Martianus Capella  

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-# The [[representation]] of [[abstract]] [[principle]]s by [[character]]s or [[figure]]s.+'''Martianus Minneus Felix Capella''' was a [[paganism|pagan]] writer of [[Late Antiquity]], one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven [[liberal arts]] that structured early medieval education. According to [[Cassiodorus]], he was a native of [[M'Daourouch|Madaura]]—which had been the native city of [[Apuleius]]—in the Roman [[Africa (province)|province of Africa]], and he appears to have practiced as a jurist at [[Carthage]].
-# A [[picture]], [[book]], or other [[form]] of [[communication]] using such representation.+
-# A [[symbolic]] representation.+
-An '''allegory''' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] αλλος, , "other", and αγορευειν, ''agoreuein,'' "to speak in public") is a figurative mode of [[representation (arts)|representation]] conveying a [[Meaning (linguistic)|meaning]] other than the [[literal meaning|literal]]. Allegory communicates its message by means of [[symbolic]] figures, actions or symbolic representation. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of [[rhetoric]], but an allegory does not have to be expressed in [[language]]: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in realistic [[painting]], [[sculpture]] or some other form of [[Mimesis|mimetic]], or representative art. Simply put, an allegory is a device that can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel, or in visual form, such as in painting or sculpture. As a literary device, an allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor. As an artistic device, an allegory is a visual symbolic representation. An example of a simple visual allegory is the image of the [[Death (personification)|grim reaper]]. Viewers understand that the image of the grim reaper is a symbolic representation of death. Nevertheless, images and fictions with several possible interpretations are not allegories in the true sense. Furthermore, not every fiction with general application is an allegory.+The lunar crater [[Capella (crater)|Capella]] is named after him.
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-The [[etymology|etymological]] meaning of the word is broader than the common use of the word. Though it is similar to other rhetorical comparisons, an allegory is sustained longer and more fully in its details than a [[metaphor]], and appeals to [[imagination]], while an [[analogy]] appeals to [[reason]] or [[logic]]. The [[fable]] or [[parable]] is a short allegory with one definite moral. +
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-[[Northrop Frye]] discussed what he termed a "continuum of allegory", ranging from what he termed the "naive allegory" of ''[[The Faerie Queen]]'', to the more private allegories of modern [[paradox literature]]. In this perspective, the characters in a "naive" allegory are not [[rounded character|fully three-dimensional]], for each aspect of their individual personalities and the events that befall them embodies some moral quality or other abstraction; the allegory has been selected first, and the details merely flesh it out.+
- +
-==Examples==+
-Allegory has been a favourite form in the [[literature]] of nearly every nation. It represents many tales.+
-In classical literature two of the best-known allegories are [[Allegory of the cave|the cave of shadowy representations]] in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic]]'' (Book VII) and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa ([[Livy]] ii. 32); and several occur in [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]].'' In Late Antiquity [[Martianus Capella]] organized all the information a fifth-century upper-class male needed to know into an allegory of the wedding of Mercury and ''Philologia,'' with the seven [[liberal arts]] as guests; Matianmus Capella's allegory was widely read through the Middle Ages. +
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-Medieval thinking accepted allegory as having a ''reality'' underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as superficial facts of surface appearances. Thus, the bull ''[[Unam Sanctam]]'' (1302) presents themes of the unity of [[Christendom]] with the pope as its head in which the allegorical details of the metaphors are adduced as ''actual facts'' which take the place of a logical demonstration, yet employing the vocabulary of logic: "''Therefore'' of this one and only Church there is one body and one head—not two heads as if it were a monster... If, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they ''necessarily'' confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ" [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Unam_sanctam (complete text)].+
