Strokes & Lines: On Expressive Mediality

The graduate seminar "Strokes & Lines: On expressive Mediality in Early Modern Art" investigates how the brush stroke and drawn line gained emphasis in art practice in Early Modern Europe and were conceptualized as artistic gesture in art theory. We will discuss how the visibility of the stroke challenged the primary task of mimesis to modify perception and how the artists walked a fine line to express artistic bravura. The seminar will present the many voices that constitute Early modern aesthetic theory and consider the different artistic positions that form the floor for that discourse. The seminar will be held in two groups, on at Columbia University, leaded by Diane Bodart, the other at Yale University, leaded by Nicola Suthor. We will join forces during the semester for the close-looking sessions at the Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, and a three-day fieldtrip/ workshop at Casa Muraro in Venice.