#autonomous art

autonomous art must mean art that can throw down if need be

It is not the office of art to spotlight alternatives, but to resist by its form alone the course of the world, which permanently puts a pistol to men’s heads.

As historical artefacts Holbein and Mantegna’s artworks are imbued with the scientific developments of the Renaissance. Holbein’s engagement with anatomical discourse is integrated into both the composition and the Humanist interpretation of the Christ subject. Conversely Mantegna’s painting expresses the Galilean impulse of the mathematisation of nature but simultaneously his technique articulates the inherent limitations in the artistic form when confronted with the religious subject. The truth content of a work of art always expresses the socio-historical antinomies of the epoch.

Ken Rinaldo