Neoplatonism and Michelangelo

The Influence of Neoplatonism on Michelangelo

by Dr. Deborah Vess

Director of Interdisciplinary Studies/Associate Professor of History

Georgia College & State University
In 1860 Jacob Burckhardt published The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, in which he argued that the Renaissance was a drastic departure from the ideology of the Middle Ages. While the emphasis of the Middle Ages was on other-worldly spirituality, the Renaissance focused on the individual and his place in the cosmos. In contrast to the Middle Ages, Burckhardt argued that the Renaissance was a secular society which reveled in pagan writings, art, and values. This seems particularly evident in the art of the time. Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus; Titian painted Sacred and Profane Love; Donatello and Michelangelo glorified the nude figure.

To view the Renaissance solely from this perspective, however, would be misleading. Burckhardt also emphasized the fact that the philosophical outlook of the Renaissance, in many instances, attempted to Christianize pagan ideologies. This is particularly true of Marsilio Ficino and the Neoplatonic Academy. In the Renaissance, Neoplatonism enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, and was not thought of as being in opposition to Christianity. This is nowhere more clearly seen than in the works of the greatest artist of the age, Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo's art embodies many of the characteristics Burckhardt ascribes to the Renaissance, yet his greatest works operate within a Christian context. Michelangelo's art is a powerful argument against a Burckhartian interpretation of the Renaissance as a purely secular society. Far from being devoted exclusively to secular values, the Renaissance was still an intensely Christian society.

Neoplatonism, as a school of thought, had its origins in the work of Plotinus in the third century. Plotinus argued that there were three hypostases: the One, the Intelligible, and the World Soul. The One was the highest, most perfect realm. The One was completely undifferentiated and, therefore, nothing could be said about it. It was, then, even beyond being; the One transcended all categories which could be applied to it. The other two hypopstases "emanated" from the One. They were not created, but rather, came into being as a result of a corrupt desire to be other than the One. The Intelligible was the Divine mind for Plotinus, and took its form by reflecting back on the One. The realm of the Intelligible was populated by divine ideas, which were the perfect exemplars of sensible objects. The physical world came into being as a result of the emanation of Soul from the Intelligible. Some souls become corrupted and associate with matter. Matter was a complete negation, neither good nor evil in itself, but utterly formless. Soul informs matter, and makes it what it is. Matter, while not evil in itself, is, however, the source of evil. Being bound up with matter corrupts the soul; some souls forget their divine origins and become too concerned with sensible things. . All souls, however, eventually seek to return to the One. Plotinus argued that the soul can become reunited with the One through contemplation. The life of the philosopher, for Plotinus, was the best attempt to free oneself from the bonds of matter and achieve a vision of the One.

Neoplatonism had a profound influence during the Renaissance. Lorenzo de Medici was a prominent patron of the arts, and supported Marsilio Ficino and the Neoplatonic Academy in Florence. It was in the Medici compound that Michelangelo got his early education, and he was no doubt familiar with Ficino's works and with his translations of Plotinus and Plato. Michelangelo's philosophy of art was Neoplatonic, and represented a departure from other theories of the time. Michelangelo believed that the artist's function was to bring preexistent forms out of the material at hand: "the greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand which obeys the intelleto can accomplish that" (Clements 16). Art forms, or the concetto, exist independently of the artist, and are implanted in matter by nature. The artist's function was to draw these forms out of the material.

Some artists, however, were more skilled than others, since they had the ability to perceive harmony and beauty, or an intelleto. "Fine painting is nothing other than a copy of the perfections of God and a remembrance of his painting, and lastly a music and melody which only the intelleto is capable of hearing" (Clements 18). This ability, or intelleto, was a gift from God: "the Idea of Beauty, which is a mirror and a lamp to both my arts, was bestowed on me at birth. Whoever conceives otherwise is mistaken. This Idea alone lifts my eyes to those high visions which I set myself to paint and carve here below" (Blunt 69).

Michelangelo was famous for his ability to harmonize the design of a statue with the proportions of the block of marble. Several artists had already attempted to carve the block which eventually became the David. It was too narrow for others to work with; only Michelangelo was able to create a workable plan for the block. For Michelangelo, this ability was a gift from God, and those who possess intelleto did not need to rely on artificial techniques to create a work of art.

