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Footnotes to The by

Iconography of

the

Painted an

Page:

Altarpiece

Botticini

HERBERT

FRIEDMANN

Directorof the Los Angeles CountyMuseum of Natural History

THE F 0 R E G R OU N D

of the altarpieceillustrated in Figure i, by the fifteenth-century Florentine painter Francesco Botticini, is filled with little plants and animals, of a number and variety unusual in Tuscan devotional art. As we shall see, there is reason for their presence, and this article is directed to the elucidation of some of these items of iconographicinterest - and, in several cases, of rarity - in Italian art.

Critics now universallyagree that the altarpiece,The Madonnaand Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels, is not only an authentic work by Botticini but also one of the best examples of his late, mature period. Some differencesof opinion as to the date of this altarpiece have been expressed, the extremes being I470 to I475 and the middle of the I48os. The latter date is based on the argument that some of the details in it are adopted from Botticelli's Barnabasaltarpiece, which is dated I483.

It has been traditionally assumed, without any documentary evidence, that the painting was originally in SantissimaAnnunziata, the church of the Order of the Servi in Florence. The choice of saints represented in the picture - from left to right, Benedict, Francis, Sylvester, and Anthony Abbot - neither supports nor refutes this provenance, as none of them has any particular relation or importance to this order. In addition, none of the seven wealthy Florentine noblemen who instituted the Order of the Servi in I232 bore the names of any of these four saints. It is not known who commissioned the altarpiece, and hence it is not possible to learn if the saints provide clues to the baptismal names of members of the donor's family. This particular combination of saints seems to be, so far as I have been able to learn, unique. Of the four, Sylvester is the one least often portrayed in Florentine art, although the fact that an entire chapel in Santa Croce was given over to frescoes of his life and legend by Maso di Banco is evidence that he was regardedwith some esteem in quattrocento Florence.

All the saints are holding large closed books, a somewhat unusual insistence on ecclesiasticalscholarshipand erudition in a devotional altarpiece.The book held by Anthony Abbot is a regular part of his portrayal and hence calls for no comment. That Francis

Contents Footnotesto the PaintedPage: TheIconography of an Altarpiece

by Botticini HERBERT

FRIEDMANN

I

GuidoReni'sPaintingof the ImmaculateConception HOWARD

HIBBARD

Obituaryof RobertLehman

'9

32

ON THE COVER:

Detail of Figure i i. Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels, by FrancescoBotticini(about 1446-I497), Italian (Florentine). Temperaon wood, Isso2

x 69 inches.Giftof GeorgeR. Hann,in memoryof hismother, Annie SykesHann, 6z.235

I

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 速 www.jstor.org

also holdsa book is a little less usual:this favoritesaintis morefrequentlydepictedwithout a large tome in his hand, although in manyinstances,both beforeandafterthe date of Botticini'saltarpiece,he does have such a volume. Similarly,the presenceof a book is a variablefeature in representationsof Sylvester, a scholarlyindividualwith interests beyond the immediatescope of his religious teaching;he was pope and bishopof Rome, and is usuallyshown,as he is here, as an elderly pope tramplingon a dragon.Scholarship was a personalinterestof Benedict, but therewas no mentionof the pursuitof learning in his originalrules for his order;it was long after his death that the thriving Benedictine monasteriesbeganto study and copy the availableclassicalmanuscripts.In his right handBenedictholdsan elaborateaspergillum, one of his usualattributes,so that, in effect, he is equippedwith the meansof overcoming evil both by sprinklingholy water with his right handand by combatingit by erudition with his left. Botticini has shownBenedictin the black robe of the order'soriginalhabit, which, many centuriesbefore the altarpiece waspainted,had beenchangedto a white one after the creationof the "ReformedOrder."

Why Botticinideliberatelychose the original black robe when some of his contemporaries in Florence,suchas FilippoLippi (seeFigure 3), depicted Benedict in white is impossible to say.

Strangelyenough,none of the saintslooks towardthe Virginand Child. Francishas his eyes turnedheavenwardin a state of meditation, Sylvestergazes off to the right, while Benedictand AnthonyAbbot regardthe observeras if callingattention to the opportunity to see the Madonnaand Child, made possibleby the two angelsholding back the curtainsthat would otherwiseconceal them from sight.

These curtainsare trimmedwith ermine fur, purewhite with the blacktail tip of each pelt still attached.The weasel,whose fur is brownin summerand white in winter (when it is knownasermine),wasa well-knownsymbol of purity and chastity, and was accordingly often held by ladies in portraitsas a pictorialreferenceto thesevirtues.The bestknown instanceof this usageis Leonardoda Vinci's Cracow picture; another is one by Luiniin the NationalGalleryof Art in Washington (Figure4). The weaselwas associated with the motto "Betterdeaththandishonor."

In Carpaccio's greatpaintingof a youngknight (Figures5, 6), thereis an ermineandbehindit a cartellinobearingthe inscriptionMalo mori quamfoedari("I wouldratherdie thanbe disgraced"),the motto adoptedby the Knights of the Orderof the Ermine,foundedin I483

by King FerdinandI of Naples.

Leonardoda Vinci alluded to the moral significanceof the ermine in his notebooks; among his aphorismswe find, "Moderation

TheMetropolitan Museumof Art Bulletin VOLUME

XXVIII,

NUMBER

I

SUMMER

I969

Publishedmonthly from October to Juneand quarterlyfrom July to September.Copyright(? 969

by The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, Fifth Avenueand 82nd Street, New York,N. Y. 10028. Second classpostagepaid at New York, N. Y. Subscriptions$7.50 a year. Singlecopiesseventy-fivecents. Sent free to Museummembers.Four weeks'notice requiredfor changeof address.Back issuesavailableon microfilmfrom University Microfilms,313 N. First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Volumesi-xxxvii (I905-I942) availableas a clothboundreprint set or as individualyearly volumes from Arno Press, 330 MadisonAvenue, New York, N. Y. 10OI7,or from the Museum,Box 255, Gracie Station, New York, N. Y. I0028. Editor of Publications:Leon Wilson. Editor-in-chiefof the Bulletin:Katharine H. B. Stoddert; AssistantEditor: SusanGoldsmith;Designer:Peter Oldenburg.

2

2.

St.Jerome,FlankedbySts.Eusabius,Damasus,Eustochius, andPaula,by Francesco Botticini. 6o x 68 inches.National Gallery,London

St. Maurusto 3. St. BenedictOrders theRescueof St. Placidus,by FraFilippoLippi(about Italian (Florentine). i 6V x 28 inches. National

1406-1469),

Galleryof Art,SamuelH. Kress Collection

3

to preventthe birthof Herculesto the mortal Alcmena,belovedof Jupiter.She sentLucina, the goddessof childbirth,to Alcmena'sdoor, and thereLucina,disguisedas an old hag, sat holdingher kneestightly together.Alcmena's maidGalanthisrecognizedthisgestureashaving a potentiallydisastrouseffect, impeding childbirth,andshedeliberatelymisledLucina by tellingher that the babyhadalreadybeen born.Lucinathen rose,and at that moment Alcmenagave birth to her son. Her indignationat beingdeceivedcausedLucinato change Galanthisinto a weasel,which was doomed thenceforthto deliver her offspringthrough the ear,since the maidhad deceivedthe goddess throughher ear by falsewords.

Through the centuriesthis legend was retold and alteredand given Christianconnotations.An exampleoccursin the early thirteenth-centurybestiaryof Guillaumele Clerc: About the weaselis a greatmarvel, For she bringsforth by the ear....

Are they fools, who go affirming

4. Portraitof a Lady,byBernardino curbsall vices. The erminewould ratherdie than soil itself,"and in his bestiary,"The erLuini (about I480-I532), mine becauseof its moderationeatsonly once Italian. 30o x 222 inches.

NationalGalleryof Art,Andrew a day, and it allowsitself to be capturedby huntersratherthan take refugein a muddy MellonCollection lair, in ordernot to stain its purity."

Stillmoreimportantis thefact that theweasel was connectedallegoricallywith the conception of Christ.The connectionwas more hintedat thandirectlyexpressed,andemerged chiefly throughstatementsin early mystical and ecclesiasticalliteraturethat thislittle animal conceives through the ear. This was a RIGHT CarVittore parallelto the belief that Mary conceivedby 5. YoungKnight,by the Word of God, and the Word, like any paccio (about I455-I523/I526), Italian(Venetian).Castle word,wasreceivedthroughthe ear.In the lanRohonczMuseum,Lugano. guageof symbolism,parallelimpliesidentity.

Like so many conceptsadoptedfor its own Art AlinariPhotograph: Bureau purposesby Christianlegend,this assumption Reference aboutthe weasel'searhadan ancient,classical 6. Ermine,detailof Figure5. source, going back at least as far as Ovid.

Art Ovid tells how Juno, always hostile to her Alinari Photograph: husband'soffspringby humanmothers,tried Bureau Reference 4

That she receivesand discharges The seed throughthe hearing?

Surelythis is not the case.

With this [creature]are compared Sundry[folk]who are zealous To behavewell, to serveGod, And to hearthe wordof God. The story even came to be looked upon as a foreshadowingof Mary'sconceivingChrist through the Word. This probablyaccounts for the growthof the thoughtthat the weasel is stainlessand unsullied,and thereforea suitable symbolof the Virginherself.

The weasel'swhite erminephaseservedto reinforcefurtherthe virtuesimputed to the animalbecauseof its purewhiteness,in itself a symbolof purity. It is thereforeeminently appropriatein a pictureof the Virginto border the curtainsof her thronewith ermine.

Becauseof the associatedconceptsof honor and steadfastness,royalty and nobility were often representedwith ermineon their robes of state, and ermineedgingwasoften used to enhancethe rich textilesof the draperiesthat surroundedthem. At the time that Botticini painted this altarpiecethe traditionaluse of erminewas so well establishedthat he might have used it as he did even if he were not consciouslyawareof its symbolicmeaning.

