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| neoplatonic aesthetics: Neoplatonism and Western Aesthetics Aphrodite Alexandrakis, Nicholas J. Moutafakis, 2002-01-01 Shows how the aesthetic views of Plotinus and later Neoplatonists have played a role in the history of Western art. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Neoplatonism and Western Aesthetics Aphrodite Alexandrakis, Nicholas J. Moutafakis, 2002-01-01 Shows how the aesthetic views of Plotinus and later Neoplatonists have played a role in the history of Western art. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Neoplatonic Aesthetics Liana Cheney, John Shannon Hendrix, 2004 Neoplatonic Aesthetics: Music, Literature, and the Visual Arts explores the idea of a Neoplatonic aesthetic, a philosophy of the arts based on the writings of Plato and the Neoplatonists - principally Plotinus, Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Nicolas Cusanus, and Marsilio Ficino - and more contemporary philosophers - Stephen MacKenna, Iris Murdoch, Denman Ross, Jacques Derrida, and Hans Georg Gadamer. This book examines the artistic production of figures such as Gioseffe Zarlino, Fra Angelico, Leon Battista Alberti, Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Giorgio Vasari, and it formulates theoretical approaches to contemporary production based in the Neoplatonic philosophies. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: The Legacy of Neoplatonic Philosophy Gina Zavota, 2024-11-14 Bringing together leading scholars from philosophy, architecture, history, classics, and art history, this volume asks: what are the key concepts in Neoplatonic aesthetics? And what impact has Neoplatonic philosophy had on the arts since the 3rd century CE? Organized into three parts, in part I four authors examine the theory behind Neoplatonic aesthetics, including in particular the philosophy of beauty, ornament, and the artistic imagination. Based on the thought of Plato, Neoplatonism incorporated influences from Aristotle, Stoicism, and a variety of other philosophical traditions to create a unique school of thought within the Western canon. The second part explores the influence of Neoplatonic thought on the painting, architecture, and music of classical, medieval, and Renaissance Europe. With chapters on Byzantine hymns, the birth of the Gothic, and Vasari's Saint Michael, the authors bring to life the Neoplatonic influence on European culture and thinking. Finally, part III uncovers the impact of Neoplatonism right up to the modern day through a range of 19th- and 20th-century artistic case studies, from Kandinsky and Malevich to literature, music and world cinema. Unique in its interdisciplinary breadth, historical coverage, and combination of theory and application, The Legacy of Neoplatonic Philosophy provides a fresh insight into the enduring influence of Neoplatonic thought on the arts of the Western world. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Aesthetics and Theurgy in Byzantium Sergei Mariev, Wiebke-Marie Stock, 2013-07-31 The general scope of the present volume is to present a variety of approaches and topics within the growing field of research on Byzantine aesthetics. Theurgy in Neoplatonic and Christian contexts is represented by the contributions of W.-M. Stock and L. Bergemann; theories of beauty are at the centre of interest of the papers by S. Mariev and M. Marchetto. A. Pizzone approaches Byzantine aesthetics by looking for aesthetic experience in the literary texts, while the remaining contributions explore issues related to the iconoclast controversy: An important moment in the development of Byzantine philosophy on the eve of iconoclasm is the primary interest of A. del Campo Echevarría, who looks at the question of universals in John of Damaskos. The relationship between image and text in Byzantine illustrated manuscripts occupies the attention of B. Crostini. D. Afinogenov explores from a philological perspective the fate of important iconophile terminology in Old Bulgarian, while L. Lukhovitskij reconstructs from historical and philological perspectives the historical memory of the iconoclast controversy during the Late Byzantine Period. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Aesthetic Themes in Pagan and Christian Neoplatonism Daniele Iozzia, 2015-03-12 Whilst aesthetics as a discipline did not exist before the modern age, ancient philosophers give many insights about beauty and art. In Late Antiquity Plotinus confronted the problem of beauty and the value of the arts. Plotinus' reflections have an important role in the development of the concept of the value of artistic imagination during the Renaissance and the Romantic era, but he also influenced the artistic taste of his time. Aesthetic Themes in Pagan and Christian Neoplatonism reconstructs the aesthetic philosophical views of Late Antiquity, and their relation to artistic production of the time. By examining the resonance of Plotinus' thought with contemporary artists and with Christian thinkers, including Gregory of Nyssa, the book demonstrates the importance of Plotinus' treatise On Beauty for the development of late ancient aesthetics. The Cappadocian fathers' interest in Plotinus is explored, as well as the consequent legacy of the pagan thinker's philosophy within Christian thought, such as the concept of beauty and the narration of the contemplative experience. Uniquely utilising philological and philosophical insight, as well as exploring both pagan and Christian philosophy, Aesthetic Themes in Pagan and Christian Neoplatonism represents the first comprehensive synthesis of aesthetic thought of Late Antiquity. