Alfonso Maurizio Iacono
Università di Pisa
Abstract
Modernity has promoted precision, exactitude, and scientific method as regulating principles over social activities as well as natural elements. Besides, a homogeneous interpretation of time and space significantly shaped the execution of human products, cultural fields included. However, which are the relapses of precision and planning on free thinking and creativity? The activity of Leonardo da Vinci appears to be a privileged starting point to try to answer these open questions. Leonardo is here described as an independent creator driven by a marked desire for artistic elaboration without declared final goals. In this perspective, it seems possible to isolate several traces that weave together Da Vinci and other leading figures of XIX century, such as Cezanne, Baudelaire, Marx, and Balzac. In particular, this continuity could be traced back in the character of Frenhofer, the unfortunate protagonist of Balzac’s The Unknown Masterpiece.
Keywords
Artistic Creativity – Leonardo da Vinci – Balzac – Elaboration of Arts – Limits of rational thinking
DOI: 10.13131/2611-9757.suitefrancaise.n2.2
