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Studiolo
A brief study of select Western art from Italy’s foremost philosopher.
In Renaissance palaces, the studiolo was a small room to which the prince withdrew to meditate or read, surrounded by paintings he particularly loved. This book is a kind of studiolo for its author, Giorgio Agamben, as he turns his philosophical lens on the world of Western art.
Studiolo is a fascinating take on a selection of artworks created over millennia; some are easily identifiable, others rarer. Though they were produced over an arc of time stretching from 5000 BCE to the present, only now have they achieved their true legibility. Agamben contends that we must understand that the images bequeathed by the past are really addressed to us, here and now; otherwise, our historical awareness is broken. Notwithstanding the attention to detail and the critical precautions that characterize the author’s method—they provoke us with a force, even a violence, that we cannot escape. When we understand why Dostoevsky feared losing his faith before Holbein’s Body of the Dead Christ , when Chardin’s Still Life with Hare is suddenly revealed to our gaze as a crucifixion or Twombly’s sculpture shows that beauty must ultimately fall, the artwork is torn from its museological context and restored to its almost prehistoric emergence. These artworks are beautifully reproduced in color throughout Agamben’s short but significant addition to his scholarly oeuvre in English translation.
In Renaissance palaces, the studiolo was a small room to which the prince withdrew to meditate or read, surrounded by paintings he particularly loved. This book is a kind of studiolo for its author, Giorgio Agamben, as he turns his philosophical lens on the world of Western art.
Studiolo is a fascinating take on a selection of artworks created over millennia; some are easily identifiable, others rarer. Though they were produced over an arc of time stretching from 5000 BCE to the present, only now have they achieved their true legibility. Agamben contends that we must understand that the images bequeathed by the past are really addressed to us, here and now; otherwise, our historical awareness is broken. Notwithstanding the attention to detail and the critical precautions that characterize the author’s method—they provoke us with a force, even a violence, that we cannot escape. When we understand why Dostoevsky feared losing his faith before Holbein’s Body of the Dead Christ , when Chardin’s Still Life with Hare is suddenly revealed to our gaze as a crucifixion or Twombly’s sculpture shows that beauty must ultimately fall, the artwork is torn from its museological context and restored to its almost prehistoric emergence. These artworks are beautifully reproduced in color throughout Agamben’s short but significant addition to his scholarly oeuvre in English translation.
130 pages, Paperback
First published December 3, 2019
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About the author
Giorgio Agamben
241 books989 followersGiorgio Agamben is one of the leading figures in Italian and contemporary continental philosophy. He is the author of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life; Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive; Profanations; The Signature of All Things: On Method, and other books. Through the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s he treated a wide range of topics, including aesthetics, literature, language, ontology, nihilism, and radical political thought.
In recent years, his work has had a deep impact on contemporary scholarship in a number of disciplines in the Anglo-American intellectual world. Born in Rome in 1942, Agamben completed studies in Law and Philosophy with a doctoral thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil, and participated in Martin Heidegger’s seminars on Hegel and Heraclitus as a postdoctoral scholar.
He rose to international prominence after the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995. Translated into English in 1998, the book’s analyses of law, life, and state power appeared uncannily prescient after the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC in September 2001, and the resultant shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Provoking a wave of scholarly interest in the philosopher’s work, the book also marked the beginning of a 20-year research project, which represents Agamben’s most important contribution to political philosophy.
In recent years, his work has had a deep impact on contemporary scholarship in a number of disciplines in the Anglo-American intellectual world. Born in Rome in 1942, Agamben completed studies in Law and Philosophy with a doctoral thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil, and participated in Martin Heidegger’s seminars on Hegel and Heraclitus as a postdoctoral scholar.
He rose to international prominence after the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995. Translated into English in 1998, the book’s analyses of law, life, and state power appeared uncannily prescient after the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC in September 2001, and the resultant shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Provoking a wave of scholarly interest in the philosopher’s work, the book also marked the beginning of a 20-year research project, which represents Agamben’s most important contribution to political philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 31, 2025
Bellísimo. Qué bien encajan los comentarios que va haciendo sobre las obras con toda su trayectoria filosófica...tan agradecida de habitar, aunque sea durante una centena de páginas, este studiolo mental.
