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,
Italian
Art
and
International
Astrology in thePalazzo Schifanoia,
Ferrara
(1912)
The lecture
that
followsrepresents onlya provisionalsketch fora f
ort
hc
oming, detailed
publication
that
will containan iconological study
of
the sourcesofthefresco cycle
in
the Palazzo Schifanoia.
T
o us,as
art
historians,the
Roman
world
of
Italian
Hi
gh Renaissance
art
represents
the
successful conclusion
of
a
longproc
ess inwhich
arti
sticgeniusemancipated itselffromitsmedieval illustrativeservitude.Andso so
me
justification
is
required
if
I
appear
here,
in
Rome
,a
nd
before anaudience so
expert
in
artistic matters,
to
speak
of
astrology-
tha
t
dang
e
rous
enemytoall
creative invention-
and
of
itssignificance in the stylisticevolution ofItalian
..
pamtmg
.Such ajustificationwill emerge,Ihope,
in
the c
our
se of
th
ispape
r,
fromthevery
natureof
the
problem
whosecurious
ram
ific
ation
s havec
ompe
lledme-verymuchagain
st
my
own
initial inclinati
on
,which aspiredto lo
ve
lierthings-to enter theshadmV)'netherregions
of
astral superstition.
This
problem
is
the following:
What
doesthei
nfluen
ce
of th
e anc
ientworld
signify for the artistic culture
of
the earlyRenaissance?
In
Florence, some twenty-four years ago,I rea
li
ze
d
th
attheinfluence
of
antiquity
manifested itself in
Quattrocent
osecular
paintin
g-andspecifically
in
that
of
Botticelli
and
Filippino Lippith
rou
gha c
han
gein
th
edepicti
on
of
human
figures-
an
increased mobilityof
th
ebody
and
of its
dr
aperi
es
, inspired by
ant
iquevisual
art
and poet
ry. Later, I
sawth
at
auth
entic
antiqu
eextremes
of
gesture were present as a stylizinginfluence in
th
e muscle-
rh
e
tori
c
of
Pollaiuolo;
and
,above all,
that
eventhemy
th
ologicalw
orld
oftheyoung
Durer
(from the
Death
of
Orpheus
to
th
e
La
rge Jealousy)
owed
it
sd
ra
maticforce
of
expressi
on
to
thesurvivin
g-an
di
nhe
re
ntl
y Gre
ek
-"em
oti
ve
formu
las"
that
had
reached
him
by way
of
N
orth
e
rn
Ital
y)
The intrusion
of
thisI
talianand
a
nt
iquestyle ofmobilityi
nto Northern
European
art
does
not
meanth
atthe Nor
th
entirelylacked first-hand knowl
edge
of pagan and
antiquesubject ma
tt
er.On
th
e contrary, asIstudied mid
fifteenth-century invent
or
ies ofsecular art, it became clear tome
that
Flemish
tapestries
and
"pain
ted cloths"
{panni di
pi
n
ti
}
had
brought
characters from
pagan antiquity
inrealistic c
on
tem
porar
y
costu
me-alia
franzese-even
onto
the walls
of
Italian
pala
ces.
563
~
~ - - - -
- -- - - - - -- - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Warb
urg
A
cl
oser
l
oo
k
at
paganiconographyin
Nor
th
ernEuropeanb
ook
illustration,t
ak
ingtext and pictures together,convincedmeth
at
these unclassical
trappings-sodistractingto
us
-did
not
inthe
le
astdi
ve
rtacontemporary
ey
e fromitsp
ri
maryconcern:the
ear
n
es
t, all-too-literal-minded pursuit
of
an
aut
hentic visua
li
zation
of
antiquity.
Sodeepwas thisidiosyncratic
Northern
interest in classical lea
rn
ingthat,
evenintheearly
Mi
ddleAges,illustratedmythological manuals
of
a
SOrt
werec
om
p
il
edforthe two
groups
of
readers
who
neededthem
most
:painters
an
d
astrologers.