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-In the late fifteenth century, the enigmatic ''[[Hypnerotomachia]]'', with its elaborate woodcut illustrations, shows the influence of themed pageants and [[masque]]s on contemporary allegorical representation, as [[Renaissance humanism|humanist dialectic]] conveyed them. +
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-Some elaborate and successful specimens of allegory are to be found in the following works, arranged in approximately chronological order: +
-* [[Aesop]] – ''[[Aesop's Fables|Fables]]'' +
-* [[Plato]] – ''[[Plato's Republic|The Republic]]'' (''[[Plato's allegory of the cave]]'')+
-* [[Plato]] – ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]]'' (''[[Chariot Allegory]]'')+
-*[[Euripides]] – ''[[The Trojan Women]]''+
-* ''[[Book of Revelation]]'' (for allegory in Christian theology, see [[typology (theology)]])+
-* [[Martianus Capella]] – ''De nuptiis philologiæ et Mercurii''+
-* ''[[The Romance of the Rose]]''+
-* [[William Langland]] – ''[[Piers Plowman]]''+
-* ''[[Pearl (poem)|Pearl]]''+
-* [[Dante Alighieri]] – ''[[The Divine Comedy]]''+
-* ''[[Everyman (play)|Everyman]]''+
-* [[Edmund Spenser]] – ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''+
-* [[John Bunyan]] – ''[[Pilgrim's Progress]]''+
-* [[Jonathan Swift]] – ''[[A Tale of a Tub]]''+
-* [[Joseph Addison]] – ''Vision of Mirza''+
-* [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]] – ''Princess Brambilla''+
-* [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] – "[[The Great Carbuncle]]"+
-* [[Herman Melville]] – ''[[The Confidence-Man]]''+
-* [[Edgar Allan Poe]] – "[[The Masque of the Red Death]]"+
-Modern allegories in fiction tend to operate under constraints of modern requirements for [[verisimilitude]] within conventional expectations of [[realism (arts)|realism]]. Works of fiction with strong allegorical overtones include:+
-* [[Jorge Luis Borges]] – ''[[The Library of Babel]]''+
-* [[Peter S. Beagle]] – ''[[The Last Unicorn]]''+
-* [[William Golding]] – ''[[Lord of the Flies (novel)|Lord of the Flies]]''+
-* [[John Irving]] – ''[[A Prayer for Owen Meany]]''+
-* [[David Lindsay (novelist)|David Lindsay]] – ''A Voyage to Arcturus''+
-* [[Arthur Miller]] – ''[[The Crucible]]''+
-* [[Hualing Nieh]] – ''[[Mulberry and Peach]]''+
-* [[George Orwell]] – ''[[Animal Farm]]''+
-* [[Philip Pullman]] – ''[[His Dark Materials]]''+
-* [[Rex Warner]] – ''The Aerodrome'' +
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-Where some requirements of "realism", in its flexible meanings, are set aside, allegory can come more strongly to the surface, as in the work of [[Bertold Brecht]] or [[Franz Kafka]] on one hand, or on the other in science fiction and fantasy, where an element of universal application and allegorical overtones are common, as with ''[[Dune (novel)|Dune]]''. +
- +
-Allegorical films include:+
-* [[Fritz Lang]]'s ''[[Metropolis (film)|Metropolis]]''+
-* [[Ingmar Bergman]]'s ''[[The Seventh Seal]]''+
-* [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)]]''+
-* ''[[El Topo]]''+
-* ''[[Star Wars]]''+
-* ''[[The Matrix]]''+
-* ''[[The Virgin Suicides]]''+
-* ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|''The Wizard of Oz'']]''+
- +
-Allegorical artworks include:+
-* [[Sandro Botticelli]] – ''La Primavera (Allegory of Spring)''+
-* [[Albrecht Dürer]] – ''[[Melencolia I]]''+
-* [[Artemisia Gentileschi]] – ''Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting''; ''Allegory of Inclination''+
-* [[Jan Vermeer]] – ''The Allegory of Painting''+
-* [[Ambrogio Lorenzetti]]; "Good Government in the City" and "Bad Government in the City"+
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-==See also==+
-*''[[The symbolical language of ancient art and mythology; an inquiry]]''+
-*[[Allegory in the Middle Ages]]+
-*[[Allegory in Renaissance literature]]+
-*[[Allegorical sculpture]]+
-*[[Mythological painting]]+
-*[[Roman à clef]]+
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Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a pagan writer of Late Antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education. According to Cassiodorus, he was a native of Madaura—which had been the native city of Apuleius—in the Roman province of Africa, and he appears to have practiced as a jurist at Carthage.

The lunar crater Capella is named after him.

Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Martianus Capella" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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