Accident and Fortuna in seventeenth-century Italian art and theory

Abstract

This dissertation recovers the significance of chance and Fortuna in artistic practice and theory in seventeenth-century Italy. Art-historical scholarship has largely relegated interest in chance to the twentieth century, focusing on artists such as Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and the Surrealists. However, Seicento artists also self-consciously invited accident and uncertainty into their work, pushing the limits of their skill and ingenuity. Gianlorenzo Bernini used the appearance of an ugly crack across the forehead of a marble portrait bust to proclaim his virtuosity. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione developed a new printing process—the monotype—that welcomed the autonomous movement of printing ink. Guercino made drawings that incorporated random ink splatter. By examining a variety of artistic techniques, processes, and materials, this study establishes chance as a crucial element of early modern artmaking. ☐ Additionally, this dissertation offers new insights into art-historical understandings of early modern creativity and genius. Working with chance was an opportunity for an artist to conspicuously demonstrate their ability to overcome obstacles with apparent ease and grace. Chance-based artistic practices also illuminate key early modern art-theoretical tenets: the competition between artist and nature; the mind and the hand as sources of creativity; and the fascination with transformation and metamorphosis. Moreover, Seicento artists responded to and participated in ongoing critiques of Machiavelli’s understanding of Fortuna as fickle and fleeting, theatrical trends that explored the relative powers of divine providence and random chance, and philosophical discourse on the unpredictable vitality of matter. By taking an interdisciplinary approach that engages with literary topoi, political theory, physics, theater, and natural philosophy, this dissertation situates seventeenth-century Italian artists within a culture preoccupied with uncertainty.