About the art of memory (II) Places of knowledge and masks of the arts

Abstract

This article presents a sample of places and images of knowledge about the arts. These are visual representations in manuscripts, sculptures, prints, with schemes, symbols, personifications, histories, mnemonic artefacts that use letters and words as figures, or even allegorical descriptions that promote the memorization of their content through visual mechanisms. Despite of the variety, the wide diffusion, and the different uses of these 'images of knowledge', it may be posible to undestand them in relation to the specific theories of the 'art of memory' and its loci et imagines, that could work as mental structures configuring other representations in the plastic arts and literature.