Baroquian Folds: Leibniz on Folded Fabrics and the Disruption of Geometry

The fold in Leibniz’s philosophy – considered as an image of thought – has received considerable attention during recent decades, mainly because of the work of Gilles Deleuze. For Leibniz the fold often stands for continuous transformation and change, but it is also often mentioned together with references to folded fabrics. But did the folds of fabric prompt new conceptions of geometry in Leibniz’s thought? How does Leibniz’s account on the fall of folds stand in relation to how folded fabrics were drawn in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Baroque paintings? This chapter will inspect these questions in detail by examining Baroquian painting and specifically what may be termed the Baroquian fold which may be considered as almost un-mathematizable, on the one hand, and Leibniz’ thought on folding, on the other hand. I aim to show that just as the Leibnizian fold resists being reduced to constant, well-defined units, so does the Baroquian fold operate, as it prompts a disruption of geometrization of space.