Work · Renaissance & Humanism
Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love
A commentary in the form of a banquet dialogue that interprets love as the desire for beauty rising from bodies to God; the source of the Renaissance idea of “Platonic love”.
Introduction
Ficino wrote the commentary in 1469, after completing his Latin translation of Plato. He presents it as the report of a banquet held near Florence on 7 November, the traditional date of Plato’s birth and death, at which friends interpret the speeches of Plato’s “Symposium” in turn. Love, defined as the desire for beauty, is the force that holds the world together: the beauty of bodies points beyond itself to the beauty of the soul, of the angelic mind and finally of God. Ficino distinguishes a heavenly and an earthly Venus and describes the love between friends as a shared ascent to God. He also translated the text into Italian himself. Through Pico della Mirandola’s critique, Castiglione’s “Book of the Courtier” (1528) and the love poetry of the 16th century, the commentary shaped the European idea of “Platonic love”.
Connections
Builds on
- Symposiumc. 385 BCE · Plato
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