Michelangelo differed in this respect from many Renaissance theorists, who argued that art should reproduce nature. Da Vinci believed that "the most praiseworthy painting [was that] which has the most conformity with the object imitated" (Clements 147). To this end, he advised painters to use mirrors, since mirrored reflections were "the true painting" (Clements 147). This scientific view of art was further developed by Ghiberti. In his Commentaries, he argued that the mathematical proportions of the human body were the basis of its beauty. Similarly, Alberti argued that artistic beauty was "a kind of harmony of all the parts of a thing of such a kind that nothing could be taken away or altered without making it less pleasing; Beauty is a kind of harmony and concord of all the parts to form a whole which is constructed according to a fixed number ... as the highest and most perfect law of nature demands" (Blunt 15). One of the methods Alberti employed to achieve such an end was a process of mathematical averaging, by which he could "eliminate the imperfections of natural objects by combining the most typical parts" (Blunt 18).

Michelangelo's theory of the concetto and intelleto was in opposition to these theories. He was often criticized for not faithfully representing his subjects. The statue of Lorenzo de Medici, for example, bore little resemblance to its subject. The Virgin of the Rome Pieta appears to be around twenty five years of age -- not much older than her crucified son. The proportions of Michelangelo's figures were often unrealistic. According to Vasari, his figures "were often nine, ten, and twelve heads long; he departed not a little from the work regulated by measure, order and rule which other men did according to a common use and after Vitruvius .. . to which he would not conform" (Blunt 75). Michelangelo also violated the rules of perspective, often making objects in the background appear larger than they should be.

Michelangelo did not, then, stress the literal imitation of nature. Michelangelo disliked this trend in art, since this was an area where "one cannot make fixed rules, making figures as regular as signposts" (Blunt 75). DÅrer relied on precise proportions in representing the human figure, and Michelangelo found his work uninteresting. Flemish painting was equally distasteful, since their painting is "expressly to deceive the outer vision ... and all this, although it may appear good to some eyes, is done truly without reason or art, without symmetry or proportion, and without attention to selection or rejection" (Clements 207-208). For Michelangelo, the function of art was to represent ideal beauty. As such, Michelangelo portrayed figures which are not engaged in any particular activity -- the stance of the David is twisted, and the manner in which he holds his slingshot would make any action impossible. The Virgin is portrayed as a young woman because her beauty is timeless. The David and the Virgin are ideal types, not particular individuals.

The artist, for Michelangelo, resembled God. Just as God implanted Beauty in the physical world, the artist attempts to create the concetto in matter. Beauty in the physical world "awakens in the soul an inner image", and this image is superior to anything in the world, since it is closer to ideal beauty. "The beauty which you see comes truly from your lady; but this beauty grows, since it ascends to a better place when through mortal eyes it passes on to the soul ... There it is made into something divine" (Clements 7). Anything the artist creates, then, will be inferior to the concetto. Many of Michelangelo's works were unfinished. If the artist's function was merely to release the forms imprisoned in matter, the unfinished work had as much merit as the completed work, since it "communicates the whole image even though it is itself fragmentary" (De Tolnay 95). Vasari argued that "one can recognize the perfection of the[se] work[s] even though [their] parts are incomplete" (De Tolnay 95). Faithful representation was not important to Michelangelo; rather, conveying the concetto and the ideal forms was the aim of Michelangelo's art. Michelangelo's theory of art, then, was opposed to contemporary theories and reflects the influence of Neoplatonism.

Michelangelo's art consistently focused on human subjects. Da Vinci's portraits, such as the Mona Lisa, often included elaborate landscapes. Michelangelo rarely included such details in his paintings or his sculpture. This preoccupation with the human figure can also be attributed to Neoplatonic theories. Ficino had described man as the center of being, as the "connecting link between God and the world" (Quoted in Panofsky 137). For Ficino, a human was a "rational soul participating in the Divine mind, employing a body" (Quoted in Panofsky 137). A human soul consisted of an anima prima and an anima secunda. The anima secunda, or the lower soul, was closely connected with the body. It consisted of the faculties of nourishment and growth, external perception, and internal perception, or imagination. The anima prima, or higher soul, consisted of reason and mind. Reason applies the rules of logic to the images which come from the lower soul. It is, then, involved with sensual experience. Mind, however, has a higher function -- it contemplates the Divine Ideas; consequently, it can discern truth. The mind, then, is closer to the divine intellect. Reason can allow itself to be influenced by the world, or it can allow mind to guide it. Humans share the faculties of the lower soul with the animals; mind resembles the divine intellect. Reason can descend to the level of the brutes, or it can rise to the realm of the intelligibles. Humans, then, occupy a central position between the realm of pure matter and the realm of pure intelligence.

