Figurative lights: Images of Techno-Scientific slides and Secularization in Spain during the 18th Century

This paper asembles and studies a set of iconological representations linked to technical and scientific transformations during the eighteenth Century in Spain, reading them in a dialectic between modern science, Enlightenment policies and popular culture. After analyzing the emergence of representa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Germán LABRADOR MÉNDEZ
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de Salamanca 2010-06-01
Series:Cuadernos Dieciochistas
Online Access:http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/1576-7914/article/view/7008
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper asembles and studies a set of iconological representations linked to technical and scientific transformations during the eighteenth Century in Spain, reading them in a dialectic between modern science, Enlightenment policies and popular culture. After analyzing the emergence of representations both of science and scientists according to the process of institutionalizing science as a socio-professional language, two specific eighteenth century technologies are studied: magic lanterns and aerostats. By interpreting their first images and their infiltration into popular and official speeches and the imagination of the moment, it is argued that in those images a tale of demo-Enlightenment is expressed, a tale about secularization and progress as a collective aesthetic experience.
ISSN:1576-7914
2341-1902