January 24, 2022
Si necesitas leer un libro breve y profundo te recomiendo estos comentarios de Giorgio Agamben a las obras de arte que él seleccionaría para su estudiolo. Logra conjugar arte y humanismo
Qué hermoso es cuando las lecturas de textos o de imágenes nos invitan a mirar más adentro.
«En los palacios renacentistas se llamaba studiolo al pequeño salón donde el príncipe se retiraba a meditar o leer, rodeado de cuadros que amaba de modo especial. Este libro es, para Giorgio Agamben, su propio studiolo. ¿No son acaso una especie de paraíso las imágenes de las cuales cada uno de nosotros querría estar siempre acompañado? Un paraíso de los sentidos, sin duda, pero también y ante todo, de la mente, si de lo que se trata en esas imágenes es algo que de otro modo no sería dado comprender. Cada una de las obras de arte aquí reunidas tiene su punto de partida en la mirada y se acompañan de bellísimos comentarios de Agamben, en los que se entrelaza la crítica, el análisis, la historia, la sensibilidad, la reflexión.»
Me encantaría conocer el studiolo de Isabel d´ Este en Mantua. La gran dama culta del Renacimiento.
El filósofo italiano me dio la idea y voy a comenzar a elegir las obras de arte que colocaría en el mío, todos podemos hacer de un ambiente de casa un studiolo
Ustedes, ¿cuáles pondrían en el suyo?
Qué hermoso es cuando las lecturas de textos o de imágenes nos invitan a mirar más adentro.
«En los palacios renacentistas se llamaba studiolo al pequeño salón donde el príncipe se retiraba a meditar o leer, rodeado de cuadros que amaba de modo especial. Este libro es, para Giorgio Agamben, su propio studiolo. ¿No son acaso una especie de paraíso las imágenes de las cuales cada uno de nosotros querría estar siempre acompañado? Un paraíso de los sentidos, sin duda, pero también y ante todo, de la mente, si de lo que se trata en esas imágenes es algo que de otro modo no sería dado comprender. Cada una de las obras de arte aquí reunidas tiene su punto de partida en la mirada y se acompañan de bellísimos comentarios de Agamben, en los que se entrelaza la crítica, el análisis, la historia, la sensibilidad, la reflexión.»
Me encantaría conocer el studiolo de Isabel d´ Este en Mantua. La gran dama culta del Renacimiento.
El filósofo italiano me dio la idea y voy a comenzar a elegir las obras de arte que colocaría en el mío, todos podemos hacer de un ambiente de casa un studiolo
Ustedes, ¿cuáles pondrían en el suyo?
May 18, 2025
I read Seagull Books' English translation of this book. It was my first and perhaps only reading with serious art critique, and I truly believe it's set me out on a wide trail to seek similar writings. The most notable feature was the selection of artworks and paintings: they're less known (to a fledgling) and from across millennia. I couldn't find a common rationale in their selection. Agamben describes the many ways in which artworks of old must be seen as benefactions in the here and now (a fascinating take!). The book worked as a great primer for me on how to view paintings, not necessarily divorced from their larger movements and eras.
May 25, 2023
Maravilloso libro cofre, libro tesoro, libro intimidad vulnerable.
Agamben nos ofrece sus objetos de fascinación, sus más propios secretos sin rozar lo autobiográfico, su más hermoso retrato en detalles de otras obras artísticas, sus pasos furtivos entre las sombras del misterio.
Estamos ante el milagro de la acción de aproximarnos a lo intangible.
Imposible irnos sin ser notados.
Agamben nos ofrece sus objetos de fascinación, sus más propios secretos sin rozar lo autobiográfico, su más hermoso retrato en detalles de otras obras artísticas, sus pasos furtivos entre las sombras del misterio.
Estamos ante el milagro de la acción de aproximarnos a lo intangible.
Imposible irnos sin ser notados.
September 5, 2020
Mai letto nulla di Agamben prima d'ora, ma sono rimasta veramente colpita!
March 9, 2026
me apaixonei pelo agamben falando sobre suas obras de arte favoritas! livro precioso demais, me salvou nesses últimos dias.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews