Routledge Knowledge and Discernment in Early Modern Arts - Routledge

Explore how discernment shaped intellectual and artistic practice in early modern Europe with this scholarly volume from Routledge. This collection examines discernment as a crucial concept at the intersection of learned and artisanal cultures, where it functioned synonymously with judgment, ingenuity, and taste. Contributors including art historians and historians of science analyse how discernment defined the expert ability to perceive and understand the secrets of nature and art. With geographic focus on the Low Countries and their connections across the world, this book reveals how discernment became explicitly linked to specialised knowledge available only to practitioners within their respective fields. Essential reading for anyone studying visual culture, early modern intellectual history, or the development of expertise in art and science.