Authors: Umberto Eco, Hugh Bredin
ISBN-13: 9780300093049, ISBN-10: 0300093047
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: February 2002
Edition: Second Edition
Few cultural critics and novelists carry the scholarly heft of Umberto Eco, who was a noted historian and semiotician before he brought these sensibilites to bear on major novels such as The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum. Whether he is deconstructing modern wax museums or spinning a 13th-century tale, he is always clever, stately and profound.
In this book, the 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.
More than a history of theory,this essay is an absorbing synthesis of theology,science,poetry,and mysticism with artistic theory and practice providing comprehensive insight into medieval culture.
Abbreviations | ||
Translator's Note | ||
Preface | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
I | The Medieval Aesthetic Sensibility | 4 |
II | Transcendental Beauty | 17 |
III | The Aesthetics of Proportion | 28 |
IV | The Aesthetics of Light | 43 |
V | Symbol and Allegory | 52 |
VI | Aesthetic Perception | 65 |
VII | The Aesthetics of the Organism | 74 |
VIII | Development and Decline of the Aesthetics of the Organism | 84 |
IX | Theories of Art | 92 |
X | Inspiration and the Status of Art | 105 |
XI | Conclusion | 116 |
Bibliography | 120 | |
Index | 130 |