Galileo’s Thinking Hand: Mannerism, Anti-Mannerism and the Virtue of Drawing in the Foundation of Early Modern Science

376 Pages·2019·19.524 MB·English

by  Horst Bredekamp, Cohen Mitch

Galileo’s ThinkinG hand

Horst Bredekamp
Galileo’s Thinking Hand
Mannerism, Anti-Mannerism, and
the Virtue of Drawing in the Foundation
of Early Modern Science
Translated by Mitch Cohen
Published with the support of the German Research Association
(DFG) in the framework of the Excellence Cluster
“Image Knowledge Design. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory”
of the Humboldt University Berlin.
The English translation is based on Galileis denkende Hand. Form und Forschung
um 1600, Berlin 2014.
ISBN 978-3-11-052006-4
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-053921-9
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-053830-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018966904
Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Cover illustration: Galileo, Sunspots of 30 April–3 May 1612, Pen on paper, 1612, BNCE,
Gal. 57, fol. 70r (Det.)
Design: Petra Florath, Stralsund
Printing and binding: DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg GmbH, Altenburg
www.degruyter.com
ConTenTs
Foreword Vii
i inTRodUCTion: PeiRCe’s PosTUlaTe 1
ii Galileo as The neW MiChelanGelo
1. Cigoli Compares Galileo to Michelangelo 5
2. Peiresc Votes for Galileo as an artist 7
3. Viviani’s Vita of Galileo as an artist’s Biography 12
4. sandrart appoints Galileo to the olympus of artists 15
5. The sepulchral Union of Michelangelo and Galileo 22
iii aRTisTiC ClaRiTY and CUlTURal CRiTiQUe
1. Through art to Mathematics 33
2. The Critique of Mannerism 41
3. Calculating dante’s hell 60
4. The Glance as a shot 67
5. sketches and drawings 80
iV iMaGes oF JUPiTeR, The FiXed sTaRs, and The Moon
1. The Moon around 1600 91
2. From the Gaze Through the Telescope to the Book 99
3. diagrams, Fixed stars, and Jupiter’s Moons 116
4. Prints and drawings of the Moon 132
5. The Telescope as Relic 172
V iMaGes oF The sUnsPoTs
1. First advances by kepler, harriot, and Fabricius 177
2. scheiner systematizes the early series 185
3. Galileo and Cigoli’s Coordinated Response 194
4. Greuter Transforms the sun into Copper 228
5. The international network of solar Researchers 239
Vi aRT as a sPaCe oF aCTion
1. Taking sides in Fresco and Theory: Galileo and Cigoli 251
2. at the Center of the art Trade: Galileo and sagredo 266
3. Fostering Women artists: Gentileschi and Vaiani 270
4. Galileo as expert 283
5. Portraits as Proofs of Friendship 288
Vii The Book oF PhilosoPhY and The Book oF naTURe
1. art as the Model of Philosophy 303
2. The letters of Philosophy 310
3. The dignity and ambivalence of Geometry 313
4. The Freedom of abundance 315
5. knowledge and Form 318
Viii ConClUsion: PeiRCe’s CeRTainTY 321
aPPendiX
abbreviations 327
Bibliography 329
name index 359
illustration sources 365
FoReWoRd
Galileo Galilei was intimately tied to the world of art. among his closest friends
were artists like Cristofano allori and lodovico Cardi, known as il Cigoli. The
numerous painters, especially women painters, who esteemed him included
Peter Paul Rubens, artemisia Gentileschi, and anna Maria Vaiani. But his prox-
imity to the visual arts went far beyond discussing works of art and exchanging
views with artists. he actively fostered careers. his influence as an art critic and
art theoretician was so powerful that he can be regarded as one of the leading
figures of the Florentine Baroque, which was distinct from the contemporary
Roman style.
Moreover, his artistic training enabled him, throughout his life, to pursue all
issues of visualization expertly and sensitively and to create art himself. Galileo
was a draftsman of the first rank. he made engravings from his own drawings
for the printing of his two revolutionary works on the heavenly universe that
he discovered through the telescope. This fact alone testifies that his trained eye
and practiced hand were not external to his natural-scientific work, but integral
components of it.
Galileo was always aware that pictures do not passively reproduce, but have
a constructive power: they create what they depict. This is why he did not regard
the drawing as a mirror, but as part of the penetrating analysis of what is visible.
Galileo thought by drawing. he offers an outstanding historical example of the
principle that design possesses an intellectual status of its own, especially in the
natural sciences. Thus, he is a distant protagonist of the philosophy of embodi-
ment that attributes power to the picture in the interplay among thinking, seeing,
and acting.1
1 krois, 2011; sehen und handeln, 2011; Bredekamp, 2014, image acts.
VIII | Foreword
Galileo studies never end. Due to the complexity of his life, his character,
his research, and his manifold capacities, each new perspective reveals fresh and
