Cusanus und die Kunst

Elena Filippi

doi:10.1515/mial-2014-0008

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Cusanus und die Kunst

Elena Filippi

Published/Copyright: May 7, 2014

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From the journal Das Mittelalter Volume 19 Issue 1

Abstract

Although Nicholas of Cusa has not developed a theory of aesthetics‚ he frequently uses examples from the domain of art, especially from the Flemish ars nova which he knew very well. His doctrine of the image has its basis in the idea of man as image or mirror of the divine archetype. As a consequence Cusa tries to think of God using images rather than rational concepts, because the image represents the common basis between God and the human mind. In his ‘De visione Dei’‚ Cusa analyzes human perspectivity and the resulting capacity of human vision. This relates him to Leon Battista Alberti. One highlight in the influence and the fascination of Cusa’s theory of vision for the art of the Renaissance is the celebrated self-portrait of Albrecht Dürer (1500). The essay focuses on the ‘crucifixion of Benediktbeuern’, by an unknown artist but probably commissioned by someone within the milieu of Nicolas of Cusa. In this painting the spectator has the sort of active role Cusa describes in his writings, when he speaks of the cognition of God as a relation between seeing and being seen.

Keywords: art; image; painter; mirror; techniques of vision

Published Online: 2014-5-7

Published in Print: 2014-5-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/mial-2014-0008

Keywords for this article

art; image; painter; mirror; techniques of vision