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Platonic Architectonics John Shannon Hendrix, 2004 Platonic Architectonics: Platonic Philosophies & the Visual Arts examines philosophical structures of Plato in their structural, spatial, and architectonic implications. It examines elements of Plato's philosophical systems in relation to other philosophical systems, including those of Anaximander, Plotinus, Proclus, Nicolas Cusanus, Marsilio Ficino, Georges Bataille, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida. It also examines Plato's philosophy in relation to architectonic conceptions in the arts, including the work of Leon Battista Alberti and Piero della Francesca in the Renaissance, Paul Cezanne, and the Cubists and Deconstructivists in the twentieth century. Platonic Architectonics presents new interpretations of philosophical texts, artistic treatises, and works of art and architecture in Western culture as they are interrelated and related to Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophical structures. It demonstrates the importance of philosophy in the production of the visual arts throughout history and the importance of the relation between the work of art and the philosophical text and artistic treatise. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Nonnus of Panopolis in Context Konstantinos Spanoudakis, 2014-07-16 Nonnus of Panopolis (fifth century CE) composed two poems once thought to be incompatible: the Dionysiaca, a mythological long epic with a marked interest in astrology, the occult, the paradox and not least the beauty of the female body, and a pious and sublime Paraphrase of the Gospel of St John. Little is known about the man, to whom sundry identities have been attached. The longer work has been misrepresented as a degenerate poem or as a mythological handbook. The Christian poem has been neglected or undervalued. Yet, Nonnus accomplished an ambitious plan, in two parts, aiming at representing world-history. This volume consists mainly of the Proceedings of the First International Conference on Nonnus held in Rethymno, Crete in May 2011. With twentyfour essays, an international team of specialists place Nonnus firmly in his time's context. After an authoritative Introduction by Pierre Chuvin, chapters on Nonnus and the literary past, the visual arts, Late Antique paideia, Christianity and his immediate and long-range afterlife (to modern times) offer a wide-ranging and innovative insight into the man and his world. The volume moves on beyond stereotypes to inaugurate a new era of research for Nonnus and Late Antique poetics on the whole. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Insight to Heal Mark Graves, 2013-02-12 -What does healing mean for Christians and others in an age of science? -How can a person relate scientific findings about one's body, philosophical understanding of one's mind, and theological investigations about one's spirit into a coherent and unified model of the person capable of leading one deeper into one's soul? -How does God continue creating through nature and direct one's wandering toward becoming created co-creators capable of ministering to others? The reality of human suffering demands that theology and science mutually inform each other in a shared understanding of nature, humanity, and paths to healing. Mark Graves draws upon systems theory, pragmatic philosophy, and biological and cognitive sciences to distinguish wounds that limit who a person may become, and uses information theory, emergence, and Christian theology to define healing as distinct from a return to a prior state of being and rather instead as creating real possibility in who the person may become. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism Julia A. Lamm, 2017-02-06 The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism brings together a team of leading international scholars to explore the origins, evolution, and contemporary debates relating to Christian mystics, texts, and the movements they inspired. Provides a comprehensive and engaging account of Christian mysticism, from its origins right up to the present day Draws on the best of current scholarship by bringing together a collection of newly-commissioned readings by leading scholars Considers examples of mysticism in both Eastern and Western Christianity Offers a brilliant synthesis of the key figures and historical periods of mysticism; its core themes, such as heresy, gender, or aesthetics; and its theoretical considerations, including theological, literary, social scientific, and philosophical approaches Features chapters on current debates such as neuroscience and mystical experience, and inter-religious dialogue |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Transparency and Dissimulation Verena Lobsien, 2010-05-27 Transparency and Dissimulation analyses the configurations of ancient neoplatonism in early modern English texts. In looking closely at poems and prose writings by authors as diverse as Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Edward Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Thomas Traherne, Thomas Browne and, last not least, Aphra Behn, this study attempts to map the outlines of a neoplatonic aesthetics in literary practice as well as to chart its transformative potential in the shifting contexts of cultural turbulency and denominational conflict in 16th- and 17th-century England. As part of a “new”, contextually aware, aesthetics, it seeks to determine some of the functions neoplatonic structures – such as forms of recursivity or certain modes of apophatic speech – are capable of fulfilling in combination and interaction with other, heterogeneous or even ideologically incompatible elements. What emerges is a surprisingly versatile poetics of excess and enigma, with strong Plotinian and Erigenist accents. This appears to need the traditional ingredients of petrarchism or courtliness only as material for the formation of new and dynamic wholes, revealing its radical metaphysical potential above all in the way it helps to resist the easy answers – in religion, science, or the fashions of libertine love. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Platonic Mysticism Arthur Versluis, 2017-08-16 Restores the Platonic history and context of mysticism and shows how it helps us understand more deeply the humanities as a whole, from philosophy and literature to art. In Platonic Mysticism, Arthur Versluisclearly and tautly argues that mysticism must be properly understood as belonging to the great tradition of Platonism. He demonstrates how mysticism was historically understood in Western philosophical and religious traditions and emphatically rejects externalist approaches to esoteric religion. Instead he develops a new theoretical-critical model for understanding mystical literature and the humanities as a whole, from philosophy and literature to art. A sequel to his Restoring Paradise, this is an audacious book that places Platonic mysticism in the context of contemporary cognitive and other approaches to the study of religion, and presents an emerging model for the new field of contemplative science. An important work on the mystical experience delving deep into its history, particularly from the Platonic perspective. An essential text for anyone interested in mysticism and its relationship to philosophy and creative expression. Andrew Newberg, author of How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: The New Science of Transformation The present work, the latest from the pen of Arthur Versluis, provides a trenchant, learned, and illuminating analysis of the origins of Western mysticism in the Platonist tradition, relayed through such figures as Plotinus and Dionysius the Areopagite, down through Meister Eckhart and others, while suitably excoriating the attempts of certain modern philosophers and sociologists of religion to deconstruct it from a materialist perspective. I found it a rattling good read! John Dillon, author of The Heirs of Plato: A Study of the Old Academy (347274 BC) |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: The Look of Van Dyck John Peacock, 2017-07-05 Based on a close study of Van Dyck's Self-portrait with a Sunflower, this book examines the picture's context in the symbolic discourses of the period and in the artist's oeuvre. The portrait is interpreted as a programmatic statement, made in the ambience of the Caroline court after Van Dyck's appointment as 'Principal Painter', of his view of the art of painting. This statement, formulated in appropriately visual terms, characterizes painting as a way of looking and seeing, a mode of vision. In making such a claim, the artist steps aside from the familiar debate about whether painting was a manual or an intellectual discipline, and moves beyond any idea of it as simply a means of representing the external world: the painter's definitive faculty of vision can reach further than those realities which present themselves to the eye. John Peacock analyses the motif of looking - the ways in which figures regard or disregard each other - throughout Van Dyck's work, and the images of the sunflower and the gold chain in this particular portrait, to reveal what is essentially an idealist conception of pictorial art. He contradicts previous opinions that the artist was pedestrian in his thinking, by showing him to be familiar with a range of ideas current in contemporary Europe about painting and the role of the painter. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Medieval Art Marilyn Stokstad, 2018-05-04 This book teaches the reader how to look at medieval art–which aspects of architecture, sculpture, or painting are important and for what reasons. It includes the art and building of what is now Western Europe from the second to the fifteenth centuries. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience Dr Nadine Schibille, 2014-11-28 Paramount in the shaping of early Byzantine identity was the construction of the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (532–537 CE). This book examines the edifice from the perspective of aesthetics to define the concept of beauty and the meaning of art in early Byzantium. Byzantine aesthetic thought is re-evaluated against late antique Neoplatonism and the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius that offer fundamental paradigms for the late antique attitude towards art and beauty. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Allegorical Poetics and the Epic Mindele Anne Treip, 2021-10-21 Literary allegory has deep roots in early reading and interpretation of Scripture and classical epic and myth. In this substantial study, Mindele Treip presents an overview of the history and theory of allegorical exegesis upon Scripture, poetry, and especially the epic from antiquity to the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, with close focus on the Renaissance and on the triangular literary relationship of Tasso, Spenser, and Milton. Exploring the different ways in which the term allegory has been understood, Treip finds significant continuities-within-differences in a wide range of critical writings, including texts of postclassical, patristic and rabbinical writers, medieval writers, notably Dante, Renaissance theorists such as Coluccio Salutati, Bacon, Sidney, John Harrington and rhetoricians and mythographers, and the neoclassical critics of Italy, England and France, including Le Bossu. In particular, she traces the evolving theories on allegory and the epic of Torquato Tasso through a wide spectrum of his major discourses, shorter tracts and letters, giving full translations. Treip argues that Milton wrote, as in part did Spenser, within the definitive framework of the mixed historical-allegorical epic erected by Tasso, and she shows Spenser's and Milton's epics as significantly shaped by Tasso's formulations, as well as by his allegorical structures and images in the Gerusalemme liberata. In the last part of her study Treip addresses the complex problematics of reading Paradise Lost as both a consciously Reformation poem and one written within the older epic allegorical tradition, and she also illustrates Milton's innovative use of biblical Accommodation theory so as to create a variety of radical allegorical metaphors in his poem. This study brings together a wide range of critical issues—the Homeric-Virgilian tradition of allegorical reading of epic; early Renaissance theory of all poetry as translation or allegorical metaphor; midrashic linguistic techniques in the representation of the Word; Milton's God; neoclassical strictures on Milton's allegory and allegory in general—all of these are brought together in new and comprehensive perspective. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: The German Aesthetic Tradition Kai Hammermeister, 2002-10-17 Publisher Description |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: A Companion to Art Theory Paul Smith, Carolyn Wilde, 2008-04-15 The Companion provides an accessible critical survey of Western visual art theory from sources in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance thought through to contemporary writings. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Plotinus the Platonist David J. Yount, 2014-10-23 In this insightful new book David J. Yount argues, against received wisdom, that there are no essential differences between the metaphysics of Plato and Plotinus. Yount covers the core principles of Plotinian thought: The One or Good, Intellect, and All-Soul (the Three Hypostases), Beauty, God(s), Forms, Emanation, Matter, and Evil. After addressing the interpretive issues that surround the authenticity of Plato's works, Plotinus: The Platonist deftly argues against the commonly held view that Plotinus is best interpreted as a Neo-Platonist, proposing he should be thought of as a Platonist proper. Yount presents thorough explanations and quotations from the works of each classical philosopher to demonstrate his thesis, concluding comprehensively that Plato and Plotinus do not essentially differ on their metaphysical conceptions. This is an ideal text for Plato and Plotinus scholars and academics, and excellent supplementary reading for upper-level undergraduates students and postgraduate students of ancient philosophy. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: New Perspectives on Late Antiquity in the Eastern Roman Empire Ana de Francisco Heredero, Susana Torres Prieto, 2014-10-16 The present volume presents some of the latest research trends in the study of Late Antiquity in the Eastern Roman Empire from a multi-disciplinary perspective, encompassing not only social, economic and political history, but also philology, philosophy and legal history. The volume focuses on the interaction between the periphery and the core of the Eastern Empire, and the relations between Eastern Romans and Barbarians in various geographic areas, during the approximate millennium that elapsed between the Fall of Rome and the Fall of Constantinople, paying special attention to the earliest period. By introducing the reader to some innovative and ground-breaking recent theories, the contributors to the present volume, an attractive combination of leading scholars in their respective fields and promising young researchers, offer a fresh and thought-provoking examination of Byzantium during Late Antiquity and beyond. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: The Iconic Imagination Douglas Hedley, 2016-02-25 Is it merely an accident of English etymology that 'imagination' is cognate with 'image'? Despite the iconoclasm shared to a greater or lesser extent by all Abrahamic faiths, theism tends to assert a link between beauty, goodness and truth, all of which are viewed as Divine attributes. Douglas Hedley argues that religious ideas can be presented in a sensory form, especially in aesthetic works. Drawing explicitly on a Platonic metaphysics of the image as a bearer of transcendence, The Iconic Imagination shows the singular capacity and power of images to represent the transcendent in the traditions of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. In opposition to cold abstraction and narrow asceticism, Hedley shows that the image furnishes a vision of the eternal through the visible and temporal. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: City and Cosmos Keith D. Lilley, 2009-09-01 In City and Cosmos, Keith D. Lilley argues that the medieval mind considered the city truly a microcosm: much more than a collection of houses, a city also represented a scaled-down version of the very order and organization of the cosmos. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, including original accounts, visual art, science, literature, and architectural history, City and Cosmos offers an innovative interpretation of how medieval Christians infused their urban surroundings with meaning. Lilley combines both visual and textual evidence to demonstrate how the city carried Christian cosmological meaning and symbolism, sharing common spatial forms and functional ordering. City and Cosmos will not only appeal to a diverse range of scholars studying medieval history, archaeology, philosophy, and theology; but it will also find a broad audience in architecture, urban planning, and art history. With more of the world’s population inhabiting cities than ever before, this original perspective on urban order and culture will prove increasingly valuable to anyone wishing to better understand the role of the city in society. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: "Joyous Sweit Imaginatioun" , 2007-01-01 This volume gathers together essays on Scottish literature, diverse in historical period, mode, and form in honour of Professor R.D.S. Jack, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Chronologically, the collection sweeps from the early middle ages to the early twentieth century, from Robert Henryson to J.M. Barrie, conveying a sense of the shifting and subtle identities and continuities of Scottish literary traditions across the centuries, and opening up, through a distinctive and unusual range of writers and texts, unfamiliar aesthetic, cultural, and linguistic landscapes. Unusual and wide-ranging in subject and scope, the volume explores Scottish medieval romance and allegory, Renaissance court performance, early modern travel writing, seventeenth-century poetry, Sir Thomas Urquhart’s universal language theory, Scottish Romanticism, Burns and Barrie. Shared threads of interest run through the collection: a questioning of the canonical; attentiveness to questions of language, rhetoric, and form; and a commitment to uncovering the dynamic interaction between European and Scottish traditions. Collectively, the volume charts a new series of imaginative cross-currents across historical periods and literary modes, attesting the importance of, and necessity for, a critical vision of Scottish literature which is pluralistic, comparative, and sensitive to form, mode, and rhetoric. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Plotinus on Beauty Ota Gál, 2022-03-21 The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. In this book, Ota Gál presents a new analysis of Plotinus' conception of beauty, beginning from a close reading of treatises I.6 and V.8, which link beauty with the unified multiplicity of Intellect. This account is subsequently placed in a hierarchical and structural context in VI.2 and VI.6 and connected to illumination in VI.7, enabling us to determine the meaning of the predicate “beauty” at different ontological levels. For Plotinus, beauty is ultimately the illuminated unity in multiplicity of Intellect, which, as the manifestation of the Good, simultaneously enables the soul’s ascent and threatens to bind the soul to itself. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Radiance and Symbolism in Modern Stained Glass Liana De Girolami Cheney, 2016-02-08 This book focuses on the aesthetic, symbolic, and cultural concepts of radiance and beauty in stained glass in modern art; global exchanges between stained-glass artists in Europe and the Americas; and the transformation of stained glass from religious decoration to secular material culture. Unique features of the book include its geographic breadth, encompassing England, France, Italy, USA, and Mexico, and its inclusion of American female glassmakers. Essays consider how stained glass became an art form during this time, and show how the narrative for the figurative design drew from the Bible, mythology, history, literature, and the symbolism of the time, including popular culture such as ecology and materiality. Written for students and the general public interested in the humanities, literature, history, art history, and new media and popular culture, this book examines the visual beauty and symbolism of stained-glass windows in Europe and American cultures during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – the modern era. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Plato Revived Filip Karfík, Euree Song, 2013-09-03 Die einzelnen Beiträge dieses Bandes sind unterschiedlichen Formen der Wiederbelebung des Platonismus innerhalb der antiken Philosophie gewidmet. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit ist den Themen der Einheit und der Schönheit, des Geistes und der Erkenntnis, der Seele und des Leibes, der Tugend und des Glücks sowie der politischen und der religiösen Dimension des platonischen Denkens gewidmet. Ausgehend von Platon und Aristoteles werden die Verwandlungsformen von Platonismus, insbesondere bei den Neuplatonikern Plotin, Porphyrios, Jamblich, Themistios, Proklos und Marinos sowie bei den christlichen Autoren Augustin, Boethius und Dionysios Areopagites untersucht. Die Autoren des Bandes knüpfen dabei in vielfältiger Weise an die Arbeiten von Dominic J. O’Meara an. Die Weiterführung seiner Ansätze rückt insbesondere die spätplatonische Ethik in ein neues Licht. Die jeweiligen Studien tragen darüber hinaus zur Erforschung der vielfältigen Bezüge der Platoniker aufeinander sowie auf andere Denker bei. Das Buch macht in seiner ganzen Breite das Erneuerungs- und Verwandlungspotenzial des antiken Platonismus deutlich. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: The Homes of Giorgio Vasari Liana Cheney, 2006 Giorgio Vasari was one of the few artists in the history of art who built, designed, and decorated his homes. This book is the first to focus on Vasari's decorative cycles for his homes in Arezzo and Florence, revealing the significance of the artistic, cultural, and historical milieu of the sixteenth century. This study breaks new ground in two ways: First, in a personal and original manner, the imagery is related to Vasari's artistic ideas on history painting and the role of the artist. And second, Vasari's imagery portrays visual galleries applauding his teachers, antiquity and the creation of art. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Hofmannsthal's Novel Andreas David H. Miles, 2015-03-08 Although Hofmannsthal never completed his only novel Andreas, its theme—the quest for self through memory—haunted the Viennese writer and recurs again and again in his poems, libretti, and essays. Analyzing the fragment, David Miles discusses Hofmannsthal's understanding of memory and myth, Andreas' pivotal role in his work, and its place within the tradition of such novels as Goethe's Wilhelm Meister and Rilke's Malte. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. |
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| neoplatonic aesthetics: Desiring the Beautiful Filip Ivanovic, 2019 Desiring the Beautiful studies the concept of deification, theosis, in two of the most influential early Christian philosopher-theologians, who might be considered as theoretical consolidators of the idea of theosis, and argues that the proper understanding of their central soteriological concept must take into account its dimension of love and beauty. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Discourse on the Method René Descartes, 1996-01-01 Descartes' ideas not only changed the course of Western philosophy but also led to or transformed the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, physics and mathematics, political theory and ethics, psychoanalysis, and literature and the arts. This book reprints Descartes' major works, Discourse on Method and Meditations, and presents essays by leading scholars that explore his contributions in each of those fields and place his ideas in the context of his time and our own. There are chapters by David Weissman on metaphysics and psychoanalysis, John Post on epistemology, Lou Massa on physics and mathematics, William T. Bluhm on politics and ethics, and Thomas Pavel on literature and art. These essays are accompanied by others by David Weissman and by Stephen Toulmin that introduce the idea of intellectual lineages, discuss the period in which Descartes wrote, and reexamine the premises of his philosophy in light of contemporary philosophical, political, and social thinking. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Aesthetic Themes in Pagan and Christian Neoplatonism Daniele Iozzia, 2015-03-12 Whilst aesthetics as a discipline did not exist before the modern age, ancient philosophers give many insights about beauty and art. In Late Antiquity Plotinus confronted the problem of beauty and the value of the arts. Plotinus' reflections have an important role in the development of the concept of the value of artistic imagination during the Renaissance and the Romantic era, but he also influenced the artistic taste of his time. Aesthetic Themes in Pagan and Christian Neoplatonism reconstructs the aesthetic philosophical views of Late Antiquity, and their relation to artistic production of the time. By examining the resonance of Plotinus' thought with contemporary artists and with Christian thinkers, including Gregory of Nyssa, the book demonstrates the importance of Plotinus' treatise On Beauty for the development of late ancient aesthetics. The Cappadocian fathers' interest in Plotinus is explored, as well as the consequent legacy of the pagan thinker's philosophy within Christian thought, such as the concept of beauty and the narration of the contemplative experience. Uniquely utilising philological and philosophical insight, as well as exploring both pagan and Christian philosophy, Aesthetic Themes in Pagan and Christian Neoplatonism represents the first comprehensive synthesis of aesthetic thought of Late Antiquity. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Giorgio Vasari's Teachers Liana Cheney, 2007 This book examines the artistic, cultural, and historical influence of Giorgio Vasari's teachers, mentors, and patrons on his sacred and profane paintings. As a Maniera artist, Vasari learns to admire and assimilate the art of the ancient masters. With the guidance of Dante's literary writings and Marsilio Ficino's Neoplatonic philosophy, Vasari reveals a moral and didactic vision in his art. Additionally, Vasari's artistic patronage is influenced by the political views of Niccolò Machiavelli. In the integration of both ancient art and myths with the didactic legacy of biblical figures and moral personifications, Vasari manifests his artistic theory and symbolism in his sacred and profane paintings. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Christian Platonism Alexander J. B. Hampton, John Peter Kenney, 2020-12-17 Platonism has played a central role in Christianity and is essential to a deep understanding of the Christian theological tradition. At times, Platonism has constituted an essential philosophical and theological resource, furnishing Christianity with an intellectual framework that has played a key role in its early development, and in subsequent periods of renewal. Alternatively, it has been considered a compromising influence, conflicting with the faith's revelatory foundations and distorting its inherent message. In both cases the fundamental importance of Platonism, as a force which Christianity defined itself by and against, is clear. Written by an international team of scholars, this landmark volume examines the history of Christian Platonism from antiquity to the present day, covers key concepts, and engages issues such as the environment, natural science and materialism. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Icons of Space Jelena Bogdanović, 2021-07-26 Icons of Space: Advances in Hierotopy brings together important scholars of Byzantine religion, art, and architecture, to honour the work of renowned art historian Alexei Lidov. As well as his numerous publications, Lidov is well known for developing the concept of hierotopy, an innovative approach for studying the creation of sacred spaces. Hierotopy and the related concepts of ‘spatial icons’ and ‘image-paradigms’ emphasize fundamental questions about icons, including what defines them as structures, spaces, and experiences. Chapters in this volume engage with the overarching theme of icons of space by employing, contrasting, and complementing methods of hierotopy with more traditional approaches such as iconography. Examinations of icons have traditionally been positioned within strictly historical, theological, socio-economic, political, and art history domains, but this volume poses epistemological questions about the creation of sacred spaces that are instead inclusive of multi-layered iconic ideas and the lived experiences of the creators and beholders of such spaces. This book contributes to image theory and theories of architecture and sacred space. Simultaneously, it moves beyond colonial studies that predominantly focus on questions of religion and politics as expressions of privileged knowledge and power. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Byzantine history, as well as those interested in hierotopy and art history. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images in Western Art, 1840-2010 Mary D. Edwards, 2020-06-15 The notion of a person--or even an object--having a double has been explored in the visual arts for ages, and in myriad ways: portraying the body and its soul, a woman gazing at her reflection in a pool, or a man overwhelmed by his own shadow. In this edited collection focusing on nineteenth- and twentieth-century western art, scholars analyze doppelgangers, alter egos, mirror images, double portraits and other pairings, human and otherwise, appearing in a large variety of artistic media. Artists whose works are discussed at length include Richard Dadd, Salvador Dali, Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, the creators of Superman, and Nicola Costantino, among many others. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Forms of Modern British Fiction Alan Warren Friedman, 2014-07-03 In Forms of Modern British Fiction six individualistic and strongminded critics delineate the age of modernism in British fiction. Dating the age and the movement from later Hardy works through the deaths of Joyce and Woolf, they present British fiction as a cohesive, self-contained unit of literary history. Hardy appears as the first of the modern British novelists, Lawrence as the central, and Joyce and Woolf as the last. The writers and the modern movement are framed by precursors, such as Galsworthy, and by successors, Durrell, Beckett, and Henry Green—the postmoderns. The pattern of the essays suggests a growing self-consciousness on the part of twentieth-century writers as they seek not only to refine their predecessors but also to deny (and sometimes obliterate) them. The moderns thus deny the novel itself, a genre once firmly rooted in history and forms of social life. Their works do not assume that comfortable mimetic relationship between the fictive realities of art and life. Consequently, there has now evolved a poetics of the novel that is virtually identifiable with modern fiction, a poetics still highly problematical in its attempt to denote a medium in whose name eclectic innovativeness and incessant revitalizing are proclaimed. Forms of Modern British Fiction refines and advances the discussion of the modern novel and the world it and we inhabit. