Francisco de Holanda e a influência do neoplatonismo em Portugal no século XVI

Abstract

The following work investigates the influence of Neoplatonism on the work of Francisco de Holanda (1517-1584), Portuguese theoretician and artist. This philosophical current was characterized as a syncretic movement, based on the study of the works of Plato and his followers, which merged to other currents, such as the Jewish Kabbalah, the Neo-Alexandrian Hermeticism, the Christianity among other doctrines, spreading throughout the European continent over the 16th century. Simultaneously, the artistic language developed in Italy from the second decade of the same century onwards, became the aesthetic canon to be pursued by artists from other territories, reaching the Portuguese kingdom during the opening process to Italian culture, in the third decade of the Cinquecento, scenery in which Francisco de Holanda is located. Therefore, Francisco will be approached from two complementary perspectives: as a theoretician and an artist, situated at the intersection between Neoplatonism and the Italian mannerist movement. For such, the artists theoretical and pictorial works will be analysed in the light of these philosophical-artistic influences, with the objective of identifying his major sources, conceptual affinities and his potential impacts on the Lusitanian culture of the 16th century. Considering art and philosophy as important aspects in the formation of a culture, an analysis of the complex relation between these fields, aiming to understand how philosophical principles are assimilated by the artistic praxis and theory, can contribute to the study of Renaissance culture and the society.