Habitus as Method: Revisiting a Scholastic Theory of Art

Rather than being an event of an aesthetic, sublime or revelatory
character, art can be rather understood simply as a habitual productive
activity, taking an equal part in the design of quotidian reality as any
other tool. The habitual approach to art carries with it several
consequences regarding the understanding of the history of art and the
theory of artistic production. This habitual approach has its origins in
the Scholastic conception of the habitus of art, leaning on the
Aristotelian definition of Poiesis. But the habitual
approach had also its long history, passing through French
Spiritualism in the 19th century, and several other stations in the
20th century.

The essay follows Erwin Panofsky’s concept of "mental habit" as a
methodological instrument in the history of art. After exposing the
principles of a habitual approach to the history of art, the essay
continues to follow Panofsky’s essay Gothic Architecture and
Scholasticism, trying to trace what was Panofsky in fact conceiving
under this term. In the conclusion, the essay suggests some guiding
principles for conceiving of a habitus-oriented theory of art,
energized by the scholastic approach to the habitus of art and by the
method of habitus in the science of history.