That is indeed the assumption of the entire field. From it follows neuroaesthetics’ most typical hermeneutic device, which consists of considering artists as neuroscientists qui s’ignorent, as individuals whose main task is to explore the brain with the tools of their trade. What accounts for the impact of Michelangelo’s Pietà? The fact that the sculptor “instinctively understood the common visual and emotional organization and workings of the brain,” which in turn “allowed him to exploit our common visual organization and arouse shared experiences beyond the reach of words” (Zeki n.d.; specifically on the widespread idea of the artist as neuroscientist, see also Cavanagh 2005, Ramachandran and Hirstein 1999, Zeki 2000).
Inspired by the homonymous book by Fernando Vidal and Francisco Ortega, this timespace presents the authors' genealogy of the cerebral subject and the influence of the neurological discourse in human sciences, mental health and culture.
