The Getty Research Center Publications, Santa Monica 1998, S. 41-62
Giorgione's Inferno with Aeneas and Anchises for T a d d e o Contarini
Alessandro Nova
S
o m e o f the most recent publications on G i o r g i o n e have punctiliously as well as convincingly reexamined his still controversial catalog and chronology.1 This philological enterprise, however, seems to have been more concerned with organizing in a plausible chronological sequence the surviving paintings of the artist than with reconstructing and dating Giorgione's lost w o r k s and designs. T h e study of the copies after Giorgione has always been pursued, of course, but an analysis limited to the surviving visual mate
rial inevitably distorts our view of the historical picture. It must be conceded that we will probably never k n o w what some lost works by Giorgione really looked like; this does not mean, however, that we have to ignore the rights and responsibilities of elaborating reasonable hypotheses about this no longer extant imagery.
T h e purpose of this paper is to reopen the debate surrounding t w o G i o r - gionesque w o r k s — w o r k s that have been neglected in the most recent philo
logical overviews —because they help us visualize some of the most pressing issues that absorbed Giorgione's energies during the last three years of his life:
the so-called Dream, once k n o w n as the Dream of Raphael, engraved by M a r - cantonio R a i m o n d i (fig. I),2 and the Inferno with Aeneas and Anchises, a can
vas seen by M a r c a n t o n i o Michiel in the house of Taddeo Contarini in 1525.'
T h e fate of the Dream is very curious indeed. T h e attribution of the engrav
ing's design to G i o r g i o n e is, as is well k n o w n , highly controversial. T h e majority of those w h o have tried to unravel its meaning have more or less tacitly agreed that it was designed by Giorgione or, at least, that it clearly reflects some of his most characteristic themes and motives. T h e best and most comprehensive philological reconstructions of Giorgione's career, h o w ever, have ignored this image, despite the fact that the view expressed by J o h a n n D a v i d Passavant more than a century ago has been upheld correctly by Christian H o r n i g in his m o n o g r a p h on Giorgione's late w o r k s , G i a n - vittorio D i l l o n in the catalog of the Savoldo exhibition, Nicholas Penny in his essay o n the depiction o f night in Venetian painting, and K o n r a d Oberhuber in his entry for the catalog of the Venetian exhibition of 1993 in Paris.4 There is little in Marcantonio's previous works to prepare us for such a revolution
ary image, and although we cannot prove that the print reproduces a lost
Fig. 1. M a r c a n t o n i o R a i m o n d i The Dream
V i e n n a , G r a p h i s c h e S a m m l u n g A l b e r t i n a
painting by G i o r g i o n e (which is unlikely), it is a V e n e t i a n p r o d u c t p r o - foundly influenced by, if not based o n , Giorgione's designs.5 It is possible that Marcantonio borrowed some elements o f the background f r o m other prints and that he rearranged some details of the c o m p o s i t i o n according to his o w n artistic inclinations, a n d it is also possible that in so doing he created some puzzling iconographic aggregations that have tenaciously resisted inter- pretation. A s we shall see, however, the m o s t important parts o f this mys- terious engraving f o r m a coherent design that was intended for a specific purpose. Before analyzing its formal structure, however, it is w o r t h reviewing briefly the traditional as well as the most recent iconographic interpretations of this image, which continues to haunt our imagination.
M a n y if not most of the interpretations o f early art historians incorpo- rated Virgilian themes.6 It is likely that this trend was consciously as well as
unconsciously influenced by Michiel's Notizia d'opere di disegno, and more specifically by his reference to a canvas depicting the story o f Aeneas and Anchises in the collection of Taddeo Contarini.7 It should be noted, however, that n o element of this composition identifies the burning city as Troy.
A n o t h e r line of inquiry emerged from the wide-ranging research o f Eu- genio Battisti for his Uantirinascimento. T h e author did not discuss M a r c a n - tonio's engraving, but he did examine Battista Dosso's allegory in Dresden (Night, or Dream, 1544, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister), a painting that is often, albeit misleadingly, related to the Dream in the context of the early modern interest in magic.8 T h i s hermetic interpre- tation has prevailed in the most recent literature on the engraving, includ- ing not only Francesco G a n d o l f o ' s essay "Mistica, Ermetismo e Sogno nel C i n q u e c e n t o , "9 w h i c h developed the alchemic reading o f the Dream sug- gested by M a u n z i o Calvesi, but also in the German reception of the problem.
H e i k e Frosien-Leinz has discussed the print in the context o f Agrippa v o n Nettesheim's De occulta philosophia,10 and Horst Bredekamp has underlined the profane aspect o f early modern dreams in his contribution to the exhibi- tion catalog Zauber der Medusa." M o r e recently Louise M i l n e has u n c o n - vincingly suggested that the female nudes of Marcantonio's engraving seem to represent the h u m a n soul.12
T h e m o s t plausible iconographic interpretation to date has been sug- gested in a short article by G u y de Tervarent.13 H e thinks that the key to the secret o f M a r c a n t o n i o ' s engraving is a verse by Statius, inaccurately tran- scribed by an absent-minded amanuensis. T h e text of the Thebaid available to early sixteenth-century artists w o u l d have read: "Vague dreams with innu- merable faces are seen all around, the truthful ones mingled with untruthful ones and rivers with flames."14 A s to the fantastic creatures on the shore, de Tervarent pointed out a passage in A True Story by Lucian: "For as far as dreams go, these vary f r o m one another, by their nature as well as by their appearance. Some bring before us figures which are beautiful and well pro- portioned, while others are small and ugly."15 There are undoubtedly numer- ous affinities between these literary texts and Marcantonio's image, but they fail to explain all the elements of the puzzle. Moreover, it should be noted that in his edition of the Thebaid, A l d o M a n u z i o had already replaced the incorrect w o r d s "flumina flammis" with "tristia blandis."
S o m e o n e in the future may discover a m o r e plausible literary source, but the great appeal of this engraving resides precisely in its intentional ambiguities. I wish to avoid any possible misunderstanding, however — o n e cannot retreat into the comfortable corner of the nonsubject. There is n o question that this w o r k is a virtuoso performance: as D a v i d L a n d a u has pointed out, "the richness of texture o f this early impression might indicate that it was intended as a demonstration of M a r c a n t o n i o ' s mastery of line engraving to rival G i u l i o Campagnola's stipple-engraving."16 It is unlikely, however, that M a r c a n t o n i o was only interested in showing off his technical ability.
O n e crucial question has never been asked: For w h o m was such an image produced? T h a t is, w h a t kind of public w o u l d have bought or commissioned this engraving by M a r c a n t o n i o , if it was ever o n sale? O n e can safely assume that the ideal client for such a w o r k w o u l d have been a humanist w h o w o u l d have enriched the abundant imagery offered by the engraving with his o w n personal and erudite associations. T h e name of H i e r o n y m u s Bosch has often been correctly mentioned in connection w i t h the monsters o n the shore, but the t w o animals o n the far right seem even m o r e related to the bizarre ink- wells and oil lamps that decorated the studioli o f the time (fig. 2).
T o come to the center o f m y argument, it is possible that this engraving was intentionally produced t o challenge the technical as well as the icono- graphical knowledge of a learned viewer in order t o create discussion and entertainment. T h e obvious ambiguities o f the w o r k seem to have been cre- ated deliberately, so that debate w o u l d ensue.17 Some elements are i m m e d i - ately recognizable, others are difficult to identify, but the engraving is above all replete with polysemous elements such as fire, night, water, and ships. T h e enormous potential of this imagery for endless associations makes it difficult to propose a specific title for the w o r k , but this does n o t m e a n that there is no subject. T h e alternative is not between subject a n d nonsubject, but be- tween a closed, definite meaning a n d an o p e n , flexible one. Let us pursue the most seductive element of the c o m p o s i t i o n : the fire in the right background.
