Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography Themes Depicted in Works of Art Volumes 1 2

Photo credit: National Trust Images

Topic: Subject or sitter

The painting is currently called 'Apollo Crowning a Poet and Giving Him a Consort', however a fellow member of the public wrote in to say that the work depicts Apollo surrounded by six Muses plus Hercules. They write that the Poet who receives the laurel is female and given that Tintoretto was male it is unlikely that he would accept selected a female person poet – Sappho; though a candidate, would exist an unlikely choice. This is a debate that has been rumbling on for a long time. Lots of experts take looked into information technology over the years including Nick Penny, yet it remains a mystery.

34 comments

Surely a poetess not a poet

The full title is currently: Apollo crowning a Poet and joining him with a Consort, witnessed by Hercules and by other Females. It was bought by William John Bankes for Kingston Lacy, Dorset from the Pasquali sisters, through Alvise (Ulisse) Mazzuoli, in Venice in 1850 every bit 'Apollo & the Muses' but this is clearly not the example. Nor has the subject area of this picture been satisfactorily deciphered, despite its recent cleaning in 2010.

The poet is maybe Horace, who called upon Apollo to help him spurn earthly reward. Hercules, equally protector of the arts, and wearing his panthera leo skin, holding a spear and bow, looms in a higher place. He was deified afterwards his death and so it seems that he is supposed to be on Mount Olympus. Information technology has been suggested that the figures on the right are either the Three Graces, with their traditional symbol of the die (symbolic of child-similar purity), but as well that they are three separate entities: the effigy at the bottom could be Fortune (with her cornucopia and again, the die, here symbolic of chance).

However, fact that we do not know who or where this moving-picture show was painted for makes the interpretation of its subject field all the more difficult. It was almost certainly painted for a private palazzo and therefore the imagery will accept been dictated to Tintoretto by the owner and its meaning may merely take been apparent to him and his household. It may exist a pure allegory, of general meaning, or it may be an allegorised representation of some figure – the swain with a book – in his family's history. If the former, ane might advise that this is Hercules's son Hyllus, whom Hymen is uniting – in accord with his father's wishes – with the latter's former lover, Iole. But why should Hyllus be shown with a book? And why should such an obscure subject ever have been chosen to adorn a ceiling in a Venetian palazzo? At the moment, the best hope of a slightly meliorate estimation of the theme depends upon the identification and significance of the trailing found, strands of which are held by Apollo, or maybe Hymen, and the bride.

Does anyone think it could be Admetus re-marrying Alcestis (in the shadows on the right) who was saved from the Underworld by Hercules. The erstwhile was served past Apollo every bit a shepherd. One of the sources for the story is Euripides and the pictorial inspiration was antique rock coffins.

At that place is a Venetian poetess who was painted by Tintoretto [Worcester Art Museum, Prado] who might fit the pecker - Veronica Franco [1546 -91] - the land of undress might point to her . The patron for this painting could be her patron. She had a liaison with Henri III of France before publishing ii volumes of poetry in 1575 and 1580 and collected works by other writers into anthologies. All this after being listed in a catalogue c. 1565 as i of the main courtesans of Venice.
At that place is a considerable literature on her including a 1992 biography by Masrgaret F Rosenthal,'The Honest Courtesan', Chicago, 1992 which presumably records her patrons. She refers to beingness painted by Tintoretto in her 'lettere'- and the features of the woman in this flick , although not greatly pronounced. could be compared with those of the portraits by Tintoretto which have been identified equally of her

Domenico Venier could be the human being who commissioned this painting

Could this be Veronica Franco in the part of Flora? I agree with Martin Hopkinson that the face is not dissimilar to portraits of her and being a delineation of a poet would explain the book she holds. In addition, she is being crowned non with a victor'due south laurel crown but with a floral garland, equally Flora ofttimes is. There are flowers being scattered everywhere. I believe courtesans in Venice were often depicted as Flora with garlanded pilus.

