On Ontological
Difference(s)
H: being
/ beings
L: nature /
art
H: time:
ecstatic, finite transcendence
L: time:
linear, in-finite transcendence
H: Dasein:
project (Entwurf)
L: Ocular:
perspective
H: "Life is
hazig" ("Das
Leben ist diesig")
L: chiaroscuro, sfumato
H: World-openness
L: Nature
H:
transcendental
imagination: analogon to interpretation
L: pictorial
imagination: analogon to nature
H:
hermeneutic as (implicit) - apophantic as (explicit)
L: nella
mente (implicit) - painting (explicit)
Sheehan on
hermeneia and apophansis
nature's
space - time
painter's
space - time
Source: Leonardo filosofo.
On Imagination
L
difference between nature and imitation
- nature
can never be fully explained by design and/or language
- infinite /
finite difference (mathematical approximation)
-
paragone
of arts:
time as
presence in painting but only approximately
uniqueness
of painting
colours
What was
the epochal philosophical discovery of L? Humans are natural beings but
they transcend
nature through imagination.
Source: Paragone
delle arti
On Time
and Infinity
The
painter
shows how to transcend nature by showing / painting:
infinity
in
finity
time in
timelessnes
Measure
of
(any) human comportment?
re-specting
nature
artificial
things as different from natural things
il nulla
/
punto
Nothingness / now (nichts /
jetzt-sein)
There
is a
being, the painter, who yields the 'there' ("Da") for the
manifestation of everything what is in its own being / movement / time
Entering
into a conversation with L on what remains un-thought namely the
ontological
difference:
L the
being
of nature
H the being
of beings
Being and
nothingness in L:
- the point:
time
- on
time-space infinity.
Source: Trattato
della Pittura.
What is a point?
- mathematical
definition
- natural
definition
Time and
points: linear time.
Infinite points:
sfumato.
Each
point
is a potential perspective.
Infinite
perspectives but: finite
observer / situation.
Grasping
the (in-)finite as the task of the painter.
Source: Trattato
della Pittura.
What is
Painting?
The
painter
and the poet: aisthesis
and logos.
The
primacy
of aisthesis as the via regia for opening a presence of the world.
The
precondition(s) guiding the constitution of painting.
The
painter
in relation to nature (epistemic relation).
In-discrete
natural beings.
Source: Trattato
della Pittura.
Leonardo on Nature
and Time
L's
pre-understanding of being:
- the
openness of nature
- the (un-)veiledness of nature
Nature as
form-in-time:
- trans-formation (Ovid: Metamorphosis)
- living: life as movement.
Time
above nature.
Source: On time and
transformation
The
Vitruvian Man
Priority
of
nature as the leading being
but: Vitruvian
man
prima
facie: homocentric (androcentric) (Kantian)
but:
pre-modern:
nature
-> man
Time:
- nature
- man: vita
(Bios) finitude
- eath:
trans-formation
What
underlies all trans-formations? time
Being as
form (Plato / Aristoteles)
but
Form as
(being-)in-time
Is time
forma formarum?
Kantian
schematism
L
- meta-morphosis
- form(s) in
time
- not a priori
in the subject
The L
observer is not the condition of possibility of trans-formations
microcosmos
<―> macrocosmos
(hermeneutic
circle)
The
Vitruvian circles is the 'Da'
On decentering human-being: the Vitruvian difference
Sources:
Vitruvian
man
Introduction
On
Being Human
On Points, Forms,
and Time
ontolog.
trattato: Trattato
della Pittura
ontic trattati:
ucelli
aqua
etc.
Painting:
- an ontic/ontological
activity
- an act of
transcendence: the givenness of beings into what makes them and the
painter
possible.
Is L
aware
of this ontological difference?
He turns
into his mind in order to find the form / idea of what appears.
He paints
this form (pre-formation) in his mind.
but the
form in his mind is not the form of his mind.
Where do
forms come from into his mind?
He must
take a distance:
- from
others
- from
beings
This
distance-taking is not itself a form it is
transcendence!
forms /
in-form
distance-taking: time
nature --
∞
-- time
painter (as mediator)
Time and
number: ground difference
L
differences:
finity -
infinity
line -
point
being(s) -
nothingness (nulla)
form -
movement
Analogy:
inventor: machines / artificiality (mathematics)
Counting
time (points)
- let
counting be (time)
- time as a
point
- points
in/as time/lessness
- The
paradox
of time as paradox of point
What/how
is to
be a point?
is the
being of points the basis of all beings? of being itself?
