Baroquian Folds: Leibniz on Folded Fabrics and the Disruption of Geometry

Michael Friedman ()
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Michael Friedman: Humboldt University, Excellence Cluster Matters of Activity

Chapter 94 in Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences, 2021, pp 2487-2514 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The fold in Leibniz’s philosophy – considered as an image of thought – has received considerable attention during recent decades, mainly because of the work of Gilles Deleuze. For Leibniz the fold often stands for continuous transformation and change, but it is also often mentioned together with references to folded fabrics. But did the folds of fabric prompt new conceptions of geometry in Leibniz’s thought? How does Leibniz’s account on the fall of folds stand in relation to how folded fabrics were drawn in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Baroque paintings? This chapter will inspect these questions in detail by examining Baroquian painting and specifically what may be termed the Baroquian fold which may be considered as almost un-mathematizable, on the one hand, and Leibniz’ thought on folding, on the other hand. I aim to show that just as the Leibnizian fold resists being reduced to constant, well-defined units, so does the Baroquian fold operate, as it prompts a disruption of geometrization of space.

Keywords: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; Mathematization of folding; Drapery in baroque painting; El Greco; Johann Paul Schor; Samuel van Hoogstraten (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57072-3_93

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