Some of the flowers, other than the roses the putti are scattering are most probably myrtle - attribute of Venus and the Three Graces and in the Renaissance information technology symbolised everlasting love and bridal fidelity and therefore advisable for a spousal relationship portrait. But, mayhap that is where the misunderstanding is. The figure on the left really is not female just could be Domenico Venier himself. And the female figure on the right in the shadow could actually be Apollo's celibate sister Diana (Greek: Selene - moon goddess) who is often seen sitting shaded about by him. He is wearing the laurel, of his first honey Daphne, and perhaps is bestowing an honour on the 'poet' who actually looks as if he is property a rock tablet rather than a book.

The fundamental figure does appear to have a female breast , and a contemporary watercolour of the nude torso of Franco seems to show that she had minor breasts [Beineke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale Academy Ms 457 Mores Italiane - illustrated in Rosenthal between pp. 152 and 153
A portrait of her now more often than not attributed to Domenico Tintoretto is in Worcester Art Museum - for which see P. Rossi, 'I ritratti di Domenico Tintoretto', Arte Illustrata, 1970, pp. 92-99, which I accept notwithstanding to see.
The frontispiece intended for her 'Terze Rime', 1575 in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana too included a portrait of her [illustrated by Rosenthal]

There is a long business relationship of Franco's relations with Venier in Alvise Zorzi, 'Cortigiana Veneziana: Veronica Franco e i suoi poeti ', Milan , 1986, pp. 57-65, 69 - xc and 163-64 obviously [ this volume is not easily accessible to me]
Also perhaps of involvement is an article in 'Renaissance Quarterly', 44, 3, 1991, pp. 475 -510
Martha Feldman , ' The Academy of Domenico Venier. Music's literary rise in mid -Cinquecento Venice'

If the figure is male, I exercise not think that it can be a portrait of a contemporary figure, as Tintoretto's portraits of males are noticeably manly, which this poet clearly is not. I should say that I am not a Tintoretto good

An alternative suggestion as to the identity of the main female person figure - could it be that she is 'Poesia' herself?

Apollo is standing on a group of products of goldsmithery, which might suggest that the patron was associated with goldsmiths. Could the owner provide an enlarged detail of the supposed die every bit this may represent an impresa of a particular family? Are the four principal figures around Apollo the Seasons, top left Wintertime and clockwise Spring, Summer with the cornucopia and autumn, partly in shade? Does the crowned figure have more than one meaning?

In that location is a pyx, chalice, a platen and a monstrance, all gilded, under Apollo's feet. The church building had ruled that all these religious objects had to exist gold.

I should have said that the Seasons are arranged in ANTI-CLOCKWISE direction

In that location was a Scuola degli Orefici in Venice probably near or in the Ruga degli Orefici . The Scuola was the patron of an altar in San Giacomo del Rialto.
May be a historian of Venetian goldsmithery tin aid.
Equally a historian of the rules laid downwards by the Quango of Trent might be able to tell united states of america whether they have anything to do with the subject matter of this painting.

Some very interesting comments on this painting take been posted. I discover it hard to discern from the epitome whether the figure receiving the laurel crown (or floral garland) is male or female person. The National Trust contributors, who presumably take seen the piece of work at first hand, peradventure during its recent restoration, believe it to be male. This view is perhaps supported by the stiff hands and muscular forearms, the pilus, which appears notably different from the more typical Venetian hairstyles of the undoubted females in the picture, the not particularly feminine face and perhaps, the well-developed pectoral muscle. The alternative view may be supported by the modest lower pall, but I favour the male pick. If Tintoretto (or his assistant) had intended a breast, I retrieve we would not exist in doubt almost information technology. The National Trust contributors too propose that the androgynous effigy is holding a stone tablet, which is what I beginning idea it was. To judge from the paradigm, I discover this a more likely option than a book, although I have no thought what it might hateful in a mythological context. With regard to the balance of the limerick, some very helpful suggestions have been fabricated, which accept emphasized that this painting was created for a specific and probably unique circumstance. I believe we can exclude the Muses, the Fates and besides the idea of a consort. Which figure is this intended consort? The androgynous figure, elevated by two female figures (i of whom wears a simple laurel crown perhaps representing 'poesy') is being feted past a figure who may indeed exist Apollo, simply if so, it must be explained why he is standing on gold Christian objects. Martin Hopkinson'south reference to the Orefici may provide the answer, only I think it unlikely that guidance provided past the Council of Trent would accept encouraged representations of Hercules and Apollo. Onlookers include Hercules, who may simply represent heroic force, and the three females to the right. She below with the cornucopia and the die, which may fall in any direction, is probably 'Liberalità' [C. Ripa, Bk. Ii, p. 373]. The other females on clouds carry flowers, probably roses, which are as well tossed over the scene past the putti above. Unless it has already been done, I think it would be worth showing this prototype to Charles Hope, Jennifer Montagu or another Warburg colleague.