Botticini'sdesignof the Virgin'sthroneincorporatesa naturalisticmotif in its halfdome shapedlike a scallopshell. The scallopshellor pecten shell- wasan old symbolof the religious pilgrim, the contemplativevoyager throughlife. In art it was usuallyshown as an emblemwornby St. Jamesof Compostela, the patronsaint of pilgrims,or by St. Roch to suggesthis wanderingsin the serviceof the plague-stricken.In this work the shell has beenmodifiedfor architecturalpurposes,but it still reveals its origin.

The earthin the lowerportionof the picture is richwith numerousand variedanimal formsas well as many flowers.St. Anthony's pig at the extremeright of the painting,althoughcompositionallycloselyrelatedto the figureof the saint, may be regardedas part of the arrayof living creatures,as may the dragon,whosehead appearsto the left of St. Sylvester'sfeet.

detailof 7. Headof dragonbelowSt. Sylvester, Figurei

8. St. Anthony Abbot, by Neri di Bicci (14I9-I49I), Italian. Oil on wood, 58 x 28V4 inches. Denver Art Museum, Samuel H. Kress Collection

9. St. Anthony Abbot's pig, detail of Figure i

The dragonis an old andwidelyrecognized symbolof evil and of Satan.In art it accompaniesmany saintswho overcamethe archfiend, and is a usual pictorial attribute of Sylvester.Botticini has accentuatedits maliciousaspectby makingthe eye bloodshotand fiercelyhostile,the foreheadheavilywrinkled, and the face snarling,with a hookedbeakand a mouth full of wicked-lookingteeth. Botticini improvisedon the usualrenditionof this mythical beast by giving it a pair of bristly, long, pointedears.Florentineartists,to limit ourselvesto his more immediate,and hence more comparable,colleagues,varied greatly in their conceptof what dragonsshouldlook like: some gave them no ears at all; others gave them smalland curled,almostscalelike ears; still others, like Botticini, gave them long ears,but the pointed,hairytips arerare.

The pig (Figure9) is the usualattributeof St. AnthonyAbbot and representsthe temptations of sensualityand gluttony that the holy man overcame.As such it was readily understoodby the peopleof fifteenth-century Italy. It has,however,one additionalpoint of interest,sinceBotticinicopiedit froma work by his teacher,Neri di Bicci (Figure8). Wil-

tionally given a nimbus or halo; here it has no such distinguishing mark. It would seem that the dove is included here because of the presence in the painting of St. Benedict, and that it is a reference to his twin sister, St. Scholastica, the head of the first organized community of Benedictine nuns. The story is that after her untimely death her brother saw her soul in the form of a white dove fly up to heaven. Scholastica is usually shown in art holding a crucifix or a lily, with the dove pressed to her bosom, resting at her feet, or flying toward heaven. She was not often included in altarpieces, but a good example showing her with the dove appears in a polyptych by the Venetian Bartolomeo Vivarini (Figure io), dated 1485. It is decidedly unusual to replace the saint, as it were, by the dove - in fact, I do not know of another painting in which St. Scholastica is represented in absentia in this way - but this is what Botticini has done. We can only assume that the faithful would recognize her by inference because of Benedict's presence. The decision to depict the dove on the ground may well have been dictated by the composition of the altarpiece: had the bird been shown in heavenward liam Suida dated Neri's painting "after 1480," flight, it would have distracted attention from but Roberto Longhi placed it considerably the holy personages in the main part of the earlier, between I460 and I470. Except for picture. Its act of drinking from the stream its smaller tusk and the fact that only the is a reference to the old concept of the "water front half is shown, Botticini's pig is nearly of life" emanating from the true religion, proidentical with his teacher's version both in viding spiritual nourishment for its followers.

In his rendition of the dove, as in his depicpose and in appearance. This similarity is too close to be accidental, but suggests rather that tion of the other plants and animals, Botticini Neri's painting was a recent creation used as shows himself to be a careful observer and aca model by his follower. If so this might sup- curate portrayer of nature. The lifelike pose port the late date Suida gave Neri's picture. and the drawing of the drinking dove are In that painting the lesson to be read from striking if one takes the trouble to compare the saint and his pig is pointed up by the this highly naturalistic little creature with words inscribed on St. Anthony's open book: the stylized dove of the Holy Spirit usual in Lasciate i vitii, le virtu piglate, Vostroadvocato countless other paintings. so se qvvestofate ("Give up evil, embrace virTo the right of the dove stands a goldfinch tue, I am your protector if you do this").

(Cover), and there is a second some distance The white dove (Cover) drinking from a to the left, nearer the base of the Virgin's little stream at the bottom of Botticini's pic- throne (Figure ii). The symbolism of the ture is not the usual white dove of Italian goldfinch is unusual in its richness and diverreligious art. This bird ordinarily appears as a sity of implications. It is sufficient, in this symbol of the Holy Spirit, especially in paint- connection, merely to note that it was a symings of the Annunciation, where it is tradi- bol of the soul, of resurrection, of baptism, 7

io. Detail of St. Scholasticafrom an altarpieceby Bartolomeo Vivarini(active 1450-1499), Italian (Venetian). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Quincy A. Shaw

of the Passion of Christ, even of fertility. Its Louvre [Figure I2], there is the same combichief claim to popularity, however, was as a nation of a goldfinch placed close to a lizard.)

It is unusual in fifteenth-century Florensavior bird against the ravages of the plague.

For these reasons, many hundreds of votive tine art to find, as one does here, more than The Nativity, by afollower of FilippinoLippi. Italian. Louvre, pictures included this colorful bird, usually one goldfinch in a single painting. There are held by the Christ child, or attached by one also two goldfinches in Botticini's tondo of Paris. Photograph:AlinariArt ReferenceBureau leg to a fine string that he holds. Children the Madonna Adoring the Child, in the Pitti were given just such tethered, wing-clipped Palace (Figure I3). As may be seen from the live birds as playthings, and this was a man- detail of that picture (Figure I4) the left ner of humanizing the Infant Jesus in art. At goldfinch is almost identical with the left one the time that Botticini created this painting, (Figure i ) in the Metropolitan's altarpiece. however, Florence was not suffering from the It is not improbable that Botticini included plague and the need for an amulet against the two goldfinches, when one would have sufdisease, held in divine hands, had largely sub- ficed from a purely symbolic standpoint, simsided. In this altarpiece the two goldfinches ply because the pretty colors of these birds probably are symbolic of resurrection, a usage made them desirable as decorative elements appropriate to a devotional picture. As we with which to enliven and embellish his picshall see, the lizard near them is a salvation- tures.

Botticini's goldfinches are not only well seeking creature, so they go together very well. (In a painting of the Nativity attributed done from a purely naturalistic standpointto a follower of Filippo Lippi, now in the much more so than many of those by his fel-

si. Goldfinch and lizard, detail of

Figure i

12.

8

low Florentines- but they are also remarkably lifelikein the way they areplaced.They are neither held in the hand nor tethered: they are depicted just as small birds might appearnaturallyin a flowerymeadow.The freedomof treatmentwouldhardlyhavebeen permissiblein an altarpiecea generationearlier, but by the time this one was designed the goldfinchwas such an easily interpreted symbol that it could resume,in an outward sense,its natural,nonmysticalexistencewithout lossof significance.Botticiniwashere,and in the tondoin the Pitti Palace,farmoreoriginalanddaringthanone wouldexpecta Florentine painterof his time to be.

To the left of the dove appearsa lizard (Figure I I), meticulouslycopied from nature, which is identifiableas the wall lizard, Lacertamuralis,a well-knownspeciesof southern Europe,commonin Italy. The walllizard is the same as the "sun lizard"describedin the ancientPhysiologus, the basicsourcefrom which practicallyall of the Europeanmedieval bestiariesstemmed.Accordingto Edward Evans, the name"sunlizard"arosefrom the legend that when the creaturebecomesold and its eyesight beginsto fail, it creepsinto a crevice of a wall facing to the east and "stretchesits head to the risingsun, whose raysrestoreits sight."The legend continues, "In like manner,0 man, thou who hast on the old garment,and the eyes of whoseheart areobscured,seek the wallof help,andwatch whichthe thereuntil the sunof righteousness, calls the rises with healing dayspring, prophet power,and removesthy spiritualblindness."

In Botticini's altarpiecethe lizard has not climbed onto a wall, but is makingits way towardthe Virgin'sthroneand seemsintent in its concentrationon the Infant Jesus:it is the only one of the beingsin the whole picture,animalor human,thatis lookingdirectly at the Christchild. The lizardclearlyfits the spirit, if not the literal description,of the and it is to Bottilegend in the Physiologus, cini'scredit that he did not deemit necessary to include even a fragmentof a wall. That Botticini was not alwaysso discriminatingis demonstratedby his tondo in the Pitti Palace (FigureI3). There two lizards,one much

i3. MadonnaAdoringthe ChildwiththeInfantSt. Johnand FiveAngels,byFran-

cescoBotticini.PittiPalace,Florence.Photograph: Bureau Brogi- ArtReference

14. Detail of Figure 13. Photograph:Brogi- Art ReferenceBureau

smallerthan the other, may be seen on the right side of the baseof the ornatestone wall surroundingthe Virgin's"enclosedgarden."

They seemto be whollyunawareof the group in the foregroundand look like mere bits of discursivenaturalismwith no directsymbolic reference.

An example of a literal rendition of the "sun lizard"seekinga niche in a wall occurs in the Nativity by a followerof FilippoLippi (FigureI2). Here we find one lizardclimbing up the ruinedwall of the stable housingthe traditionalox andass,anda secondin an opening above.In this casethe artisthasbeencontent to depict the lizardson a wall, without attemptingto connect them in an emotional as neisensewith the seekingof righteousness, ther appearsto be overly awareof the Nativity scenein the foreground.

