This paper investigates Lucretius and Spinoza’s materialism like a perspective oriented on the problem of the event. The first part, in particular, is dedicated to the discussion of the physical and ethical aspects of the Lucretian concept of clinamen, intended as the expression of an event that breaks the continuity of the uniform rectilinear motion of matter. The last part attempts to trace, within the Lucretian theory of simulacra, a path of emancipation of our ability to imagine, on the model of the theory of knowledge formulated by Spinoza in Ethics. The aim is to outline an idea of vision as an event in which the viewer takes shape together with what he sees