During the cleaning and restoration of the painting at the Hamilton-Kerr Institute, Cambridge in 2010, infra-red reflectography showed that the figure with the book was clearly originally a muscular nigh nude youth looking upwardly - it is uncertain whether or not the changes in face and drapery were intended to change the sex of the figure merely it all the same seems to be a man.

As well, it was revealed that the cornucopia originally went upward behind the bottom Graces. It is interesting to consider the 'Fortune' figure (or 'Abundance') equally 'Liberalità', especially as she represents the aureate mean betwixt vice (prodigality) and virtue (meagreness) -a choice Hercules was likewise challenged with. And once again it would be advisable for a marriage scene, every bit she is usually seen discarding a shower of gold vessels, perhaps alluded to by what Apollo is standing on – every bit well as signifying the god of music and poetry'southward contempt for wealth. A die likewise appears in Tintoretto's painting Mercury with the 3 Graces, 1576/77 in the Palazzo Ducale with both sides showing the numbers, 4 and 5.

Yet, Liberalità is usually also seen with an eagle on her head. Cesare Ripa's 'Iconologia overo Descrittione Dell'imagini Universali cavate dall'Antichità et da altri luoghi' was kickoff published in 1593 so another earlier source like Pierio Valeriano's 'Hieroglyphica' or Andrea Alciato's, 'Emblemata' would have to be more than likely (both in themselves ultimately derive from more ancient texts). Some other suggestion elsewhere that Martianus Capella's fifth-century allegory, 'De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii', published in Vicenza in 1499 and again in Basel in 1532, could be the source is more compelling though. Information technology was indeed Apollo who suggested the union between Mercury (eloquence; also associated with Hercules) and the mortal Philology (learning) and the text was popular for the bringing together of heathen gods with Christian idea – as indeed did the Apolline sibyls. Although, the iii women in our painting do not seem to exist even the 'trivium' of the Liberal Arts: Rhetoric, Grammar and Dialectic, commonly associated with scenes in the volume.

This data gained during the cleaning and restoration is clearly very significant and should assistance a specialist on the iconography of Venetian postal service 1550 painting to sort out the meaning . As this is much the finest and most important pictures so far to exist discussed on Fine art Detective, i very much hopes that a solution will be found . As Tim suggests someone associated with the Warburg may well be able to help.
As for the orefici, there are scholars like John Bernasconi at the University of Hull, who may exist able to provide information about the Scuola and its activity as a patron of fine art in the sixteenth century

Please see: Alastair Laing (former Curator of Pictures & Sculpture, National Trust, 1986 - 2012): 'Album amicorum: Oeuvres choisies pour Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée', Paris, 2012, pp.32-33 for Martianus Capella suggestion and attached infra-red epitome for sit-in of Tintoretto working methods. like many artists, for painting nudes kickoff.

I will just quickly add two picayune details for anybody interested.

I want to farther suggest that it's not Apollo crowning the and then called poet only maybe the personification of honor mentioned by Cartari (crowning virtuous persons with laurel crowns + is wearing a magenta robe). That way it volition be more than probable to not consider the person crowned mostly to exist a poet.

