A Scene from the Hypnero-Tomachia in a Painting by Garofalo Author(s): F. Saxl Source: Journal of the Warburg Institute, Vol. 1, No.

2 (Oct., 1937), pp. 169-171 Published by: The Warburg Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750055 . Accessed: 18/03/2011 09:42
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ELIZABETHAN MSS. TRANSLATIONS There is also a fly-leaf at the beginning with the short title : " Princeps M. Anglice. --Machiavelli's Discourse of Principalities." MS.
B2

OF MACHIAVELLI

I69

written with great care and a very clear hand, with hardly a correction: obviously a fair copy. Of the five MSS.-all in the Elizabethan hand-it is the most easily read. The title runs : " The Prince of Nicholas Machiavill Citizen and Secretarie of Florence dedicated to the noble Prince Lawrence sonn of Peter de Medices. Translated out of Italian into English. Welcome to mee, in measure, and in meane, Too much is nought, yet do not leave me cleane." The repetition of this curious rhymed couplet (but without the initials) immediately places

103 numbered leaves, complete in itself,

(Harl.

2292)

is a bound folio of

this MS. togetherwith the precedingone in a classapart. We shall see that the texts are also closelyrelated. The contentsalso differ from ClassA : thereis Machiavelli's dedication, followed by the text, but no table of chapters. As this is a carefully prepared copy, the omissionseems due not to haste or oversight,but to the fact that there was no table of chaptersin the MS. which the writer had before him. There is none (at NAPOLEONE ORSINI least, none now) in the precedingMS. Also, deletionsand corrections of BI, which as we have seen are very frequent, have been incorporatedin B2. This seems to bring A SCENE FROM THE HrPNEROthe two MSS. very close together: in fact, it looks very much as if Bi were the rough TOMACHIA IN A PAINTING BY GAROFALO draft and B2 a fair copy (of course, there have been intermediate I may copies). have not the space here to give many The Mondbequestin the NationalGallery includes a picture by Garofalo, dated instancesof this ; there is a very instructive which has been
passage in chapter xxiii of the Prince,where BI (fol. 54) has undergone considerable revision and intricate correction, and B2 (fol. 91) follows all corrections faithfully, but it is too long to quote. I must content myself with a correction in chapter xxv, consisting of the phrase " beionde their coniecture " (BI, viz. Harl. 364, fol. 56,
line

deleted it, and wrote above it instead "expectation." MS. B2 has consequently " beyond their expectation " (fol. 95). How does this passage compare with the text of Group A? It so happens that A MSS. give the word " coniecture," which agrees with the first choice of BI and the Italian original ; but the rest of the sentence follows the Italian more closely : " quite beyond the compasse of all humaine coniecture" (Harl. 6795, or A2, fol. 54). In fact, the text of Group A rather differs from that of Group B. To sum up: the five MSS. fall into two groups, the second of which includes two MSS. which are closely related to each other but which differ from the other three. Several questions suggest themselves : what is the extent of the difference between A and B ? are they two different translations, or merely variants? Also, what is the connection of the three MSS. of Group A to each other ? What was the Italian text used by the translator, or translators? I hope to attempt a reply to some of these questions in a forthcoming book.' Meanwhile one thing seems certain: there is no connection between these MSS. and Dacres' later translation, which is an entirely independent effort. I do not think that Dacres was aware of any previous English translation.

1526 (P1. 21Ie) fancifully described as a sacrifice to Ceres2 or even as

literally translates "coniettura " of the Italian original: Wolfe's edition, fol. 43, "di fuori d'ogni humana coniettura," although the rest of the phrase is differently rendered. But the reviser of BI, whoever he was, did not like the word " coniecture,"

io-

i).

The

word

" coniecture "

1 Studi sul Rinascimento Italiano in Inghilterra,to be published by Sansoni at Florence, in the Biblioteca Vol. XII. Storicadel Rinascimento, 2 J. P. Richter, The Mond Collection, Vol. II, London, 1910, pp. 558-567. I am afraid the puzzles set by Richter's interpretation are still more difficult to solve than those of Garofalo. How can we explain the allegorical figures of five seasons and the fact that Winter is only represented by a half figure in the background, whereas there are two figures for Spring, one of which has no symbolic indication apart from the fact that it is a nude child ? And how can we explain that in" a paeanof praise to the Gods," in " a sacrifice of thanksgiving," the gods themselves appear as participants ?