In his Trattato dell'arte delta pittura, scoltura, et architettura, G i o v a n n i Paolo L o m a z z o discussed several themes that could be used as a pretext for representing a great fire. In chapter 7 o f b o o k 4 L o m a z z o lists a m o n g his favorite themes the fire o f S o d o m a n d G o m o r r a h a n d the fall o f T r o y , t w o recurrent narratives in the pyrotechnic culture o f the sixteenth century.18
Chapters 2 4 and 37 of b o o k 6 are also relevant. C h a p t e r 2 4 deals w i t h the subjects that should be p a i n t e d "in luochi di fuoco e patiboli" (in places of fire and torment).1 9 T h e n u m b e r o f suitable m y t h s a n d biblical stories recorded by L o m a z z o is amazing, but none can explain w h a t w e see in Marcantonio's engraving.
M o r e to our purpose is perhaps the f o l l o w i n g passage f r o m chapter 37, in which L o m a z z o insists upon the effects o f varieta in battle compositions:
In such scenes of conflict a n d r u i n , it adds great grace t o s h o w the city w a l l s being k n o c k e d d o w n , w o m e n crying a l o u d as they r u n w i t h outstretched arras, a n d other w o m e n fleeing, as well as s o m e m e n being b o u n d , w h i l e others are killed a n d still others are stripped. M o r e o v e r , as at T r o y a n d Carthage, the city is p u t t o the torch a n d houses and palaces are destroyed, as has h a p p e n e d s o m a n y times to p o o r R o m e , and m a n y other cities of Italy as w e l l , at the h a n d s o f barbarians. Filled w i t h fear, some flee, just as Venus's son fled burning T r o y w i t h his aged father Anchises on his shoulders and his little son's h a n d in his. S o m e pass children d o w n f r o m balconies, others lower themselves d o w n ropes, w h i l e still others leap; a n d o n e c o u l d , if one wished, c o u n t an infinite n u m b e r of similar scenes o f ruin and acts of desperation.2 0
Fig. 2. Northern Italian (Padua?) Inkwell in the Form of a Toad
V i e n n a , K u n s t h i s t o r i s c h e s M u s e u m
N o n e o f the numerous narratives and compositions described by L o m a z z o can be identified as the subject of Marcantonio's print, but this quotation reveals h o w these dramatic, indeed "fiery," episodes were greatly admired for their powerful narrative potential. Moreover, Lomazzo's list reveals the broad number of selections that were available by the end of the sixteenth century for an artist w h o wanted to paint such a w o r k .
It m a y well be that the search for an accurate literary source is a futile enterprise and that a specific text will never clarify all the elements o f the iconographic puzzle. Some elements of the composition seem to be meaning- ful: the gigantic ferryman steering the boat in the center of the landscape has been often identified with C h a r o n , w h o is indeed a recurrent figure in sixteenth-century nightmares, as the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini and the treatise o n dreams by G i r o l a m o C a r d a n o show.2 1 But if he really is C h a r o n , w h o then is steering the ship that glides over the calm water of the river-lagoon? A s I have already suggested, it is possible that such ambiguities are intentional.2 2 O n e thing, however, is evident. T h e entire image is built a r o u n d logically structured oppositions: the beautiful and the ugly in the foreground, the burning fortress on the right and the t o w n beaten by the rain in the left background, the animated fortress and the deserted city, the
Fig. 3. Leonardo da Vinci Masquerader Seated on a Horse W i n d s o r , R o y a l L i b r a r y
flaming f i r e a n d t h e c a l m w a t e r . T h e s e a r e d e l i b e r a t e c o n t r a s t s , w h i c h w e c a n c o n n e c t w i t h a s o u r c e t h a t h a s n o t y e t b e e n d i s c u s s e d i n t h i s c o n t e x t : L e o n a r d o ' s t r e a t i s e o n p a i n t i n g .
T h e t w o w o m e n i n t h e f o r e g r o u n d c o u l d b e i n t e r p r e t e d a s a n i l l u s t r a t i o n o f L e o n a r d o ' s c r i t i q u e o f s c u l p t u r e in h i s c e l e b r a t e d p a s s a g e o n t h e Paragone:
T h e art of p a i n t i n g [instead] e m b r a c e s a n d c o n t a i n s w i t h i n itself all visible things T h e painter s h o w s t o y o u different distances a n d . . . the rains, behind w h i c h can be discerned the c l o u d y m o u n t a i n s a n d v a l l e y s . . . ; also the rivers o f greater a n d lesser transparency . . . ; a l s o the p o l i s h e d p e b b l e s o f v a r i o u s hues, deposited o n the washed s a n d of the river's bed Aerial perspective is absent f r o m the sculptors' w o r k . T h e y c a n n o t depict transparent b o d i e s , n o r can they represent l u m i n o u s sources, n o r reflected r a y s , . . . nor dreary weather.2 3
T h e remarkable affinities in tone a n d m o o d between text and image become even m o r e persuasive w h e n one considers that the m o s t o b v i o u s theme of the engraving is the contrast between beauty and ugliness a n d , as L a n d a u has noted, that this is "the first depiction of a dream in an Italian print and the first attempt to engrave a night scene."24 Leonardo's interest in night scenes, dreams, and prophecies is well documented. O n e of his cele- brated prophecies is dedicated to dreaming: " M e n will seem to see n e w destructions in the s k y . . . . T h e y will see the greatest splendour in the midst of darkness. O ! marvel of the h u m a n race! W h a t frenzy has led you thus!
Y o u will speak with animals of every species and they with you in h u m a n speech."25
It is superfluous to quote Leonardo's famous passage in which the artist provides instructions o n h o w to represent a night scene, but one cannot help quoting his words o n the painter as the lord of all things: "If the painter wishes to see beauties that w o u l d enrapture him, he is master of their pro- duction, and if he wishes to see monstrous things which might terrify or which w o u l d be buffoonish and laughable or truly pitiable, he is their lord and god."2 6
T h e terrifying yet laughable m e t a m o r p h i c creatures o n the shore o f M a r c a n t o n i o ' s Dream have always triggered a comparison with the grylli a n d adynata, or "impossibilities," to use the rhetorical term, created by H i e r o n y m u s Bosch. But we should not forget that Leonardo also designed similar freaks for the entertainment of his patrons, as shown by the drawing titled Masquerader Seated on a Horse (fig. 3).27
T h i s monster with the head of an elephant w h o is playing its trunk as if it were a trumpet is actually an actor seated on horseback w h o wears a h u m o r - ous costume. T h e drawing was once believed to be related to the masquer- ades organized by Galeazzo da Sanseverino in his Milanese palace in 1491, w h e n L e o n a r d o designed the costumes of certain otnini salvatici. T h e most recent studies, however, date it to around 1508, which, by pure coincidence, is also the date o f Marcantonio's engraving. In any case, this drawing and the masquerade remind us h o w the demonic and comic were intimately con- nected in the late medieval and early modern periods. Leonardo's instruc- tions a b o u t h o w to m a k e imaginary animals and monstrosities as well as Vasari's anecdotes about his early head of Medusa and about his later ab- struse experiments or jokes in the garden of the Belvedere are both terrifying and humorous.2 8
These developments parallel those in the theater, as M i l n e notes: " B y the second half of the fifteenth century, 'domestic' scenes in Hell, involving much comic banter between m a n y . . . devils and increasingly elaborate spe- cial effects, had become the rule rather than the exception."2S> Similar specta- cles were particularly popular during the carnival season, and a city like Venice could not but excel in the production of elaborate entertainments.
M a r i n o Sanudo's diaries are an inestimable source for our purposes. In 1515 a farce performed in the courtyard of C a ' Pesaro "opened with a scene o f a
flaming Hell peopled by actors in blackface."3 0 Five years later "the C o m - pagnia degli Immortali sponsored an evening festa in front o f C a ' Foscari in which a c t o r s . . . p a n t o m i m e d the fall of Troy. T h e pageant ended w i t h a devil emerging from a ball of fire, w h i c h ultimately c o n s u m e d the set."31
These Venetian theatrical performances convey the medley of sacred and profane, of w a n i n g mystery plays and emerging classical aspirations, that must have characterized these pantomimes. T o a large extent, the H e l l m o u t h as a visual device had been demystified by the later M i d d l e Ages, but the same portentous effects could be achieved by staging a debased and possibly disrespectful version of the classical drama.