One
of
these
Northern
products wasthat
standa
rdLatintreatise
on
the depiction
of
the gods,
De deo
ru
mimaginibus{ihelltls,
ascribed
to
anEng
li
sh monk
by the
name
of
Albericus
2
who
canno
t
ha
ve
lived anylaterth
anth
etwelfthcentury.H
is
illustrated mythology,with its iconographicdescriptions
of
twenty-three renownedpagan deities,exerted ahitherto unremarkedinfluence
on latermythological
li
ter
ature-
notably inFranc
e,
wh
ere, fromthe turn
of
thefourteenth ce
ntur
y,thosesamep
agan
fugitives found refuge in versified
t
Frenchparaphrases
an
dmoralisticLatin
commentar
ies
on
the
wo
rks
of
Ovid.In SouthernGermany
an
assembly
of
the Olympians in thestyle ofAlberi
cusmadeits
ap
pe
ar
anceasearly asthe twelfth ce
nt
ury.3 And,asIshowedin
f
ron
t
of
the chimneypiece at
Land
shur in1909,hismythologicalteaching can
still be tracedin
th
e representation
of
seven
pagan
deitiesaslate
as
1
54
1.
Thesesurvivors
at
L
ands
h
ut
are,
of
course,thesevenplanets:
those
Greekgods
who, under
Or
ientalinfluence, assumed the rulership
of
the heavenly
bodi
es
name
d
af
t
er
t
hem
.Ofall
th
e
Olympians,
theseseven retained the
gre
at
estvitality:for theydidnot depend
on
learned reco
ll
ecti
onalo
ne
but
onthe a
tt
ract
ion
of
their
ow
nintactastral-religi
ous
identities.Itwas believed thatthesevenplanets governed
th
esolar year in
aU
its subdivision
s-t
he
mo
nt
hs, days,a
ndhours
of
hu
m
an
destiny-in
accor
dancewith
pseudomathem
aticallaws.
Th
e mostaccessible
of
these doc
tr
ines,
th
at
of
th
ei
rrule
of
them
onths,
gu
aran
teedtheexiled
gods
a safehaven
in
themedievalillumi
na
ted almanacs,
as
paintedbySouthern
German
a
rt
ists
at
thebeginning
of
thefifte
enth
century.Typically,these almanacs followHellenistic
a
ndArab
tradition in
showing
sev
en
planetary images,
which-
althoughthey
present thelife of
th
e pagangods
in
theinnocuousguise
of
a
se
t of contemp
ora
ry genre
scenes-seemed
to
th
e astrological believers
of
th
e day like thef
atef
ulhieroglyphs
ofanoracular
book.Sucha
traditio
n, whereby figur
es
from Greek myth assumed the mystic
power
s
of
astraldaemons,
na
turally formed oneof themainch
ann
els
thro
ughwhich,in the
fi
fte
ent
hcentur
y,
pag
an gods in Northerncostumegained inter
nat
ionalcu
rr
ency-which they did a
ll
the more readilybyavailing themselves
of
the rap
id
co
nveyances suppliedbyt
hat
Northern
invention,the
art
of
printing.
Am
ong thevery earliestexampl
es
ofpictorial printing,the block books,
there
ar
edescripti
on
s
an
dimages
of
thesevenpl
an
ets
and ofth
eirrespect
ive
hum
an
"children."
In
theiradherence
to
traditionand
th
ei
rphysicalimmedi
acy, suchimagesm
ad
e a
cont
ributi
on
of
their
own
to
theRenaissance
of
theanci
entwo
rldinItaly.
