RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Imago mundi. The notion of something as a microcosm of the macrocosm
A1 Ferrer Ventosa, Roger
K1 Astrology; Picatrix; al-Kindi; Ficino; Hermetism; zodiac man.
K1 6203 Teoría, Análisis y Critica de las Bellas Artes
K1 6203.05 Estética de las Bellas Artes
K1 5506.02 Historia del Arte
AB This essay studies the notion of something as a microcosm of the macrocosm in medieval and early modern cultures from several perspectives. To gain deeper insights into this idea, it is necessary to understand medieval principles of astrology, ideas that were related to the Neoplatonic and Hermetic mindsets, two schools of philosophy and religion for which the concept of microcosm was central. Specifically, it is examined here from four perspectives, namely, the human mind/soul/imagination, the human body, cities and buildings, especially churches, as microcosms, and finally a work of art or image as an imago mundi that mirrors the whole. To this end, the analysis draws from visual and textual sources, enquires into iconographic types such as the zodiac man, intellectual milieus like the court of Alfonso X, interpretations appearing in Arabic texts and essential reading in this regard, including the Picatrix and al-Kindi’s De radiis, plus some examples as far removed from the Christian medieval cultural horizon as the Indian Upanishads, Andrei Tarkovsky and Antoni Tàpies. This study is not only based on information from different fields of knowledge, mostly visual and religious studies, but also draws from anthropology of arts and philosophy
PB Ediciones Complutense
SN 2255-5889
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/74478
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/74478
LA eng
NO De Medio Aevo,  Mayo 2023, Vol. 12 n. 2. p. 495-511
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 14-abr-2025