FREE PUBLIC LECTURE EXPLORES RENAISSANCE ART AND ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS

Join Dr. John Lepage March 22 for a free public lecture where philosophy meets art.

Dr. Lepage’s presentation Renaissance Art and the Ancient Philosophers: A Study in the Representation of Ideas, is sponsored by VIU’s Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series, and takes place Friday, March 22 from 10 to 11:30 am in the Malaspina Theatre (Building 310) at VIU’s Nanaimo campus.

Dr. Lepage explores, through a number of beautiful paintings, and a few witty and humorous ones, some of the mysterious but meaningful ways in which the ancient philosophers were adapted to fit the age of the Renaissance. He considers why certain painters painted what they did, when they did, in the way they did.

This Colloquium grows out of long study by Dr. Lepage of the faces of ancient philosophy in Renaissance literature and the visual arts. It draws on research he undertook for his 2012 book, The Revival of Antique Philosophy in the Renaissance, which explores the puzzling role of the pre-Socratic philosophers Democritus and Heraclitus in Renaissance literature.

In particular, his March 22 presentation will survey paintings of these philosophers by Renaissance masters. More broadly, works by Bramante, Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Velasquez, among many others will be examined in the discussion.

Renaissance Art and the Ancient Philosophers: A Study in the Representation of Ideas is part of VIU’s popular Arts & Humanities Colloquium Series, an intimate, reflective and intellectually engaging series of free faculty presentations.

Discussion follows each presentation and everyone is welcome. Refreshments will be provided. The gate at entrance 5D (access from Fifth St.) will be open from 9:15 to 10 am and from 11:15 to 12 noon March 22 to allow easy drop-off and pick-up access to the Theatre for those who have difficulty with stairs.

For further information contact Dr. Daniel Burgoyne at 250.753.3245 local 2126 or at Daniel.Burgoyne@viu.ca.

ABOUT VIU: Vancouver Island University is Canada's west coast university. Known as a centre of excellence for teaching, learning and applied research, VIU offers a diverse range of certificate, diploma and undergraduate and master degree programs to more than 18,000 students on campuses in Nanaimo, Powell River and Cowichan, and at the Parksville-Qualicum Centre. For more information visit www.viu.ca

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