Art lovers and scientific virtuosi? : the Philomathia of Erhard Weigel (1625-1699) in context / Vera Keller.
Abstract:
Since Walter Houghton's influential 1942 article, the English virtuoso has played a large role in the early modern histories of art, of science, and of relationships between them. This emphasis has obscured alternatives, such as the lover. This essay challenges the historiographical predominance of the Royal Society virtuoso through a brief survey of the relative uses of virtuoso and lover (also liefhebber, Liebhaber and amator) in England in the first half of the seventeenth century. It then offers the counterpoint of the socially and disciplinarily inclusive concept of philomathia developed by Jena Professor Erhard Weigel (1625-1699) in his school of Art and virtue and his proposed College of Art Advisors, a model which raises challenging questions for the Restoration virtuoso
Varied role of the amateur in early modern Europe. p. 523-548