This session proposes to question the place of the theory of hylemorphism in the early-modern theory of art. This Aristotelian concept considers every physical object as a compound of form and matter, form being both what organises matter and directs it towards its end. In living beings, matter is identified with the body and form with the soul. For artefacts, the form introduced into the material is identified with the likeness to the figure represented and/or the model in the mind of the craftsman/artist.

Taking advantage of the increased attention paid in recent years to the presence of Aristotelian philosophy in the theories of the arts in the Renaissance and Baroque age, it is this latter dimension that we wish to explore. While stressing that the terms "form" and "matter", omnipresent in the artistic literature of these periods, do not necessarily have a philosophical connotation, the aim here is to highlight the explicit and implicit references to the Peripatetic theory of hylemorphism and, even more so, to all its scholastic variations and derivations, which can affect other fields such as theology.

It will also consider the way in which the form-matter duo is coupled with a soul-body duo, as expressed in particular, but very prominently, in the symbolic literature of the early modern age. Thus, in the composite genres of the imprese and the emblem, the image is often designated as the "body" or "matter", while the "soul" or "form" is sometimes assimilated to the words that determine and fix the meaning, and sometimes to the meaning itself or to the author's intention.

From the point of view of art theory, it is necessary to reconsider the occultation of matter under the primacy of form, an occultation that contributes to the ennoblement of the arts. Given that we can speak of a certain indeterminacy — already present in Aristotle — of the concept of "form", which floats between three meanings (form as a resemblance to a being or an object; form in the mind of the artist; form as the totality of the contours of a painting or a sculpture), we will consider the effects of such indeterminacy on the conceptions of matter that emerge, in a certain way, in a hollow.

It will also be interesting to consider the way in which the assimilation of the subject of a work to its material will progressively impose itself, no doubt under the influence of poetics. In return, insofar as one of the Aristotelian examples illustrating the hylemorphic theory is that of the statue, it will also question the influence of artistic models in literary and philosophical thinking on matter, with many poets and philosophers turning to the example of the plastic arts to determine what matter and form would be.

Talks :

• Michael WATERS - Alberti, Hylomorphism, and Fifteenth-Century Architectural Practice
• Marie SCHIELE - Dire comment les choses inanimées se meuvent. Hylémorphisme et pensée de l’ornement chez Alberti.
• Thomas GOLSENNE - Préhistoire du bricolage. L'invention de la mosaïque selon Leon Battista Alberti
• Aline SMEESTERS - Hiérarchies de la forme et de la matière dans les jugements de qualité portés sur les objets d’art aux 15e, 16e et 17e siècles
• David ZAGOURY - Vers l’obscurité de la matière: l’informe dans l’art rustique (XVIème siècle)
• Mathilde MARÈS - Fonctions et usages de l’hylémorphique dans les traités d’art du cinquecento italien / Mise en scène hylémorphique du Paragone ?