Persona, immagine e libertà. Cusano e il processo di autoformazione speculare dello spirito

In Nicholas of Cusa the theme of the person, as the end of a process of spiritual self-formation, is deeply connected with the rich repertoire of artistic metaphors of his philosophical and theological production. In the process of recovering one’s authentic image, the themes of the self-portrait and the mirror turned out to be important speculative symbols. From the combination of these philosophical and artistic motivations a powerful image emerged of the human being as «quasi Deus», which would go on to become very popular during the whole Italian Humanism. It is the image of a free being, i.e., someone who is capable of self determination, correction, and purification, by reaching out to that principle of reality in which the true facies of every creatural entity are preserved. The center of gravity of this itinerarium is Cusa’s extraordinary formula «sis tu tuus et ego ero tuus», in which the relationship between human beings and God is inspired by a principle of free participation in the divine principle.