Article
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The Aesthetic dimension of Existence. Life as a work of art. From Socrates (c.470-399) to Saint Augustine (354-430)
María CECILIA COLOMBANI
Original title: La dimensión estética de la existencia. La vida como obra de arte. De Sócrates (c.470-399) a San Agustín (354-430)
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Confession, Foucault, Parrhesia, Truth.
The present communication consists of highlighting certain features of the parrhesiastic dimension present in Socrates so that, from this theoretical presupposition, we can develop an arc of reading with the confession in Saint Augustine. The purpose is to build a line of continuity with what we can consider an act of veridiction in the Foucauldian sense. We are motivated by the interest in marking a line between a parrhesiastic function and a confessional device and see what ethical-anthropological consequences are given from such acts. Above all, how both discursive practices, which obey specific rules of formation, are related to the so-called arts of existence linked to the etho-poietic dimension of making life a work of art; this is the path we want to travel to think the aesthetic question, associated with ethics and politics, as acts that occur within the framework of power relations that produce transformations on the real.
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Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) and the Aesthetics of his Age
Antonia Javiera CABRERA MUÑOZ
Original title: Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) y la Estética de su Tiempo
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Aesthetics, Don Quijote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes, Renaissance.
Contrary to other writers in the Spanish Golden Age, such as Luis de Góngora, Francisco de Quevedo and Calderón de la Barca, Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) is considered as being an autodidact by experts. From the publication of La Galatea (1585) on, Cervantes begins to devote himself fully to Literature. His journey through several genres and subgenres makes him both pertaining and alien to his own time, since he starts to deal in his works with a variety of aesthetic topics (authorship, reading, literary creation, etc.) that put in question particularly the previous age, the Renaissacence. The aim of this study is to survey some of those aesthetic topics in Don Quixote (1605 and 1615), in order to establish Cervantes’s worldview as the author of the most ingenious work in Spanish Literature.
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The configuration of the beloved body in medieval romance: idealization and eroticism in Le Chevalier de la charrette by Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135-1185)
María ESTRELLA
Original title: La configuración del cuerpo amado en el roman medieval: idealización y erotismo en El caballero de la Carreta de Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135-1185)
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Body, Chrétien de Troyes, Medieval romance, Wound.
The main purpose of this article is to analyse the configuration of the body in Le Chevalier de la charrette (1176/1181), written by Chrétien de Troyes, which narrates the adulterous love of Lancelot and Queen Geneva. We are interested in observing the survival of the doctrine of courteous love in the construction of the chivalrous hero and the character of the beloved woman, who is worshiped as a superior being. A "religion of love" is outlined, which, according to Denis de Rougemont, is one of the axes that articulates this doctrine. At the same time, this idealization is combined with the physical presence of the body, especially in the description of the sexual encounter of the couple. We will explore a conception of love that is delineated as pleasurable suffering and characterized by an eroticism that combines joy and pain, which is represented in the topic of the wound.
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The Knowledge that Beautifies the Soul. Philosophy according to Diotima of Mantinea, Herrad of Hohenbourg and Christine de Pizan
Georgina RABASSÓ
Original title: El saber que embellece el alma. La filosofía según Diotima de Mantinea, Herrada de Hohenbourg y Christine de Pizan
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Beauty, Liberal Arts, Medieval Aesthetics, Medieval Philosophy, Wisdom, Women Philosophers.
Diotima of Mantinea’s arguments in Plato’s Symposium (5th century BC) and the writings of Herrad of Hohenbourg (c. 1125-c. 1195) and Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) show the deep influence the study of philosophy had on them, in varying ways. Analysis of texts (and certain images) in which these writers speak of their relationships with the discipline of philosophy evidences the importance they give to their intellectual work, knowledge and critical analysis, not only for themselves but also as a distinctive component of female beauty as narrated by women themselves. This ideological contribution was key to the genesis of concepts such as “merit”, “nobility” and “excellence”, terms through which the women thinkers of the querelle des femmes (14th-18th centuries) took on the auctoritates of the male gender, who had stipulated that the overriding, exclusive beauty of women was corporeal and, occasionally, spiritual.
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Boethius (c. 477-524) on Beauty: a source for the mediaeval doctrine of the transcendentals concepts
Gerald CRESTA
Original title: La belleza en Boecio (c. 477-524): una fuente para la doctrina medieval de los trascendentales
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Beauty, Boethius, Mediaeval thought, Transcendentals concepts.
The Middle Ages, in its reception and systematization of concepts of the classical tradition, has linked the good with the final cause and what is beautiful with the formal cause. Plotinus and Augustine had already declared that speciosus comes from species, form. In the 13th century, when the doctrine of transcendentals concepts begins its journey in search of foundation, finds in the Summa fratris Alexandri a key in the reference of the form at the substantial principle of life, that is, the concept of Aristotelian form. Franciscan thought, which in this context asume an unusual strength in the work initiated by Alexander of Hales and continued by Buenaventura, provides the medieval thought a new reflection on the basis of the transcendentals concepts: they are convertible and differ logically, and therefore, the truth is thought of as the layout of the form relative to the interior of the entities, while the beauty points out the disposition of an entity in relation to the outside. This paper aims to trace the source of the medieval doctrine about the transcendental beauty in the analysis of the concept of form in Boethius, specifically the formulations presented in both texts De Trinitate and The Consolatione Philosophiae.