I am working towards reaching a conclusion to this word, which will non be an easy task. So, if anyone has thought of something to add, I would be grateful to read it. Some observations: 1. Both the infra-ruby-red paradigm and the detail posted by Maria Aresin point clearly that the object held by the figure beingness crowned is indeed a book. two. The infra-red epitome as well confirms that this figure is male person. 3. The infra-carmine paradigm suggests that Tintoretto himself played an important role in the early stages of the development of this painting, which may well accept been worked up past studio assistants, who to a caste obscured their master's intentions. 4. Are the objects beneath the Apollo figure's feet a salver with coins, a monstrance and a model of a (church building) tower? Do they represent Christian religion? If so, would Apollo really take been represented standing on Christian symbols (I don't believe he is crushing them nether his feet), or is this more than likely to be an emblematic effigy? If non Christian iconography, what are these objects? 5. I am sure National Trust colleagues are right to think that the subject area matter and iconography must be intimately connected with the commissioned destination of the piece of work. It will non be easy to find this, but we can certainly accept the claiming.

As a National Trust curator, I can confirm that the figure being crowned is indeed a man, and that he holds a book or tablet. Some years ago, I consulted with Paul Taylor and Elizabeth McGrath at the Warburg Establish, who equally institute the iconography unconventional. Notwithstanding, Paul Taylor suggested - which I discover the nigh compelling caption thus far - that the poet is Horace, who expressed his devotion to Apollo (Odes I:31). Apollo is here seen trampling upon wordly wealth (the salver and coins etc. are not Christian symbols, simply a general expression of riches); that the poet is interested in poetic inspiration and considers wordly wealth beneath him is a trope in the work of Horace (Odes Ii:18). Hercules is holding a bow in his left hand and spiked club in his right. Cartari, post-obit Lucian, tells united states of america that this is the attribute of Hercules Gallicus - the symbol of eloquence. More problematic is PT's reading of the 3 figures to the right as the Iii Graces. Indeed the attributes of the rose and the die are traditional, but the way in which the upper figure is distinctively paler and cast in shadow suggests an culling reading (?Selene / Persephone, or even a malevolent force (the distraction of lust) - Palma Vecchio'due south courtesans are clothed in green). In that location was a burgeoning of involvement in Greek civilization in Venice and I am currently post-obit up literary references that may shed more than light on this. Withal (every bit expressed by Jennifer Fletcher), Venetian iconography should exist understood in a much more full general way and that - although frustrating to the modern mind - each component needn't exist specific. Compared with the density of meaning in Tuscan works, Venetian allegorical works were often much more fluidly conceived, especially in a private, or semi-individual setting (Vasari was frustrated that the frescoes at the Fondaco - for him - had no pregnant). JF felt that the overriding theme of the motion-picture show were elements that served to inspire Poesy: beauty, abundance, strength and grace. For the time existence, this cautious iconographic approach is perhaps the best.

Simone Pignoni's seventeenth-century bozzetto for a larger ceiling painting of A Poet presented to Jupiter by Hercules is crowned by Glory, below Venus, Cupid and the poet -
at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/a-poet-presented-to-jupiter-by-hercules-is-crowned-by-glory5419 makes an interesting comparison.

Advise that yous consult the following book, especially as it relates to Federico Badoer, founder of the Accademia Veneziana. I do not have a difficult copy of the book in hand, merely from the express view available on-line, find it intriguing to consider that the Tinoretto may have been painted for the Palazzo Badoer, "seat of the Academy" or the public space granted to the University in 1560, the Vestibolo della Libreria. Also, noted "There is no doubt that the religious question played an of import part, albeit unclear, role in the Academy."

Accessed via Google eBooks
Title The Gallery of Memory: Literary and Iconographic Models in the Historic period of the Press Printing
Toronto Italian studies
Author Lina Bolzoni
Translated by Jeremy Parzen
Edition illustrated
Publisher Academy of Toronto Press, 2001
ISBN 0802043305, 9780802043306
Length 332 pages

I am non an art historian, but please consider these observations, which may relate to the Accademia Veneziana (1557-1671) and its leader, Federico Badoer (1519-1593). To summarize:

The Accademia members were heavily influenced by Aristotle, the first philosopher who argued for indeterminism. His theory of poetry and art informed the "Somma delle opere" (1558) which would lead to the birth of modernistic bibliography.

