CLASS DESCRIPTION

"It’s all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!"--C.S. Lewis

When Lewis had his Professor Kirk speak those memorable lines, he was only partly joking. Especially in the search for beauty, Plato has been the single most important philosopher for the pre-modern, Christian and classical worldview. This interdisciplinary course--designed for to be accessible to non-specialists--will teach lovers of literature how to read a select number of masterpieces from the history of art, but Plato's own thoughts on beauty will form the narrative in which Greek temples, the Pantheon, the Hagia Sophia, the Gothic cathedral, the paintings of Giotto, the Mona Lisa, the School of Athens, the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, and the statues of Bernini make sense.