"Dell'Entusiasmo delle Belle Arti": estetica e politica culturale in Bettinelli

« Dell’entusiasmo delle belle arti ». Aesthetics and cultural politics in Bettinelli · This chapter discusses the militant nature of the Bettinelli work, which marks the endpoint of his reflection on the issue of poetry reform, begun with the Versi sciolti di Diodoro Delfico and continued through the Lettere virgiliane and Lettere inglesi. Such a reform aims at restoring the role and the dignity of the poet, who lays a claim to the rights of “imagination”, threatened by the intrusion of philosophical and scientific truth. In Bettinelli’s thought, the aesthetic theory of “enthusiasm” takes on a strongly pedagogical and pragmatic connotation, which reflects the hegemonic ambition of Jesuit culture.