Twee oogbollen met optische zenuw kijken naar twee bollen en een pijl 1679

Sébastien Leclerc I created this print of two eyeballs and optical nerves looking at spheres and an arrow. In the 17th century, academies of art were becoming more popular. These institutions standardized the creation and consumption of art. The image presents an almost scientific understanding of vision. It visually breaks down and simplifies the act of seeing into a series of lines and shapes. Made in France, a place of philosophical development and scientific discovery, the print uses visual codes that reference the growing importance of science and reason during the Enlightenment. It critiques the earlier understanding of sight as something magical or spiritual, instead emphasizing the relationship between eye and object as a purely physical and measurable process. To learn more, consider looking into the history of optics, or the founding of scientific academies in Europe, and reflecting on the philosophical discussions around empiricism that Leclerc would have been a part of.