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Synagonism: Theory and Practice in Early Modern Art
This book explores for the first time the concept of synagonism (from “σύν”, “together” and “ἀγών”, "struggle”) for an analysis of the productive exchanges between early modern painting, sculpture, architecture, and other art forms in theory and practice. In doing so, it builds on current insights regarding the so-called paragone debate, seeing this, however, as only one, too narrow perspective on early modern artistic production. Synagonism, rather, implies a breaking up of the schematic connections between art forms and individual senses, drawing attention to the multimediality and intersensoriality of art, as well as the relationship between image and body.
Yannis Hadjinicolaou, Ph.D. (2023, University of Hamburg) is Akademischer Rat a.Z at the Institute of Art History, University of Bonn. He has published the monograph Thinking Bodies – Shaping Hands, Handeling in Art and Theory of the Late Rembrandtists (Brill, 2019) as well as five edited volumes and numerous articles on art and art theory of the early modern period. His latest book is The Art of Medieval Falconry (Reaktion Books, 2024).
Joris van Gastel, Ph.D. (2022, University of Zurich) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art History in Zurich. He has published widely on early modern art, with a particular focus on Roman baroque sculpture and the art of Southern Italy, and is co-editor of the collected works of Heinrich Wölfflin. His book on materiality and identity in baroque Naples is forthcoming.
Markus Rath, Ph.D. (2016, Humboldt University of Berlin) is Assistant Professor of Art and Knowledge in the Early Modern Period at the University of Trier. He was previously a research assistant at the Humboldt University, at the German Centre for Art History in Paris and at the University of Basel. His dissertation examined movable sculpture (Die Gliederpuppe. Kult – Kunst – Konzept, Berlin/Boston 2016). His current research focuses on abstraction and expressivity in the early modern period as well as metaphorology, materiality and mediality in pre-modern art and science.
Joris van Gastel, Ph.D. (2022, University of Zurich) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art History in Zurich. He has published widely on early modern art, with a particular focus on Roman baroque sculpture and the art of Southern Italy, and is co-editor of the collected works of Heinrich Wölfflin. His book on materiality and identity in baroque Naples is forthcoming.
Markus Rath, Ph.D. (2016, Humboldt University of Berlin) is Assistant Professor of Art and Knowledge in the Early Modern Period at the University of Trier. He was previously a research assistant at the Humboldt University, at the German Centre for Art History in Paris and at the University of Basel. His dissertation examined movable sculpture (Die Gliederpuppe. Kult – Kunst – Konzept, Berlin/Boston 2016). His current research focuses on abstraction and expressivity in the early modern period as well as metaphorology, materiality and mediality in pre-modern art and science.
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Synagonism: An Introduction
Yannis Hadjinicolaou, Joris van Gastel, and Markus Rath
1 El Greco’s Synagonism
Yannis Hadjinicolaou
2 Touch and Trace: Clay in the Hands of the Baroque Sculptor
Joris van Gastel
3 Raphael’s Mond Crucifixion and the Lesson of Santa Maria Novella
Franz Engel
4 Normatively Conditioned Synagonism: Competition and Collaboration, Specialization and Quality Enhancement in the Context of Guild Monopolies on Painting
Danica Brenner
5 A Soul for a Bridge: On the History of Architectural Collaborations with the Devil
Jasmin Mersmann
6 The Burden of Success in Quattrocento Sculpture: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Mino da Fiesole, Donatello
Fabian Jonietz
7 Sound Spaces: Visualizations of Religious Music in Caravaggio
Isabella Augart
8 Beyond the Paragone: Andrea del Sarto’s Color-Reduced Fresco Cycle in the Chiostro Dello Scalzo in Florence Considered as a Case Study of Synagonism
Helen Boeßenecker
9 Medial Diffference and Medial Synthesis in the Winged Altarpiece: The Oscillating Play of Artforms and the Range of Human Vision
Sandra Hindriks
10 Hands at Work: The Stone Cutter and the Artist
Maurice Saß
11 Renaissance Architectural Culture and Geological Inquiry
Elizabeth Petcu
12 Synagonism in Stone
Markus Rath
Index
Notes on Contributors
Synagonism: An Introduction
Yannis Hadjinicolaou, Joris van Gastel, and Markus Rath
PART 1: Theory and Practice
1 El Greco’s Synagonism
Yannis Hadjinicolaou
2 Touch and Trace: Clay in the Hands of the Baroque Sculptor
Joris van Gastel
3 Raphael’s Mond Crucifixion and the Lesson of Santa Maria Novella
Franz Engel
PART 2: Collaborations
4 Normatively Conditioned Synagonism: Competition and Collaboration, Specialization and Quality Enhancement in the Context of Guild Monopolies on Painting
Danica Brenner
5 A Soul for a Bridge: On the History of Architectural Collaborations with the Devil
Jasmin Mersmann
6 The Burden of Success in Quattrocento Sculpture: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Mino da Fiesole, Donatello
Fabian Jonietz
PART 3: Intermedialities
7 Sound Spaces: Visualizations of Religious Music in Caravaggio
Isabella Augart
8 Beyond the Paragone: Andrea del Sarto’s Color-Reduced Fresco Cycle in the Chiostro Dello Scalzo in Florence Considered as a Case Study of Synagonism
Helen Boeßenecker
9 Medial Diffference and Medial Synthesis in the Winged Altarpiece: The Oscillating Play of Artforms and the Range of Human Vision
Sandra Hindriks
PART 4: Nature and Art
10 Hands at Work: The Stone Cutter and the Artist
Maurice Saß
11 Renaissance Architectural Culture and Geological Inquiry
Elizabeth Petcu
12 Synagonism in Stone
Markus Rath
Index
Postgraduate students and scholars in the fields of art and cultural history, visual culture, media studies, image and text studies, and early modern studies.