often conflicting elements of his persona. Thus, no presentation that tries to
develop a broader view can ever be more than an cross-section of the flux of ever-
new results. This is true also of this attempt to bring together the manifold aspects
of Galileo, the artist. This book was published in German in 2007 under the title
Galilei der Künstler (Galileo the Artist).2 One chapter of it was poisoned by the
undetected forgergy of the Sidereus Nuncius ML, which became an object of the
book Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius. A comparison of the proof copy (New York) with other
paradigmatic copies.3 Analyzing the phenomena that lead to the error, the research-
ers evolved and published A Galileo Forgery. Unmasking the New York Sidereus Nun­
cius in 2014.4 Galilei der Künstler came out in 2015 in an entirely new form that,
in addition to correcting this error, took the opportunity to reshape a number of
results, add new ones, and incorporate newly published research. As it tried to
shape an integrative view of the manifold aspects, the English translation presents
this text, whose integrity stands as a mark of what has been possible up to 2014.
In this general aspect, as I hope I see correctly, it has a rather untouched timeli-
ness.5 This new formulation is owed to encouragment from the historian of sci-
ence Albert von Helden, who in a long talk convinced me to rectify the book and
present it in a new form.6
Essentially new, though, is the incorporation of drawings of the moon that
Galileo included in his letter from January 7, 1610, in which he described for the
first time his observations of the moon through the tube of his telescope. Up to
now, these were known only through a now lost copy of this letter that went
into Antonio Favaro‘s edition of Galileo‘s correspondence.7 A second copy with
Galileo‘s signature was recently found in the Historical Archives of the Pontifical
Gregorian University in Rome, and these illuminations, which come closer to
Galileo‘s original sketches than any document before, are incorporated in this
volume (ill. 82–87).
No single person could have had an exhaustive overwiew of the different
fields of research involved in writing this book – to name only some: the history
of mathematics, the military, philosophy, cosmology, memory culture, artist‘s
2 Bredekamp, 2007.
3 Quoted as Nuncius 2011 (List of Abbreviations).
4 A Galileo Forgery, 2014. A chronological reassumption is also part of the German foreword
in: Bredekamp, 2015, p. 7–9.
5 Among the relevant books that the reader should add are: Berger, 2017; Galluzzi, 2014; The
Language of Nature, 2017 and Wilding, 2014.
6 Cf. his explanation of the whole case: Van Helden, 2014.
7 Opere, vol. X, p. 273–278.
Foreword | IX
training, the history and theory of drawing, art theory, the art trade, art criticism,
and the history of art as a whole, beyond Galileo studies. i am grateful for the
circumspect, precise, and rousing help of katharina lee Chichester, laura Gold-
enbaum, anett ladegast, stefan Trinks, Tobias Weißmann, and laura Windisch
in combing through the individual themes and the text as a whole. The same is true
of the current and former graduate assistants kay Usenbinz, Veronika Zöller
Raphael hoffmann, leva Wenzel, stefanie Meisgeier, kolja Thurner, anne-kathrin
segler, Tilmann steger. Christina Clausen, Jasmin Mersmann, Yannis hadjinico-
laou, lothar sickel and Tullio Viola also provided most valuable insigli. This kind
of collaboration made it possible to produce a book that, because it has been a
true collective effort, fills me not only with joy at its completion, but also and no
less with gratitude toward everyone who took part.
Mention is also due the de Gruyter publishing house, particularly sven Fund
and katja Richter, who supported the project of a new publication from the very
beginning. Book designer Petra Florath once again gave a peak performance with
great sensitivity and precision. My heartfelt thanks to them, as well.
i am greatly indebted to the english-speaking scholars with whom i discussed
Galileo and who became friends, Mario Biagioli, elizabeth Cropper, david Freed-
berg, owen Gingerich (who might forgive me), Martin kemp, irving lavin, alex-
ander Marr, Peter Miller, alina Payne, Paul needham, nicholas Pickwood, eileen
Reeves and William R. shea, to name only these in a list that could be much longer.
My special thanks go to the translator Mitch Cohen, who dedicated himself to
this enterprise as if beeing a co-author. he could count on collaboration with the
historian of astronomy, stefan Zieme. special thanks go as well to Julia steinmetz
who carefully connected all quotations from primary sources with the relevant
english editions.
i dedicate the book to irving lavin, who passed away shortly before it went to
press and who is more present in its compent than the notes can express.
horst Bredekamp, January 2019.