Giorgione's lost Inferno did n o t fit into this scenario; it could not have been an "illustration" of a similar event. It is against this background, however, that w e should place Giorgione's canvas: it embodied, so to speak, the other side of the same p h e n o m e n o n , the revival of classical themes in Renaissance Venice.
W e should ask first w h a t Giorgione's canvas represented. In theory he could also have painted the meeting of Aeneas and Anchises in the Under- w o r l d . H i s canvas could have reproduced t w o passages o f b o o k 6 o f the Aeneid, with the flaming Phlegethon o n one side a n d the meeting in the Elysian F i e l d s - t h e subject o f Dosso's Aeneas in the Elysian Fields in the National Gallery of C a n a d a in O t t a w a — o n the other side. Michiel's words, however {"la tela ... de linferno cun Enea et Anchise"), recall those he
used to describe a painting by Bosch that he saw in the palace o f Cardinal G r i m a n i in 1521: "La tela de linferno cun la gran diversita de monstri" (the painting of the Inferno w i t h a large assortment o f monsters).3 2 T h e most impressive element of Giorgione's c o m p o s i t i o n , therefore, must have been the fire. T h u s it is more likely that his Inferno depicted the fall of Troy, as has been often suggested, even if its design was influenced by the hellish Flemish imagery available in Venice.
N e x t we should ask w h a t the picture l o o k e d like. A c c o r d i n g t o Nicholas Penny, " s o m e i d e a . . . can p r o b a b l y be best o b t a i n e d f r o m a p a i n t i n g by S a v o l d o . . . in w h i c h semitransparent d e m o n s assault a recumbent [figure]
at sunset." A t the right side a nude m a n carries o n his shoulders the body of another m a n , whose head has assumed the features of a bird's skull in order to give a visible shape t o a hallucination (fig. 4).3 3 A s is well k n o w n , these t w o figures are a reversed c o p y o f the so-called A e n e a s - A n c h i s e s group frescoed by Raphael in the Vatican's Stanza dell'Incendio and there- fore cannot be a faithful record of Giorgione's heroes. T h e subject, however, requires that a younger m a n carry the b o d y of an older m a n o n his shoulders.
If we imagine, moreover, that a similar group, possibly derived f r o m one of those antique cameos or coins that a passionate collector of antiquities like Taddeo Contarini certainly possessed,34 was set in a landscape d o m i - nated by the flames of a Boschian Inferno (fig. 5), like the o n e seen by
Fig. 4. Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo Temptation of Saint Anthony
M o s c o w , G o s u d a r s t v e n n y j M u z e j A . S. P u s h k i n a
Michiel in the Grimani collection, we can mentally, even if inaccurately, re- construct Giorgione's lost canvas.
It is indeed puzzling that such an important w o r k should have disappeared without trace, because it can be argued that Giorgione's Inferno was a very big picture. T h e reliable Michiel speaks of a "tela grande a oglio" (a large oil painting).3 5 In the same collection, moreover, he saw a m o n g other things another big canvas painted in tempera by G i r o l a m o R o m a n i n o and a small female portrait (" e l quadretto ") by Giovanni Bellini.36 In other words, Michiel was very accurate in recording the sizes of the paintings he saw. Yet when he lists the so-called Three Philosophers (p. 203) in the same house he makes n o c o m m e n t o n its size.37 T h e fragmentary canvas in Vienna measures 1.23 by 1.44 meters.38 T h e Inferno was probably bigger, certainly not smaller, than the Three Philosophers, and this means that the group of Aeneas and Anchises could have easily been eighty centimeters to one meter high, if not more.
Fig. 5 . H i e r o n y m u s B o s c h The Inferno
V e n i c e , P a l a z z o D u c a l e
A s far as I k n o w , an almost life-size representation o f the myth was un- precedented in Venice. (At this date I can only think o f G i r o l a m o Genga's fresco for the palace of Pandolfo Petrucc, in S i e n a ) W e should therefore ask w h y Giorgione selected this subject and w h o commissioned this large canvas.
A s far as the latter question is concerned, t w o w e l l - k n o w n , indeed cele- brated, documents help us formulate the hypothesis that T a d d e o Contarini himself commissioned the canvas. From a letter of Isabella d'Este to T a d d e o A l b a n o , her agent in Venice, dated 25 October 1510, we k n o w that the mar- chesa wanted to purchase "a very beautiful and unusual 'nocte'" that had been painted by Giorgione and was apparently left in his studio after his death.4" A l b a n o replied on 8 November 1510 that such a painting did not exist m the artist's estate; moreover, both the Nocte o w n e d by a certain V . c t o n o Becharo and the Nocte o w n e d by T a d d e o Contarini were not on sale for any price because they had commissioned these paintings for their o w n enjoyment.4' F r o m these texts we learn three important facts: first, even if we d o n o t k n o w whether the term nocte referred to a specific iconography or to a genre, Isabella and Taddeo understood each other when they used it because they k n e w w h a t this term meant; second, in November 1510 T a d d e o Contarini o w n e d a Nocte by Giorgione; third, Giorgione's patrons did not intend to sell their paintings because they wanted to enjoy them.
Fifteen years later, m 1525, Michiel visited Contarini's collection and listed in his n o t e b o o k three paintings by G i o r g i o n e : the so-called Three Philosophers, The Birth of Paris, which is k n o w n through a copy by D a v i d Teniers, and the Inferno with Aeneas and Anchises. A s we have seen, this canvas probably depicted the fall of Troy and was a night scene. It is there- fore reasonable to suggest that the Nocte recorded by Taddeo A l b a n o and the Inferno seen by Michiel were in fact the same picture. Indeed, this is the simplest solution, because if this were not so, one should assume that Contarini originally o w n e d four and not three paintings by Giorgione and that T a d d e o sold his Nocte between 1510 and 1525. Such a scenario has been implicitly suggested by some art historians w h o have identified the so-called Allendale Nativity (Adoration of the Shepherds, Washington, National G a l - lery of A r t ) and its unfinished replica in Vienna (Adoration of the Shepherds, Kunsthistorisches M u s e u m ) , with the t w o "nocti" mentioned by T a d d e o A l b a n o .4 2 T h i s hypothesis has been accepted by many scholars.4' A s early as 1949, however, Hans Tietze and Erika Tietze-Conrat pointed out that at the beginning o f the sixteenth century the term nocte could not have been used to describe a nativity.44 T w o more observations should be made. First, G i o r - gione's adorations d o not take place at night. Second, if the Nocte was really a nativity or an adoration of the shepherds, namely the painting n o w in Vienna, Contarini should have sold it before 1525, before Michael's visit to his collection. A s we have seen, however, Contarini did not want to sell his Nocte to Isabella d'Este for any price. All in all, therefore, it is more reason- able to assume that the Nocte mentioned by A l b a n o depicted the fall of Troy that Michiel saw fifteen years later in the same palace.
O n e possible objection t o this reconstruction o f the events is difficult to answer: we d o not k n o w o f other sources f r o m the early sixteenth century in which a time of the day ( d a w n , m o r n i n g , afternoon, evening, sunset, night) is used to indicate the subject o f a painting. Yet the impression is that Isabella d'Este, w h o was interested in collecting Flemish art,45 and her agent used the term node to refer to a genre more than t o a specific iconographic subject.
Between the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, artists were keen o n experimenting with the representation of atmospheric effects, and these interests were reflected in the writings of the time: not only in Leonardo's treatise o n painting but also in Erasmus's De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione (1533), a dialogue that praises Albrecht Diirer's outstanding talent in reproducing w h a t c a n n o t be reproduced — that is, fire, rays of light, thunder, and lightning.4 6 T h i s was a topos based o n Pliny the Elder and later repeated by Vasari in his life of Raphael, but this does not mean that these artists were not actually interested in these themes.
T h i s imagery was later "institutionalized" by Vasari, w h o was f o n d of night scenes,47 yet the representation o f atmospheric effects a n d in particular of night scenes was already a central issue at the turn o f the century: indeed, this was one of the greatest achievements o f the maniera moderna, which in this respect was deeply influenced by the Netherlandish paintings imported into Venice at the end of the fifteenth century.48
T o conclude this part of the investigation, it is likely that the Node men- tioned by T a d d e o A l b a n o in his letter t o Isabella d'Este, dated 8 N o v e m b e r 1510, and the lost Inferno seen by Michiel in 1525 were the same picture.
It is therefore almost certain that T a d d e o Contarini himself commissioned the canvas.
It w o u l d be superfluous t o repeat all the important information o n Taddeo Contarini gathered by Salvatore Settis in his b o o k o n Giorgione's Tempest.*9
Let us only mention that Contarini possessed an outstanding classical cul- ture. There is perhaps n o further need to explain w h y a m a n o f his wide- ranging classical interests w o u l d have liked t o see o n the walls o f his palace the story of Aeneas and Anchises, but the hypothesis that such an unusual commission was related to unusual historical circumstances is t o o tempting to resist.
T h e theme of Aeneas's flight f r o m T r o y with his father o n his shoulders conveys the message of filial piety in the m o m e n t of danger, w h e n the institu- tions and the country itself are collapsing, a moral that is depicted in Andrea Alciati's later Emblematum libellus (fig. 6). T h e m o t t o of emblem 195 recites
"Pietas filiorum in parentes," but the text o f the epigram also stresses the notion of "patria."so I am aware of the fact that the desire to connect the myth with the political realities of the Venetian republic and the military rout of Agnadello is based on no solid documentary evidence.51 Skepticism over such direct political and contextual interpretations o f w o r k s of art has g r o w n louder in recent y e a r s5 2- i m a g i n e what can happen w h e n the picture itself is lost or destroyed. Yet such a dramatic painting, a night illuminated by the
B M B L B M A T V M H B B L L V S , 7) fittdtfiliorm 'm ptrentes.
Fig. 6. "Pietas fiiiorum in parentes"
F r o m A n d r e a A l c i a t i , Emblematum libellus, e m b l e m 7 3 ( P a r i s : C h r i s t i a n W e c h e l , 1 5 3 4 )
burning Troy, a true Inferno, w o u l d have been a perfect metaphor for the collapsing Venetian state and w o u l d have well embodied the anxiety, sense o f loss, and bewilderment that agitated Venetian society. It must be admitted that this interpretation is hard to defend: the late medieval tradition of the myth stresses its moral and private connotations, and there can be no d o u b t - a s I have already s u g g e s t e d - t h a t the painting had a very personal m e a n - ing for T a d d e o Contarini. W h e n I refer to the "political" implications o f this commission, therefore, I d o not intend to suggest that Giorgione's painting was an illustration or the direct reflection of a specific event, but that the unusual historical circumstances and the dark m o o d of those tragic days stimulated, almost subliminally, the recovery of the myth o n a m o n u m e n t a l scale. After M a y 1509 Venice's situation was so precarious that the troops o f the League o f Cambrai occupied Padua. This was not the appropriate time to commission a big canvas. By the following year, however, the situation had substantially improved.
T h e years between 1509 and 1511 are crucial for the history of Venetian altarpiece painting: Basaiti, Carpaccio, Buonconsiglio, Bellini, a n d Titian
executed several altarpieces that, although intended as a petition for protec- tion f r o m the plague, also simultaneously celebrated the end of the worst o f the political threats.53 By a stretch of the imagination we could interpret the Inferno as a sort of secular e x - v o t o . If this were true, the lost canvas w o u l d belong to the last phase of Giorgione's career, a period characterized by the classical turn o f his w o r k f r o m 1508.5 4 T h e bodies o f the t w o possibly semi- naked figures were, then, possibly similar t o the ignudi o n the facade of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi.
There is at least one m o r e clue that can be used t o argue that the Inferno w a s a very late painting by G i o r g i o n e . A s we have seen, T a d d e o A l b a n o w r o t e to Isabella d'Este that the Nocte o w n e d by Becharo a n d the Node o w n e d by Contarini were n o t for sale at any price. There was an important difference between these t w o pictures, however (which, incidentally, did not necessarily depict the same iconographic subject): the Becharo Nocte was a better finished painting, whereas the Contarini Nocte was "non... molto perfecta." A l b a n o ' s w o r d s might indicate that the big canvas w a s left un- finished because o f the painter's sudden death. Indeed, it is unlikely that a demanding collector like T a d d e o Contarini w o u l d have acquired an unfin- ished painting, if he did n o t have to succumb to exceptional circumstances.
T h e letter of Isabella's agent w a s written only a f e w days after Giorgione's death: we must therefore assume that the painting entered Contarini's collec- tion in the short time between the artist's death a n d the letter. If T a d d e o Contarini had personally c o m m i s s i o n e d the w o r k , as I have argued, such a scenario is plausible.55
T h e Dream engraved by M a r c a n t o n i o and the Inferno are t w o very impor- tant works that help us reconstruct the last chapter o f Giorgione's career between 1508 and 1510. If the Three Philosophers is not a late w o r k and if we accept the proposal that w h a t w e see n o w in the Venus in the Staat- liche Kunstsammlungen, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, in Dresden (ca. 1510) w a s painted mostly by T i t i a n , as A l e s s a n d r o Ballarin a n d M a u r o L u c c o have suggested,56 then it is necessary to write a n e w profile o f Giorgione's last works, a profile that must also take into account his lost or damaged compositions.
Giorgione's increasingly public role a n d his success is b e y o n d dispute.
This is proved not only by the frescoes o n the facade o f the F o n d a c o but also by his documented painting for the audience chamber of the Palazzo Ducale. T h e Dream engraved by M a r c a n t o n i o R a i m o n d i and the Inferno document a more private but equally important aspect o f Giorgione's late phase: his love o f night scenes, special light effects, a n d spellbinding, violent fires. His treatment of these themes, w h i c h were rooted in Leonardo's theo- retical writings, was even more influential than his public w o r k s a n d had an e n o r m o u s impact on western painting in the f o l l o w i n g decades and cen- turies, including the work of D o s s o Dossi.
L e o n a r d o w a s a c o n s t a n t p o m t o f r e f e r e n c e f o r G i o r g i o n e , a s t h e Three Ages of Man ( F l o r e n c e , P a l a z z o P i t t . ) a n d t h e s o - c a l l e d Marcello ( V i e n n a K u n s t h m o n s c h e s M u s e u m ) s h o w . - H e r e I h a v e a r g u e d t h a t t h i s fascination e n d u r e d u n t i l t h e v e r y e n d o f G i o r g i o n e ' s l i f e . T h e flight o f A e n e a s a n d A n c h i s e s f r o m t h e b u r n i n g T r o y d e m a n d e d t h a t G i o r g . o n e n o t o n l y p a i n t a g r e a t f i r e i n t h e n . g h t , a q u i n t e s s e n t i a l ^ L e o n a r d e s q u e s u b j e c t , b u t a l s o p o r - t r a y t h e c o n t r a s t b e t w e e n a n o l d e r a n d a y o u n g e r f a c e . It is u n l i k e l y t h a t m t h i s l o s t p a . n t , n g G . o r g i o n e i m i t a t e d t h e g r o t e s q u e a n d i d e a l i z e d f e a t u r e s o f L e o n a r d o ' s h e a d s , w h i c h h e h a d p a r a p h r a s e d f i v e y e a r s e a r l i e r i n t h e Marcello. T h e f r a g m e n t a r y s u r v i v i n g e v i d e n c e c o n f i r m s , h o w e v e r , t h a t i n h i s
a s t w o r k s G i o r g i o n e c o n t i n u e d t o i n v e s t i g a t e t h e m e s a n d i s s u e s t h a t h a d l o n g c o n c e r n e d L e o n a r d o .
N o t e s
I w o u l d like to t h a n k Salvatore Sends for generously sharing his insights vis-a-vis some o f the issues discussed in this essay and for p r o v i d i n g n u m e r o u s bibliographic references. M y smcerest t h a n k s also to D a v i d E k s e r d j i a n , V i c t o r i a v o n F l e m m m g Jennifer Fletcher, and J o h n Shearman. I a m grateful to Luisa C i a m m i t t i , w h o effec- tively organized the seminar, and t o M a u r o Natale, w h o chaired the session "Ferrara in the A g e o f A l f o n s o I."
1. R e c e n t p h i l o l o g i c a l r e c o n s t r u c t i o n s of G i o r g i o n e ' s career are A l e s s a n d r o Ballarin, " U n e nouvelle perspective sur G . o r g i o n e : Les portraits des annees 1 5 0 0 - 1 5 0 3 " a n d " L e p r o b l e m e des ceuvres de la jeunesse de Titiem Avancees et reculs de la critique," in Le Steele de Titien: L'dge dor de la pemture a Vemse, 2 n d ed., exh. cat.
(Paris: Editions de la R e u n i o n des M u s e e s N a t i o n a u x , 1993), 2 8 1 - 9 4 , 3 5 7 - 6 6 (see also the i m p o r t a n t r e v i e w by M a u r o L u c c o , " L e siecle de T i t i e n , " Paragone, n o s . 5 3 5 - 5 3 7 [1994]: 2 6 - 4 7 ) ; a n d M a u r o L u c c o , Giorgione ( M i l a n : Electa, 1995). Bal- larin's texts are based o n results achieved in the 1970s and partially p u b l i s h e d in three earlier articles: " U n a n u o v a prospettiva su G i o r g i o n e : La ritrattistica degli a n m 1 5 0 0 - 1 5 0 3 , " in Giorgione: Atti del convegno internazionale di studio per tl 5 ° cente- nario della nascita (Castelfranco Veneto: C o m i t a t o per le Celebrazioni Giorgionesche, 1979): 2 2 7 - 5 2 ; " G i o r g i o n e : Per un n u o v o catalogo e una n u o v a c r o n o l o g i a , " in Gior- gione e la cultura veneta tra '400 e '500: Mito, ailegoria, analisi iconologica ( R o m e :
D e L u c a , 1981), 2 6 - 3 0 ; " G i o r g i o n e e la C o m p a g n i a degli A m i c i : II ' D o p p i o n t r a t t o ' L u d o v i s i , " in Storta dell'arte italiana, 12 vols. (Turin: Einaudi, 1 9 7 9 - 1 9 8 2 ) , 5: 4 7 9 - 5 4 1 . T h e m o s t recent m o n o g r a p h o n the painter is J a y n i e A n d e r s o n , Giorgione:
Pemtre de la "Brieuete Poetiqite" (Paris: Editions de la Lagune, 1996).
2. T h e extensive bibliography on the Dream is well s u m m a r i z e d in M a r z i a Faietti a n d K o n r a d O b e r h u b e r , eds., Humanismus in Bologna, 1490-1510, exh. cat. ( B o l o - gna: N u o v a A l f a , 1988), 1 5 6 - 5 8 (entry no. 33 by M a r z i a Faietti). For further biblio- graphic references, see notes 4, 6, 10-13, 16, and 2 2 below.
3. [ M a r c a n t o n i o M i c h i e l ] , Notizia d'opere di dtsegno, ed. J a c o p o M o r e l l i , 2 n d ed., ed. G u s t a v o Frizzoni (1884; reprint, B o l o g n a : A r n a l d o Forni, 1976), 165;
M a r c a n t o n i o M i c h i e l , Der Anommo Morelliano (Marcanton Michiel s N o t i z i a d'opere
del d i s e g n o j : pt. 1, ed. a n d trans. T h e o d o r F r i m m e l ( V i e n n a : C a r l Graeser, 1888), 8 8 - 8 9 .
4. J o h a n n D a v i d Passavant, Le peintre-graveur, 6 v o l s . (1864; reprint, N e w Y o r k : B u r t F r a n k l i n , 1 9 6 6 ) , 3 5 (entry n o . 218); C h r i s t i a n H o r n i g , Giorgiones Spatwerk ( M u n i c h : W i l h e l m F i n k , 1 9 8 7 ) , 2 6 , 6 3 - 6 4 (as The Dream of Hecuba); Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo tra Foppa, Giorgione e Caravaggio, e x h . cat. ( M i l a n : Electa,
1990), 2 4 0 - 4 1 (entry n o . III. 13 by G i a n v i t t o r i o D i l l o n ) ; N i c h o l a s Penny, " T h e N i g h t in Venetian Painting between Bellini a n d Elsheimer," in Italia al chiaro di luna: La notte nella pittura italiana, 1550-1850, 2 n d . ed., exh. cat. ( R o m e : II C i g n o G a l i l e o Galilei, 1990), 2 3 - 2 4 ; Le siecle de Titien (see note 1), 5 2 1 (entry n o . 1 2 2 by K o n r a d O b e r h u b e r ) .
5. For M a r c a n t o n i o ' s earlier w o r k , see K o n r a d O b e r h u b e r , " M a r c a n t o n i o R a i - m o n d i : G l i inizi a B o l o g n a ed il p r i m o p e r i o d o r o m a n o , " in Faietti a n d O b e r h u b e r (see n o t e 2), 5 1 - 8 8 ; a n d M a r z i a Faietti, in i d e m , 8 9 - 1 5 6 (entry n o s . 1 - 3 2 ) .
6. In 1895, Franz W i c k h o f f , " G i o r g i o n e s Bilder zu r o m i s c h e n H e l d e n g e d i c h t e n , "
Jahrbuch der koniglich preufiischen Kunstsamtnlungen 16 (1895): 3 8 , suggested that Servius's (fourth-century) c o m m e n t a r y o n Virgil's Aeneid 3.12 m i g h t be its literary source. Servius tells o f t w o virgins w h o w e r e surprised by a s t o r m a n d t o o k refuge in the temple of the gods at L a v i n i u m ; as they w e r e sleeping, "ea quae minus casta erat fulmine exanimatur, alteram nihil sensisse" (the o n e w h o w a s less chaste w a s killed by l i g h t n i n g , w h i l e the o t h e r felt n o t h i n g ) . T h i s i n t e r p r e t a t i o n w a s c h a l l e n g e d by G u s t a v Friederich H a r t l a u b , Giorgiones Geheimnis: Ein kunstgeschichtlicher Beitrag zur Mystik der Renaissance ( M u n i c h : A l l g e m e i n e V e r l a g s a n s t a l t , 1 9 2 5 ) , 6 3 , w h o p o i n t e d o u t that the t w o virgins d o n o t rest in a temple a n d that neither is being or has been struck by lightning. Later, H a r t l a u b suggested t h a t the e n g r a v i n g represents H e c u b a ' s d r e a m , w h i c h foretold the fall o f T r o y ; see H a r t l a u b , " G i o r g i o n e u n d der M y t h o s der A k a d e m i e e n , " Repertorium fiir Kunstwissenschaft 4 8 (1927): 2 4 1 ; a n d i d e m , " Z u den B i l d m o t i v e n des G i o r g i o n e , " Zeitschrift fiir Kunstwissenschaft 7 (1953): 76. A s Francesco G a n d o l f o , / / "dolce tempo": Mistica, ermetismo e sogno nel Cinquecento ( R o m e : B u l z o n i , 1 9 7 8 ) , 80, n o t e d , h o w e v e r , this e p i s o d e h a d a w e l l - established and very different i c o n o g r a p h y : a c c o r d i n g t o the traditional i c o n o g r a p h y o f H e c u b a ' s d r e a m , the pregnant queen d r e a m s that a gigantic torch c o m e s o u t of her a b d o m e n a n d burns the t o w n . In 1 9 7 0 , M a u r i z i o Calvesi, " L a ' m o r t e di b a c i o ' : Saggio sull'ermetismo di G i o r g i o n e , " Storia dell'arte, n o . 7/8 (1970): 186, suggested that the engraving might represent the nightmares o f D i d o , here f l a n k e d by her sister A n n a Perenna, w h o dreams a b o u t Aeneas's i m m i n e n t departure. A c c o r d i n g t o this interpre- t a t i o n , the engraving brings together different m o m e n t s o f Virgil's p o e m . See also A n d e r s o n (see note 1), 184.
