Painting and sculpture provide model for the chorus in Book II of Plato’s Laws
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Abstract
This paper is a commentary about the role of mimetic arts on the education of Plato’s second best possible city, imagined in the last dialogue he has written, The Laws. The education will be based on the chorus which will follow the designs presented by paintings and sculptures, according to our interpretation. These works of art imitate the Idea of Beauty directly and may be constituted by the image of Republic’s city ideal men, as we shall argue. Education takes place from the body, which dances and sings imitating the patterns exposed by the plastic works of art, to the soul. Therefore, the mimetic arts are essential in education and, as we will show, also in the perception of beauty by a straight representation of the beings.
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