The last animalto be discussedis the tortoise (FigureI5), shownjust belowthe figure of St. Francis.This creaturewas very rarely used in devotional art, and, without making an extensivesearch,I can recallonly two other Italianfifteenth-centuryreligiouscompositionsin whichit appears.One is a painting of The Holy Womenat the Sepulcherby an imitator of Andrea Mantegna (Figures I6, I7), now in the National Gallery, London, and the other is a bronzereliefof St. Jerome in Penitence by Francescodi Giorgio (Figures I8, 19), in the National Galleryof Art, Washington.Further evidence of its general absencefrom Christianart is the fact that a searchthroughthe PrincetonIndex of Christian Art-the comprehensivefile of iconographicthemes throughthe fourteenthcentury- revealedno entriesfor the tortoisein religiouspaintingsor sculpture.

Althoughits rarityin religiousiconography suggeststhat the tortoisewas relativelyunimportantin the idiom of allegoryand symbolism,it did have a great variety of meanings. The tortoisewas a symbol of reticence andof chastity.In hisinfluentialandfrequently copiedemblembook,AndreaAlciatishows Venuswith her foot upon a tortoise (Figure a Greek 20), an imagederivedfrom Pausanias, writerof the secondcenturyof the Christian era.The accompanyingmotto is Maneredomi, I0

et tacitasdecetessepuellas("Girlsshouldstay at home and be silent");the emblemsignifies that womenshouldremainat home (the tortoise cannot leave its shell) and be chary of speech (the tortoise is a silent animal). Although Alciati'sgreat compendiumof pictorial allusionsdid not appearuntil some decadesafterBotticini'spainting,it may be cited as pertinentbecauseits authorcompiledfrom earlierand currentusagesfar more than he invented.

That this figure of Venus connectedwith the "stay-at-home" tortoisecameto be looked of a as upon symbol chastity may be sensed fromWilliamPainter'ssixteenth-centurycollection of classicaland romancetales in The Palaceof Pleasure.Venus, "her fote vpon a Tortose,[signifies]the duety of a chasteWoman ... hir feet not strayingor wandering. . . to keep hirselfewithin the limits of hir owne house."A similarstatementby Painter'scontemporary,the prolificwriterRobertGreen, tellsus that chastityis representedasa woman treading"vpon the Tortuse,"keepingto her own house and not straying "abroadwith every wantongiglet." Many other writersof the sixteenthand seventeenthcenturiesmade essentiallysimilar referencesto the Venustortoise icon. A curious elaborationof this concept occursin French folklore,which regardedthe tortoiseas an animalwith a heart so smallas to be almostimperceptible- a suggestion that the maintenanceof chastitycan be explainedby a reducedcapacityfor love.

The tortoise was also connectedsymbolically with the Church,althoughthis symbolism was little or seldomexpressed.Isidoreof Seville,the greatSpanishencyclopedistof the sixth and seventhcenturies,wrote in his Etimologiasthat the testudoor tortuga(tortoise) is so called becauseof the archlikeshape of its shell, and that the transversearch of the church,testudo,was constructedby the ancients after the designof the tortoise'scarapace in orderto createan architecturalimage of heaven,which is similarlyconvex. In ancient times the nametestudowas alsoapplied to the shieldcarriedby soldiersin warfarefor protection;while Isidoredoes not elaborate on this, he usually connects the subjectshe

15. Tortoise,detailof Figurei discusseswith moral issues,and in this case we may assumethe carapace,testudo,would symbolizea shieldagainstevil.

In the medievalbestiaries,and in their ultimatesource,the Physiologus, thereis a creature called the aspedochelone,a monstrous sea tortoise,whichsailorsweresaidto mistake for an island. In Guillaumele Clerc's thirteenth-centurybestiary, the marinersmoor their ship and build a fire on what they presumeis an island.The beastreactsto the heat by plunging down into the ocean, carrying them to their death,and Le Clercdrawsthis parallel: In the sameway are deceived The wretchedmiserableunbelievers Who in the devil put their trust . . .

With them right down he plunges Down to hell'sgreatestdepth, They are lost who go in there.

The tortoise also conveyed the meaning of steady, if slow, progress.Eugene Rolland mentionsthreeFrenchmedievalemblematic devices thlatmake this point: one represents a tortoiseclimbinga hill, accompaniedby the

motto Elle ira enfin sur le haut ("It will eventually reach the heights"); another shows a tortoise moving slowly, with the legend Festina lente, avec la patience on vient a bout de toutes choses ("Make haste slowly; with patience one arrives at the end of all things"); and still another shows a tortoise with the motto La meilleuremaison est elle qu'est a soi ("The best house is your own"). The last recalls the Venus-tortoise icon, with its admonishment to stay home. It may also be mentioned that the motto Festina lente was used on the escutcheon of Pope Gregory XIII (reigned 1572-1585).

The tortoise was also a symbol of wisdom ever since Pliny it had been considered wise - but, on the other hand, it was also a symbol of evil. This was particularly true of those tortoises that lived in the mud of swamps and streams, and to some extent this interpretation was derived from their unsavory environment. The tortoise connoted heresy, a particularly prevalent and dangerous form of evil. St. Jerome wrote of the animal: haereticorum gravissimapeccata significat, qui suis en coeno et volutebro luti erroribusimmorant, II

condemningit as a hereticalcreatureof the gravesterrors,dwellingby choice in disgrace and filth and scum like that of a pigsty. In Francescodi Giorgio'sbronzeplaqueshowing St. Jeromein Penitence(FiguresI8, I9) the animalsprobablyaremeantto suggestthe wildernessintowhichthepenitentsaintretreated.

The tortoise'spositionneara scorpionand a snake,however,seemsto stressits unfortunate connotations,quite probablyas symbolicof the arch evil of heresy with which Jerome connectedit.

In fourth-centurymosaicsin the Cathedral of Aquileia,the tortoisewasdepictedin combat with a cock. RudolfEggerinterpretsthis as an earlyChristiansymbolof moralcombat, the forcesof darknessrepresentedby the tortoise, and those of light representedby the cock, the heraldof dawn.

These evil connotationsserved to connect the tortoisewith the idea of death and the tomb, and yet in keeping with the curious ambivalenceof the logic of allegory, it was alsoassociatedwith the conceptof emergence Thus, fromthe tomb,a symbolof resurrection. the at Women (Figures in The Sepulcher Holy i6. The Holy Women at the Sepulcher,by an imitator of Andrea Mantegna. Italian. z6Y x I214 inches. I6, 17), the tortoiseshownon the bank of a pond is the commonpond turtle of Europe, National Gallery, London not a truetortoise- an entirelydry-landcrea17. Turtle, detail of Figure 6 ture-like the one in Botticini'spainting.It seemslikelythat the pondturtleconveysboth the ideaof the tomb (in keepingwith Christ's sepulcher, the focal point of the picture), and the ideaof the Resurrection,becausethis creaturehibernatesin an undergroundburrow.Hibernationis symbolicallyequivalentto death,and emergencefromit to resurrection.

The tortoisehadstillanotherpossiblemeaning. This was the ancientbelief, recordedby late classicalwriters,that the tortoise,like the ostrich,wasable to hatchits eggsmerelywith its glance. (Pliny, apparentlynot convinced, reportedthat "somepersons"held this opinion.) Inasmuchas the thoughtof life hatching out of the egg was, in the caseof the ostrich, sometimeslookedupon as a sign of resurrection,sucha mysticalinterpretationcouldhave been equally appliedto the tortoise.I have not found the tortoiseso used in religiousart or texts;whilethisdoesnot meanthat it never

occurs, it does suggest that such usage was rareat best.

We can hardly guess which of this abundance of meaningsfor the tortoiseBotticini or his advisorsmay have had in mind. In its referenceto wisdomthe tortoisesuitsthe fact that all four of the saintsare holdingbooks, tokensof erudition;in its meaningof chastity the tortoiseagreeswith the ermineedgingof the curtainsand hencewith the Virgin;in its connotation of resurrection it is in harmony

with its neighborsthe lizard,the goldfinches, andevenwith St. Scholastica's dove (the symbol of her ascendingsoul); in its implication of evil and heresyit belongswith Sylvester's dragonandAnthonyAbbot'spig. The resemblanceof its convexcarapaceto the transverse archof a churchservesto connectthe tortoise symbolicallywith the Infant Jesus,who was the ChurchIncarnate.

We may now turn to the plants among which these animalsare placed. Even with assistancefrom two botanicalexperts,I have not been able to identify many of them. Indeed, small floweringplants were more apt than animalsto be included-and even improvisedupon-by artistsfor purely decorative effect. A richlyfloweringmead,like the

I8. St. Jeromein Penitence,by Francescodi Giorgio

Italian (Sienese). Bronze (I439-15 zo/512), plaque, 21% x I4146 inches. National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection I9. Detail of Figure i8

by preferencein places frequentedby men and thrives even when trodden upon, thus b AND. ALC. EtBLEM. LIl. iZdtbeminm(s symbolizingthe multitudeswho seekthe path to righteousness.There was also a belief that ud MJ,dris,6iMnonf gnm cffcoporTcre. every seventhyear a plantainmay becomea Itfcmmc tft c pus bird. Since the bird is an old symbol of the soul, and particularlyof its freedomfrom an i -~ -ii~t: 5 cDnueDamcce ioinpre. earthbound condition, there may be here a fce CIe u3 piC3 mIft otfe/ it ?7jwk <^ :t. feeme.ursb ..< cftmme ano'c. of future blissfrom followingthe BS^jS/-^1~ '~iW0r( suggestion . Xla,Zoinctcgaitbc fBi)otf&/ /.cs/y~ I3:o rightpath.This is only a suggestion,asI know Pow frc( oi,':ti outrant(4 Bonc?e.

I a ttfte le' ttoft tBot aptC65 of no documentaryevidencefor this thought j fa(maifoql/equo??fatou(c8e 1 ^K^^^I/^a.-J in fifteenth-centuryItaly.