7. Michiel, 1976 (see note 3), 165; or M i c h i e l , 1888 (see n o t e 3), 8 8 - 8 9 : "La tela grande a oglio delVlnferno con Enea e Anchise fu de mano de Zorzi de Castelfranco"
( A large oil painting of the I n f e r n o w i t h A e n e a s and A n c h i s e s by the h a n d of G i o r - gione da Castelfranco).
8. Eugenio Battisti, Vantirinascimento, 2 vols. ( M i l a n : G a r z a n t i , 1989), 1: 195.
9. G a n d o l f o (see note 6), 7 7 - 1 1 2 .
10. H e i k e Frosien-Leinz, " A n t i k i s c h e s G e b r a u c h s g e r a t - W e i s h e i t u n d M a g i e in
den O l l a m p e n Riccios," in Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, exh. cat. (Frankfurt a m M a i n : Liebieghaus M u s e u m Alter Plastik, 1985), 2 5 3 - 5 4 .
11. H o r s t B r e d e k a m p , " T r a u m b i l d e r v o n M a r c a n t o n i o R a i m o n d i bis G i o r g i o Ghisi," in Werner H o f m a n n , ed., Zauber der Medusa: Europdische Mamensmen, e x h . cat. (Vienna: Locker, 1987), 6 4 - 6 5 .
12. L o u i s e S h o n a M i l n e , Dreams and Popular Beliefs in the Imagery of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1S28-1S69 ( A n n A r b o r : University M i c r o f i l m s , 1990), 8 7 - 8 8 .
13. G u y de Tervarent, "Instances o f Flemish Influence in Italian Art," Burlington Magazine 85 (1944): 2 9 0 - 9 4 .
14. Statius, Thebaid, 10.112-13: "adsunt mnumero drain, vaga somnia vultu I vera simul falsis permixtaque flumtna flammis "; see de Tervarent, ibid., 2 9 3 .
15. L u c i a n , A True Story, 2.34; see de Tervarent (see note 13), 2 9 3 . 16. J a n e M a r t i n e a u and Charles H o p e , eds., The Genius of Venice 1500-1600, exh. cat. ( L o n d o n : R o y a l A c a d e m y of A r t s / W e i d e n f e l d & N i c o l s o n , 1983), 3 1 8 - 1 9 (entry n o . P15 by D a v i d L a n d a u ) .
17. It is n o t easy to f i n d written evidence to s u p p o r t this rather bold hypothesis, but Salvatore Settis has kindly brought to m y attention a c o m m e n t by the R i m i n e s e h u m a n i s t G i o v a n n i A u r e l i o Augurelli o n the c o m p l i c a t e d s y m b o l i s m o f the banner painted for G i u l i a n o de' M e d i c i in 1475 (Florence, Biblioteca L a u r e n z i a n a , M S . L a u - renziano plut. X X X I V 4 6 , p o e m 17):
L'immagine e, con la sua immediatezza e pregnanza, non solo piacevole oggetto alia vista; ma spunto per discorsi sull'mmiagine, discorsi che, anche se allusiom o variaziom o descriziom, saranno sempre, in un qualche senso, interpretazione; e, se nell'interpretare
multi multa ferunt, eadem sententia nulli est, pulchrius est pictis istud imaginibus:
cost scriveva, e propria a proposito dello stcndardo di Giuliano [de' Medici j nella gtostra del 1475, I'umamsta riminese Giovanni Aurelio Augurelli, in un poemetto dedicato a Bernardo Bembo ( W i t h its immediacy and pregnancy, the image is not o n l y a pleasurable object for the eye but a stimulus for discourses on the image — discourses that are a l w a y s , in some sense, interpretations, even if allusions or vari- ations or descriptions, a n d if, in interpreting,
m a n y people express m a n y o p i n i o n s , n o b o d y has the same o p i n i o n , this [fact] is m o r e beautiful than the painted images.
T h u s w r o t e the h u m a n i s t f r o m R i m i n i , G i o v a n n i A u r e l i o Augurelli, in a brief p o e m dedicated to B e r n a r d o B e m b o , precisely in reference to G i u l i a n o [de' Medici's]
banner in the 1475 t o u r n a m e n t ) .
See Salvatore Settis, "Citarea 'su una impresa di b r o n c o n i , ' " Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 3 4 (1971): 143, 1 7 6 - 7 7 . M y argument is that this taste for n o n e x p l i c i t imagery m i g h t have been shared by those w h o collected early Venetian prints. A l t h o u g h born in R i m i n i , Augurelli studied in Padua and died in Treviso in 1524; see A r m a n d o B a l d u i n o , " U n poeta umanista ( G . A . Augurelli) di fronte all'arte c o n t e m p o r a n e a , " in M i c h e l a n g e l o M u r a r o , ed., La letteratura, la rappresentazione, la musica al tempo e nei luoghi di Giorgione ( R o m e : J o u v e n c e , 1987), 63.
18. G i o v a n n i P a o l o L o m a z z o , Scrttti sulle arti, ed. R o b e r t o P a o l o C i a r d i , 2 vols.
(Florence: M a r c h i & Bertolli, 1 9 7 3 - 1 9 7 4 ) , 2 : 1 9 4 - 9 5 . 19. See L o m a z z o , ibid., 2: 2 9 7 - 9 8 :
Ne' camini, adonque, non vogliono vedersi dipinte altre istorie, o favole, o signifi- cazioni, che dove entrino fuochi e significant! ardenti d'amori e di desiderij. Di che i pittori ingeniosi possono da se stessi formarne molte composizioni. E quanto alle favole et istorie si potrebbe rappresentare... Ascanio con la fiamma intorno alia testa doppo la distruzione di Troia;...la colonna di fuoco che precede innanzi di notte, come scorta, il populo d'Israel fuggito d'Egitto; e I'istesso popolo, mentre che nell'Egitto lavorava intorno alle fornaci. Ma tuttavia pare che le favole et isto- rie de' gentili piacciano, non so come, piii, quasi che abbiano maggior vaghezza d'mvenzione. E pert, conviene avere buona conserva di favole, come ...di Didone quando col tesoro si getta nel fuoco; ...di Medea che per ringiovenire Esone fa il bizzarro incanto ( O n f i r e p l a c e s , t h e r e f o r e , n o story, f a b l e , or m y t h s h o u l d be painted except for those a b o u t fires a n d i m p o r t a n t figures b u r n i n g w i t h loves a n d desires. F r o m these, skillful painters m a y o n their o w n create m a n y c o m p o s i t i o n s . A n d as for the fables a n d stories, they m i g h t r e p r e s e n t . . . A s c a n i u s w i t h f l a m e s a r o u n d his head after the destruction o f T r o y ; . . . t h e pillar o f fire that by night w e n t as an escort before the p e o p l e o f Israel w h o h a d fled Egypt; a n d the same people, w h i l e in Egypt as they w o r k e d a r o u n d the kilns. But it nonetheless seems that fables a n d stories o f the gentiles are m o r e pleasing [I k n o w n o t w h y ] , a l m o s t as if they h a d greater grace o f i n v e n t i o n . H o w e v e r , o n e needs a g o o d store o f fables, such a s . . . D i d o , w h e n she t h r e w herself in the fire w i t h the treasure;
[and] M e d e a , w h e n she cast her bizarre spell t o rejuvenate J a s o n ) . 20. L o m a z z o (see note 18), 2: 3 2 2 :
In tali conflitti e ravine aggiungerd molta grazia il far veder gettar a terra le mura, le femine con le bracaa aperte andar gridando, et altre fuggire et altri esser legatt, altri uccisi et altri spogliati; appresso, come a Troia e Cartagine, accendere il fuoco e rovtnar le case et i palazzi come gia tante volte e avvenuto alia povera Roma per mani di barbari et a molte altre citta d'halia; alcuni colmi di paura fuggire, come ardendo Troia fuggi il figliuolo di Venere col vecchio padre Anchise su le spalle et il figliuolo picaoletto per le mani; altri porgere giu da' balcont i fanciulli, altri calarsi per le corde, altri saltar giu, e simili ravine e disperazioni, le quali infinito sarebbe a volere annoverare.
L o m a z z o ' s w o r d s c o u l d well be inspired by R a p h a e l ' s Eire in the Borgo.
