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Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages Umberto Eco Hugh Bredin Books

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Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages Umberto Eco Hugh Bredin Books

This is a fascinating and enjoyable survey of the approaches to and embodiments of beauty in the Middle Ages through the 13th century, which is when the Middle Ages gave way to the High Middle Ages (which culminated - or bottomed out, depending on how you look at it - in the Protestant Reformations). Great theologians and mystics such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bernard of Clairvaux are dealt with, as well as lesser figures such as Hugh of St. Victor and Abbot Suger. Theology and mysticism, architecture and music, science, philosophy and even love poetry are brought together as Eco paints (no pun intended) a highly detailed exposition of the ways in which beauty shaped the lives of those in the medieval era.

It is, in many ways, a tour through a land that is as strange as it is wonderful. The entire world - every created thing - was, early on, *seen* as a symbol that was to be read just as the Bible was read: with a sense that it existed not just as it was, but as something beyond itself too, pointing ultimately to God, for God had created it. Nature is understood to be what sociologists and philosophers would now call "enchanted": filled with mystery, depth, existential and metaphysical meaning. The rise of Aristotelian metaphysics (re: science and philosophy as a single entity - they weren't separated back then) is what eventually quashed this such that the world was no longer see as a cosmic spiritual thing so much as a created thing that could be studied as having its own laws. St. Thomas Aquinas, "the Angelic Doctor", did much to push this view and it eventually one out. The medieval era looks curiously modern in this regard.

Although the rise of Aristotelianism may have done much to encourage the development of what is now called "modern science", there were other forces at work, particularly those of stone and glass: the medieval churches. In France, in the 12th century, a priest named Suger designed and oversaw the building of the greatest church of the medieval era: the cathedral of St. Denis. St. Denis is today known as Pseudo-Dionysius, a 5th or 6th century monk whose writings were written under the name of Dionysius the Aeropagite, the first convert of St. Paul. Denis/Dionysius's mystical writings on the light of God were heavily influential on Abbot Suger and as he designed the cathedral, he saw to it that the stained glass and windows allowed the light to filter into the building such that the very experience of the aesthetics would be like an ecstatic experience of God.

This brought him into conflict with St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "the Difficult Saint", who is best known for his four-volume commentary on the Song of Songs. Bernard was unarguably the greatest and most influential figure of the 12th century, and he thought that the great burst of enthusiasm for aesthetics in Abbot Suger's cathedral was perilously close to idolatry. In a certain sense, neither figure won this dispute for the beauty of cathedrals has been with us ever since, without the highly developed sense of theological aesthetics articulated by Abbot Suger being understood by those who marveled in - and at - the cathedrals as "houses for God".

And yet, the vision of beauty permeated theological and mystical writings that dealt with the vision of God and the resurrection of the dead. The very notion of beauty was found throughout much of medieval thought - which was oftentimes theologically rooted, but not always - and it is to Eco's credit that he can so deftly maneuver between theological and philosophical writings on the one hand, and their embodiment in architecture on the other. The vision of God was the summit of the medieval spiritual journey, and this even resulted in the painting of pictures of Jesus as being physically beautiful - a sign of no small level of devotion.

This book is a fascinating read whose short length is by no means matched for its insight and familiarity with both primary and secondary sources. Students of history (whether sociological or intellectual), theology and mysticism, and art will benefit from the lucid work. Casual readers will benefit from it as well, and likely find themselves looking at light - and all that it brings to sight - just a little differently as a result of reading it.


Tags : Amazon.com: Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages (9782912282675): Umberto Eco, Hugh Bredin: Books,Umberto Eco, Hugh Bredin,Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages,Yale University Press,0300093047,Aesthetics,History - General,ART General,Art,Art History General,Esthetics,General,General & world history,HISTORY General,History - General History,History of art art & design styles,History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art c 500 CE to c 1400,Medieval Art,Philosophy Aesthetics

Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages Umberto Eco Hugh Bredin Books Reviews

