or applied mechanics, let alone in the field of art painting and sculpture. Other interesting ideas can be found in GMP’s writings on Leonardo and machines, on Leonardo and hydraulics and on the development of scientific thought in the two hundred years from Dante Alighieri to Leonardo, as well as in essays by other authors on Leonardo, e.g. see notes and references therein. In the last question and answer, interviewer and interviewee will exchange roles to take a look at Leonardo's legacy for a 21st century researcher, with only a few examples. (shrink)

Resumo Este artigo procura apresentar e discutir tentativas recentes em filosofia social de analisar e interpretar o capitalismo, a partir de uma perspectiva praxeológica. O practice turn em teoria social procurou superar o dualismo entre agência e estrutura, ou entre ação e sistema, por meio da noção de prática social. Seria possível então interpretar o capitalismo como um tipo especifico de prática social? Para tentar encaminhar essa questão, explicita-se brevemente, em um primeiro momento, em que consiste o practice turn em (...) teoria social. Num segundo momento, analisa-se e se discute a proposta de Rahel Jaeggi de conceber a economia como uma rede de práticas sociais. Em seguida, expõe-se e se avalia a tentativa de Christian Lotz em ver, no dinheiro, a chave para compreender aquilo que ele chama de esquema capitalista. Por fim, conclui-se, chamando a atenção para os potenciais e desafios ligados ao empreendimento de interpretar o capitalismo em função de uma teoria da prática, sugerindo que um aprofundamento na análise da imaginação especificamente capitalista, vinculando-a com a típica plasticidade e diversidade do capitalismo, possa ajudar a avançar nesse campo.This paper aims to present and discuss recent attempts in social philosophy to analyze and interpret capitalism from a praxeological perspective. The practice turn in social theory sought to overcome the dualism between agency and structure, or between action and system, through the notion of social practice. Is it then possible to interpret capitalism as a specific type of social practice? To try to address this question, I briefly introduce, in a first moment, the practice turn in social theory. In a second moment, I analyze and discuss Rahel Jaeggi’s proposal to conceive the economy as a network of social practices. I then explain and evaluate Christian Lotz’s attempt to see money as the key to understanding what he names as “the capitalist schema”. Finally, I conclude by drawing attention to the potentials and challenges of interpreting capitalism as a social practice, suggesting that a deeper analysis of specifically capitalist imagination, linking it with the typical plasticity and diversity of capitalism, may help to move forward in this field. (shrink)