Being =
point - nothingness
The point
of no-being
The being
of no-point
where / how
do points come into being? In the (human) mind
pre-understanding
of being (of a point)?
is god a
point?
is nature a
point?
is a point
the appearence of god?
are we
points?
point-less
questions! Sophistic!
Attempts
to
appropriate L's theory of painting by interpreting it as a theory of
understanding and re-presenting nature
- in the mind
of the painter
- in his
painting
Source:
Trattato
della Pittura
The
discovery of (pre-) Renaissance perspective:
Source: Hans
Belting
- Copernican
revolution as perspectivism.
Source: Copernican
revolution by L
- L's
way
of
retrieving (Wieder-holung) the essence of Renaissance perspectivism
into a
theory of painting / Dar-stellens of what is in its being.
- Through
the
mind of the painter (ontological perspectivism) vs. byzantinism:
god's
mind
= human (painter) mind.
- Painter
(poet: Plato: Ion (text
& transl) as
god's mediator (Ficino?) vs. L: the
painter is not god's mediator but nature's: The birth
of philosophy in contraposition to divine messengers/messages.
Source: On the Genealogy
of
Information
A
retrieval
of its own; more original possibility which is
the movement of human transcendence manifesting
time as its driving force towards transformation.
The
historical/geschichtlich inquiry into the meaning of being starts with Graf
Yorck.
The
turning
around of the question of being:
Being and
Time --> Time and Being
Kant /
time : Schemata
H---> L
/ nature: number - perspective: forms as
mediators
time -
transcendence - schemata (forms)
L
prioritizing natural beings over
meta-physics:
- invisible
- divine
- eternal
- beyond
perspective
but without a
view from nowhere (byzantinism): hieratic, non-situational, psyche-less
(pathemata tes psyches):
- to
transpose the earthly epiphany
- to see
the world form the perspective of nature as it appears to a human
observer
(phenomenon).
L's foundation of painting:
-
forgotten-ness
of nature (prioritizing the meta-physical / eternal).
- redirecting
arts prioritizing painting as what makes possible the manifestation of
perspective i.e. of time.
A
Leonardian analogue of 'lying the foundation': the movement
of temporal transcendence as what L.
dis-covers when imitating nature.
L mimesis
of
nature a mimesis of time in painting but time as
presence in paiting vs. music.
The
apparent steady state of time in painting: the disappearence of
byzantinism.
Source: Understanding
Leonardo
Grounding
Leonardian schematism
forms in
the soul (in transcendental imagination)
Un-covering
the problem of the ontological difference in L:
- analysis of
beings through disegno / paiting: infintiy
- What is the
common source underlying all phenomena? vs. metaphysics (God)
Showing
and
concealing itself:
- time as the
being of beings
- the
mathematical follows of nows / points
- natural:
past, present, future
Removing
the roadblocks that obscured L's access to the question of being:
religion /
metaphysics
nature /
phenomena
artificial
being
time:
- eternity
- infinity
(finis / counting / points)
Ontological
difference: the
movement of transcendence itself (being) vs. all other movements of
trans-formation (beings) that L.
dis-covers in the act of painting, i.e. of transposing the forms in the
mind to
the forms in the painting.
Painting as analogy to the soul
receiving the forms of things.
Creative 'imagination' (Ein-bildung)
in the soul of the painter::
- needs time: forms arise through thinking
- thinking of the painter as a analogon to the ideas in God.
Sources
- Introduction
- On
Religion
Who is
the
painter as painter?
L. adopts
the
metaphysical position of the painter as
- I imagine
therefore I am (a painter)
- L. and
Descartes: cogito, litterae, logos
- L. and
Kant/H: forming , sinnlich, aesthetics has the priority over abstract
thinking
- back to
the
senses: objectifying it in painting
vs. noesis ton adiaireton:
knowledge of the indivisibles, in-formatio.