Michelangelo translated these ideas into art. The figures of his early and middle periods represent physical perfection. Michelangelo saw the body as a reflection of the beauty of the soul. David's inner strength, for example, was reflected in a strong and beautiful body. Most of Michelangelo's figures were nude and, on the surface, this would seem to support Burckhardt's contention that the Renaissance was basically worldly in nature. The use of nudes, however, had a positive connotation within the iconographic tradition. Caesare Ripa's encyclopedia of iconography described two personifications, Felicita Eterna and Felicita Breve, which were interpreted as the antithesis between eternal and temporal values. Felicita Eterna was portrayed as a "resplendently beautiful, blonde young woman, whose nudity denotes her contempt for perishable earthly things" (Panofsky 151). Felicita Breve, on the other hand, was always clothed, which signified her devotion to things of the world.

Ficino expressed this dichotomy with Venus Coelestis and Venus Vulgaris. Venus was the pagan goddess of love, and the two Venuses represented two different kinds of love. Love was the basis of Neoplatonism. Plato's Symposium argued that love was the active force which bound everything together; Ficino argued that love was "only another name for that self-reverting current from God to the world and from the world to God" (Panofsky 141). Love had motivated God to "spread himself" into the world, and love motivates men to return to him. Love's ultimate goal is reaching God, who manifests himself in beauty. Ficino, therefore, defined love as "a desire for the fruition of beauty"(Panofsky 141). The two Venuses were alternative ways of pursuing beauty. Venus Coelestis rises above earthly things, while Venus Vulgaris is satisfied with the sensual world. Titian's Sacred and Profane Love embodies these ideas; Botticelli's The Birth of Venus can also be successfully interpreted within this framework (cf. Robb). The use of the nude came to signify "the ideal and intelligible as opposed to the physical and sensible, the simple and "true" essence as opposed to its varied and changeable images" (Panofsky 159).

Michelangelo's use of the nude, then, was not necessarily indicative of paganism. For Michelangelo, "the beauty of God [the] beautiful human face here shows ... My mind to heaven by grace or charity, the heart is late to love what the eyes cannot see" (Linscott 144). Human beauty reflects God's beauty : "Nowhere does God, in his grace, reveal himself to me more clearly than in some lovely human form, which I love solely because it is a mirrored image of himself" (Blunt 69). Michelangelo worshipped the nude, but this was not indicative of secularism; rather, it was, for the Neoplatonist, a tribute to God's own beauty.

The body was not only a reflection of the Divine, but it was a reflection of the human's inner self. The intense spirituality of Michelangelo's Moses was portrayed in a body of huge proportions and massive strength. Michelangelo's ability to depict this tremendous radiation of inner strength became known as his terribilita. Moses is portrayed "as the personification of the elemental forces -- the human volcano about to erupt with righteous wrath ... the dead center of a hurricane of emotional fury" (Fleming 190). This is revealed by the "the powerful musculature of the arms, the fiery mood, and the torsions of the body" (Fleming 191).

Neoplatonists argued that matter, in itself, was a complete negation, and depended on the soul to endow it with shape and life. The higher realms, then, inform the lower realms. The Intelligible is a reflection of the One, Soul is a reflection of the Intelligible, and matter is reflection of the soul. Michelangelo's treatment of the body as a reflection of the inner self is consistent with Neoplatonic tenets.

The awe inspiring quality of Michelangelo's figures was also due to his belief that the soul was continually in conflict with the body. The union of the soul and the body corrupted the soul by diverting its attention to sensual experience, rather than the higher realms. Ficino argued that
"sense ... can perceive neither itself nor intellect and the objects of intelligence (Cassirer 204) In the body, the soul is truly far more miserable, both because of the weakness and infirmity of the body itself and its want of all things and because of the continual anxiety of the mind; therefore, the more laborious it is for the celestial and immortal soul continually to follow its happiness, while fallen into an intemperate earthly destructible body, the more easily it obtains it when it is ... free from the body" (Cassirer 211).

Further, Ficino claimed that
"the motion of all natural species proceeds according to a certain principle ... a motion does not wander from one uncertain disorderly state to another but is directed from a certain and orderly state [its origin]to a certain and orderly state [its end], harmonizing with that origin" (Cassirer 194-195). The soul "characteristically incline[s] toward the infinite," which is universal truth and goodness (Cassirer 202).

