Plato's attitude toward the visual arts and mathematics

Although Plato's prose is often artistically figurative, he assigned painting no artistic value of its own. Rather, his chief concern is to assess, through the lens of his philosophy, its ontology and ethical influence. In connection with his cosmogonic inquiry, he discusses the geometrical structure of the four types (fire, air, water, and earth). While many scholars consider him a competent and convinced follower of mathematics, I will argue that his knowledge of it is not so deep nor his judgment so enthusiastic. I shall note affinities and differences that emerge between his accounts of the two disciplines and shall discuss how in the Renaissance Plato was figuratively imagined, and his treatment of mathematics received.