21. See B r e d e k a m p (see note 11): 66 n. 31. See also Peter Burke, " F u r eine G e - schichte des Traumes," Fretbeuter, n o . 2 7 (1986): 5 0 - 6 5 .
22. T o be m o r e e x p l i c t : .t is possible that the i c o n o g r a p h i c a l l y m e a n i n g f u l ele- ments of the c o m p o s i t i o n were deliberately i n t r o d u c e d in o r d e r to c o n f u s e the viewer- the v ,e w e r .dentif.es C h a r o n b u t c a n n o t c o n n e c t h i m t o the other elements of the engraving; on the right-hand side the viewer sees a m a n c a r r y i n g a b o d y o n his s h o u l - ders, but because their poses indicate that the m a n is carrying a dead b o d y , they c a n - n o t represent Aeneas and Anchises; at the t o p of the b u r n . n g tower, the v.ewer sees
t w o bodies tied to a turning wheel, an image that m i g h t refer to Aeneid 6 . 6 1 6 - 1 7 . These details m a k e the viewer believe that she or he has identified the subject o f the e n g r a v i n g , but the figures a n d the a n i m a l s in the f o r e g r o u n d c o n t r a d i c t this first i m p r e s s i o n or intuition. See also Patricia E m i s o n , "Asleep in the G r a s s o f A r c a d y : G i u h o C a m p a g n o l a ' s Dreamer," Renaissance Quarterly 4 5 (1992): 2 7 1 - 9 2 ; a n d Craig H a r b i s o n , " M e a n i n g m Venetian Renaissance Art: T h e Issues o f Artistic Ingenuity and O r a l Traditions," A r r History 15 (1992): 1 9 - 3 7 .
2 3 . For the l i m i t a t i o n s i m p o s e d o n the artist by sculpture, see M a r t i n K e m p , ed., Leonardo on Painting: An Anthology of Writings by Leonardo da Vina, with a
Selection of Documents Relating to His Career as an Artist ( N e w H a v e n : Y a l e Univ.
Press, 1989), 39. For the passage o n painting, see idem, 4 0 - 4 2 .
2 4 . M a r t i n e a u and H o p e (see note 16), 318 (entry n o . P15 by D a v i d L a n d a u ) . 2 5 . J e a n Paul Richter, e d „ The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, 3rd ed., 2 vols. ( L o n d o n : P h a i d o n , 1970), 2: 2 9 3 .
2 6 . F o r a g o o d translation of the celebrated passage on " h o w to represent a night scene," see K e m p (see note 23), 2 3 8 . For the passage quoted in the text, see i d e m , 32.
2 7 . W i n d s o r n o . 1 2 5 8 5 recto; see Kenneth C l a r k , The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, at Windsor Castle, 2 n d ed., 3 vols.
( L o n d o n : P h a i d o n , 1968), 1: 115-16.
2 8 . R i c h t e r (see n o t e 2 5 ) , 1: 5 4 : " D o y o u n o t see to w h a t an a b u n d a n c e of inventions the painter m a y resort if he wishes to portray animals or devils in h e l l ? "
A l s o , i d e m , 1: 342: " H O W Y O U S H O U L D M A K E A N I M A G I N A R Y ANIMAL. L O O K N A T U R A L . Y o u k n o w that y o u c a n n o t invent animals w i t h o u t limbs, each of w h i c h , in itself, m u s t resemble those of s o m e other animal. Hence if y o u wish to m a k e an a n i m a l , imagined by y o u , appear n a t u r a l - l e t us say a dragon, take for its head that of a m a s t i f f or h o u n d , with the eyes of a cat, the ears o f a porcupine, the nose o f a g r e y h o u n d , the b r o w o f a lion, the temples of an o l d c o c k , the neck of a water- tortoise."
29. M i l n e (see note 12), 185.
30. E d w a r d M u i r , Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1981), 1 7 2 - 7 3 . 31. Ibid., 172.
32. M i c h i e l , 1976 (see note 3), 165, 196; or Michiel, 1888 (see note 3), 102.
33. Penny (see note 4 ) , 3 1 - 3 2 . Penny and I reached o u r very similar conclusions independently. I c o m p l e t e d the first draft of this essay before reading Penny's article.
O u r similar reasoning m a y indicate that the G i o r g i o n e - S a v o l d o connection should n o t be hastily discarded, even if the g r o u p on the right derives f r o m Raphael's Lire in the Borgo.
34. G a b r i e l e V e n d r a m i n , T a d d e o ' s brother-in-law, assembled a greatly a d m i r e d collection of antiquities; see Irene Favaretto, Arte antica e cultura antiquaria nelle collezioni venete al tempo delta Serenissima ( R o m e : L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1990).
T w o silver coins of the R e p u b l i c a n period ( 4 7 - 4 6 B.C.) in the M u s e o A r c h e o l o g i c o in Venice reproduce a w e l l - k n o w n Aeneas-Anehises g r o u p ; unfortunatelv, n o . 7 7 7 (inv.
n o . 3 3 6 6 ) w a s f o u n d in the province of Venice only in 1937, w h i l e the provenance of n o . 74 (inv. n o . 181) is u n k n o w n , as G i o v a n n a Luisa R a v a g n a n has i n f o r m e d me. In
a n y case, this g r o u p w a s k n o w n at the beginning o f the sixteenth century, because it w a s engraved by M a r c a n t o n i o R a i m o n d i ; see The Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 2 6 , The Works of Marcantonio Raimondi and of His School, Part 1, ed. K o n r a d O b e r h u b e r ( N e w Y o r k : A b a r i s , 1978), 180 (entry n o . 186 [152]).
35. M i c h i e ! m a d e n o corrections to his entry o n the Aeneas in the original m a n u - script, n o w in the Biblioteca n a z i o n a l e M a r c i a n a , Venice.
36. T h i s i n f o r m a t i o n is reported w i t h o u t a d d i t i o n s or c o r r e c t i o n s in M i c h i e l ' s original m a n u s c r i p t .
37. Michiel himself a d d e d a b o v e the original text in the m a n u s c r i p t that Three Philosophers is painted in oil. In other w o r d s , he t o o k the trouble t o a d d i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t the m e d i u m yet says n o t h i n g a b o u t the size of the canvas.
38. See Terisio Pignatti, Giorgione, 2 n d ed. ( M i l a n : A l f i e r i , 1978), 108.
39. O n G e n g a ' s detached fresco, see P i e r o Torriti, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena: I dipmti dal XV al XVIII secolo ( G e n o a : Sagep, 1981), 5 0 - 5 2 ; Fiorella Sricchia S a n t o r o , ' " R i c e r c h e senesi': 2 . II P a l a z z o del M a g n i f i c o P a n d o l f o Petrucci," Pros- pettwa, no. 2 9 (1982): 2 4 - 3 1 ; G i o v a n n i A g o s t i , "Precision! su un Baccanale p e r d u t o del Signorelli," Prospettwa, n o . 3 0 (1982): 7 0 - 7 7 , w h o clarifies the m a r i t a l - d y n a s t i c i m p l i c a t i o n s of the cycle p a i n t e d f o r P a n d o l f o Petrucci in 1 5 0 9 ; a n d Domenico Becca- fumi e il suo tempo, exh. cat. ( M i l a n : Electa, 1990), 2 6 0 - 6 2 (entry n o . 4 9 by Fiorella Sricchia Santoro). O t h e r late s i x t e e n t h - c e n t u r y e x a m p l e s are listed in J a n e D a v i d s o n R e i d , The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300-1990s, 2 vols.
( N e w Y o r k : O x f o r d Univ. Press, 1993), 1: 4 3 - 4 4 .
4 0 . For a transcription o f this f a m o u s letter, see R u g g e r o M a s c h i o , "Per la b i o - grafia di G i o r g i o n e , " in R u g g e r o M a s c h i o , ed., 7 tempi di Giorgione ( R o m e : G a n g e m i , 1994), 2 0 3 (doc. n o . 6, Lettera di Isabella d'Este a T a d d e o A l b a n o , M a n t o v a , 2 5 o t t o - bre 1510, initialed p. c. [Paolo Carpeggiani]).
