“The Body in Motion: Art, Anthropology and Neuroscience” 
May 20th 2009 – Berlin School of Mind and Brain

Abstract

David Freedberg is best known for his work on psychological responses to art, and particularly for his studies on iconoclasm and censorship (see, inter alia, Iconoclasts and their Motives, 1984, and The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response, 1989). His recent work is on the history of science and on the importance of the new cognitive neurosciences for the study of art and its history. Following a series of important discoveries in Windsor Castle, the Institut de France and the archives of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, he has for some time been concerned with the intersection of art and science in the age of Galileo. While much of his work in this area has been published in articles and catalogues, his chief publication in this area is The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, his Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (2002). He is now devoting a substantial portion of his attention to collaborations with neuroscientists, e.g. Vittorio Gallese, working in fields of vision, movement and emotion.

–David Freedberg is Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art, Columbia University and Director of the Italian Academy for advanced studies in America.

Curated by Elena Agudio