The Visionary Eye ― Essays in the Arts, Literature and Science

Mathematician, poet, philosopher, life scientist, playwright, teacher, JacobBronowski could readily be referred to as a Renaissance Man. But in the historical context thatwould do him a disservice: he is, par excellence, a Twentieth Century Man, who has traced the artsand sciences of earlier centuries and especially those of his own time to their common root in theuniquely human imagination.Bronowski is the author of such widely read books as The Ascent of Manand Science and Human Values. In 1977, The MIT Press published A Sense of the Future: Essays inNatural Philosophy. In those essays, the emphasis is on scientific questions, but in a number ofthem the notion of "art as a mode of knowledge" is invoked to make the science clearer and its humandimension more vivid. The Visionary Eye serves as a companion volume: here the emphasis is on thearts and humanities, but (as the subtitle suggests) "science as a mode of imagination" comes intoplay to extend the reach of the visionary eye.The Visionary Eye contains eleven essays: "The Natureof Art," "The Imaginative Mind in Art," "The Imaginative Mind in Science," "The Shape of Things,""Architecture as a Science and Architecture as an Art," and Art as a Mode of Knowledge, Bronowski'sA. W. Mellon Lectures given at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The essays discussexamples taken from across the spectrum of the arts, past and present -- music, poetry, painting andsculpture, architecture, industrial design, and engineering artifacts -- in the coherent context ofBronowski's view of the human creative process.