"On 31 May 1560, the Council of X decreed that the Academy was to print all official documents, and on 12 July 1560, the procurators of San Marco accepted Badoer's "Supplica"…. In the "Supplica", he argued that the "Somma delle opera" principles should as well be applied to visual iconography.
---
Suggest that the painting could be read as a cycle of fortune, "without an explicit depiction of information technology".

Apollo is the god of the arts, medicine, prophecy AND order. "The Apollo archetype personifies the aspect of the personality that wants clear definitions, is drawn to master a skill, values lodge and harmony, and prefers to look at the surface, as opposed to beneath appearances. The Apollo classic favors thinking over feeling, distance over closeness and objective assessment over subjective intuition."

I detest to dispose of the idea of a chaste Diana, simply Virtue is holding a Herculean club. A human female person figure, attentive and wary, stands sheltered betwixt Apollo and Virtue.

Fortune's cornucopia seems to spring from the loins of Virtue. From it, abundance flows towards the human being already crowned with laurel. This man sits and leans on terra firma.

Above him hovers an uncrowned homo (Aristotle?). He ascends toward sky, about to be crowned past Apollo. He is held past the crowned man (the divine Plato?) and a female figure (Psyche sans butterfly wings?). The uncrowned homo is ascending on an centrality between this female effigy and Apollo. I believe her presence reminds us of the contend over the source of genius, whether from "a supernatural miracle originating in the transcendent realm of God" or "a natural expression of the human psyche".

Hercules hovers in the background, dressed in his king of beasts'south peel (symbolic of earlier accomplishments?), with the sleeves of a shirt hanging from his arm. The shirt, bow and quiver all are symbols advisable for the end of his life. (I may exist overreaching for an interpretation, but possibly information technology has to practice with unexpected consequences. When Hercules eventually surrendered his bow and arrow on his funeral pyre, they became the tools which ended the war in Troy. Is it an acknowledgement that all intellectual endeavors have unexpected consequences?)

Apollo, heedless of wealth or dogma, rewards the man with a crown.

Ref.
Wikipedia
Via Google eBooks:

Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art folio 341.

The Gallery of Memory: Literary and Iconographic Models in the Age of the Printing Press p. 19-21.

Aristotelianism in the Renaissance, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Contend over the Origin of Genius during the Italian Renaissance: The

Theories of Supernatural Frenzy and Natural Melancholy in Accord and in Disharmonize on the Threshold of the Scientific Revolution

"Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity" states Tintoretto in 1560 "…painted a portrait of Doge Giraloma Priuli for the Council of Ten, a commission his role as a leading country painter." He was a member of Accademia Veneziana secundo (1593).

"Venetian Painted Ceilings of the Renaissance" in reference to the Vestibolo della Libreria which the Accademia Veneziana had been granted admission for public gatherings (1560): "By Nov 1562, Tintoretto and Dominico Molin had delivered at least one painting each for the walls. By February 1564, the mural ornamentation was consummate." Page 95

Re-instate the title "Apollo & The Muses" - An Astronomers view

TINTORETTO – Reinstate the title 'APOLLO AND THE MUSES'.
I was a Young man of the Royal Astronomical Society in the 1970/1980's, familiar with Durer'south constellation chart 1515AD and Sir William Peck'due south moving picture chart from 'Observer's Atlas of the Heavens', New Patterns in the Sky by Staal and Star Tales by Ridpath.

Tintoretto painted ceilings and sky myths.
a) Has anyone considered the ancient astronomical viewpoint?
b) Why did he have to hibernate his message?
1473 -1543 Advertizing. COPERNICUS said the Earth goes round the Lord's day.
1518 -1594 AD. TINTORETTO hid this new bulletin.
1564 -1642 AD. GALILEO under house abort until his decease.