564
•
•
Italian
Art
and
I
nternati
onal
Astro
l
ogy
in
th
eP
alazz
o
Schifano
ia
Forsome timenow,Ihavebeenconvinced thatacloseiconologicalanal
y-
sisofthePalazzo Schifanoiafrescoeswouldbringto
li
g
ht
this same twofoldmedie
val
tradition
o~
theimagery
of
theancientgods. This
is
sourcematerial
wherebywemay tracethe influencebothofasystematicOlympiantheolo
gy
astransmi
tt
ed
by
t
he
learnedmythographers ofmedievalW
es
te
rn
Europ
e
and
of
anastraltheology,preservedintactinthewords
and
imag
es
of
practi
cal astrology.
The mural
cy
cleinthePa
la
zzo
Sc
h
ifa
noia,
in
Ferrara,consisted
of
representations
of
thetw
el
ve
months
of
the year,sevenof which have been
re
storedsincetheywe
re
discovered
be
neathac
oat
of whitewash
in
1840.Eachmonth
isrepresented
by
threeparallelregisters, oneabovethe other,each withits
ownindependent pictorialspace
and
approxima
te
lyhalf-life-si
ze
figures.Inthe
hi
ghestzone, theOlympiandeiti
es
ridepastintrium
pha
l
char
iots;the
lowest shows theworld
ly
activities
of
the courtof
Duke
Bors
a,
who canbeseenattending toofficialbusiness or cheerfully riding
out
tohunt.
Th
einter
ve
ningzone belongs
to
the astralworld,aswould inanycasebe apparent
fromt
he
zodiacalsign
that
appearsinthecenter
of
eachfield, attended
by
thr
ee
mysterious
figu
res.The
comp
licated
and
fantastic
sy
mbolism
of
these
fi
g
ur
es
has hitherto
re
sisteda
ll
attempts
at
interpretation;by extendingthepurview
of
theinves
tigation
to
the
Ea
st,Ishallshow them
to
be
survivalsof astral images
of
theGreekpa
nt
heon. Theyare, infact,symbolsfor the fixeds
tar
s-a
lthough overthecenturies,intheirw
an
derings throughAsiaMinor, Egypt,Mesopotamia,
Arabia,and
Spain,theyhavelost theirGrecian
cl
arityof outline.
On
thisoccasion, asit
is
impossible
to
s
upp
ly
an
inte
rp
re
tation
of
thewhole cycle inthe timeallotted
to
me,Ishallconfine myselftothr
ee
of
themonths,and,withinthose, tothe
twO
upper registers
of
thewalls,whichare
setasi
de
fort
he
gods.Ishallbegin withthefirst month,March(w
hi
chopens the
ye
ar
in tradi
tionalItalianchronology).T
his
is
ruled
by
PallasamongtheOlympiandeities,
and
bythezo
di
acal sign
of
Ari
es
.Ishall then
turn
to thesecond month,April,
ruledby VenusandbyTaurus; finall
y,
Isha
ll
takethe month
of
July,becausein
that
sectionaless-
pow
erf
ul
artisticpersonality revealsthescholarly pro
grammost
cl
early.Finally,witha passing referen
ce
toBotticelli, Ishall
att
e
mpt
asty
li
sticinterpretationoftheFerrara pantheonasatransitionaltypebetween
internationalMiddle Agesand Italian Rena
iss
a
nce.
However,befo
re
proceeding
to
ana
ly
ze
the degree
of
reca
ll
of
theancientgods
that
ismani
fes
tedinthePalazzo
Sc
hifano
ia
,Imust
att
e
mpt
to
outline,however summarily,the
too
lsandtechniques
of
astrologyint
he
ancient world.
Th
eprincipaltool
of
astrologicalinterpretation consists
in
thenomenclature
of
theheavenlybodies,which are
di
stinguished,acc
or
d
in
g tothena
tur
eoftheir apparentmotion,into twoclasses:theplanets, withtheirirregular
courses, and the fixed stars, whichholdtheirrela
ti
ve
positions,andwh
ic
h
fo
rm constellations
that
become vis
ibl
e
at
sunri
se
or sunsetaccordingto the
po
si
cion
of
thesun in relation
to
them.
565
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