Hunter, Matthew C. (Author)
University of Chicago
Snyder, Joel
Edition Details: Advisor: Snyder, Joel
Physical Details: 708 pp.
Language: English
This dissertation proposes a synthetic interpretation of the visual work of English polymath Robert Hooke (1635-1703). From the evidence of representational practice in the Royal Society of London (the scientific institution for which Hooke worked), I offer a new model for understanding the relations of art and science in early modern England. To modern interpreters, the marvelous, optically-aided pictures in Hooke's Micrographia (1665) have suggested a crucial union. Milestones in scientific visualization, Hooke's images have equally appeared paradigmatic of an important empirical tradition in Northern European painting. Yet, nothing else in Hooke's work comes close to Micrographia's pictorial form and focus. Hooke's writings are peppered with reservations about pictures, while his career manifests a sequence of turns away from depiction. Most critically, pictures cut only a modest profile in the bewildering field of representations produced and exchanged in London's influential scientific communities. To account for these phenomena, this dissertation proposes that looking beyond pictorial relations best discloses not only what is most crucial in the representational activities of early science, but how evidence of experimental philosophy most compellingly illuminates contemporaneous artistic practice. I pursue this argument in two opposing ways. The dissertation's first three chapters press Hooke's relations to pictorial tradition, elucidating: (1) his artistic education with Charles II's Principal Painter, Peter Lely; (2) the enmeshments of Hooke's draftsmanship with his experimental work; and (3) how Hooke's enterprise responds to key problems of early modern pictorial art, vision and visuality. By contrast, the last two chapters offer an expanded consideration of Hooke's work. Following the trajectory of his career, I show how collecting (broadly conceived) came to figure at the core of his philosophical enterprise. Drawing from his theoretical writings and emergent architectural practice, I argue that Hooke's concept of "architectonica" best illuminates the collaborative, creative activity and diverse representational forms privileged in the early Royal Society. In conclusion, I suggest how Hooke's concept of "architectonica" provides new ways for understanding art in Baroque England--for interpreting the work of Royal Society Fellows like Hooke, Christopher Wren, and James Thornhill--while enabling broader reconsideration of early scientific representation and visualization.
...MoreDescription Focuses on representation and visualization in Hooke's work, especially the Micrographia. Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 68/07 (2008). Pub. no. AAT 3273022.
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