Dealing with forces is part of the basic inventory of artistic processes. In giving shape and movement to material, such forces are manifested in a specific form; as push and pull, for example, as heaviness and lightness, but also as attachment and dissolution. The articles in the book examine notions of formative and motive forces using examples from art, music, dance, theater, photography and literature. The questions posed not only cover how historical notions of force (such as energeia and vis from ancient rhetoric) are adopted, taken further, and correlated with mechanically, metaphysically and organologically based concepts of force, but also how, in the examination of form and movement, the inherent concepts of force are manifested or presented in a new light.

The literary, artistic, and scientific culture of early modern Naples is closely linked to the natural topography of the city, stretching from Iacopo Sannazaro’s poetic evocation of the Campania landscape to Giambattista Vico’s approach in which he anchors human civilization to the existential confrontation with natural forces. With the open sea, the rocky coastline, and the menacing presence of Vesuvius, the image of Naples, more than any other city in early modern times, is associated in the collective imagination with the forces of nature. Even the populace was interpreted as a force of nature. In this volume, art, literature, and science historians investigate the convergence of culture and nature in a unique geographic context.

Ecologies of Expression responds to recent reconsiderations of the relationships between art and nature, animacy and agency. With multidisciplinary approaches ranging from art and film history to philosophy and the history of science, the texts in this volume reimagine expression beyond the anthropocentric categories of an inherited naturalistic world-picture. The historical and theoretical manifestations of the expressive provide new insights into the manifold interconnections and mutual integrations of biological, aesthetic and psychological knowledge.

Angst, Sorge, Empoerung, Hass, Verachtung, aber auch Vertrauen, Hoffnung, Mitleid, Empathie oder Sympathie gelten als Movens sowohl von Protestbewegungen als auch als Faktor in Meinungsbildungsprozessen, sie scheinen den Zusammenhalt politischer Gebilde zu garantieren, sie sind verantwortlich fur massenpsychologische Phanomene wie Umsturz und Revolution oder fur das Kippen dieser Bewegungen in Terror und Schrecken. Zu aktuellen Debatten um die Legitimitat politischer Emotionen tragt der vorliegende Band durch den Blick in die Kunst- und Literaturgeschichte bei: Von welchen Ikonographien zehren aktuelle Emotionspolitiken, welchen langst kodierten Dramaturgien folgen soziale Bewegungen, welche bekannten Narrative der Mobilisierung oder Eindammung politischer Emotionen werden aufgegriffen?

"Liveliness" is the dominant topos in the art and discourse on art of the early modern era. It is characterized by a paradox, since the works only seem to live. But what is also reflected in the fascination with almost living works at the same time is the impossibility of drawing rigid lines of demarcation between the living and the dead. Here, art explores what also occupied natural philosophy at the time in an experimental way. The book examines the transitions between living and dead in case studies, for instance, based on early tombs, anatomical renderings, and sculptural monochromy as well as on the history of coloring, Vasari's teleology, Michelangelo's non-finito, and Titian's portraits. What come into play are eroticism, monetary theory, the luster of eyes, and still-lifes, and also visual poetry, princely triumphal processions, and light and sculpture in the Baroque.

Die asthetische Bedeutung der "Kraft" mit ihren semantischen Nachbarn "Intensitat" und "Energie" wird seit einigen Jahren verstarkt in der Literaturwissenschaft untersucht und findet innerhalb der philosophischen AEsthetik zunehmend Beachtung. Eine historische und interdisziplinare Auseinandersetzung mit diesen zentralen Begriffen kunstlerischer Produktion und Wirkung steht aber noch aus. Der vorliegende Band erkundet dieses kaum vermessene und reich profilierte Gelande. Die Beitrage gehen von der Annahme aus, dass die Beziehungen zwischen asthetischen und naturphilosophischen Wissensfeldern, zwischen kunstlerischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Modellierungen im Zeichen der Kraft enger sind, als bisher vermutet wurde.