Leviathan: Body politic as visual strategy in the work of Thomas Hobbes

Horst Bredekamp

Published by De Gruyter 2020

Leviathan

Body politic as visual strategy in the work of Thomas Hobbes

Horst Bredekamp
Translated by: Elizabeth Clegg

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110681413

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Horst Bredekamp, Humboldt University, Berlin

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
1. Hobbes, his Leviathan, its frontispiece Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The authorship of the Leviathan frontispiece Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
3. The “Artificiall Man” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
4. Qualities and appearances Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
5. “Mastering” time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
6. Endurance: the “Common-Wealth” as bulwark, constraint, aspiration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Appendix I: Excerpts from Leviathan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Appendix II: Images and Portraits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
Appendix III Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Art historians, historians, philosophers, cultural historians
Pages
- Main content: 293
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 51
Keywords: Thomas Hobbes; visual culture; theory of state.

eBook

Published: August 24, 2020
ISBN: 9783110681413

Hardcover

Published: August 24, 2020
ISBN: 9783110681369