41. For an accurate transcription of this celebrated letter, see ibid., 2 0 3 (doc. n o . 7, Lettera di T a d d e o A l b a n o ad Isabella d'Este, Venezia, 8 n o v e m b r e 1510, initialed p. c. [Paolo Carpeggiani]).
4 2 . G e o r g e M a r t i n Richter, Giorgio da Castelfranco, Called Giorgione (Chicago:
Univ. o f C h i c a g o Press, 1937), 2 5 7 (entry n o . 99), identified the Allendale Nativity w i t h the Node for V . c t o n o Becharo. G i u s e p p e F i o c c o , Giorgione ( B e r g a m o : Istituto Italiano d ' A r t i Grafiche, 1941), 16; a n d A n t o n i o M o r a s s i , Giorgione ( M i l a n : H o e p l i , 1942), 66, b o t h identify its replica in V i e n n a w i t h the Node for T a d d e o C o n t a r i n i .
4 3 . M o s t n o t a b l y by J o h a n n e s W i l d e , Venetian Art from Bellini to Titian ( O x f o r d : O x f o r d Univ. Press, 1974), 60.
4 4 . H a n s Tietze and Erika T i e t z e - C o n r a t , " T h e Allendale Nativity in the N a t i o n a l Gallery," Art Bulletin 31 (1949): 1 3 - 1 4 .
45. Isabella's interest m Flemish art is well d o c u m e n t e d ; see, for e x a m p l e , L o m e C a m p b e l l , " N o t e s o n N e t h e r l a n d s Pictures in the V e n e t o in the F i f t e e n t h a n d S.xteenth Centuries," Burlington Magazine 123 (1981): 4 6 7 - 7 3 ; C l i f f o r d M B r o w n Isabella d'Este and Lorenzo da Pavia: Documents for the History of Art and Culture m Renaissance Mantua ( G e n e v a : Libraire D t o z , 1982), 1 6 9 - 7 1 ; a n d Sylvia F e n n o - Pagden, Isabella d'Este, "La prima donna del mondo": Purstm und Mdzenatm der Renaissance, exh. cat. (Vienna: K u n s t h i s t o n s c h e s M u s e u m , 1994).
4 6 . See E r w . n P a n o f s k y , Albrecht Diirer, 3 r d ed., 2 vols. (Princeton: P r i n c e t o n Univ. Press, 1948), 1: 4 4 .
4 7 . T h r e e passages c o m e i m m e d i a t e l y to m i n d ; they are in the lives o f Piero della Francesca (the d r e a m o f C o n s t a n t m e ) , C o r r e g g i o (the a g o n y ,n the G a r d e n ) , a n d R a p h a e l . See G . o r g i o V a s a n , The Lives of the Artists: A Selection, trans. G e o r g e Bull ( H a r m o n d s w o r t h : Penguin B o o k s , 1971), 1 9 4 - 9 5 , 281 317.
4 8 . In his recent discussion o f Giorgione's Tempest, Paul H o l b e r t o n reached simi- lar conclusions: " G i o r g i o n e w a s . . . interested in an i c o n o g r a p h y introducing light a n d weather in sky a n d l a n d s c a p e . . . . Writers w h o singled o u t such effects (for instance S u m m o n t e writing t o M i c h . e l on C o l a n t o m o , or even V a s a n ) d o n o t suggest classical e m u l a t i o n ; if a n y t h i n g such effects were to be associated w i t h N e t h e r l a n d i s h o r G e r m a n a r t " ; see Paul H o l b e r t o n , " G i o r g i o n e ' s Tempest or 'Little L a n d s c a p e w i t h the S t o r m w i t h the G y p s y ' : M o r e o n the G y p s y , and a Reassessment," Art History 18 (1995): 3 9 8 .
4 9 . T h e r e were m a n y T a d d e o Contar.nis in Venice. G i o r g i o n e ' s friend and collec- tor is identified ,n Salvatore Sett.s, La "Tempesta" mterpretata: Giorgione, , commit- tenti, ilsoggetto (Turin: E.naudi, 1978), 1 3 9 - 4 1 . T h i s proposal has been c o n f i r m e d by the i n v e n t o r y of 1556 f o u n d by Charles H o p e and discussed by A n d e r s o n (see note 1), 148. A d d i t i o n a l i n f o r m a t i o n o n T a d d e o appears in G i o r g i o P a d o a n , " G i o r g i o n e e la cultura umanistica," in Giorgione (see note 1), 2 5 - 3 6 , esp. 3 3 - 3 4 ; D o n a t a Battilotti,
" T a d d e o C o n t a r i n i , " in M a s c h i o , ed. (see note 40), 2 0 5 - 6 ; S i m o n a C o h e n , " A N e w Perspective o n Giorgione's Three Philosophers," Gazette des beaux-arts, ser 6 126 (1995): 5 3 - 6 4 .
50. A n d r e a Alciati, Emblematum libellus (Paris: E x officina C . Wecheli, 1535), c. 73. See also Peter M . Daly, Virginia W. C a l l a h a n , a n d Simon Cuttler, eds., Andreas Alciatus, 2 vols. ( T o r o n t o : Univ. of T o r o n t o Press, 1985), 1: e m b l e m 195; 2: e m b l e m 195.
51. For the political use of the figure of Aeneas in different contexts, see Bernice D a v i d s o n , " T h e Navigatione d'Enea Tapestries D e s i g n e d by P e r i n o del V a g a for A n d r e a D o r i a , " Art Bulletin 71 (1990): 3 5 - 5 0 , esp. 39, 4 8 ; and M a n e Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor ( N e w H a v e n : Yale Univ. Press, 1993).
52. For e x a m p l e , the political interpretation of Giorgione's frescoes o n the facade o f the F o n d a c o dei T e d e s c h i suggested by M i c h e l a n g e l o M u r a r o has been p a r t l y rejected by Charles H o p e , w h o confines the political implications to the figure of J u d i t h frescoed by Titian. See Michelangelo xMuraro, " T h e Political Interpretation o f G i o r g i o n e ' s Frescoes o n the F o n d a c o dei Tedeschi," Gazette des beaux-arts, ser. 6, 86 (1975): 1 7 7 - 8 4 ; and Charles H o p e , Titian ( L o n d o n : Jupiter, 1980), 12-14.
53. T h i s e x t r a o r d i n a r y historical p h e n o m e n o n needs to be properly investigated.
F o r the i n d i v i d u a l altarpieces, see Peter H u m f r e y , The Altarpiece in Renaissance Venice ( N e w H a v e n : Yale Univ. Press, 1993).
54. For this stylistic turn in the history of Venetian art, see Ballarin, 1981 (see note 1), 2 8 .
55. It s h o u l d n o t be forgotten that T a d d e o A l b a n o used the past tense in his letter:
"Zorzo ne feze una a messer Tadheo Contarini" ( G i o r g i o n e did one [a night scene| for
T a d d e o C o n t a r i n i ) . It is clear, h o w e v e r , that he d i d n o t k n o w the painting a n d that he w a s reporting i n f o r m a t i o n o b t a i n e d f r o m G i o r g i o n e ' s friends. Indeed, it is even possi- ble that by a c u r i o u s coincidence Isabella's agent w a s i n q u i r i n g a b o u t the canvas that G i o r g i o n e h a d been painting for C o n t a r i n i a n d that the painter c o u l d n o t c o m p l e t e because o f his untimely death. C o n t a r i n i p r o b a b l y collected this unfinished painting i m m e d i a t e l y after G i o r g i o n e ' s death.
56. See Ballarin, 1981 (see n o t e 1), 2 6 , 3 0 ; a n d L u c c o , 1995 (see n o t e 1), 2 6 , 30.
5 7 . For these t w o paintings a n d their relationship w i t h L e o n a r d o , see Le siecle de Titien (see note 1), 3 0 9 - 1 3 (entry n o . 21 by A l e s s a n d r o Ballarin), 3 2 9 - 3 1 (entry n o . 2 6 b y A l e s s a n d r o Ballarin); a n d L u c c o , 1995 (see n o t e 1), 2 2 - 2 3 , 2 6 .