Below the plantainand to the left of the tortoise is a bulbousbuttercup,Ranunculus l4 dcnomt Ainu V-eriu,quinumbec iciei,quid Terfido,nmo'qujm pede dwu.prcroe a plant that wasdedicatedin medibulbosus, i.,,,ximuecrcfcrrs Mef,. cdinxitrP,iJ ib eval times to the Virgin,and given the name dccct fc peftl, mere Jo m,- t. u :4 figiA mws.

SpPo/'Uitpcdib/f "Marybud," accordingto RichardFolkard.

It wasalsoconnectedwith St. AnthonyAbbot and was called "St. Anthony'sturnip," beEL causepigs- the saint'siconographical symbol - were especiallyfond of its root.

Venus Treadingupon a Tortoise, by Andrea Alciati (1492-1550), To the right of the tortoiseis a hawkweed, Italian. From Livret des Emblemesde Maistre Andre Alciat . .. (Paris: Hieracium.The genericnamestemsfrom the ChrestienWechel, 1536). Woodcut, 2% x 28 inches. Harris Brisbane Greekword hieras,"hawk,"and refersto an Fund, 37.37.7 Dick ancient belief that hawksate these plants to sharpentheirvision.An infusionof hawkweed one at the bottom of Botticini's picture, in wasused by medievalfalconersto strengthen itself suggested the world under the influence andto clearthe eyesightof theirhuntingbirds, of the new religion as opposed to the barren and here it may be a referenceto the clearer environment of the old, a contrast emphasized vision resultingfrom the Christianreligion.

Below the tortoiseis a little plant that was in a number of paintings where both were shown. The verdant ground around the Vir- at timescalledlady'smantle,"lady"standing gin's throne in Botticini's picture was in keep- for Our Lady. In the Middle Ages this herb was associatedwith the VirginMary because ing with established artistic usage. the lobesof its leaveswere thoughtto resemlower left of the corner Depicted at the ble the scallopededges of her mantle. This painting, immediately below Benedict, is a includesasone clump of thistle, Centaurea(Figure 2I). This- groupof plants,Leontopodium, of much prized the its best-known species tles of various kinds were looked upon as mewhich even today retains dicinal plants, the seeds of which were dried Alpine edelweiss, a of connotation spotlesspurity. and powdered and used in wine as a remedy Somedistanceabovethe dove'sheadaresix for "stone" (either kidney, gall, or bladder stones, as these were not differentiated at that flowersof the daisy,Bellis(Cover),usedin the time). Thistles are mentioned in several pas- fourteenthand fifteenth centuriesas a remsages in the Bible, and in medieval writings edy for achesandpains,and alsomadeinto an the spiny nature of these plants caused them ointment for wounds,gout, and fevers. Imoccasionally to be compared, and symbolically mediatelybehind the dove's tail is the coltsSo muchwasit usedmedically equated, with the crown of thorns that was foot, Tussilago. placed on Christ's head before the Crucifixion. that in Francepicturesof it were sometimes Near the big toe of St. Francis's right foot paintedon the doorpostsof shopsto indicate is a plantain, Plantago (Figure 22). Legend that thesewereapothecaryestablishments.

Close to the goldfinchperchedbelow Anrelates that this common, lowly plant grows Uw

Farwieum,o'r toj,.bIt

effigic,

QoJod$

20.

I4

thony Abbot's staff are five blossoms of the bindweed, Convolvulus (Cover), one of the wild relatives of the colorful garden morningglory. This plant was known as "Our Lady's nightcap" because of its cuplike white flowers, which were said to last but a single day. To the right of the bindweed is a clump of ten flowers of the wood anemone, Anemonenemorosa, a widespread species formerly used to cure headaches, ague, rheumatic gout, lethargy, and even leprosy.

These are the plants for which I am able to offer reliable identifications. The others have either baffled my botanical advisors or have induced them to arrive at conflicting identifications. It would be good to know what all of them are, but it must be obvious from the nine kinds discussed here that Botticini used very considerable discretion in his choice of plants in this work.

The number and variety of animals and plants in this altarpiece are so unusual that one asks why the artist went to such trouble to include them all, and this makes one search for similar examples with which to compare

the painting. Discursive naturalismfor its own sake was not so characteristic of Florentine art as it was of north Italian, especially in the paintings of Veronese and Venetian artists.

Multitudes of flowers do, however, occur in many Florentine paintings, especially those representing the hortus conclusus, or walled garden symbolic of the Virgin, and in pictures by artists from Fra Angelico to Raphael who painted pleasant rural settings for their compositions of sacred personages. It is also true that Benozzo Gozzoli made extensive use of such items-but not in formal, devotional altarpieces-and it is true that Uccello was so interested in birds and other pets that his colleagues bestowed on him the nickname (uccello means "bird") by which he is still called. The only subjects in religious art that typically included many animals were St. Francis Preaching to the Birds, the Creation of Animals, Noah's Ark, and St. Jerome in the Wilderness, and all these are so very different from the traditional, almost stereotyped, Madonna and Child altarpiece that we need not be concerned with them here.

21.

Thistle, detail of Figure i

22.

Flowers, detail of Figure I

I have not been able to find a fifteenthcenturyFlorentinedevotionalaltarpiecesimilar in zoologicalrichnessto this paintingof Botticini's.The most comparableone is a Venetian work that could hardlyhave had any influenceon, or have beeninfluencedby Botticini'spainting.It is the Madonnaand Child Enthronedwith Angelsby AntoniodaNegroponte (Figure23), in the churchof SanFrancesco della Vigna in Venice, a very different but roughlycontemporaneous picture,in the lowerforegroundof whichis a remarkableassemblageof at least six kinds of birds!The two altarpieceshave one thing in common: the animalswith which they are so richly adornedare not essentialto their main figures or to their design. Yet these creatures were not merely idle whims of the artists; they had significance,they conveyed meanings to the people of fifteenth-centuryItaly, and their inclusionwas probablypassedon andapproved,if not actuallyrequested,either by those who commissionedthe paintingsor by the clergy, or by both. A very largepart of the audiencefor whose eyes these works were intendedwas illiterate;peoplewere accustomed to "read"pictures and probably lookedmoreintently at all partsof the paintings thanwe areapt to do today.We may see only decorationin paintingsthat were once understoodas richlysymbolic.

Lookingbackover all the detailsdiscussed above, it becomesclear that Botticini'sMa-

i6

donnaand Child Enthronedwith Saintsand Angels presents several uncommon iconographicfeatures.Thesearethe unusualdegree of referenceto the eruditionof the saints;the representationof St. Scholasticain absentia by a white dove; the numberof goldfinches and the notablefreedomin their treatment; the emphasison the mysticalratherthan the literal presentationof the "sun lizard";the inclusionof the rarelyused tortoise;and the symbolicallymeaningfulplants.

Reviewingthisarrayof noveltiescausesone to wonderwhetherour minor master,Francesco Botticini, may not have been a more remarkableand alert and interestingartistic personalitythan has hithertobeen suspected.

Certainlyhis place in fifteenth-centuryFlorentine art is not among the leaders,either aestheticallyor intellectually.No one would elevate him to the rankof Leonardo,Botticelli, or Pollaiuolo;he has not generallybeen considereda peerof suchlessermenasDomenico Ghirlandaio,Benozzo Gozzoli, Filippino Lippi, or Piero di Cosimo.Yet in this altarpiece he showsunexpectedawarenessof relatively unusualsymbols,andindependenceand boldnessin theirpictorialpresentation.In the majorityof his workshe remainsa pedestrian figurein the dazzlingranksof artisticgeniuses of quattrocentoFlorence,but in thispainting he risesto a much higherlevel. The Metropolitan's altarpiecemay well be Botticini's most revealingwork.

NOTES

AND

SELECTED

BIBLIOGRAPHY

It is true that in some earlystatementsabout this painting attributions to other artists were suggested, but these were made beforecurrentconcepts of Botticini'swork were adequatelyformulated. For instance,in 1883, in the album of the ToscanelliCollection, the picture was attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio,and three years later Wilhelmvon Bode gave it to the Masterof the RossiAltarpiece.More recentstatementsby Raimondvan Marle(1931),BernardBerenson(1963), and Everett Fahy (1967) all confirmthe authorship of Botticini, as does FedericoZeri'saccount of this painting in his forthcomingcatalogueof Italianpicturesin The MetropolitanMuseumof Art. I am indebted to ElizabethE. Gardner,Associate Curatorof EuropeanPaintingsof the MetropolitanMuseum,for her cooperationin supplying informationabout the Botticini altarpiece.

AndreaAlciati (1492-1550). Emblematum Flumen Abundane,trans. Henry Green (London, 1871).

BernardBerenson.Italian Picturesof the Renaissance:FlorentineSchool, vol. i (New York, 1963).

George C. Druce, trans. The Bestiaryof Guillaume le Clerc[originallywritten 12IO-121 I] (Ashford, Kent, I936).

Rudolf Egger. "Ein altchristlichesKampfsymbol" in Byzantion, V, pp. 791-795.

Edward Payson Evans. Animal Symbolismin Ecclesiastical Architecture (New York, I896).

E. Fahy. "Some Early Italian Pictures in the Gambier-ParryCollection" in The Burlington Magazine, o09 (1967), pp. 128-139.

A. B. Grosart. The Life and CompleteWorks in Proseand Verseof RobertGreen,I5 vols. (London, i88i-i886).

WilliamPainter. The Palaceof Pleasure[originally printed 1566-1567], 3 vols., ed. J. Jacobs (London, i890).

Eugene Rolland.FaunePopulairede la France, vol. 10, Reptiles et Poissons (Paris, I 9 10).

Raimond van Marle. The Developmentof the Italian Schoolsof Painting,vol. I3 (The Hague, I931).