This painting has 3 parts.
Ia) The 'giveaway' is the myth of the constellation CASSIOPEA (bottom left), a vain Queen, with mirror not book. Her sacrificed daughter ANDROMEDA with clutching hand, culminates in OCTOBER.
With them the young Medusa/gorgon/PEGASUS culminates in SEPTEMBER
1b) The constellations of the Summer Triangle are represented by three of the Muses as Apollo'southward Lyre, Swan, and Hawkeye in the bottom right of the painting.
At the top Apollo exchanges his Caducus for Hermes Lyre. LYRA the Harp culminates in JUNE. At the bottom CYGNUS the Swan culminates in Baronial. The arm and hand of the Muse follows the neck and caput of the Swan, her trunk replaces the wings, and the cornucopia the tail. (Well subconscious Tintoretto.) AQUILA the Hawkeye, culminating in JULY, is brought in from the far reaches, and tucked in betwixt June and Baronial. (Does she have furled wings in her headdress?)
Apollo was connected with prophesy, the course of the year, system of the seasons and becomes the orderer of time.

II) The New Heliocentric Organisation. (Prohibited by the Church).
The constellation Hercules should prevarication above Lyra. 'The twelve Labours of Hercules' follows the path of the lord's day throughout the year. But Hercules 'the Sun' has now been transported outside the ancient sky picture.

3) The Apollo/Python/Draco myth, precession, and more than, likewise depicted
Tintoretto was a brilliant creative person, risking his life to record these new ideas. The title 'APOLLO AND THE MUSES' DEFINITELY DESERVES TO Exist REINSTATED as a contemporary record of the touch on of 16th cent astronomy.

I was just throwing away some one-time notes, and found one I had copied down from Waagen regarding this picture. I wish I could remember why I made the notes every bit they predate art detective. Anyway, Waagen seems to call up that this film came from the ceiling of the Grimani Palazzo in Venice. Waagen saw the picture in the Dining Room at Kingston Lacy sometime prior to 1857. Bankes had as well purchased other pictures from the Grimani family including portraits of Brigita Spinola and Maria, Princess Grimaldi from the Grimaldi Palace in Genoa.

Run across attached from 'Treasures of Art in Great Britain'.

Ignore that, the data is already known on the collection website!

Would anyone similar to add to this rich discussion, as information technology is at present ii years since the last comment?

I think the painting it's most Apollo as Liberality crowning a poetess.
The bailiwick refers to the Graces equally liberal arts and in that location's an iconographic tradition that assembly a die to the Graces beacaus the three ladies superintend to the economic offices. The Gallic Hercules may exist also Hercules Musarum and the two figures below on the left may be Poetry and another Art that present the poetess to Apollo. I'm starting to study it after few years of stand by.
Notice attached some other examples of Liberality.

On ane point I am certain we can all agree: Every work of art associated with a main is not ipso facto a masterpiece.

What nosotros take here is a muddle, a studio work upon which Tintoretto had some initial input but was finished by far lesser hands.

These lesser easily are responsible for the confusion and ambiguity we now face. Perhaps all nosotros can really practice is mark the piece "Allegorical Scene, Venetian School, Studio of Tintoretto" and leave information technology there.

Figures of "poet" and the adult female embracing him from the left may describe founder and his wife - they are recognized by different colours, both in the same robes. Also the low-cal is focused in this section differently in opposition to the residue of figures in rather gloomy mode. Worth noticing is also pilus of "married woman" with rich decoration, non in antique style. Therefore the decision, that this two "blueish" figures are differentiated on purpose and vest to different order.
If this was ordered for private interiors, it is quite possible that the founder ordered depiction of him and his beloved in antique scenery.

An Embodiment of a Poet is quite plausible, but this certainly seems to involve Apollo, Hercules and female figures, some of which may be Muses. There is a definite ancient association between Hercules and the Muses, as one of his avatars was Hercules Musagetes or Musarum (leader or defender of the Muses), and there was a Temple of Hercules Musarum in Rome where he and the Muses were worshiped.

Do we experience that we tin can behave this discussion further later almost 8 years, given the difficulties in elucidating the subject?

beemanharastat.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.artuk.org/artdetective/discussions/discussions/who-are-the-subjects-in-this-tintoretto-painting-of-apollo

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