Hanneke Grootenboer
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226717951
- eISBN:
- 9780226718002
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226718002.003.0007
- Subject:
- Art, Art Theory and Criticism
Starting from the “moving image” of a tableau-mécanique or clock-painting, this concluding chapter raises the question to what extent painting invites us to true thinking. Starting with Plato’s claim ...
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Starting from the “moving image” of a tableau-mécanique or clock-painting, this concluding chapter raises the question to what extent painting invites us to true thinking. Starting with Plato’s claim that wonder is the only possible beginning of philosophy, it is shown how the visual arts, historically, were meant to trigger thought, in particular when seen in the context of cabinet collections, in Germany literally called rooms of wonder, or Wunderkammern. The wonder that artworks may evoke is compared to various concepts of wonder, from Plato, Kant, Hegel and Heidegger. The chapter concludes by stating that, as the book has demonstrated, pensive images, through their inconclusiveness and inexpressiveness, provoke wonder in us and, as such, set us off on a mental trajectory of true thinking that, ultimately, leads us to our philosophical home.Less
Starting from the “moving image” of a tableau-mécanique or clock-painting, this concluding chapter raises the question to what extent painting invites us to true thinking. Starting with Plato’s claim that wonder is the only possible beginning of philosophy, it is shown how the visual arts, historically, were meant to trigger thought, in particular when seen in the context of cabinet collections, in Germany literally called rooms of wonder, or Wunderkammern. The wonder that artworks may evoke is compared to various concepts of wonder, from Plato, Kant, Hegel and Heidegger. The chapter concludes by stating that, as the book has demonstrated, pensive images, through their inconclusiveness and inexpressiveness, provoke wonder in us and, as such, set us off on a mental trajectory of true thinking that, ultimately, leads us to our philosophical home.
