Protestantismus und Arabeske

In the art of making books, which is so pivotal for Protestantism, picture and scripture coincide in spite of their fundamental difference; both require perspicuity (perspicuitas, dantas), as it has been developed persuasively in Renaissance theories of picture and in Reformation theories of Scripture. While picture and scripture fill the page, the ornament, as the third element in the art of making books has to keep to the margin. Yet as the arabesque emerges from its marginalized role in German aesthetics around 1800 (Kant) and becomes the paradigm of art, music and literature, a paradigm-shift takes place. « Ähnlich Leonardo DA VINCI, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, hg. v. Jean Paul RICHTER, Oxford 21939, Nr. 83: »Prospettiva non è altro che vedere uno sito dirieto uno vetro piano e ben transpare[n]te, sulla superfitie del quale · siano · segniate tutte le cose · che sono da esso · vetro · i[n]dirieto [...]