Renaissance Art and Magic – Talk & Soirée

In the late Italian Renaissance, theories of art were repeatedly intertwined with ideas of magic, sympathy and spiritual influence.

In this in-person talk at Treadwell’s, Clare Lapraik Guest explores the work of Gian Paolo Lomazzo, whose theory of art combined aesthetics with occult philosophy. Drawing on figures such as Marsilio Ficino and Cornelius Agrippa, she examines how artistic form was understood as a vessel for higher forces. She then considers Lomazzo’s theory more closely – showing its conception of art as an active, even magical, process – and considers whether it envisions the artist as a kind of magus. A drinks soirée follows on the shop floor, with complimentary wine and soft drinks.

Clare Lapraik Guest is a widely published writer and scholar whose interests include Italian Renaissance studies, Sanskrit aesthetics, and the spiritualist and esoteric female artists of the 19th–20th century. Among her publications are the co-edited volume The…