170

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Augustus' Sacrifice to that goddess.1 But is we may assume that the author, took his there any indication that a particular god- inspiration from one of the Roman grave head was meant to be honoured by this altars3 with a sacrificial slab on the top. For a sacrifice on such an altar, he imagined sacrifice ? The one point which is certain about the three persons at least to be needed-the picture is that it cqpies a woodcut in the priest, who performs the sacrifice; his Poliphili (P1. 21d).a Hypnerotomachia helper, who pours out the libation ; and In his descensus ad inferos,Poliphilo comes their usual attendant, the flute player.' to the cemetery of those who died for love's Children also used to take part in sacrifices, sake. Himself filled with exquisiticruciamenti as our author knew from his classical reading5 d'amore,he strolls along, reading the inscrip- or from coins and marbles. But why, with all this information at his tions, admiring their form, full of sympathy with the miserable fate of the dead. Suddenly disposal, has he-added those other unfamiliar his eye catches something new, una sepultura features ? Why does one child dance, why historiata. In the middle of the sepulchral is the other child uno Satyrulo holding a relief is the altar of the dead with the snake, and why is there a woman carrying a inscription: "Hail, Valeria, thou the best basket (a cista) on her head and a flask in her lover of all, farewell." An old man and a hand ? A figure similar to this woman with basket youth are performing the sacrifice on it, while a young shepherd accompanies them and flask appears in a group of Arretine vases with the ritual music on a double flute. The on which bacchic scenes are represented.6 large nude figure of a woman on the left is The satyr also belongs to the realm of turning downwards the torch of life. The Dionysian ritual and revelry. So does the text tells us she is weeping. Next to her serpent which he is strangling. And finally, stands an old peasant woman carrying a where there is a bacchic performance there basket of fruit to honour the manes of the is dancing. This explains the dancing of beloved Valeria. On either side is a child. the child. The ritual of mourning is, in the " Et in Arcadia ego," might appropriately mind of the Renaissance artist, reminiscent of Dionysos the life-giver. be written above this scene. Then there are the bucolic characters.7 The intention of the fifteenth-century author and illustratorwas to stir the imagina- The flute player, negligently leaning against tion of his readersby filling the old story of the the tree, is dressed as a shepherd, the woman wandering lover with modern (i.e. humanistic) with the basket as a peasant woman, and details. His readers'feelings are roused, when the victim is a 'rural' ram, uno capo di love is sad as it was in Arcadia, and when silvanocaprone. those who weep over the lover's tomb are Quite another association is suggested full of dignity and beauty, as were those who by the woman with the torch held downlived in the great past. The connection ward, the traditional symbol of death. between romance and archaeology is a The Renaissance artist has transformed the torch-bearerinto a mourning woman. An sentimental one. It has been suggested that the woodcut allegorical gesture has become a ritual action. Thus various antique motifs have helped might be a reproduction of a classical model. Every archaologist will reject such a state- to constitute our picture : the features of an ment. How could a classical sculptor repre- imaginary classical tomb-sacrifice have been sent wine being offered from a colossal jar ? 0 See W. Altmann, Die rim. Grabaltare The figure reminds one more of a late Gothic (Berlin, 1905) and Would particularly a Roman p. 41, No. 7. camillus. gargoyle than of 4 certain group of Greek vases we see e.g. it not have been shocking to every classical the On a at the altar, a youth holding parts of the priest who the artist that the youth accompanies flesh of the victim, and a third figure pouring wine rite with the music of a double flute should over it, the rite being performed to the accompaniment Arch.Inst., lean carelessly against an old tree instead of of the double flute, see Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. VIII (1893), p. 22o, n. 6, and Minch. Arch. Stud. d. standing erect and attentive to the sacred And. A. Furtwdnglers gew. (Miinchen, 19o9), p. 85. ceremony ? 5 G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Rdmer 1912), p. 496. Reconstructing the genesis of the woodcut, (Miinchen, 6
Gronau in Thieme-Becker's Kiinstlerlexikon. Cf. J. P. Richter (op. cit.) to whom the fact was pointed out by Miss A. Cameron Taylor.
1
2

dear wert thou, My lost one."

furt, 1933), PP. i6 ff. 7 They remind one of Theocritus' verses: "0 sweetest Amaryllis. . . . Dear as my goats to me, so

vomRhein (FrankSee A. Ox6, Arret. Reliefgefasse

(Id., IV.)

