Leviathan: Body Politic as Visual Strategy in the Work of Thomas Hobbes Format: Hardcover

Bredekamp, Horst ; Clegg, Elizabeth

ISBN 10: 3110681366 / ISBN 13: 9783110681369

Published by De Gruyter, 2020

About this Item

Brand New.

Seller Inventory # 9783110681369

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Leviathan: Body Politic as Visual Strategy in the Work of Thomas Hobbes Format: Hardcover
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3110681366
• ISBN 13: 9783110681369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Horst Bredekamp’s subject is the astute deployment and perennial resonance of the startling image of the body politic that dominates the frontispiece to Leviathan: a treatise on the psychology of the individual and the dynamic of the multitude, published in 1651 by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Affirming the centrality of such a figural device for this pioneering theorist of the state, Bredekamp goes on to address the art-historical dimension of the mesmerising etched title-page. In his central chapters he explores the extraordinary range of sources – from socio-cultural tradition to scientific advances – on which the author and his artist-collaborator may have drawn. In conclusion, he reveals Hobbes to be no less passionate than shrewd in his belief that the constraints and amenities of a tolerable life in common attest to the potency of the visual. As appendices, two essays and catalogues explore the portraits made of Hobbes as well as illustrations that appeared in his other works, thus systematically completing the exploration of the images connected with this exceptional philosopher.

About the Authors

Horst Bredekamp, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin

Horst Bredekamp, Humboldt University, Berlin