{The Renaissance (again) [continued]}{– The Perfect Circle}[1st May 1991]

[Redbook9:238][19910501:0800pp]{The Renaissance (again) [continued]}{– The Perfect Circle}[1^st May 1991]

19910501:0800

[continued]

‘A constantly recurring ideal for the Renaissance architects was the church in variations of a centralised plan: the structure might be circular, hexagonal, octagonal, or a Greek cross (cruciform with equal arms). Philosophers from Plato onwards saw the circle as the perfect shape, a reflection on earth of heavenly perfection. In the 15^th century [ce] the Neoplatonic and Christianised version of this idea, enunciated by such writers as Marcilio Ficino (1433-99[ce]), declared that God is the center of the Universe, the hub of the world, and yet encompasses that world. The human shape itself can be contained within the circle, as demonstrated in the figure of the “Vitruvian man”,* whose outstretched limbs touch the circumference of a circle of which his navel is the centre.

**

*(eg per Leonardo da Vinci, after Vitruvius (1^st c[entury] BC[E])

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 629

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