Leviathan : : Body politic as visual strategy in the work of Thomas Hobbes / / Horst Bredekamp.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Art and Architecture eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Bredekamp, Horst,
• MitwirkendeR: Clegg, Elizabeth,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (293 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Table of Contents --; Preface --; 1. Hobbes, his Leviathan, its frontispiece --; 2. The authorship of the Leviathan frontispiece --; 3. The “Artificiall Man” --; 4. Qualities and appearances --; 5. “Mastering” time --; 6. Endurance: the “Common-Wealth” as bulwark, constraint, aspiration --; Appendix I: Excerpts from Leviathan --; Appendix II: Images and Portraits --; Appendix III
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9783110681413; 9783110738230; 9783110696288; 9783110696271; 9783110659061; 9783110704716; 9783110704518; 9783110704822; 9783110704648
• DOI: 10.1515/9783110681413
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Horst Bredekamp.

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. Von Natur aus ist der Mensch so frei wie wölfisch. Um sich selbst zu bändigen, muss er folglich einen künstlichen Riesen schaffen: den Staat, der als übergeordnete Instanz den permanenten Bürgerkrieg zu unterdrücken und Frieden zu schaffen vermag. Diese Essenz von Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" ist bis heute ebenso vehement verworfen wie bekräftigt worden. Zu den Mitteln, mit denen der Leviathan die Menschen vom Unfrieden abhält, gehören Bilder, und aus diesem Grund steht dem Leviathan ein Frontispiz voran. Das Buch erschließt mit Abraham Bosse den Künstler des Frontispizes, stellt sämtliche Varianten dieses Urbildes des modernen Staates zusammen und versucht, die Vorgeschichte seiner politischen Ikonographie zu klären.