Liberal Arts and Cosmic Music: A Contemplation on Boethiu's Theory of Aesthetics

As the last Roman philosopher and Christian thinker in early medieval period, Boethius played a significant role in the transmission of logical, philosophical and scientific ideas of ancient Greece by translating their works into Latin and through writing commentaries on them. Boethius’ views on beauty and art are drawn upon the Platonic and Pythagorean basics. Although in his original works there is no independent writing on art and aesthetics in its modern sense, his ideas about aesthetics and art are permeated through one of his treatises called De institutione musica. In this paper, I’ll reconstruct and explain Boethius’ view on beauty and art. First, with an overview on his philosophical and theological ideas, I’ll investigate his role in developing the medieval theories of art and beauty and then by remarking specific characteristics of his thoughts on art and beauty, I’ll analyze them. Influenced by Pythagorean mathematical and geometric thinking, Boethius considered the concepts of harmony and proportion in the form as beauty criteria and took the concept of beauty in relation with appearance and phenomenon. He supposes the music as the real art or the liberal art -in his own words - and by expansion of the music concept talks about the cosmic music, the human [spirit] music and the instrumental music. From a Platonic view he recognizes the real (or liberal) artist or musician, one who with an intellectual insight is able to understand the harmony and coordination in the cosmic spheres and human spirit.