Erkenntnis und Zweifel. Neapolitanische Malerei und wissenschaftlicher Wandel im 17. Jahrhundert

Şirin Datli, M.A.

The PhD project is dedicated to the question of the epistemological status of visual media around 1700. The research is focused on the collection of the Neapolitan jurist Giuseppe Valletta (1636-1714). Valletta was a co-founder of the Accademia degli Investiganti and owned a botanical garden and an extensive library. Like his collection, which included antique vases and inscriptions as well as paintings, the library was a meeting place for the scholarly world in Naples and beyond. The composition and context of the collection testify to great interest in new scholarly methods and raise the following questions: To what extent do images, with their specific medial qualities and their potential to generate knowledge and doubt, contribute to the changing scholarly culture in Naples? To what extent can this collection be seen as a site of the 'new sciences' and as a space for the production and transmission of knowledge? In addition to insights into the intellectual Val-letta, his network and above all his extensive collection, Naples will be examined as a space of knowledge around 1700 as well as the epistemological potential of art in general.