The Painting of the Living Soul. Metaphors and Practices of Sel Restoration

The “Discourse of the Living Soul” is a renowned verse-cycle text dedicated to the Light imprisoned in the material world. Within a monological structure of direct speech, the Soul (Anima Viva) regrets his condition with interrogative laments, among which there is an interesting passage with a metaphor of painting, to describe the Soul’s loss of integrity and his longing for a restoration. By means of other texts using the same imagery of painting it is possible to draw a framework of references, hinting at expressions and practices of reintegration of the Anima Viva (and of the human Self as well), according to a macrocosmic and microcosmic interaction. For unlike the cosmogonic action of the Matter (Hyle or ʾʾ z), who shapes the creation by means of artisanal works imprisoning then the light, there is a good manner to manage the material stuff, without “disfiguring” and destroying the entrapped light. The overlapping of metaphors shows a remarkable pattern of intertwined anthro- pology, ethic and soteriology mixed up with aesthetical conceptions and practices of self trans- formation achieved through ascetical tenets.