The image of the modern State: From the great man to the sublime and the monstrous

Abstract

After the work of Horst Bredekamp and Quentin Skinner, the hypothesis I pretend to defend here consists in demonstrating if the famous Prologue that adorns the major philosophical work of Hobbes, the Leviathan, makes of the figure of Leviathan the foundation of our political iconography. The double success of Hobbes, at the same time theoretical and iconographical deserves an explanation. As a matter of fact, there is solid reason to believe that the author could not limit himself to the written conceptual explanation, as political philosophy cannot limit itself to demonstrative discourse. It also requires literary and visual rhetoric due to the intersubjective nature of politics. Consequently, our vision of State plays a part in the history of its iconographical representation. To discuss and compare this hypothesis two moments in the history of reception of Leviathan are considered: Kant's Critic of judgment and the works of the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya.