Platonism, Ficino to Foucault explores some key chapters in the history Platonic philosophy from the revival of Plato in the fifteenth century to the new reading of Platonic dialogues promoted by the ...so-called 'Critique of Modernity'.
Fiery the angels fell; slow thunder rolled around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc.) Whether in recent popular culture, or back across countless centuries, angels have perpetually ...enthralled and even terrified us. (Every single angel is terrible,) wrote the German Romantic poet Rilke: (and so I hold myself back from the dark bird-cry of my anguished sobbing.) For sceptics, angels may be no more than metaphors: poetic devices to convey, at least for those with a religious sensibility, an active divine interest in creation. But for others, angels are absolutely real creatures: manifestations of cosmic power with the capacity either to enlighten or annihilate those whose awestruck paths they cross. Valery Rees offers the first comprehensive history of these beautiful, enigmatic and sometimes dangerous beings, whose existence and actions have been charted across the eons of time and civilization. Whether exploring the fevered visions of Ezekiel and biblical cherubim; Persian genii; Arab djinn; Islamic archangels; the austere and haunting icons of Andrei Rublev; or Wim Wenders) Wings of Desire and the more benign idea of the watchful guardian angel, the author shows that the ubiquity of these celestial messengers reveals something profound, if not about God or the devil, then about ourselves: our perennial preoccupation with the transcendent.
Review of: Denis J. J. Robichaud, Plato’s Persona: Marsilio Ficino, Renaissance Humanism, and Platonic Traditions, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2018, 344 pp., ISBN 9780812249859.
This volume consists of 21 essays on Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus-priest who was the architect of Renaissance Platonism. They cast fascinating new light on his ...theology, philosophy, and psychology as well as on his influence and sources.
AbstractTitian's Allegory of Marriage has a philosophical import based on the power of love and reflections of the divine and plays as well on ideas of past, present, and future. The present chapter ...traces the roots of these ideas to the philosophy and poetry of fifteenth-century Florence, which accorded a special place to love and beauty. According to Plato, beauty is valued for its power to engender love and to elevate the mind to the divine. Conveyed to Venice through literary texts and to Titian through the person of Pietro Bembo, these ideas can also be seen in other of Titian's works.Keywords: Marsilio Ficino; Platonism; philosophy; love; Cristoforo Landino; BemboThere is a dynamic tension in Titian's Allegory of Marriage between the gaze of the female subject, connecting her to a world or worlds unseen, and that of the male figure, who seems to engage with her, yet to be an unacknowledged presence. This subtle connection between the two main protagonists calls to the fore suggestions of allegory, and it is therefore not unreasonable to ask whether Neoplatonic ideas of allegory, linking the visible world with a world beyond, may be governing Titian's choice of representation. I therefore contribute to the debate on this painting by extending enquiry into the realm of ideas that were circulating at the time, looking at the intellectual and literary context in which this painting was conceived. This approach seeks to show Titian's contact with these ideas through a number of personal connections that brought ideas born in fifteenth-century Florence to a new and productive life in sixteenth-century Venice. In particular, it invokes his well-known friendship with Pietro Bembo, which may be taken as a strong pointer to the likelihood of Titian's being aware of, even if not directly engaged in, the lively intellectual debates that had been taking place during the years of his development as a painter. Since it has often been argued that Titian's skill lay entirely in the visual realm and that he was not greatly a man of words, it seeks to refine such a judgement by showing his engagement with the thoughts and words of others.
This collection of essays presents new work on the Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) which explores aspects of Ficino's own thought and the sources which he used, and traces his ...influence on the philosophy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
PDF
