Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Aesthetics of the Renaissance and Baroque

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EML playing soprano recorder, mediaeval dance music 1962
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Esther Lederberg (see yellow arrow) playing Renaissance and Baroque recorder music to accompany period dances.

Esther Lederberg was not only a scientist, she also had many cultural interests. These cultural interests included Renaissance and Baroque music, as well as Renaissance and Baroque dance. However, to appreciate the arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, it is necessary to understand as many aspects of the Renaissance and Baroque as the society at that time integrated all aspects of the arts. Thus dance was integrated into garden design, garden design was an extension of palace architecture, architecture was perceived in terms of linear perspective, etc. Social relationships became an aspect of the Renaissance and Baroque politcal statecraft: the "decorum" of Baldassare Castiglione, eventually becoming central to the "Sun King", Louis IV.

Basic aspects of Classical thought run throughout all the aspects of the Renaissance and Baroque arts. Specifically, rhetoric tacens, the eloquent body (dance), the harmonic orator (music), rhetoric muette, or meutte éloquence: performative rhetoric, a rhetoric focused not upon text, but more focused upon gestures, as gestures are found in art, music, dance, architecture, etc. In addition to silent performative rhetoric, attitudes towards proportion were focused upon harmonic ratios: important in architecture, sculpture, music, dance, etc. These themes of rhetoric and harmonic proportions as well as Platonic and Euclidean geometry are found everywhere in Renaissance and Baroque arts, and thus all aspects of Renaissance and Baroque aesthetics should be studied. This was of interest to Esther Lederberg, the scientist, and will be discussed below.

Esther Lederberg studied Renaissance and Baroque music at Stanford university, and played the Baroque recorder. In addition, Esther Lederberg also studied Baroque dance at Stanford university, under Wendy Hilton.

Renaissance and Baroque Aesthetics

  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Baroque (Perspective) Theatres
  • Costume
  • Dance
  • Music
  • Palace Gardens
  • Special: Japanese Music
  • Special: Ottoman Music
  • References
  • Back

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