Publication Details

Abstract

This article analyses and compares the doctrines of love and beauty in the relevant works of Plotinus and Ficino, focusing on their allegorical use of the mythology of Aphrodite/Venus and Eros/Amor in their treatises On Love. As a translator and commentator of the collected works of his admired predecessors, Plato and Plotinus, Ficino did not hesitate to slightly bend, or even circumvent, some of their doctrines in his quest for the unification of the Platonic philosophy. Analysing the relevant passages from the Enneads, this article will demonstrate how Plotinus’ emanation theory, as well as his doctrines of love and intelligible beauty, have influenced Ficino’s interpretation of Plato’s doctrine of love, as well as his own exegesis of God’s love and creation.