Book contents
- Platonic Love from Antiquity to the Renaissance
- Platonic Love from Antiquity to the Renaissance
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Love in Plato
- Part II Development of Platonic Love in Antiquity
- Part III Love and Metaphysics during the Middle Ages
- Part IV Platonic Love during the Renaissance
- Chapter 12 Human and Divine Love in Marsilio Ficino
- Chapter 13 Marsilio Ficino and Leone Ebreo on Beauty
- Chapter 14 Pico della Mirandola on Platonic Love
- Chapter 15 The Contra-Amorem Tradition in the Renaissance
- Chapter 16 Castiglione and Platonic Love
- Chapter 17 Platonic Love in Renaissance Discussions of Friendship
- Bibliography
- Subject Index
- Index Locorum
Chapter 16 - Castiglione and Platonic Love
from Part IV - Platonic Love during the Renaissance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 August 2022
- Platonic Love from Antiquity to the Renaissance
- Platonic Love from Antiquity to the Renaissance
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Love in Plato
- Part II Development of Platonic Love in Antiquity
- Part III Love and Metaphysics during the Middle Ages
- Part IV Platonic Love during the Renaissance
- Chapter 12 Human and Divine Love in Marsilio Ficino
- Chapter 13 Marsilio Ficino and Leone Ebreo on Beauty
- Chapter 14 Pico della Mirandola on Platonic Love
- Chapter 15 The Contra-Amorem Tradition in the Renaissance
- Chapter 16 Castiglione and Platonic Love
- Chapter 17 Platonic Love in Renaissance Discussions of Friendship
- Bibliography
- Subject Index
- Index Locorum
Summary
Reassessing the speech on Platonic love by the interlocutor Pietro Bembo in The Book of the Courtier (1528), this essay discusses Castiglione’s Platonic love ideology both as a philosophy and as the theoretical underpinning of an amorous praxis. After an overview of the reception of Platonic love during this stage of the Italian Renaissance, it examines to what extent Bembo’s discourse reflects Ficinian Neoplatonic notions of love as enjoyment of beauty and ascent toward the divine. While Castiglione echoes Ficino in his emphasis on the role of reason, Bembo creates a more permissive standard for younger lovers and for older lovers sanctions the kiss as a pivotal point on the ascent towards spiritual love, thus reconciling contemplative aspects of Platonic love with the concrete amorous dynamics of court life. Moreover, Bembo’s speech is predicated on the awareness that desire can degenerate into fury, an aspect that is discussed in the context of the contra amorem tradition. Literary form is a constant consideration: as a Ciceronian dialogue, the text not only projects an ideal Renaissance court, but also has a mimetic function in that its medium reflects and supports its content.
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- Platonic Love from Antiquity to the Renaissance , pp. 258 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022