Synagonism: Theory and Practice in Early Modern Art

This book explores for the first time the concept of synagonism (from “σύν”, “together” and “ἀγών”, "struggle”) for an analysis of the productive exchanges between early modern painting, sculpture, architecture, and other art forms in theory and practice. In doing so, it builds on current insights regarding the so-called paragone debate, seeing this, however, as only one, too narrow perspective on early modern artistic production. Synagonism, rather, implies a breaking up of the schematic connections between art forms and individual senses, drawing attention to the multimediality and intersensoriality of art, as well as the relationship between image and body.

Yannis Hadjinicolaou, Ph.D. (2023, University of Hamburg) is Akademischer Rat a.Z at the Institute of Art History, University of Bonn. He has published the monograph Thinking Bodies – Shaping Hands, Handeling in Art and Theory of the Late Rembrandtists (Brill, 2019) as well as five edited volumes and numerous articles on art and art theory of the early modern period. His latest book is The Art of Medieval Falconry (Reaktion Books, 2024).

Joris van Gastel, Ph.D. (2022, University of Zurich) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art History in Zurich. He has published widely on early modern art, with a particular focus on Roman baroque sculpture and the art of Southern Italy, and is co-editor of the collected works of Heinrich Wölfflin. His book on materiality and identity in baroque Naples is forthcoming.

Markus Rath, Ph.D. (2016, Humboldt University of Berlin) is Assistant Professor of Art and Knowledge in the Early Modern Period at the University of Trier. He was previously a research assistant at the Humboldt University, at the German Centre for Art History in Paris and at the University of Basel. His dissertation examined movable sculpture (Die Gliederpuppe. Kult – Kunst – Konzept, Berlin/Boston 2016). His current research focuses on abstraction and expressivity in the early modern period as well as metaphorology, materiality and mediality in pre-modern art and science.