Neoplatonism and the Arts

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Year:
Pages:296
ISBN:0-7734-6985-0
978-0-7734-6985-3
Price:$199.95 + shipping
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This collection of essays explores the scope of the important relationships between the philosophical system of Neoplatonism and the arts in Italy. It was a pervasive way of thinking from 300 A. D. to 1700 A. D., and while antithetical to Christianity in the beginning, its ideas were quickly adopted by Christian theology, and Neoplatonism became a philosophical tool of the Catholic Church. The art and architecture produced in the service of the church is infused with Neoplatonic ideas. Part one of this study addresses cosmological and theoretical notions on Platonism and Neoplatonism. Part two focuses on the spiritual impact of Neoplatonism in Christian imagery depicted in paintings and manifested in religious structures. Part three probes the assimilation of Neoplatonic allegories in art, literature, and music. With illustrations.

Table of Contents

Table of contents:
Introduction: Neoplatonism and the Arts (John Hendrix and Liana de Girolami Cheney)
Part One: Philosophical Inquiries on Neoplatonism
1. Divinized and De-Divinized Conceptions of the World and of Cosmos (Leonidas C. Bargeliotes)
2. Plethon’s Conception of Cosmos and its Impact on Western Cosmological Theories (Leonidas C. Bargeliotes)
3. Ficino’s Preincarnational Scenarios (Carol V. Kaske)
4. Reading Platonic and Neoplatonic Notions of Mimesis With and Against Martin Heidegger (Constantinos V. Proimos)
Part Two: Religious Symbolism and Neoplatonism
5. The Perfection of the Circle: Florentine Tondi and Neoplatonism (Roberta J. M. Olson)
6. Neoplatonism, Augustinanism and Michelangelo’s Masculine Women (Costanza Barbieri)
7. Proclus’ Foundations of Neoplatonic Aesthetics and El Greco’s “Annunciation” (Cristos Terezis and Kalomoira Polychronopoulou)
8. Francesco Borromini and Athanasius Kircher (John Hendrix)
Part Three: Mythological Imagery and Neoplatonism
9. The Myth of Hercules as a Symbol (Valery Rees)
10. Botticelli’s “Camilla/Minerva and the Centaur”: A Neoplatonic View of Antiquity (Liana de Girolami Cheney)
11. Dante’s Orpheus (Umberto Taccheri)
12. Giorgio Vasari’s “Scrittorio of Calliope”: A Neoplatonic ut pictura poesis and ut pictura musica (Liana de Girolami Cheney)
13. Giorgio Vasare’s “Last Judgment”: A Neoplatonic Vision (Liana de Girolami Cheney)
14. Philosophical Traditions in Contemporary Italian Painting (John Hendrix)
Part Four: Illustrations

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