Patterns and Models of Style

 

14-11-2022 14:00 - 16:00 GMT+1 || Join us on Zoom

Digital Diagrammatic Models: Formalizing Aesthetic and Scientific Qualities of Leonardo’s Oeuvre

Author:

Giuditta Cirnigliaro — Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

Abstract

By blending a philological and art historical object-based approach with data science and digital visual studies technology, this paper examines recurrent patterns in Leonardo da Vinci’s word and image expressions in order to identify and formalize specific stylistic qualities of his practice as draftsman and writer. Taking my cue from recent scholarship in history of art and visual culture, such as W.J.T. Mitchell (1987), Barkan (2011), and Ruffini (2011), I investigate Leonardo’s compositional methods in his writings and drawings – particularly, his fables and emblems – and reveal their relationship with scientific studies. I define the intimate links of verbal and visual inscriptions in Leonardo’s literary-artistic and technical projects, with the aim to locate and classify the textual and visual vocabulary at the basis of his aesthetic and scientific inquiry. As preliminary research, I designed a diagrammatic model to track the evolution of forms through different media and underline recurrent patterns in Leonardo’s word and image expressions, which was the basis for the creation of the Lileo Beta web publishing Omeka site. After digitizing the identified diagrams, I gathered subjects that feature both in Leonardo’s codices and in his textual and visual sources, and grouped them according to typology, format, and field of investigation. By digitally enabling the juxtaposition and layering of drafts belonging to similar projects in Leonardo’s works and sources, I uncover the artist and writer’s stylistic qualities encompassing different modes of representation and fields of investigation. Finally, the creation of a digital catalogue of recurrent textual and visual forms in Leonardo’s output would allow for experimentation with current digital methods for the analysis and comparison of texts and images, and for the automatic identification of patterns. This would apply not only to the wide corpus of Da Vinci’s manuscripts, but also to the work of contemporary artist-technicians, thus testifying the stylistic circulation of the formal qualities of his oeuvre. The research outcome will show the work of Leonardo, his sources (Aesop, Pliny, etc.) and the work of his contemporaries (Giuliano da Sangallo, Francesco di Giorgio), which feature related textual and visual properties in the form of digital exhibits. By combining traditional artistic tools with new approaches in the digital humanities, this paper explores Leonardo’s interdisciplinary and transcultural modes of investigation, and it provides original insights for early modern research on intertextual languages, which foster multiple uses of literary and pictorial data across forms, media, and fields of study.

Bio

Giuditta Cirnigliaro received her Ph.D. in Italian Studies with a concentration in Art History from Rutgers University in May 2018. She holds a Laurea degree in Lettere from the University of Milan, and a BA and MA in Fine Arts from the Brera Academy and the Glasgow School of Arts. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Roma Tre University, collaborating with academic institutions and museums on projects focusing on recurrent patterns in Leonardo’s work, word and image narratives, and material and digital cultures.

 

 

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