Michelangelo portrayed the struggle of the soul to return to the infinite in stone. The San Matteo, an unfinished work, seems to be struggling to free himself from the surrounding stone. Michelangelo's figures also express"action barely restrained" (Clements 175). This tension was accomplished by the use of the contraposito. Michelangelo encouraged his students to "always make a figure pyramidal ... and serpentine formed" (Clements 175). The use of contraposito dictates that "whatever action a figure is engaged in, its trunk [will] always appear twisted, so that if the right arm is extended forward or makes any other gesture designed by the artist, the left side of the body shall withdraw" (Clements 177). For this reason, "one sees in [Michelangelo's] paintings the most difficult movements...for this reason tending toward a certain savagery and terribility" (Clements 179). Contemporaries, such as Canova, argued that Michelangelo "deliberately chose contorted and convulsed movements" (Clements 179). Michelangelo's use of contraposito was consonant with Alberti's view that painters should express the soul with bodily movements rather than with expressions. The use of contraposito contributed to the terribilita of Michelangelo's figures.

The bondage of the soul on earth was deeply felt by Michelangelo: "since half of me, descended from the heavens, thereto with longing flies and turns again" (Linscott 109). The bondage of the soul in matter was bitter indeed: "if suicide for any on earth were licensed, since by death we think we'll return to Heaven, It would be right for him who lives a bondsman, wretched, unhappy, with such true observance" (Linscott 31). Michelangelo's art as well as his thought, then, embodied Neoplatonic ideals.

The theme of the soul's return to the One or God was frequently emphasized in Michelangelo's art. The Bacchus is an example of a soul which is too intent on physical pleasures. Bacchus' gaze is fixed on his oversized goblet of wine, and his stance indicates that he "is considerably affected by the consumption of his product" (Hartt 70). This is the sort of life which man must avoid.

The tomb of Julius II and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel illustrate the triumph of the soul over the material world. Both the tomb and the Sistine chapel can be interpreted within a Neoplatonic scheme, but in these works, Neoplatonism operates in conjunction with Christian ideology. The struggle of the soul to free itself from matter is equated with the Christian doctrine of resurrection and eternal life.

The tomb of Julius II was originally planned on a massive scale as a free-standing monument with more than forty statues. Julius died before the tomb could be completed, and difficulties in negotiating with his heirs, as well as the impracticality of the project resulted in a smaller wall tomb which is now in the aisle of the Church of San Pietro in Unicoli. Tombs of popes were traditionally in three levels, which symbolized earthly existence, death and salvation (Fleming 189). Michelangelo's original plan for the tomb incorporated these divisions into a Neoplatonic representation of the soul's reunion with God. The lowest level included several slaves who were struggling to free themselves from their bonds. These statues represented souls who were enslaved in matter. The low state of the slaves was further emphasized by the appearance of the face of an ape in the marble around the Dying Slave. The ape was a "symbol of everything sub-human in man, of lust, greed, and gluttony" (Panofsky 195). Ficino and the Neoplatonists argued that the lower soul was "that nature which we have in common with the all animals" (Cassirer 196). In Christian terms, the slaves represented the soul in bondage to the passions. Bound slaves had long been used as a symbol of the "unresurrected human soul held in bondage by its natural desires" (Panofsky 194). The slaves were contrasted with the Victories, who "represent the human soul in its state of freedom, capable of conquering the base emotions by reason" (Panofsky 197). The lower level of the tomb, in both the Christian and Neoplatonic frameworks, represents the soul in its least desirable state.

The lower level of the tomb symbolizes life on earth; the middle level depicted the kind of men who "pointed the way toward the divine goal of humanity -- reunion with God" (Fleming 189). The Neoplatonist Landino argued that the vita activa and the vita contemplativa were the two roads to God. Michelangelo symbolized this idea with the figures of Rachel and Leah, Moses and Paul. Rachel, who looks upward, personified the contemplative life; Leah, who looks downward, personified the active life. Rachel and Leah represent Neoplatonic themes; Moses and Paul symbolize biblical themes. Moses represented the Old Law; Paul the New. Both, however, arrived "through a synthesis of the active life and the contemplative life at a vision of the face of God" (De Tolnay 39). All four figures represented the victory of the spirit over the physical world.

