Neo-Platonism is an assimilation of the thoughts of Plato with other ancient and medieval thoughts, other classical ideas, and the modification of certain Christian doctrines.

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                Neo-Platonism is an assimilation of the thoughts of Plato with other ancient and medieval thoughts, other classical ideas, and the modification of certain Christian doctrines. Neo-Platonist thought first appeared in the works of a group of pagan philosophers during the third and sixth centuries. Periodically over the next centuries, philosophers revisited these Neo-Platonic works and thus revived Neo-Platonic thought throughout the ages all the way to modern times.

Renaissance Neo-Platonism formally began with the founding of the Florentine Academy in 1462 by Cosimo de’ Medici, an action inspired by George Gemistus Pletho in 1438 when he was a delegate to the Council of Florence for the reunion of Eastern and Western Christianity. In general, the Florentine Academy read and interpreted Plato through Neo-Platonist eyes.

The philosophical movement of Florentine Neo-Platonism, championed by Pico della Mirandola and by Marsilio Ficino, who during this period wrote "Consonantia Mosis et Platonis", an ideal union of Platonism and Christianity would influence the artists of the time. Alessandro Botticelli’s Primavera would appear to be the visual representation of the Ficinian concept: the three Graces are the Trinity, Flora the Virgin, and Mercury the character that draws together the Platonic and Christian elements. The painting, like an amulet that captures beneficent astral energy and reflects it upon the beholder, could have been intended as an "amulet" for tempering the sanguine character of Lorenzo.

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In a recent book devoted to understanding the background to the Primavera, Charles Dempsey puts forward three broad themes which bound the range of current interpretations. These suggest the painting is either a metaphor for civic celebrations and weddings or a Neo-Platonic meditation on beauty or a representation of the myth of Springtime recalling poetic tradition both previous to, and contemporaneous with Botticelli's era. There is considerable evidence for each stance to refer to which either becomes a scholarly minefield for those seeking to be rigorous or a rich source of potential narratives for the more contemplative.

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