ABSTRACT
De amore, or the Commentary on Plato’s Symposium, was written in 1469, after Marsilio Ficino had finished translating the works of Plato for the Medici family. It was not published until 1484, when it was included with Ficino’s translations of Plato’s works from Greek to Latin. Ficino’s definition of beauty follows the Platonic definition as depending on a universal principle—that is, as given by language. According to Ficino, that which pleases the soul must be an incorporeal beauty, a conceptual representation not based in sense perception. In De amore, II.9, “beauty of the soul also is a splendor in the harmony of doctrines and customs,” 1 in the matrix of language which creates the identity of the subject in terms other than sense perception. Desire in De amore is not a physical, instinctual desire, but a desire created by language in the construction of perception. In II.2: “For it is the same God whose beauty all things desire, and in possessing whom all things rest. From there, therefore, our desire is kindled.” Desire is governed by knowledge of God, knowledge of the archetypal principle in language. Perception, and judgments of beauty, are governed by the desire which is a function of language. Perception and desire are constructed through language. The desire for the good in the circuitus spiritualis through the hypostases is that which governs artistic expression.
