Amor sacro et Amor profano. Remarks on Neoplatonism in Assunta by C.K. Norwid

Abstract

An article entitled Amor sacro et Amor profano. Remarks on Neoplatonism in “Assunta” by C.K. Norwid is a deep reflection on the presence of philosophical and eschatological findings in Norwid’s narrative poem. This literary work was published after the death of its writer, which is why its reception was undertaken quite late. The author, quoting the state of research on this text, comes to the conclusion that there is no integral or homogeneous interpretation of Assunta. This masterpiece has already been studied in the perspective of Platonism, but it has not been analyzed in the context of the findings of Marsilio Ficino or Leone Ebreo – the great creators of Christian Neoplatonism. The article describes the axiological, eschatological and epistemological associations that Norwid incorporated into the rather enigmatic plot of Assunta. Furthermore, the article attempts to analyze this poem in the terms of oppositions Neoplatonic, such as: earth–heaven, down–up, spirit–body, sacrum–profanum. The common point for these contradictions was the emphasis in the text on the presence of Amor sacro and Amor profano. The author of the article discussed the essence of neoplatonic love by means of a spatial analysis of the cross, the vertical-horizontal arrangement, as well as the theme of the heroine’s silence and her gaze at the sky, and then found and analyzed the analogies of this text with Titian’s paintings, the poetic novel Maria by Antoni Malczewski or Sielanki albo pieśni by Adrian Wieszczycki.