Delivered right when I needed it )
Group this book with the works on Beauty &Ugliness this completes a interesting study. The reader will be rewarded with many cultural discoveries
This is an historical review
It serves my purpose, which is to get information about perceptions of beauty in the Middle Ages, providing me with a fair amount of information.
tHIS NICE PICTURE IS FROM THE tRÈS rICHES hOURS FROM jEAN, DUQUE OF BERRY. tHIS IS A PRECIOUS BOOK BECAUSE IT SHOWS YOU ANOTHER WAY OF LEARNING ABOUT MIDDLE AGES
Umberto Eco's masterful work essentially provides arguments for how the period referred to as the Middle Ages develops through the investigation of human consciousness and scholarly documentation demonstrating a gradual transition into the sensibilities that will undergird the Renaissance. The shift from the aesthetic foundations of St. Augustine through the Aristotelian influences upon St. Thomas Aquinas is of special note...with post-Aristotelianism and a resurgence of extromissionist perceptual theory....and its inherent return to Neo-Platonist conflations with Christian theological thinking....providing the basis for the intellectual revolution and its subject-centered restructuring of awareness leading to Renaissance reorganizations of medieval aesthetic commitments.
Great Product. Great Service!!
This is a fascinating and enjoyable survey of the approaches to and embodiments of beauty in the Middle Ages through the 13th century, which is when the Middle Ages gave way to the High Middle Ages (which culminated - or bottomed out, depending on how you look at it - in the Protestant Reformations). Great theologians and mystics such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bernard of Clairvaux are dealt with, as well as lesser figures such as Hugh of St. Victor and Abbot Suger. Theology and mysticism, architecture and music, science, philosophy and even love poetry are brought together as Eco paints (no pun intended) a highly detailed exposition of the ways in which beauty shaped the lives of those in the medieval era.

It is, in many ways, a tour through a land that is as strange as it is wonderful. The entire world - every created thing - was, early on, *seen* as a symbol that was to be read just as the Bible was read with a sense that it existed not just as it was, but as something beyond itself too, pointing ultimately to God, for God had created it. Nature is understood to be what sociologists and philosophers would now call "enchanted" filled with mystery, depth, existential and metaphysical meaning. The rise of Aristotelian metaphysics (re science and philosophy as a single entity - they weren't separated back then) is what eventually quashed this such that the world was no longer see as a cosmic spiritual thing so much as a created thing that could be studied as having its own laws. St. Thomas Aquinas, "the Angelic Doctor", did much to push this view and it eventually one out. The medieval era looks curiously modern in this regard.

Although the rise of Aristotelianism may have done much to encourage the development of what is now called "modern science", there were other forces at work, particularly those of stone and glass the medieval churches. In France, in the 12th century, a priest named Suger designed and oversaw the building of the greatest church of the medieval era the cathedral of St. Denis. St. Denis is today known as Pseudo-Dionysius, a 5th or 6th century monk whose writings were written under the name of Dionysius the Aeropagite, the first convert of St. Paul. Denis/Dionysius's mystical writings on the light of God were heavily influential on Abbot Suger and as he designed the cathedral, he saw to it that the stained glass and windows allowed the light to filter into the building such that the very experience of the aesthetics would be like an ecstatic experience of God.

This brought him into conflict with St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "the Difficult Saint", who is best known for his four-volume commentary on the Song of Songs. Bernard was unarguably the greatest and most influential figure of the 12th century, and he thought that the great burst of enthusiasm for aesthetics in Abbot Suger's cathedral was perilously close to idolatry. In a certain sense, neither figure won this dispute for the beauty of cathedrals has been with us ever since, without the highly developed sense of theological aesthetics articulated by Abbot Suger being understood by those who marveled in - and at - the cathedrals as "houses for God".

And yet, the vision of beauty permeated theological and mystical writings that dealt with the vision of God and the resurrection of the dead. The very notion of beauty was found throughout much of medieval thought - which was oftentimes theologically rooted, but not always - and it is to Eco's credit that he can so deftly maneuver between theological and philosophical writings on the one hand, and their embodiment in architecture on the other. The vision of God was the summit of the medieval spiritual journey, and this even resulted in the painting of pictures of Jesus as being physically beautiful - a sign of no small level of devotion.

This book is a fascinating read whose short length is by no means matched for its insight and familiarity with both primary and secondary sources. Students of history (whether sociological or intellectual), theology and mysticism, and art will benefit from the lucid work. Casual readers will benefit from it as well, and likely find themselves looking at light - and all that it brings to sight - just a little differently as a result of reading it.