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Capital Times Eric Alliez, 1996 Offers a history of the philosophy of time and a comparison of the ways of conceiving the temporal, concentrating on European philosophy and its impact the connection between time and money in Western civilization. Analyzes the social and political processes involved in conceptions of time in ancien |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari David J. Cast, 2016-04-01 The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari brings together the world's foremost experts on Vasari as well as up-and-coming scholars to provide, at the 500th anniversary of his birth, a comprehensive assessment of the current state of scholarship on this important-and still controversial-artist and writer. The contributors examine the life and work of Vasari as an artist, architect, courtier, academician, and as a biographer of artists. They also explore his legacy, including an analysis of the reception of his work over the last five centuries. Among the topics specifically addressed here are an assessment of the current controversy as to how much of Vasari's 'Lives' was actually written by Vasari; and explorations of Vasari's relationships with, as well as reports about, contemporaries, including Cellini, Michelangelo and Giotto, among less familiar names. The geographic scope takes in not only Florence, the city traditionally privileged in Italian Renaissance art history, but also less commonly studied geographical venues such as Siena and Venice. |
| neoplatonic aesthetics: Cutting Edges James E. Gill, 1995 The essays in Cutting Edges examine English satire of the eighteenth century from various theory-based postmodern perspectives. Some examine little-known works that postmodern concerns, such as the role of women and the problems of authorship, have rendered especially interesting; others reconsider familiar works in terms of the latest critical issues. The justification for these investigations is that both satire and postmodern methods are extremely skeptical and acutely aware that language is always ironic - always pointing to the gap between signifier and signified. The approaches in this book include those associated with deconstruction, reception theory, Marxist criticism, the new historicism, and various feminist criticisms, and with such theorists as Derrida, Bakhtin, Goux, and Luhmann. While most of the major figures of eighteenth-century satire - Butler, Rochester, Swift, Pope, Gay, Fielding, Sterne, and Johnson - are represented here, so too are many other interesting writers - Thomas Shadwell, Fannie Burney, Mary Davys, and Elizabeth Hamilton, to name but a few. |
Neoplatonism - Wikipedia
Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic …
Neoplatonism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Jan 11, 2016 · Neoplatonic philosophy is a strict form of principle-monism that strives to understand everything on the basis of a …
Neo-Platonism - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Neo-platonism (or Neoplatonism) is a modern term used to designate the period of Platonic philosophy beginning with the …
Neoplatonism | Mysticism, Philosophy, Theology | Britannica
Neoplatonism, the last school of Greek philosophy, given its definitive shape in the 3rd century ce by the one great …
What is Neoplatonism? - World History Edu
Jan 31, 2025 · Neoplatonism is a profound philosophical movement that emerged in the 3rd century AD, flourishing against the …
Neoplatonism - Wikipedia
Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. [1][note 1][note 2] The term does not …
Neoplatonism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Jan 11, 2016 · Neoplatonic philosophy is a strict form of principle-monism that strives to understand everything on the basis of a single cause that they considered divine, and …
Neo-Platonism - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Neo-platonism (or Neoplatonism) is a modern term used to designate the period of Platonic philosophy beginning with the work of Plotinus and ending with the closing of the Platonic …
Neoplatonism | Mysticism, Philosophy, Theology | Britannica
Neoplatonism, the last school of Greek philosophy, given its definitive shape in the 3rd century ce by the one great philosophical and religious genius of the school, Plotinus.
What is Neoplatonism? - World History Edu
Jan 31, 2025 · Neoplatonism is a profound philosophical movement that emerged in the 3rd century AD, flourishing against the vibrant backdrop of Hellenistic philosophy and diverse …
Neoplatonism: How Does it Relate to Plato? - TheCollector
May 10, 2023 · Neoplatonism is a term that has been applied after the fact — no Neoplatonist called themselves a Neoplatonist – and it is something of a misnomer insofar as it represents …
What is Neoplatonism? - PHILO-notes
Mar 23, 2023 · At its core, Neoplatonism is a synthesis of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, with elements of Stoicism, Pythagoreanism, and Eastern mysticism. It seeks to reconcile the …
Neoplatonism | Encyclopedia.com
Jun 11, 2018 · Neoplatonism was the dominant philosophical current in late antiquity, and it had a lasting influence in the Middle Ages when it was adopted by Christian and Muslim thinkers.
Platonism Vs Neoplatonism: The Main Differences
Platonism, which began around 428-347 BCE, focuses on abstract ideals and the existence of a realm of Forms. In contrast, Neoplatonism emerged in the 3rd century CE, emphasizing a …
Glossary Definition: Neoplatonism - PBS
Neoplatonism is a thought form rooted in the philosophy of Plato (c. 428-347 B.C.E.), but extending beyond or transforming it in many respects. Neoplatonism developed as a school of …
