Vision baroque, vision maniériste

Abstract

As to look at an object in a different way means to see something else, it might be useful to differentiate between two modalities of the gaze in the early modern period, one that could be called « baroque », the other « mannerist ». This essay assumes that these notions can help shed light on some aspects of the literature of the 1570-1640 period: first, by defining the nature of a style or « manner », which is intimately linked with a worldview that itself determines modes of enunciation; also, the representation of the « landscapes » by the poets who perceive and render the exterior world in very different ways; finally, the nature of Eros, between one that is haunted by the violent figures of hubris and the other by the delicate figures of inversion.