..

a-Relief
(p. 182)

from the base of a fountain at St. Wolfgang

d-Sacrifice

from t

(p. I70)

b, c-Figures

fi-om the shaft of a fountain at St. Wolfgang (p.

182)

e-Garofalo.

Sacrifi

A SCENE FROM THE HYPNEROTOMACHIA

171

mingled with allegorical elements, with less sentimental: as a pagan saerifice in picturesque bucolic details, and with the general.1 Garofalo's is an age of complacent antiexpressive gestures of Dionysiac ritual. They give the scene the glamour of a pagan death quarians, not of nostalgic sentimentalists. ritual-a character at once animated and Yet he takes as the model of his sober and sad. learned 'An Sacrifice' an picture the Antique 'fake' humanism of Turning now to Garofalo's picture, we are image crea;ted by faced with a rather disquieting situation. the fifteerith century. It was not the knowGarofalo has copied the woodcut literally. ledge of the early humanists that seemed He even illustrates the text of the Hypneroto- wrong to him, it is their spirit which he machiamore faithfully than did the designer attacks. A general pagan sacredness, a of the woodcut. His shepherd has the girdle general dignified classical behaviour, a of uite nigra, cum le foglie sue, as the text general beauty of plastic form and a variety prescribes it. He is wearing, again in exact of postures-these are the essentials, and accordance with the text, an animal's hide they can be applied-one is almost tempted with the hair turned inside, and the child's to say with Garofalo, rightly-to reshape the body is twisted to indicate the dance move- early humanistic Venetian original, regardless ment. The satyr is characterised by two of its specific contents. small horns, etc. F. SAXL Because of this precise rendering of the text, our original question-whether there is any indication that a particular godhead was PATIENCE AND CHANCE: THE meant to be honoured by the sacrifice--can STORY OF A POLITICAL EMBLEM safely be answered in the negative. Following carefully the prescriptions of the HypMICHELANGELO AND BISHOP MINERBETTI Garofalo cannot have intended nerotomachia, Minerbetti, bishop of Arezzo, to represent a sacrifice to Ceres or any other Bernardetto one of the most ardent admirers of Yet he omitted the one element which deity. is necessarily associated with the sacrifice in Michelangelo, was so eager to own a design the context of the novel-the inscription. If inspired by the great master that he wrote a the altar is not regarded as a tombstone, the letter to his intimate friend Vasari, dated October I551, imploring him to get original content of the representationbecomes hold at 4th, least of an invenzioneof Michelincomprehensible. What, then, was Garoangelo's, as he was not in a position to acquire falo's intention ? As the elements of the painting are essen- an original work.2 'Patience' was Minerbetti's and he wished his friend to tially the same as those of the woodcut there ask emblem,3 advice as to how to Michelangelo's still remains the possibility that it may have served to commemorate the death of a represent this allegory most suitably. A few beloved woman. Garofalo might have been weeks later Vasari sent a design which has asked by his patron to paint such a picture a remarkable history. from the woodcut in the Hypnerotomachia, In an accompanying letter Vasari told the and the initiated beholder imagined the bishop that in accordance with his wishes he name of a Ferrarese lady on the altar 1 The figure quenching the torch does not seem front. to be compatiblewith such an explanation,as we are this there Against is, however, accustomedto connectingthe extinguishedtorch with assumption a decisive objection. The text says that the idea of death. But it is not impossiblethat to the woman with the torch is in tears. In the some scholar in the learned entourage of Alfonso woodcut there is no indication of this. But d'Este-to which Garofalo belonged-the fact was well known that there actually exist classical repreGarofalo, who thought it necessary to sentationsof a sacrificewith a womanholdingtorches add such details as the horns of the satyr downwards,as e.g. on the famous diptych Nicomaand the belt of the shepherd, has omitted it chorum in the Mus6e Cluny. These have nothing to on antique graveswhich too, and has transformed the sarcophagus do with the representations artisthad in mind. into an ordinary altar. If his picture was the2 Hypnerotomachia The whole correspondence is published in Karl intended as a commemorative monument, Frey, Der literarische .NachlassGiorgio Vasari's, 1923, I, would he have done so ? His omissions and pp. 3307 ff. tells a very touching story of how he alterations rather suggest that he wanted cameMinerbetti choose his impresa(op. cit., p. 307), and in his this sacrifice not to be understood as an letters to he reiterates stereotyped phrases demonstrating offering for a dead lover but as something how heavily the burden of patience weighs upon him.