Matters of Weight: Force, Gravity, and Aesthetics in the Early Modern Period (Humboldt-Schriften Zur Kunst- Und Bildgeschichte) - Tapa dura

To speak of weight is to acknowledge artistic agency and ambition, the deliberate calibration of materials and support that involves risk, at times to the point of collapse. Weight ultimately deals with the force of works of art, their heaviness and thus their presence, a physical and metaphorical characteristic that informs our aesthetic comprehension of things in the world. The book examines the theory and exploitation of weight as an aesthetic category in works of art, 1350–1700. Drawing from the interdisciplinary expertise of specialists in the history of mechanics, painting, prints, sculpture, and architecture, this volumes probes the deployment of weight as a compelling denominator in objects of study—be they scientific instruments, canvas paintings, marble sculptures, or buildings.

David Young Kim is an assistant professor in the department of the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Traveling Artist in the Italian Renaissance as well as articles on cross-cultural exchange, geography, and art literature. He lives in Philadelphia.