Stobbe: Forces and Mechanics in Early Modern Political Allegory

Caroline Stobbe, M.A.: Forces and Mechanics in Early Modern Political Allegory

Machines and mechanics were ubiquitous phenomena in early modern Europe and were frequently explored through art. To view them solely as evidence of the technological developments of the time would be, however, an oversimplification. On the contrary, representations of technology served a variety of functions and were imbued with multiple layers of meaning that go beyond that of a mere workshop drawing.

On a didactical level, they served to visualize abstract concepts and processes of salvation history. Phenomena such as the mystic mill or wine press conveyed a mechanical, machine-like logic of salvation; the representation of familiar, everyday machinery made these complex processes of transubstantiation more accessible. At the same time, they gave artists the opportunity to depict (mechanical) sequences of movement on a sheet of paper or an altarpiece, thereby not only visualizing processes but also imbuing them with narrative meaning. Leonardo’s drawings show that the artist was not only concerned with the depiction of mechanical components; rather, these objects carried an inherent and clear narrative potential. Beyond this explanatory function, fantastical depictions of machines also possessed an inherent element of entertainment, for example within the context of an early modern theatrum machinarum. Puzzling over the design and marveling at the artist’s inventiveness engaged the viewers. The machineries became aesthetic entities, cultural symbols whose meanings unfolded through the interplay of form, function, and fiction. They were interactive, mentally animated cognitive devices in which the audience participated by imaginatively setting the gears in motion, thereby ‘producing’ the image’s meaning. Ultimately, depictions of machines in the early modern period also took on an increasingly symbolic significance. In emblems, they came to symbolize virtues such as reliability, steadfastness, intelligence and statesmanship – indeed, they even became a microcosm of social order, for example, in relation to the phenomenon of the ‘turning sovereign’.

This research project aims to examine these diverse layers of meaning in artistically depicted forces and mechanics, focusing specifically on their explanatory potential within the context of political allegories. Following in from Martino Rota’s allegories of the Battle of Lepanto (1571), in which mechanical constructions and force dynamics carry an integral part of the political message, the project seeks to establish a corpus of mechanized political allegories across Europe. Rota’s prints present the historical event as part of an inevitable, quasi-physical principle of cause and effect, thus providing the ideal starting point for exploring this subject. For the 16th and 17th centuries – a period in which science, technology and art were virtually inseparable – the focus is primarily on the question of what supposedly technical representations (and the visual pseudo-objectivity they convey) achieve within the framework of an ongoing process of political myth-making.