Deleuze and Leibniz: The Baroque as a Philosophical Concept of the Fold
Gilles Deleuze reconceptualized the Baroque as a philosophical state, drawing from the metaphysical ideas of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He introduced the concept of the Fold to replace Cartesian dualism, highlighting the notions of total connectivity and ongoing change. Deleuze regards Leibniz, a logician and co-creator of calculus, as the foremost Baroque philosopher. In contrast to René Descartes, Leibniz maintained that mechanical principles should be based on a living metaphysics, perceiving matter as alive. In his works, Discourse on Metaphysics and Monadology, he characterized substances as monads, influenced by the In-Esse principle. Deleuze exemplified this through the Baroque House metaphor, illustrating the interaction between matter and soul via pre-established harmony. The Fold reconciles the One and the Many, questioning mechanistic reasoning and offering a more intricate reality.
Key facts
- Gilles Deleuze reframed the Baroque as a philosophical concept rather than an art-historical style.
- Deleuze drew on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, whom he called the supreme thinker of the Baroque.
- Leibniz rejected Cartesian dualism, arguing that mechanical laws require a living metaphysics of force.
- The Baroque House allegory divides reality into a lower floor of material pleats and an upper floor of windowless monads.
- Pre-established harmony is the only communication between the two floors of the Baroque House.
- The Fold is the universal operation that resolves the tension between the One and the Many.
- Leibniz's infinitesimal calculus is described as fundamentally Baroque, a mathematics of curves and continuous variation.
- Deleuze's interpretation offers an alternative genealogy of modernity that challenges reductive, mechanistic rationality.
Entities
Artists
- Gilles Deleuze
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- René Descartes
- Caravaggio
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini
- Heinrich Wölfflin
- Paul Janet
- Francesco Borromini
- Andrea Pozzo
- Giovanni Battista Gaulli
- Il Baciccio
- John Joseph Merlin
- James Cox
- Julius Caesar
- Baruch Spinoza
- David Hume
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Henri Bergson
- Johann Jakob Haid
- Johann Gottfried Auerbach
- Giovanni Maria Galli Bibiena the Younger
- Josef Hueber
- Giovanni Battista Piranesi
- Bernardino Ramazzini
- Ole Christensen Rømer
Institutions
- The Collector
- ArchEyes
- Church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola
- Princeton University Art Museum
- The Bowes Museum
- Basilica di San Pietro
- Cathedral Museum, Strasbourg
- TheCollector
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries and Archives
- Cornaro Chapel
- Santa Maria della Vittoria
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Admont Abbey
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek – Leibniz-Archiv
Locations
- Rome
- Italy
- Princeton
- New Jersey
- Barnard Castle
- England
- Vatican City
- Strasbourg
- France
- New York
- United States
- Admont
- Austria
- Hannover
- Germany