The madness of vision : on baroque aesthetics

195 Pages·2013·1.309 MB·English, French

by  Baker, Dorothy Zayatz, Buci-Glucksmann, Christine

CHRISTINE
BBUCCI--GLLUCCKSSMAANNN
THE MADNESS
of VISIoN
oN BARoQUE AESTHETICS
TRANSLATED BY DOROTHY Z. BAKER
SERiES iN cONTiNENTAL THOugHT
The Madness
of Vision
SerieS in Continental thought
editorial Board
Ted Toadvine, Chairman, University of Oregon
Elizabeth A. Behnke, Study Project in Phenomenology of the Body
David Carr, Emory University
James Dodd, New School University
Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University
José Huertas-Jourda, Wilfrid Laurier University†
Joseph J. Kockelmans, Pennsylvania State University
William R. McKenna, Miami University
Algis Mickunas, Ohio University
J. N. Mohanty, Temple University
Dermot Moran, University College Dublin
Thomas Nenon, University of Memphis
Rosemary Rizo-Patron de Lerner, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima
Thomas M. Seebohm, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz
Gail Soffer, Rome, Italy
Elizabeth Ströker, Universität Köln†
Nicolas de Warren, Wellesley College
Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University
international advisory Board
Suzanne Bachelard, Université de Paris†
Rudolf Boehm, Rijksuniversiteit Gent
Albert Borgmann, University of Montana
Amedeo Giorgi, Saybrook Institute
Richard Grathoff, Universität Bielefeld
Samuel Ijsseling, Husserl-Archief te Leuven
Alphonso Lingis, Pennsylvania State University
Werner Marx, Albert-Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg†
David Rasmussen, Boston College
John Sallis, Boston College
John Scanlon, Duquesne University
Hugh J. Silverman, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Carlo Sini, Università di Milano
Jacques Taminiaux, Louvain-la-Neuve
D. Lawrence Wieder†
Dallas Willard, University of Southern California
The Madness
Of Vision
..................................
On Baroque Aesthetics
christine buci-glucksmann
translated by dorothy z. baker
ohio university Press / athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Buci-Glucksmann, Christine, author.
[Folie du voir. English]
The madness of vision : on baroque aesthetics / Christine Buci-Glucksmann ; translated
by Dorothy Z. Baker.
pages cm. — (Series in continental thought ; no. 44)

Summary: “Christine Buci-Glucksmann’s The Madness of Vision is one of the most influential
studies in phenomenological aesthetics of the baroque. Integrating the work of Merleau-
Ponty with Lacanian psychoanalysis, Renaissance studies in optics, and twentieth-century
mathematics, the author asserts the materiality of the body and world in her aesthetic theory.
All vision is embodied vision, with the body and the emotions continually at play on the visual
field. Thus vision, once considered a clear, uniform, and totalizing way of understanding the
material world, actually dazzles and distorts the perception of reality. In each of the nine
essays that form The Madness of Vision Buci-Glucksmann develops her theoretical argument
via a study of a major painting, sculpture, or influential visual image—Arabic script, Bettini’s
“The Eye of Cardinal Colonna,” Bernini’s Saint Teresa and his 1661 fireworks display to
celebrate the birth of the French dauphin, Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes, the
Paris arcades, and Arnulf Rainer’s self-portrait, among others—and deftly crosses historical,
national, and artistic boundaries to address Gracin’s El Criticn; Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo;
the poetry of Hafiz, John Donne, and Baudelaire; as well as baroque architecture and Anselm
Kiefer’s Holocaust paintings. In doing so, Buci-Glucksmann makes the case for the pervasive
influence of the baroque throughout history and the continuing importance of the baroque in
contemporary arts”— Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8214-2019-5 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4437-5 (electronic)
1. Aesthetics, Modern—17th century. I. Baker, Dorothy Zayatz, translator. II. Title.
BH172.B8313 2013
709.03'201—dc23 2012032541
For Michel de Certeau,
a friend of all “madnesses” of thought,
without whom this book would be otherwise.

And if seeing was fire, I required the plenitude of fire, and if see-
ing would infect with me madness, I madly wanted that madness.
—Maurice Blanchot

C O n T e n T s
List of Illustrations xi
Translator’s Preface xiii
Author’s Preface xv
Prelude: A “Je ne Sais Quoi . . .” xvii
1. The Stage of Vision 1
2. The Work of the Gaze 22
3. Seeingness; or, The Eye of the Phantasm 36
4. The Rhetorical Telescope I: Il Mirabile; il Furore 56
5. The Rhetorical Telescope II: Figures of Nothingness 79
6. Palimpsests of the Ungazeable 94
Finale: The Burning of Vision 114
Notes 123
Bibliography 145
Index 155