Medieval Aesthetics:

1. “Any thinking person realizes that the appearances of beauty are signs of an invisible loveliness” ~ Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy, 1.3

2. Medieval Aesthetics: Influences: Plato Aristotle Plotinus

4. Plato’s Forms Interconnected:

5. Aristotle’s Aesthetics:Four causes for the statue of Athena: 2 intrinsic causes: Material Cause = Bronze; out of which it was made. Formal Cause = Pattern, form, essence; of which it was made. 2 External causes: Efficient Cause = Artist; by which it was made Final Cause = The purpose; that for which it was made.

6. Plotinus: (205-207 AD). • What is beautiful applies to both our sense of sight and hearing (Plotinus I.6.1). • These two senses, sight and hearing, are emphasized to the neglect of other senses for gaining knowledge. • Beauty is connected to knowledge.

7. Plotinus: • From the “superabundance of the One”, various levels of being are generated. • The emanating all-encompassing Divine Intellect (the realm of Platonic Forms) which provides the patterns for cosmic creation. • From these patterns the Universal or World Soul forms, governs, and animates the material universe. Thus, the individual souls are manifestations of the Universal Soul. • Formless, non-being, pure, and unlimited Matter. This is the source of all evil and ugliness.

9. Plotinus: • Plotinus believed that everything that is flows from a dynamic spiritual Godhead which he called “The One” or the “Good is the Supreme Source.” He was ineffable and transcendent. • The One Has no form, no personality, or intelligence. Yet the One exists or there would be no multiplicity of being, no life, no intelligence, soul, or nature.

10. Emanations are the stages of the Descent of the One. • It is possible to return to the One (our origins). • Our soul can ascent to the intelligible realm and ultimately be reunited with its ultimate source. • He was convinced that musicians, lovers, and philosophers are in a better position to reach the level of reunification with the One.

11. Plotinus: • For example, musicians are already sensitive to and are appreciative of the beauty of tones, harmony, and rhythm. These sensitive insights which they perceive goes beyond its sensuous, bodily qualities. They are able to hear what others fail to hear. • Thus, when the musician learns, he separates the material from the “ideal elements in music. • As a result, he draws intimately closer to the higher intelligible realm. • This is similar for the lover and the philosopher for they are able to abstract the incorporeal forms from corporal objects.

12. Plotinus: • Plotinus does not degrade the beauties that appear to the senses. Why? • They are all copies of an ideal realm. • But he wants us to focus our attention to the beauties that “transcend” the sensible realm. • But they are to be “seen” through this “inner spiritual vision,” and which, when seen, will move us to imaginable, glorious love. .

13. Plotinus: • Courage • Justice • Moral Purity • Righteousness These manifestations are rightly called beautiful. But realization of spiritual beauty is impossible so long as we remain covered by matter which is ugly.

14. Plotinus: • Plotinus calls us to: • Strip ourselves from the material coils that are holding us down. • Discipline our desires. • Pursue rigorous and moral discipline. • Purify our passions. • Withdraw from the ugliness that weighs us down. • Ascend toward the higher realm lying within us in the very “center of our souls. • We must renounce our material nature and recognize the Divine in all.

15. Plotinus: • It is only after we renounce our material nature and see the Divine in all that we can begin the process of intimately pursuing the highest Beauty of all, the Divine Absolute Beauty. • While the Intelligible Beauty is beyond all our conceptions, the One is accessible, real, and supreme, it is possible to reach the One.

16. The Vision: • “The lovers of Intelligible Beauty, and they alone, can have a vision of the First Beauty, the One, which lies beyond Intellectual Being. And when they join the single source of all that is, their joy, he believes, will be perfect ecstasy.” ~ Perspectives in Aesthetics: Plato to Camus, edited by Peyton E. Richter, 71.

17. Second Contribution of Plotinus: • Second major contribution is that Plotinus argued against the idea that proportion is the primary property of objective beauty. • Instead, Plotinus argues that simple things can not beautiful if symmetry is the only property of objective beauty. Why? • If something is beautiful, then it must be composed of parts that are also symmetrical. If the parts themselves are not symmetrical, then it could not be beautiful. • Thus, he concludes that symmetry alone cannot be the only property for objective beauty.

18. Three Central Themes in Medieval Aesthetics: • Proportion • Light and Color • Symbolism

19. Proportion: • “Nothing is more proper to human nature than to abandon oneself to sweet modes and to be vexed by modes that are not” ~ Boethius, De Musica (quoted in Eco, 2004, 62).

20. Proportion: • Pythagoreans: Discovered that certain proportions and pitches are more pleasing than others. • Harmony finds its source in God. Thus, harmonious music can draw people to a closer intimacy with God. • Realization of the psychological effects of the arts (good and bad) • Function (purpose) was prized.

21. Light and Color: • The importance of radiance and clarity was emphasized. • Color causes beauty since everything has color. Thus, the more radiant colors the object possesses, the more beautiful it is. • God is light. This idea was an influence from Plotinus: “The simple beauty of a color is derived from a form that dominates the obscurity of matter and from the presence of an incorporeal light that is reason and idea” (Plotiunus,I.6). • The incorporeal light is God’s light. • He gives splendor to all of creation, illuminating the colors of objects.

22. Symbolism: • To give meaning to artworks • To discover the deeper, spiritual meanings of texts. • Beauty in nature reflects God’s beauty. • Religious symbols: • A way of instructing illiterate people • Enrich worship to God • Influence: Platonic forms: Things on earth are shadows of things from the realm of Forms. Thus, artists sought to construct art in a symbolic manner which helps point people to God.

23. Two forms of Symbolism: • Metaphysical symbolism: The philosophical habit of discerning the hand of God in the beauty of the world. • Universal allegory: Perceiving the world as a divine work of art, of such a kind that everything in it possesses moral, allegorical, and analogical meanings in addition to its literal meaning.

24. Bibliography: • Internet Encyclopedia of Aesthetics: “Medieval Theories of Aesthetics” by Michael Spicher • Perspectives in Aesthetics: Plato to Camus (New York: The Odyssey Press, 1967).