Allegory Of The Cave Essay

According to Plotinus philosophical beliefs, beauty communicates the order of things both visually and intellectually. That through art you can connect the two realms together. It is through the goodness of one’s soul to bring the intellectual principle of form into something visually beautiful to help the human soul connect to the one (God). One such example of this is the baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, Italy. The structure was rebuilt on top of Roman Ruins in the Tuscan Romanesque style, which was consecrated in the 11 century by Pop Nicholas ll and in 1128 A.D. it became the official baptistery of Florence. Over the next few decades the Florentine guilds specifically the Calimala guild (Cloth-merchants) help shape this structure to what we see today. The baptistery was built in an Octagonal shape, with the exterior decorated of white Carrara marble and green Prato marble, which create three stripes around the building with geometric designs, round Romanesque …show more content…
Which is a visually interpretation of the intellectual realm and a symbol of the highest divine realm for which it mirrors as in Plato’s theory the allegory of the Cave. The interior mosaics are done in the medieval style of flat imagery with the byzantine gold inlay representing the anti-physical realm. The interior mosaics focus was on spiritual side of the human soul and how we connect to God and not the ideal human form with linear perspective as the door panels that were designed by Ghiberti. There are many levels to how one can interpret the symbolic nature of the art work and structure of San Giovanni, both on the intellectual and visual realm. But it is up to one’s own emotional connection to God on either realm when they entire this baptistery to be transcended to the divine truth through its visual