The second level also included an effigy of the Pope, who was carried by two angels up to the third level, which consisted of the Madonna and child. This clearly invokes the Christian theme of the resurrection and eternal life of the soul. The original scheme of the tomb, then, with its depiction of biblical characters and the theme of resurrection is outwardly Christian. Many of its elements, however, invoke Neoplatonic ideas. The tomb of Julius II, then, is neither entirely Christian nor Neoplatonic, and art historians have consequently argued over the iconographic scheme behind the tomb. Condivi argued that the theme of the tomb was primarily a tribute to the dead pope. The face of the ape, for example, was meant to symbolize the arts which Julius patronized. The fact that the lower level of the tomb included several reliefs depicting the achievements of Julius seems to support this interpretation. The tomb, then, appears to have multiple layers of meaning. Its complexity illustrates the extent to which a pagan philosophy could be blended into an Christian framework.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel follows the same type of program. The ceiling is divided into a series of triangles, squares, and circles. Plato regarded mathematics as eternal truths; the geometrical shapes of the Sistine Chapel represent the immutable mathematical forms. The scheme of the ceiling is divided into three zones. The lowest zone, which is also the one which receives the least amount of light, is "peopled by a race enduring the vicissitudes of the human condition" (De Tolnay 40). The middle zone consists of Old Testament prophets and pagan sibyls, "who have knowledge of the Divine and mediate between man and God" (Fleming 192). The juxtaposition of pagan sibyls and biblical prophets suggests a scheme which is not entirely Christian. The use of prophets and pagan exemplars side by side suggests that it is the qualities they shared, rather than their specific beliefs, which made them important. They are the "inspired men and women who, through the exercise of their minds and imaginations, became the mediators between the human and divine spheres" (Fleming 192). Each of the prophets and sibyls are accompanied by two youths, which, in Platonic theory, "personify the rational faculties ... by which man rises to the contemplation of divine truth" (Fleming 192). In traditional Christian art, these figures would have been angels.

The center of the ceiling depicts the story of man and his relation to God. On the surface, it is a portrayal of biblical history, beginning with the creation and ending with the Last Judgement. The nine scenes, however, are in reverse chronological order, beginning with the Drunkenness of Noah. Noah symbolizes the soul who is overwhelmed by temptations of the flesh; his enslavement to the passions is symbolized by a scene to his left, which shows him tilling the fields. This is consistent with Neoplatonism, which often symbolized the lowest state of the soul by drunkenness. The panels progress from the representation of man in his lowest state to the creation. In the Creation of Adam, there are two genii under the arm of God. One is a girl, who "represents the Platonic idea of Eve, preexisting in the divine intellect" (De Tolnay 45). The final panel, God Dividing the Light from Darkness, represents the realm of pure being. In the Creation of Eve, God was portrayed as a human; in this panel he is seen "as a swirling abstraction" (Fleming 194). Beginning with the Drunkenness of Noah, the panels "ascend the ladder of the histories into the pure light of knowledge, to the point of dissolution into the freedom of infinity" (Fleming 194). The panels, then, may be interpreted as a Neoplatonic manifesto.

Burckhardt argued that Renaissance Italy was infatuated with the outer world. Their interest in landscapes and autobiography, for example, indicated a more worldly society than the Middle Ages. The writings of antiquity were full of the "victory of philosophy over religious tradition" (Burckhardt 373). "Taken altogether, they formed a marked contrast to the Christian faith in a Divine government of the world" (Burckhardt 374). The humanism of the Renaissance, in Burckhardt's view, "was in fact pagan, and ... its representatives .. were the advance guard of an unbridled individualism" which had the inevitable result of weakening Christianity (Burckhardt 377).

A close study of Michelangelo's art illustrates several problems with Burckhardt's thesis. The focus of Michelangelo's art was man, which on the surface seems to confirm Burckhardt's analysis of the Renaissance. Neoplatonism, however, provided a framework for reconciling secularism with Christianity. The Neoplatonist's interest in man stemmed from his belief that man was that element which tied the universe together. His interest in beauty, as reflected in Michelangelo's preoccupation with the nude, arose from his identification of beauty with the highest good. Far from being worldly in content, the Neoplatonist argued that the body was the dungeon of the soul; Michelangelo's contorted figures symbolize the struggle of the soul to free itself from matter and achieve a vision of God.

Michelangelo and the thought of the Neoplatonic Academy suggest that the Renaissance was not as secular nor as pagan as Burckhardt would have us believe. Christianity was still a potent force; the modes of expressing it in the Renaissance, however, were different from those of the Middle Ages. While Saint Bernard and the Benedictine tradition urged the Christian to abandon life in the world, Renaissance Neoplatonism found God in beautiful things. The Renaissance man did indeed tend to worship the world, but at least for the Neoplatonists, this was part of the worship of God. Michelangelo once said that art is brought from heaven (Blunt 72). Only divine inspiration could have created the David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and it was to the divine that Michelangelo wished to appeal.
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