23. Madonna and Child Enthronedwith Angels, by Antonio da Negroponte(active second half of the xv century), Italian.

S. Francescodella Vigna, Venice.Photograph:Alinari- Art ReferenceBureau

Guido

of

Reni's

Painting

the

ImmaculateConception H 0 WA R D H I B B A R D

Professorof Art Hzstory,ColumbiaUniversity

G U I DO R E NI is hardly among the Italian paintersmost popular with today's art lovers. Yet Reni was once so esteemed that a sensitive contemporary biographer, G. B. Passeri, could write that he was "the noblest, most majestic painter who ever lived- not only in my own opinion, but by common consent." Reni's name was long a household word - even the author of Fanny Hill invoked Guido as a synonym for extreme delicacy and refinement of color, and Stendhal found a painting by Reni to have "absolumentla sensibilitea la Mozart." But times were changing and Reni fared poorly with writerswhose judgment was chargedwith Protestant morality. For Ruskin he was prominent in the "School of Errors and Vices," and not long ago Bernard Berenson wrote, "Our grandfathers were thrilled by Guido Reni's ecstatic visages, whose silly emptiness now rouses our laughter." A painter who can earn such praiseand such opprobrium- deservesattention. The Metropolitan Museum'spainting presses the issue to the utmost: Reni's large Immaculate Conception (Figure i) is precisely the kind of image that his admirersloved and his detractors loathed. It is also a documented work of historical importance and high quality.

Guido Reni, who was born in Bologna in i575 and died there in i642, was first apprenticed to Denis Calvaert, an excellent Flemish mannerist who had settled in Bologna. By the time he was twenty, Reni had moved to the more modern studio of the Carracci,and he was doubtless the most gifted of their pupils. About I599, shortly after leaving the Carraccistudio, he painted his first Assumption of the Virgin (Figure 2), which has all the qualities of the Carraccigrand manner. Its power of design makes it clear that in his early twenties Reni already rivaled his teachers. Soon after painting this picture he went to Rome, where he changed his style rapidly, influenced

by Caravaggio but also attracted by antique works and their High Renaissancecounterparts. Reni prospered; from i6o8 until 1614 he was the leading painter in Rome, executing a brilliant series of fresco decorations in the Vatican, the Quirinal, and Sta. Maria Maggiore. His Roman career was crowned by the linear poetry of his famous

1. The ImmaculateConception,by Guido Reni (1575-1642),

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Aurorapaintedon the vault of a diningloggia in CardinalBorghese'sgardenon the Quirinal hill (Figure3), whichalone Is worth a tour to Rome, although no morea Remnantwere thereof the old world's sole throne.

Byron, Don Juan, xiv:40

2.

20

And yet, althoughReni waswidelyacclaimed the best painterin Italy, he was not content.

Romehadstrengthened,deepened,andvaried his style, but he seemsnot to haverelishedthe challengesand competitionof life in the art capitalof the world.He hatedfrescopainting, the mediumof his great Romandecorations.

Other, psychologicallycomplexreasonsmay also have influencedhis retreatfrom Rome: his neuroticandeven psychotictendenciesare well documentedby his biographer, CarloCesareMalvasia.Reni left late in I614 to return homeand, quite literally,to mother;and Bologna remainedhis home until his death.

A large Assumptionin Genoa (Figure 4), paintedin I616-I617, showshow thoroughly Bolognese Reni again became once he was back. It is a matureand powerfulvariantof his early,pre-RomanAssumptionin Pieve di Cento (Figure2). The amplefiguresare less manneredand the compositionis if anything spatiallysimplerthan the earlierpicture. In both picturesthe clouds recede as they rise aroundthe Virginandchangecolorfromgray to gold, a symbolof her transitionfromearth to heaven.

In the decade between 1617 and i627the yearsbetweenthe GenoaAssumptionand the Museum'sImmaculateConception- Reni stopped painting in fresco and increasingly avoided the demandsof complex,large-scale composition.In the years around 1620 he painted a numberof canvasesrich in emotional variety: The Rape of Dejanira(Figure 5) for the Duke of Mantua,and religious The Assumption of the Virgin, by for severalpatrons.Theseworksshow Guido Reni. About I599. Oil on canvas. pictures a virilestyle influencedby the greatVenetians Pieve di Cento, Sta. Maria Maggiore, that may owe somethingto his competition Bologna. Photograph:A. Villani, with the vigorousyoung Guercino. (In the Bologna end,however,it wasGuercinowhosuccumbed to Reni, as the visitorto the Museumcan see

in Guercino'ssplendidlate work hangingon the wall oppositeReni'spainting.)But in the mid-i62os Reni's art underwenta decisive changeof direction.He beganto concentrate on singlefigures- Judith,Lucretia,the Magdalen-shown just beforeor after a climactic event. His ostensiblemodelswereNiobidsand other antiquitieshe had studiedin Rome.

Among Reni's preferredsubjects during theseyearswerethe Virginof the Assumption and of the ImmaculateConception,whichhe renderedasvariantson a singletheme.Around I623, apparentlywithout much transitional experimentation,Reni isolatedthe Virginon the cloudsfrom the largergroupin the traditionalinterpretationof the Assumption(Figure 4). The firstof a seriesof similarpaintings is the ImmaculateConceptionin Forli (Figure 6). It is basedon a pictureby Denis Calvaert, Reni's first master (Figure 7). The formula was repeatedwith variationsin the Assumption that was set up on the high altarin the Emilia,justoutparishchurchof Castelfranco side Bologna,in May of I627 (Figure I).

The Metropolitan'sImmaculateConception is a refinedversionof the picturein Forli.

It is beyondreasonabledoubt the paintingor-

deredby the Spanishambassador to Romefor the Infantaof Spainandexecutedduringthe latterpartof I 627,whileReniwastemporarily in Rome to paintan altarpiecefor St. Peter's. accountin MalAccordingto a circumstantial vasia'sFelsinapittrice,the ambassador continually pesteredReni for a picture, but Reni would not be hurried.When he finishedthe ambassador's pictureandappliedforpayment, he wastold to wait, whereuponReni sent the workto Bolognain a fit of piquethat wasnot altogetherunusual.This hasty action probably threatenedto causean internationalincident since relationsbetweenSpainand the papacywerealreadystrained.CardinalFrancescoBarberini,nephewof Pope UrbanVIII, had to send for the paintingand have it carried back. Malvasia'sstory is confirmedby recordsin the Barberiniarchivesthat document a payment of fourteen scudi in December I627 to two portersfor carrying"il di GuidoReni"(the QuadrodellaConcezz[io]ne picture of the [Immaculate]Conceptionby 3. Aurora, by Guido Reni.

Guido Reni) from Bologna to Rome. Pre1613-1614. Fresco. Palazzo sumablythe picturewas then sent to Spain, Rospigliosi-Pallavicini,Casino where it seems to have arousedlittle comdell'Aurora, Rome. Photograph: ment; a lateraccountindicatesthat it was in Brogi-Art ReferenceBureau

21

the Cathedralof Seville, but old guidebooks do not list it. Earlyin the nineteenthcentury the picture is reportedto have made its way from Spainto Franceand thence to an English privatecollection.LordFrancisEgerton, later Earl of Ellesmere,acquiredthe ImmaculateConceptionin the I83os, and it adorned BridgewaterHouseforoveronehundredyears until the Ellesmeresalein 1946. Contraryto persistentrumor,the pictureis in decentcondition. Its somewhat wrinkled surface was causedby the high heat of a fireset by bombs that hit BridgewaterHouse during the last war. This unfortunatebut relatively minor defect is not noticeablewhen the picture is viewed froman appropriatedistance.

It would be hard to decide which aspect of Reni'sImmaculateConception- style or content - is moreremotefrom the modernviewer. In any successfulwork of art the two are, of course,united. Since modernwriterstend to discussReni'spaintingsalmostexclusively froma stylisticpoint of view, however,I shall beginwith a note aboutthe subjectandmeaning of the Museum'spainting.

4. TheAssumptionof the Virgin,by GuidoReni. Finished16I7. Oil on canvas.S. Ambrogio,Genoa.

A. Villani,Bologna Photograph:

5. TheRapeof Dejanira,by Guido Reni.Finished162i. Oil on canvas.

A. Louvre,Paris.Photograph: Villani,Bologna 22

6. TheImmaculateConception, by GuidoReni.About1623. Oil on canvas.S. Biagio,Forli.Photograph: - ArtReference Anderson Bureau

of the Virgin,by 7. TheAssumption Denis Calvaert(about I540o-I6I), Flemish. Possiblyabout I57I. Oil

on canvas.Pinacoteca,Bologna.

Photograph: Alinari- Art Reference Bureau

Whateverelse Reni may have been trying to do, he was certainlyattempting to paint a pictureof the Virginthat would satisfyhis own vision of heaven.Reni was devout, and his faith centeredon the Virgin.We hear of a miraculouscure performedon Reni by a paintingof the Madonna;andReni'sAssumption in Castelfranco(FigureI i) wasthe agent of a miracleon the day of its unveiling.All of this is very far from most of our experiences today. To get an idea of the man and the frameof mind in whichhe paintedwe cannot do better than to quote Malvasia,who knew andadmiredhim for qualitiesthatwouldnow call for psychiatrictreatment: Whenhe wasa little boy, for sevenyears straighthe heardknockingat hisdoorevery night of the Christmasseason,and . . . for severalyears he awoke each night to see abovehis bed a kind of light the size of an egg.... He wasmost devoted to Our Lady the Virgin Mary and in his youth went every Saturdayto worshipher image on the Monte della Guardiaand every evening infallibly,as long as he lived, worshiped in SantaMariadella Vita. For this reason 23

many believed - I don't know if with overzealous thought-that since he too was a virgin that she had deigned to appear to him. Certainly no painter of any century knew how to show her so utterly beautiful and modest; and it is unbelievable that anyone ever will again.

