natura - materia - artificio The reflexion on natural materials in the fine arts and art theory from the 15th to the early 18th century

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The project natura - materia - artificio will look at the ways in which, from the 15th to 18th century, natural materials were reflected on in the fine arts and art theory, with a particular focus on the imitation, fiction and capturing of stone in the medium of painting. The specific time frame is chosen so as to enable an analysis of the various concepts of grasping natural materials. The project deals with written records as well as with the discourse embodied in the objects. To complement a reconstruction of the (written) media discourse in the shape of an edition of sources (Project A), an analytical part (Project B) will inquire into artistic procedures, which were playing a role in historical patterns of explaining how nature itself forms stony material.Besides artistic practice and art theoretical treatises, it is primarily sources of natural history and natural philosophy, which will form the basis of this part of the project. Thereby the perspective of historical theory will be closely tied to an analysis of concrete works of art.