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The Medieval Aesthetics: Image and Philosophy
Susana BEATRIZ VIOLANTE; Ricardo da COSTA
Original title: La Estética Medieval: Imagen y Filosofía
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
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The Construction of Space(s) and Identity(s) in Medieval Literature: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales as a Case Study
Mourad EL FAHLI
Published in Music in Middle Ages and Early Modernity
Keywords: Christendom, Cultural Interchange, Europe, Heathendom, Identity, Infidels, Representation.
This paper examines the engagement of medieval literature in the construction of identities, particularly those of Europe and Muslims. While the former is represented as a unified Christian space, the latter is depicted as an external threat that endangers God’s plan and kingdom. Hence, medieval literature distinguished two opposing spatiality’s namely Christendom and Heathendom. Such spatial configuration deliberately overlooked internal schisms and antagonisms that characterized medieval Europe and instead opted for an ideal utopian vision, which has its origin in crusading discourses that emphasized unity in the face of “infidels.” To examine these issues, the paper takes as an example Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, which is considered by many as one of the most influential medieval literary works. Medieval ideological othering has-ad still- shaped understandings and configurations of the various contacts between West and East and between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The paper further enriches the discussion by a focus on cross-cultural interchange that informs Chaucer’s oeuvre, particularly the influence of Medieval Arabic scientific studies on his conception of lovesickness. Such interchange paradoxically problematizes the western condemnatory attitude towards Islam.
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The Galician influence in the Romanesque from Alto Minho
Margarita VÁZQUEZ CORBAL
Original title: La influencia gallega en el Románico del Alto Minho
Published in Society and Culture in Portugal
Keywords: Alto Minho, Galician influence, Patterns, Romanesque Art.
The current article deals with the influence of the Cathedral of Tui, its diocesan space and other Galician examples in the Romanesque art from the Portuguese area of Alto Minho. The diocese of Tui encompassed territories from southern Galicia and northern Portugal during a great part of the Middle Ages, in particular, the southwestern area of the province of Pontevedra; southeasthern Ourense and the Portuguese region of Alto Minho. The See from Tui spred a series of artistic and iconographic patterns which were extended in its bishopric and in the adjacent territories, giving the Romanesque in this area its own personality and outside the sociopolitical implications from a borderline in permanent conflict due to the hegemony in both sides of the Miño river.
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The pneumatology of Great Basilius in his treatise to Amphilochius Iconium
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in Idea and image of royal power of the monarchies in Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Amphilochius of Iconium, Arian controversy, Basilius of Caesarea, Holy Spirit, Homoousios, Pneumatology, Trinitarian teaching.
St. Basilius’ contribution to pneumatology is best comprehended within the historical milieu of the Arian controversy that pervaded much of the fourth century Roman Empire religiously and politically. It is a study which focuses on Basilius's understanding of the role and the Person of the Holy Spirit, particularly as found in his treatise to Amphilochius Iconium. The distinctive character of the Holy Spirit can be defined in the light of the Trinitarian relationship of the Spirit. Basilius, like Athanasius, defines the distinctiveness of the Holy Spirit in terms of His relation to God the Father and the Son. The status and position in their relationship defines the distinctiveness of each member of the Trinity. The definition of this kind occupies the major part of Basilius’ treatise of pneumatology. Basilius’ pneumatology cannot be understood; however, apart from his thoughts on salvation and baptism, which themselves are bound together. Basilius’ argument for the divinity of the Holy Spirit works by illustrating what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit illumines and sanctifies the baptized. The Holy Spirit completes and perfects creation from the beginning of time to its end and illumines the mind of the believer to understand the message of its order. The Holy Spirit inspires the Scriptures and governs their understanding in the church. Making no claim to know the essence of God, Basilius also leaves no doubt that the Holy Spirit has revealed his divinity through his actions. Only God does what only God can do.
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The Circulation of the Legenda Aurea in Portugal: a case study on D. Fernando’s hagiography
Clínio de Oliveira AMARAL, João Guilherme Lisbôa RANGEL
Original title: A circulação da Legenda Aurea em Portugal: estudo de caso da hagiografia do D. Fernando
Published in Manifestations of the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Circulation, Infante Santo, Legenda Aurea, Portugal.
The notion of mobility, at any point in history, is very wide. In order to comprehend it in the Middle Ages, we chose to analyze it through its circulation in written texts. Therefore, the objective of this article is to demonstrate the circulation of A Legenda Aurea in Portugal during the second half of the 15th century. In order to do so, we will present number of possible influences of this text on the Trautado da vida e feitos do muito vertuoso S.or. Infante D. Fernando, a hagiography written by the friar João Álvares in 1450 with the purpose of promoting the royal sanctity of the infant d. Fernando, known as Infante Santo since then.