Mary's Immaculate Conception became church dogma only in 1854, but the idea goes back to the Middle Ages. Its popularity derives from Mary's traditional role as mediator between God and man. Mirella Levi D'Ancona wrote in her pioneering book on the iconography of the Immaculate Conception that Mary embodied the idea of feminine beauty, purity and love and was considered as a complement to the work of the Lord in the salvation of mankind. The first sin had been committed with the help of a woman, and only another woman who had known no sin could be chosen by the Lord to become His Mother and give birth to the instrument of salvation, Christ. The devotion to the Virgin Immaculate is a sublimation of femininity in its two aspects of maidenly purity and motherly love. Every woman may have either of these qualities, but Mary alone of all women embodied both together.

It took centuries-as may perhaps be imagined - for theologians to settle the controversy over how, and in what sense, Mary was Immaculate, that is, free from original sin at her conception, as opposed to her sinless conception of Christ. Abelard had identified Mary with the loved one in the Song of Songs:"Thou art all beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in thee," but belief in Mary's Immaculate Conception, with its delicate combination of popular credulity and theological nicety, was not favored by the learned doctors of Rome.

Although popular demand had finally forced grudging papal acknowledgment of the existence of a philosophical problem late in the fifteenth century, the subject might never have had much vogue in art had not the Protestant Reformation made Mariolatry an issue and the "Immacolata" a point of pride. The idea of the Immaculate Conception was par24

ticularly popular in Spain, where it had been the subject of an enormous controversy in the second decade of the seventeenth century.

Various Spanish factions pressured the pope to rule on the status of the concept, but no definitive judgment was laid down, despite a noticeable preference for the wording "The Conception of the Immaculate Virgin" over "The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin."

Nevertheless, under Urban VIII Barberini (I623-1644) there was some evidence of papal indulgence for the view that Mary had been immaculately conceived: the Barberini subsidized the new Capuchin church dedicated to "Santa Maria della Concezione" and Urban VIII even laid the cornerstone late in I626.

After this date Roman artists increasingly painted the subject: Lanfranco, Poussin, and others produced versions late in the i62os.

Back in the mid-sixteenth century, early in the Counter Reformation, artists were still not sure how to depict the Immaculate Conception. Giorgio Vasari gives us an explicit account of his own troubles in 1540, when he first painted the subject (Figure 8). It was no easy matter, he wrote, and, after seeking the advice of learned men he finally painted it in this way: In the middle of the picture I put the tree of original sin and at its roots, as the first sinners against God's commandments, I showed Adam and Eve, nude and bound.

Then I showed Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, and succeeding kings -all tied by both hands with the exception of Samuel and St. John the Baptist, who are tied by only one hand since they were sanctified in the womb. Wound around the trunk I showed the old serpent, and since he is half human, his hands are tied behind his back. Above, the glorious Virgin rests one foot on his head, the other on a moon; she is clothed with the sun and crowned with twelve stars. The Virgin is held in air by a glory of nude angels, illuminated by the rays coming from her. The rays pass through the leaves of the tree and give light to the captives, seeming to loose their bonds by their virtue and grace. In the sky at the top of the picture are two putti holding banners on which is written:

Quos Evae culpa damnavit,Mariaegratia solvit[Thosewhom the sin of Eve damned, Mary's Grace saved].... It did not satisfy me.

Such a picture, so explicit in its theological complexitybut so confusingas an image,was not apt to attract the faithful. During the next half centurypainterssimplifiedand refinedthe iconography,and the subjectbegan to take on an important role in CounterReformationart (see Figure io). Mary'srepresentationas the Immacolatabecame stabilizedas the greatwonderin heavenrevealed to St. Johnon Patmos:"A womanrobedwith the sun, beneathher feet the moon, and on her heada crownof twelve stars."The identificationwith MarywasinevitablesinceJohn goes on to say that "Shegave birthto a male child, who is destined to rule all nations."

Theseattributesbecamestandardfor the ImmaculateVirgin,and the Madonnawasoften shownImmaculateeven whenseenin a vision of a differentsort (Figure9).

In its formal representationthe Immaculate Conceptionbecame the counterpartof the Assumption:one showsMary beforeher life on earth,the otherafterit. This accounts for the similarity in iconographybetween Reni's Assuntasand his Immacolatas.Even the samescripturalallusionsservedfor bothon the framebelowReni'sAssuntain CastelfrancoEmiliais inscribeda passagefrom Judith: Tu honorificentia populi nostri; these wordsare repeatedduring the massfor December8, the feast of the ImmaculateConception: "Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel,thou art the honor of our people. . . Thou art all fair, Mary, and there is in thee no stain." Reni's iconic solutionbecamea standardfor laterartiststo follow.He reducedboth the Assumptionand the ImmaculateConceptionto a minimumof externalreferencesand symbols,refiningthe worshipof Mary to its essentials.

In the Museum'spaintingMary standson the crescentmoon,handspressedtogetherand eyes raisedin adoration.(The upwardgaze, 8. The Immaculate Conception,by Giorgio Vasari a constantin Reni's religiousworks,derives (5151/-574), Italian. 1540. Oil on panel. SS. fromRaphael'sSt. Cecilia,a pictureReni had Apostoli, Florence.Photograph:Alinari - Art copiedas a young man and which was then, ReferenceBureau 25

9. Madonna Appearingto Sts. Jerome and Francis ("Madonna degli Scalzi"), by Ludovico Carracci (1555-6I

9), Italian.

Oil on canvas. Pinacoteca, Bologna. Photograph:A. Villani, Bologna

as now, in Bologna.)Mary is flankedby two angelswhose bodiesform the sidesof a large triangleextendingup to her head.This general schemeis closerto Calvaert's(Figure7) than is any of Reni'sotherversions.The Museum'spainting also bearsa resemblanceto other worksof the Counter-Reformation period, such as ScipionePulzone'sImmacolata (Figure io). Reni may have known this pie-

tistic and hieraticcomposition,but his paintings of the samesubjectwere animatedwith a seicentohumanitythatcheerseven the Metropolitan'srelativelychilly picture.In Reni's work,Maryis crownedby the customarydiadem of twelve stars;behind her, the bright light of paradisecreatesa mandorlaaround which angel heads seem to take shape like 26

cloud pictures- againderivedfrom Raphael.

In the paintingin Forll (Figure 6), Mary is closelysurroundedby the cloudsand angels, but in the CastelfrancoAssumption(Figure ii) the space aroundMary was widened to make room for her expansivegesture. This moreextensivespaceis kept in the New York paintingeven though the gestureis changed.

The deep goldenlight that playsso largea rolein all thesepaintingsby Reni seemsto be an equivalentto the traditionalgold ground of medievalreligiouspanels.It emphasizesthe other medievalizingqualitiesof the Metropolitan'spicture:its lackof depth, its formal, symboliccomposition,its insistenceon threes and twelves.

Like the ariasof an opera(an art that was rapidlydevelopingat just this time), Reni's new use of color beginningin the mid-I62os wasembroidery- the enrichmentof a theme.

Abandoningthe Venetianwarmthof his pictures done a few yearsearlier(Figure5, for example),he adopted an increasinglyblond tonality,usingcolorsthat arebrightandclear on the largerforms, delicate in subordinate areas,sometimeselusivelychanging.The Virgin traditionallywearsintense blue and red: hereherdeep bluemantlefallsovera pinkishviolet robe.DuringtheseyearsReni beganto push the closeharmonyanddifferentiationof relatedhues fartherthan any contemporary painterwaswillingto go, as can be seenin the light blue of the girdle against the Virgin's robe and in the pale draperyof the angel at the left, where shadowsbecome the lightest of violetsand the fleshreflectsgreenishtones.

This cool and fragileharmonyof blues, yellows,andgreensis set off violentlyby the hot gold of the glowing empyreanbehind. The uniquelysubtlecolorcontrastsin the drapery are accompaniedby a treatmentof fleshthat becomesbrittle and even porcelaneousin its delicately precise finish, without either the humanwarmthandaccessibilityof Reni'searlier figuresor the softly transparent,broader handlingof his latest works.The Museum's paintingis perhapsthe apogee of this peculiarlyremotephasein Reni'squestfor visionary perfection.

Reni'stendencyto stabilizeand then elab-

orateiconographicthemesis continuedin two finalAssumptions.One of these (Figure I2), sold by Reni in I637, is a free version of the

Castelfrancopicture.Althoughpaintedby an assistantor pupil,it must have beendesigned

by Reni, since the draperyforeshadowshis ultimateinterpretation,whichis now in Munich (Figure 13). Finished in

I642,

this pic-

ture is apparentlythe last to have been sent from Reni'sstudio beforehis death. It closes the seriesbegunalmostforty-fiveyearsearlier with the altar in Pieve di Cento (Figure2).

In the Munich picture Mary emergeslike a Venusfromher cowrieshell of blue drapery.

The gracious,bonelessangelspay homageto Reni'smasterLudovicoCarracci,but the mellifluousfall of draperyis his own. Paintedon silk, an innovationthat Reni hoped would give his picturesaddedpermanence,thisgreat cantilenais shapedby the looselybrushedoutlines of his late manner.Lackingthe exquisitely diaphanouscolorationof the Metropolitan'sImmacolata,withoutinterestin textures, it combinesthe blond tonalityand the clear impact of the Metropolitan'spaintingwith a freedomof movementthat was noticeably

Romein thisveryperiod.Whiletheseyounger men were enliveningpainting through the invigoratingstudy of AnnibaleCarracci,the Venetians,and antiquity,Reni turnedto the rigid compositionsof Scipione Pulzone and the femininegraceof Calvaert.Reni's introvertedattentionto the purificationof his art producedthe increasinglyblondtonalitythat may have exertedan influenceon paintersof the i63os in Rome; Reni himself must have

been out of sympathywith Romanpainting in those years. After paintingour Immaculate Conceptionhe destroyedwhat little he had begunof his altarpiecein St. Peter's,refunded his advance,and went back to Bologna- apparentlyfor good.

But it would be misleadingto leave the

missing in the archaizing pictures of I627.

