Love in the Golden Age: From Petrarchan Ideal to Mystical Union

Posted on Oct 2, 2024 in Religion

Love in the Golden Age

A. The Petrarchan Ideal: Idealization of Love

The Golden Age’s concept of love begins with Petrarch, who combines two similar philosophies: Cortezia and Neoplatonism.

1. Cortezia

This represents an impossible, unattainable love directed towards a superior woman. Unrequited and unconsummated, this love remains secret.

2. Neoplatonism

This philosophy views the world as a reflection of supreme beauty. Exiled humans should strive for happiness through love and contemplation of beauty, anticipating God’s glory. Love becomes a path to God, a force ascending to absolute truth.

3. Idealization of the Beloved

The lady’s beauty reflects divine harmony. Contemplating her elevates one spiritually, offering a glimpse of divine glory. Conventional beauty standards of the time describe her: golden hair, dark eyes, pale skin, rosy cheeks, and white teeth. The eyes hold particular importance, often identified with light. Absence of light symbolizes the absence of love and the pain of the lover.

B. The Suffering of Love

The beloved’s absence causes suffering, a key theme in love poems. This suffering can stem from various reasons:

  1. Refusal of love or lack of hope: Love and heartbreak are intertwined.
  2. Death of the beloved: This suffering can lead to a yearning for death, a release to rejoin the beloved. Quevedo’s poignant phrase captures this: “Love lives in memory, not the body, but in ashes.”
  3. Deception: This can manifest as the deceit of imagination, senses, and dreams, or as the beloved’s deceptions creating false hope.

C. The Joy of Love

Love becomes the reason for existence. The lover doesn’t escape this pleasure-pain; it’s their destiny.

D. Sensual Love

The Renaissance’s vitalism also embraces the sensual enjoyment of the beloved’s beauty. This creates conflict between desire and reason, leading to pain.

E. Divine Love

In the late 16th century, aesthetics and mysticism emerge:

  • Aesthetics: Represents the individual’s effort towards spiritual perfection through mastering passions and practicing virtues.
  • Mysticism: Shares the same starting point of purification, but aims for union with God through three stages:
    1. Purgative Way: Purification from vices and flaws.
    2. Illuminative Way: Experiencing God’s presence.
    3. Unitive Way: Achieving direct connection and love with God.

F. Vocabulary and Symbolism

Words gain symbolic meaning in mystical literature:

  • Spiritual Canticle: Depicts the entire mystical process.
  • Dark Night of the Soul: Represents the soul’s journey and union with God.
  • Flame of Love Alive: Expresses mystical union.

Examples of symbolic language:

  • Fire: Symbolizes love, beauty, light, purification, God’s grace, and the Holy Spirit.
  • Night: Represents mystical contemplation and purification, necessary for the soul to shed the human and receive divine fire.
  • Source: A symbol of faith.
  • Climb or Summit: Represents overcoming obstacles in love, reflecting transcendence and purification on the path to God.