Ascensio in Deum per vestigia et in vestigiis. The St. Bonaventure’s immanent Aesthetics and its possible reflections in the iconography of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: Ascensio in Deum per vestigia et in vestigiis. La Estética inmanente de San Buenaventura y sus posibles reflejos en la iconografía de la Basílica de San Francisco en Asís
Published in Monastic and Scholastic Philosophy in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Aesthetics, Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Created world, God, Iconography, Medieval Philosophy, St. Bonaventure, Vestige.
In his Itinerarium mentis in Deum (1259), St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) discusses the six degrees (with a seventh of ecstatic enjoyment) by which man can and should ascend from the created world to contemplate God. In this paper we will analyze only the first two grades of this Itinerarium, which constitute both of them what we might call the “immanent aesthetic” of St. Bonaventure. Highlighting then two of the central theses of this “immanent aesthetic”, we shall try to show the possible reflections that these theses may have had in the iconography of some frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.
St. Bonaventure’s aesthetic ideas as possible doctrinal source of Trecento Italian iconography
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: Ideas estéticas de San Buenaventura como posible fuente doctrinal de la iconografía del Trecento italiano
Published in Art, Criticism and Mysticism
Keywords: Aesthetics, Iconography, Italian painting, Mariology, Patristics. Medieval Philosophy, St. Bonaventure, Trecento.
This paper attempts to highlight the influence that the primary Aesthetics designed by St. Bonaventure could have had on some paintings of the Italian Trecento. Therefore, the work is divided into two parts essentially linked. Firstly it analyzes in detail the first two levels (of the six proposed by the saint. plus a seventh of pure ecstasy), by which man can and must ascend from the world to contemplate God: on those two initial levels, linked to the sensory knowledge, man uses his sensitivity to appreciate the material things of this created world as footprints and traces of their Creator. In the second part several paintings by Giotto, Simnone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Agnolo Gaddi and Taddeo Gaddi are analyzed, in order to see if one can perceive in them some influence of the initial phase of the Aesthetics of Bonaventure, that implies a remarkable enhancement of the physical world and the senses by which we perceive it with full cognitive validity.
The second level of St. Bonaventure’s Transcendent Aesthetics: Speculating the divine Trinity through the good
José María SALVADOR-GONZÁLEZ
Published in Mirabilia Journal 31 (2020/2)
Keywords: Christ, Contemplation, Good, St. Bonaventure, Theology, Trinity.
After pointing out that St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio conceives his Aesthetics as a free way to be able to ascend contemplatively towards God, this article seeks to explain the surprising and ingenious “arguments” (deeply imbued by faith) that this author proposes to base the second level of the “transcendent” stage of his peculiar Aesthetics. In the first four levels of his Aesthetics, Bonaventure establishes this initial ascent to God by considering the external beings of the material world as vestiges of the Creator (first and second levels), and then by examining our mind as an image of God, in which he can be seen reflected in a mirror (third and fourth levels). St. Bonaventure states that in the third stage of his Aesthetics (the "transcendent" stage), the human mind can look over itself to speculate on God in his essential property as the Supreme Being (fifth level) and in his personal properties as highest Good (sixth level). Our article focuses exclusively on the expression of this sixth level of Bonaventurian Aesthetics.