As we look backon Reni's career,he seems to have been destinedto develop a personal and idiosyncraticstyle that could not have been pursuedin the officialenvironmentof Rome. His brief return there in i627, during

which he produced our Immacolata,must from haveconfirmedhissenseof estrangement the Romanscene.At the very momentof the birth of Roman baroquepaintingReni was undergoinghis most profoundstylisticcrisis, whichhe met by revivinga heraldicand relatively linearstyle. If we comparehis Rape of Dejanira of i62I with the Metropolitan's pic-

ture (Figures5 and i), we see the amazing changeof directionin his art, whichtook him froma commandingpositionin the neo-Venetian tendency to a style that seems almost its antithesis.The same contrastcan also be foundbetweenthe Immacolataand the freely brushed,complex,recessional,and asymmetricalart of NicholasPoussinand AndreaSacchi (see Figure I4), who were working in 27

I o. The Immaculate Conception

with Saints and Donor, by Scipione Pulzone (before I5501598), Italian. Before 1584.

Oil on canvas. Capuchinchurch, Ronciglione.Photograph: GabinettoFotografico Nazionale, Rome

i I. The Assumption of the Virgin,

by Guido Reni. Finished1627.

Oil on canvas. Parishchurch, CastelfrancoEmilia. Photograph: U. Orlandini,Modena

matterthereandsay that Reni left the mainstreamand revertedto an earlierstyle. Picturessuchasoursareextraordinarily eloquent above an altar, with far greaterimmediacy and mesmerizingpowerthan the machinesof Reni's previousperiod. In this Immacolata, Mary'smouth,like thoseof the angels,is partially open, as if voicinga prayeror supplication. The revelationof humanwarmthand frailty- the humanizationof the divine- is a characteristicof seventeenth-centuryart and Reni was one of the innovators.Reni's lifesizefiguresstandin a shallowspacethat helps to induce an empathetic responseat once human and religious.GianlorenzoBernini, the presidinggenius of the Roman baroque, admiredReni'sfiguresand even appropriated themforhisownuse. (Therewasa livelygiveand-takebetweenpaintersandsculptorsof the period; Bernini'ssculpturehas always been consideredprimarilypictorial,but amongthe 28

paintersonly Reni regularlyproducedfigures that can be thought of as paintedstatuary.)

The Metropolitan'spicture may even show an influencein the other direction:Mary's silhouetteis moreagitatedand irregularthan that of the immediatelypreviousAssumption (compare Figures i and i i). The change may

derive from Bernini'sstatue of St. Bibiana, which had been set up in the churchof that name during the previousyear (Figure I5).

Nevertheless,the differencesbetween their Reni'slaterart is iconstylesareconsiderable: ographicallytraditionaland even iconic;Bernini'sbecameincreasinglynovelanddynamic.

BeforeBernini'smatureworks,the viewerrespondswith an overwhelmingpersonalidentificationwith a religiousevent, whereasReni's later works evoke no such reaction. Reni's figures, never sensual, became increasingly flaccid, impersonal,and removedfrom reality by their grace and unnaturalcolor.

OPPOSITE

12.

TheAssumption of the Virgin, from Guido Reni'sstudio.Finisheds637. Oil on canvas. Musee des Beaux Arts, Lyons.

Photograph: Lyons J. Camponogara,

53. TheAssumption of the Virgin,by Guido Reni.Finishedz642. Oil on silk.Alte Munich.Photograph: Gabinetto Pinacothek, Nazionale,Rome Fotografico The historian,noting a surgein the i62os toward what we now identify as "the baroque," may be tempted to call any other or "classicizing," but this tendency"classical" is not a good label for the later Reni. Even the archbaroquepainter Pietro da Cortona wasfarmoreconcernedwith archaeologythan Reni had ever been. The contrast between Reni'sImmacolata(Figurei) anda sculpture by a vital artist using truly antique inspiration (Figure 17) makes the point. An intermediate position, parallelwith Reni's, was taken by Reni's younger compatriot,AlessandroAlgardi.Algardi'sfirst majorwork in Rome, a Mary Magdalen (Figure I6), shows

the extent of his submissionto Berniniat a time when his own ideal was still very close to thatof Reni'sImmacolata;the resemblance of the heads (Figures i6 and i) is particularly

close.

Looking around the gallery in which the

Museum'sImmaculateConceptionis hung, we are struck by the relative emptinessof Reni's large picture,which a numberof art loversmaytendto equatewith vapidity.Even in the Bolognesegallerieshis pictureslook depopulated. Only Reni brought amor vacui

to sucha pitch, and his paintingsare for just that reasonhighly potent imageswith great carrying power. The Museum's picture is painted in what was called by contempoReni's"secondmanner";alrarybiographers though individualworks in this style were highly prized it was generally agreed that Reni'searlierstyle wasbetter.The criticspreferredpaintingsthat seemedto develop the stylistic heritageof the Carracciand found it hardto understandReni'slonelysearchfor ineffableloveliness.Their opinionshave been echoed ever since-and we may admit that most of the blood has been squeezedfrom Reni'sart in this unearthlyphase.From the 29

beginning,Reni'spaintingshad beensuffused with a graceandelegancethat wasthe despair of his rivals.Unlike AnnibaleCarracci,who had made a consciousand successfulstylistic breakwith the manneriststyle (suchas Calvaert'spaintingin Figure7), Reni neverlost hisfeelingfor the poetryof themaniera.While he had accommodatedhimself brilliantlyto 14. The Miracle of St. Gregorythe Great, by Andrea Sacchi the demandsmadeupon him in Rome, he re(I599-i66I), Italian. i625-i627. Oil on canvas. Pinacoteca, turnedwith obviousreliefto a lessadventureVatican City. Photograph: Anderson- Art ReferenceBureau some artisticmilieu and ultimatelyproduced pictureslike the Metropolitan'sthat are his own versionsof an older tradition.When we discussReni'scareerfromthispointof view, it becomesclearthat his laterstyle is the purest expressionof his individualgenius,the logical resultof his personalstylisticpredilections.

Reni's growingconcernwith the abstract aspectsof art and of religiousrepresentation made him more universalthan many of his Roman contemporaries,but the timelessness of his compositionsraisesan aestheticquestion that must be faced.Reni'sreputationfell fasterand fartherthan that of any other artist, at least in part becauseof the perennial suitabilityof his devotionalpicturesfor reproductionand worship.His pietisticimages were loved for their almost hieraticdisplay of the figurein an easilyunderstoodcomposition.They wereeasyto reproduce,endlessly copied, and ultimately found their place as the typicalreligiouschromo.Perhapsno artist has sufferedso long or so unfairlyfor the crudities of his imitators.Even today one occasionallydiscoversa Harnett-likestilllife nailed to a wall, made up of a calendar,odd notes, and a Reni Madonna reproducedin color.

Such broaddevotionalappealilluminatesone sideof his greatness,but thisdangerousvirtue should not blind us to the artisticcharacter of Reni'spaintings.The essenceof his mature geniusis a uniquelyrefinedhandling,a rarified coloration,an almost rococo tonality found only in the originalsthat cannotbe evenminimally investedin the endlesscopiesand variationsthat retaineverythingbut the quality of Reni'sart.

15. St. Bibiana, by Gianlorenzo Bernini (i598-1680), Italian. 1624-1626. Marble. Sta. Bibiana, Rome. Photograph:Anderson- Art ReferenceBureau I6. St. Mary Magdalen, by AlessandroAlgardi (1598-i654),

Italian. About I628. Stucco.

S. Silvestroal Quirinale,Rome. Photograph:GabinettoFotograficoNazionale, Rome

I7.

St. Susanna, by Francesco Duquesnoy (I597-I643), Belgian. I630-I633. Marble.

Madonna di Loreto, Rome. Photograph:Anderson- Art ReferenceBureau

NOTES

AND

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The essential introductionto the art of this pein riod is Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture Italy, I600-I750

(Baltimore, I965). The basic

work on Reni is C. Gnudi and G. C. Cavalli, Guido Reni (Florence, 1955), but it is far from complete. I have taken some literary references to Reni from 0. Kurz, BologneseDrawings... at WindsorCastle(London,1955).The sameauthor's article, "Guido Reni" in Jahrbuchder kunsthistorischenSammlungenin Wien, i i (I937), pp.

I89 ff., opened modern criticismand is still indispensable.I am also indebted to Denis Mahon for a numberof articles,particularly"Poussinau carrefourdes annees trente" in Nicolas Poussin (ColloquesInternationaux),I (Paris, I960), pp.

238-263; and Apollo, 82 (I965), pp. 386-390. The biographyof Reni in C. C. Malvasia,Felsinapittrice.. .., II (Bologna,i678), is the greatcontemporary source of information.Interestingtranslationsof passagesreferringto Reni'speculiarities are found in R. and M. Wittkower,Born Under Saturn(London, I963).

I am deeply grateful to Marilyn A. Lavin for informingme about her discovery of important documentsin the Barberiniarchiverelatedto the affairsof Reni. These papersare in the Vatican Library (Armadio42, CardinalFrancescoBarberini, Mastro di Casa BartolomeoPasserini-z6271631, fol. 38a, December I627: "Alle duifacchini che han'portatoda Bolognaa Romasoprale spalle il Quadrodella Concezz[io]ne di GuidoRenicomo persuafede v 14-m[one]tacomesi vedeperric[evu]ta, e cio di paroladel S[igno]rFilomar[in]o."

Armadio 86, CardinalFrancescoBarberini,LibroMastroA,

Ju s T

A S

T H IS

I

ss

U E

1623-1629,

fol. CLXXXIX,

31 December 1627:

"v 14 per portaturad'un quadrodi Guido Reni fatto portareda facchini da Bologna,comeper le liste ... ").