Source: Plato: Ion
(text
& transl)
Pacioli: mathematische Methode
Hist. Wörterbuch der Philos. II,
652
Descartes: Idea entis, Idee der Unendlichkeit
Natur: nicht substantiell, sondern mechanisch als Prozess
der Erzeugung von formen in exakten formulae als Bedingung der
Möglichkeit des
endlichen cogito.
Erforschung empirischer Ursachen: Substanzen, Kräfte,
Geschehnisse vs. Abstraktion, Dialektik
Hist.Wörterbuch der Philosophie,
VII, 516
Phantasia:
techne
eidola poietike (Bilderzeugung)
eikastike (Abbilderzeugung)
phantatsike (Scheinerzeugung)
Aristoteles, Peri Psyches, 432a
hand: cheir
thinking: nous
perception: aisthesis
Pythagoras,
Vitruv, Plinius
L:
- Pacioli
subverting:
metaphysics
- nature
abstraction
- esperienza
language -
mathematics
(circle)
L's
deconstruction gen. subj/obj
- inverts
the arts (paragone)
-
mathematics - esperienza: grounding in time
forms in
the mind (not: out there)
projects
forms
perceives
forms
The self
of
the painter: each one unique
uniqueness
of paintings vs. reproduction (books)
vs. Aura (W. Benjamin)
L
- painting time
- painting space
L on care: nature:
air, water, earth, fire
Source: On
Nature and Machines
After Leonardo
Retrieving
L.: a change of perspective
L. as he
saw himself:
- the hierarchy of arts
- time as
criterium:
but:
mimesis of natural time trans-formation
time
---> nature ---> arts
What
remains un-thought?
- Copernican
revolution
- Prioritizing
of time through human finitude
- schematic
portrayal of the temporal horizon: relativity knower/known
Looking
back to L.
- perspectivism
- time:
human finitude
- schematic
portrayal: (arts / nature)
- forms:
construction of objects
- painter/painting
What is
transcendence?
-
Kantian: S - O
- H:
ontological difference
- L:
esperienza, nature (but nature -> mind ) (not: S/O)
- Kant: a
priori knowledge of possibility of objects (not: objects)
no a priori in L.
esperienza
but:
constitution of objects in the mind of the painter according to
mathem./causality?
L is the
thinker of the a posteriori but:
- Frame of
reference:
- excepting:
Mathematics, causality
- Reason
- continuum
of nature
- power of
imagination
What
remains unsaid in L's transcendental philosophy?
Concrete:
singularity of its manifestations (painting)
L.
pre-post-modern
- time
- collapse of
Logic
- what
being/time is, is not anything universal, abstract but
occurs in
concert with the singularity of what
occurs
- therefore:
painter of singularity.
L.
Primacy
of the singular
- uniqueness
of painting
- responds to
the singularity of nature in its infinite manifestations
- singularity
- infinite
imagination
(imago -
forma)
- as a
place-holder for disclosedness
- on the
Ab-grund of the ontological difference
L: what
appears (finitude) --- infinity
- a-letheia:
- apophantic
as (painting)
- hermeneutic
as (painter, imaginatio)
- interpretation:
schematizing the
ontological task of the painter: original act of disclosedness
L:
practice
of painting
- his
interpretation in terms of the horizon of Renaissance: nature,
mathematics,
experience comes to a
limit where imagination
is the abyss out of which the painter /
painting relation arises as unique.
- The painter
dis-closes a possible 'as' a
hermeneutes bringing a message: thinking
as
painting.
L: The
matter of painting: the disclosure of being as time. Being -
time is the un-ground of painting.
tension:
- painting / paintings
- time/finitude / 'timelessness', infinite
- form /
colour / points
- matter /
situation / 'object'
- beings /
paintings
- painting
(time) transcends infinite in finite time
Source: Leonardo filosofo
"La
vita
bene spesa lunga è"
A
painter's
life as bene spesa
- as
relation
finitude - infinite
- relation: time:
in-form - imagination
- painting
becomes question-worthy and withdraws
from explicit consideration
Only
paintings remain for Western aesthetics or the
artist as genie (19th/20th century) that
disappears in the digital age: mathematics of in-formation.
The
painting difference withdraws as
paintings and painting become
superseded by: media, photo, digitality
Nothingness -
nihil
L. calls
back the difference hidden in his paintings.