Imago mundi. The notion of something as a microcosm of the macrocosm

Abstract

This essay studies the notion of something as a microcosm of the macrocosm in medieval and early modern cultures from several perspectives. To gain deeper insights into this idea, it is necessary to understand medieval principles of astrology, ideas that were related to the Neoplatonic and Hermetic mindsets, two schools of philosophy and religion for which the concept of microcosm was central. Specifically, it is examined here from four perspectives, namely, the human mind/soul/imagination, the human body, cities and buildings, especially churches, as microcosms, and finally a work of art or image as an imago mundi that mirrors the whole. To this end, the analysis draws from visual and textual sources, enquires into iconographic types such as the zodiac man, intellectual milieus like the court of Alfonso X, interpretations appearing in Arabic texts and essential reading in this regard, including the Picatrix and al-Kindi’s De radiis, plus some examples as far removed from the Christian medieval cultural horizon as the Indian Upanishads, Andrei Tarkovsky and Antoni Tàpies. This study is not only based on information from different fields of knowledge, mostly visual and religious studies, but also draws from anthropology of arts and philosophy.