In this authoritative, lively book, the celebrated Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco presents a learned summary of medieval aesthetic ideas. Juxtaposing theology and science, poetry and mysticism, Eco explores the relationship that existed between the aesthetic theories and the artistic experience and practice of medieval culture.
The sight of any Gothic cathedral in Europe attests to the medieval love of beauty and art. The colors of the rose windows, the proportion and balance of the architecture, the sculpture around the doorways: all display the medieval aesthetics of light, proportion and symbolism. In this very readable study, Eco explains the various medieval theories of art and beauty. Augustine, Boethius, Bonaventure, Grosseteste and other writers developed theories of beauty, which reached their fullness with Aquinas' aesthetics of organic form. As Eco notes, we may not be able to experience all the certainty of the high Middle Ages--which did not last long in the midst of change--but there is much for us to appreciate in its aesthetic theory.
The sight of any Gothic cathedral in Europe attests to the medieval love of beauty and art. The colors of the rose windows, the proportion and balance of the architecture, the sculpture around the doorways: all display the medieval aesthetics of light, proportion and symbolism. In this very readable study, Eco explains the various medieval theories of art and beauty. Augustine, Boethius, Bonaventure, Grosseteste and other writers developed theories of beauty, which reached their fullness with Aquinas' aesthetics of organic form. As Eco notes, we may not be able to experience all the certainty of the high Middle Ages--which did not last long in the midst of change--but there is much for us to appreciate in its aesthetic theory.
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