Il diavolo con gli occhiali di Rutilio Manetti: il senso e le origini di una simbologia negativa

Taking as a starting point the extract in Todo modo in which Sciascia describes the bespectacled devil painted in around 1630 by Rutilio Manetti, this essay seeks to reconstruct the iconological journey undertaken by spectacles in art. They were initially interpreted as a symbol of some deep knowledge, or as a metaphor for an acute insight that nourished spiritual perception, and so were attributed to cardinals, saints, and even apostles. In later times they were perceived as symbols of an obstinate blindness in regard to true Christianity, and so were naturally attributed to demonic figures.