Art, science, and evolution

Robert O Bork

The relationship between art history and natural history, a topic that attracted widespread attention in the decades following the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, deserves careful re-examination in the twentyfirst century.1 Such a reassessment, in fact, could potentially play an important role in promoting the health of art-historical institutions, which face significant challenges in the new millennium. In a broad sense, the increasingly business-driven and anti-intellectual character of public life can force universities, museums, and publishers to privilege profitability over intellectual content. Even within the faculties of arts and sciences that form the heart of the academy, moreover, art historians and other humanistic scholars risk marginalization as research funding increasingly shifts toward scientific projects that promise to have fruitful and profitable application. In this context, it is worth emphasizing both the significant connections between art-historical scholarship and the major currents of modern intellectual life, on the one hand, and the irreducibly unique characteristics of art history, on the other. Fresh consideration of the relationship between art-historical and evolutionary thinking can advance both of these projects, thereby fostering the successful adaptation of art-historical institutions to the challenging climate of the new century.

Art, science, and evolution

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