Francesco Scannelli’s Microcosm of Painting: Art and Medicine in Early Modern Criticism
Document Type
Presentation
Abstract
Art theory and criticism were established with the self-conscious investigation of art and artists of the Florentine Renaissance. Initially, practicing artists, such as Giorgio Vasari, Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, and Giovanni Battista Armenini dominated this dialogue, writing as experts in the field who understood the educational and theoretical background necessary to create and understand great art. Of the prescriptions for laudable art was a thorough understanding of the sciences, particularly anatomy. Interestingly, though not entirely surprisingly, these artist-biographers and critics would be replaced in the following century with a new breed of authority: the physician-connoisseur. Put in charge of large collections, physicians, such as Francesco Scannellli and Giulio Mancini were seen as ideal given their medical training, which included careful discernment to diagnose maladies. The most comprehensive application of said training can be seen in Scannelli’s Il Microcosmo 1657 where he would adopt a conceit to the allegorical corpus of painting as a diagnostic map, casting great artists of each regional tradition as their appropriate equivalent as organs, tissue, muscles, nerves, and skin.
Publication Date
4-23-2019
Recommended Citation
Hutson, James, "Francesco Scannelli’s Microcosm of Painting: Art and Medicine in Early Modern Criticism" (2019). Faculty Symposium. 32.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/faculty_symposium/32