W. Buchanan in Memoirs of Painting . . ., I (London, 1824), refersto an Assumptionby Reni

that is apparently the Metropolitan'sImmacolata. The Immacolatawaspublishedby G. Fiocco in Arte antica e moderna, I (1958), pp. 388 ff. (with color reproduction),and has been excellently cataloguedfor the Museum by Federico Zeri, whose manuscriptI was graciouslyallowed to consult together with reportsfrom the ConservationDepartment.The Witt Library,Courtauld Institute of Art, London,has a photograph of the painting before restoration.I am grateful to Otto Kurz and Denis Mahonfor information about the picture,andI wasprivilegedto examine it and discussits conditionand authenticitywith Mr. Mahonin the MetropolitanMuseum.

For the subjectof the ImmaculateConception, M. Levi D'Ancona, The Iconographyof the Imin the MiddleAges and Early maculateConception Renaissance ([New York], 1957), may be supple-

mented by E. Male, L'Artreligieuxapresle Concile de Trente(Paris, 1932). See also A. B. Jameson,

Legendsof the Madonna (London, 1864), and Edward D. O'Connor, ed., The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception (Notre Dame, Indiana, I958).

For Pulzone,see F. Zeri, Pitturae controriforma (Turin, 1957).

For Calvaert,see S. Bergmans,Denis Calvart (AcademieRoyalede Belgique.Classedes BeauxArts, Memoires,IV, 2), (Brussels, I934)

of the Bulletin was going to press, the Museum's Board of

Trustees and staff received with great sadnessthe news of the death of Robert Lehman.

Mr. Lehman was one of the Museum's most active and interested Trustees. Elected to that post in I94I, he was the Board's Vice-President from I948 to i968 and Chairman of the Board from i967 until his death. Because of his generous contributions, Mr. Lehman was elected a Benefactor in I949. His many significant gifts include paintings by Cranach, Tintoretto, and Vuillard. As a member of the PurchasingCommittee and as Visiting Trustee to the Department of European Paintings, Mr. Lehman was valued as a true connoisseurand advisor. Concerned as well with the administrative aspects of the Museum, Mr. Lehman served on the Finance Committee and the Executive Committee.

In a statement issued at the time of his death, Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., President, and Thomas P. F. Hoving, Director, said that Mr. Lehman was "one of the finest Trustees in the Museum's history, exemplifying enthusiasm and interest in the affairs of this institution and keen sensitivity and zest in what was perhapshis favorite activity in life, the collecting of great works of art."

32

The of

Metropolitan Art

Museum

BULLETIN

Summer 1969 to June 1970

Index

ACCESSIONS,Outstanding Recent, 394-399 ADDITIONS to the collections (I968-I969), 53-98 AMERICANart

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, I60 Outstanding Recent Accessions, 399 AMERICANWing

Craftsmanship, Past and Present, exhibition, M. Johnson, 365-368 Outstanding Recent Accessions, 396-397 ANCIENT Near Easternart

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, I50-151 Outstanding Recent Accessions, 394-395 ANNUALreport of the Trustees for the fiscal year I968-I969, in the October Bulletin i969, 33-128 ARCHITECTS and Museums, A. Rosenblatt, 355-36i ARCHITECTURE

American Architects and Museums, A. Rosenblatt, 355-36i Environment Is an Art, exhibition, E. Kaufmann, jr., 32I330 H6tel de Varengeville Room and the Room from the Palais Paar: A Magnificent Donation, J. Parker, 129-I46 Temples of the Arts: Museum Architecture in NineteenthCentury America, J. Cantor, 331-354 European Chartres, The Year 1200: The Metropolitan on Location, H. Stahl, 293-299 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 218-2I9 ARMORERS'Shop, H. Nickel, I83-I88 ARMSand Armor Armorers' Shop, H. Nickel, I83-I88 Outstanding Recent Accessions, 395 Sir Gawayne and the Three White Knights, H. Nickel, 174-I82 ART of the Medieval Blacksmith, exhibition, J. M. Hoffeld, 161-173

NEW

SERIES,

VOLUME

XXVIII

CANTOR, Jay. Temples of the Arts: Museum Architecture

in Nineteenth-CenturyAmerica,331-354 CENTENNIAL Tours, J. Schwarz, 304-307 CENTURY II. Leapingthe CenturyGap, N. Kueffner, 388-389 CERAMICS

Greekand Roman Collectionof Mr. and Mrs. AlastairBradleyMartin, exhibition, I49

Islamic OutstandingRecent Accessions,395 CHARTRES, The Year I200: The Metropolitanon Location, exhibition,H. Stahl, 293-299 CHESSpieces. Sir Gawayne and the Three White Knights, H. Nickel, I74-i82 "THE CLOISTERS . . . The Cloisters. . . The Cloisters. . .

C. Tomkins, 308-320 CORPORATION members elected (1968-i969), CRAFTSMANSHIP,Past and

i02

Present, exhibition, M. Johnson,

365-368 DECORATIVE arts, see Western European arts and American

Wing DEPARTMENTAL reports (1968-1969), 53-98 DEUCHLER, Florens. The Year 1200, exhibition note, 229-231 DILLON,C. Douglas

Elected Presidentof the Boardof Trustees,T. P. F. Hoving, 89- 90

SecondHundredYears,369-376 DIRECTOR'S Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 202-226 DIRECTOR'S Report (1968-I969), T. P. F. Hoving, 39-52 DJUMATI Enamels: A Twelfth-Century Litany of Saints,

M. E. Frazer,240-251 DOCUMENTS in Gold, K. R. Brown, 232-239 DONORS,list of (I968-I969), I03-II2 DRAPER, James David. A Statue of the Composer Gre'try by

Jean-BaptisteStouf, 377-387 DRAWINGS

European FlemishDrawingsand Printsof the SeventeenthCentury, BEAUTIFUL Madonna in the Cloisters Collection, T. Husband, 278-290 BOTTICINI, Footnotes to the Painted Page: The Iconography

of an Altarpieceby, H. Friedmann,I-I7 BROWN, Katharine R. Documents in Gold, 232-239 BULLETINS of 1905-I942, Index to, Published, 400 BYZANTINEart

Djumati Enamels: A Twelfth-Century Litany of Saints, M. E. Frazer, 240-251 Documents in Gold, K. R. Brown, 232-239

exhibition,

227-228

OutstandingRecent Accessions,398-399 Far Eastern Collectionof Mr. and Mrs. AlastairBradleyMartin,exhibition, 155 EGYPTIAN art

Collectionof Mr. and Mrs. AlastairBradleyMartin, exhibition, i49

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 速 www.jstor.org

ENAMELS

Byzantine Djumati Enamels: A Twelfth-Century Litany of Saints, M. E. Frazer, 240-251 European Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 156 Medieval Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 154 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 210-211 Is an Art, exhibition, E. Kaufmann, jr., 32IENVIRONMENT 330 ETTINGHAUSEN, Richard. Islamic

Carpets: The Joseph V.

McMullan Collection, exhibition, 401-403 EXHIBITIONS

Art of the Medieval Blacksmith, J. M. Hoffeld, i6i-I73 Chartres, The Year I200: The Metropolitan on Location, H. Stahl, 293-299 Flemish Drawings and Prints of the Seventeenth Century, 227-228

How to Look at Art, traveling exhibition, J. Norman, 19120I

Islamic Carpets: The Joseph V. McMullan Collection, 401432 List of (i968- 1969), 99- ioi Nineteenth-Century America: Craftsmanship, Past and Present, M. Johnson, 365-368 Rise of an American Architecture: Environment Is an Art, E. Kaufmann, jr., 321-330 "Valuables and Ornamental Items": The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, I47-16o Year I200, note, F. Deuchler, 229-231 EYE Opener: How to Look at Art, traveling exhibition, J. Norman, 19I -201 F ABULOUS Fakes, 390-393 FAR Eastern art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 155 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 214-215 statements for the year ended June 30, i969, 124FINANCIAL 128

FLEMISHDrawings and Prints of the Seventeenth Century, exhibition,

227-228

to the Painted Page: The Iconography of an FOOTNOTES Altarpiece by Botticini, H. Friedmann, I-17 FORSYTH, William H. Madonnas of the Rhone-Meuse Val-

leys, 252-261 Margaret English. The Djumati Enamels: A TwelfthCentury Litany of Saints, 240-25I

FRAZER,

FRESCOES

Greek and Roman Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 204-205 FRIEDMANN, Herbert. Footnotes to the Painted Page: The Iconography of an Altarpiece by Botticini, 1-17

GREEK and Roman art

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 149 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 202-207 GRETRY, Andre-Ernest-Modeste. A Statue of the Composer

by Jean-Baptiste Stouf, J. D. Draper, 377-387 GUIDo Reni's Painting of the Immaculate Conception. H. Hibbard, I8-32

HAYWARD,Jane. Medieval Stained Glass from St. Leonhard in Lavanttal at The Cloisters, 291-292 HERRICK, Daniel K. Report of the Treasurer for the year ended June 30, 1969, 122-123 HIBBARD, Howard. Guido Reni's Painting of the Immaculate Conception, 18-32 HOFFELD, Jeffrey M. The Art of the Medieval Blacksmith, exhibition, I161-73 H6TEL de Varengeville Room and the Room from the Palais Paar: A Magnificent Donation, J. Parker, 129-I46 HOUGHTON,Arthur A., Jr. Elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees, T. P. F. Hoving, 189-i90 Report of the President (i968-1969), 33-38 HOVING, ThomasP.

F.

Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., and C. Douglas Dillon elected Chairman and President of the Board of Trustees, 189190

Director's Choice, 202-226 Islamic Carpets: The Joseph V. McMullan Collection, exhibition note, 401 Report of the Director (i968-1969), 39-52 "Valuables and Ornamental Items": The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition note, I47I48 How to Look at Art, traveling exhibition, J. Norman, 191-201 HUSBAND, Timothy. A Beautiful Madonna in the Cloisters Collection, 278-290

INDEX to Bulletins of 1905-I942 Published, 400 ISLAMICart

Islamic Carpets: The Joseph V. McMullan Collection, exhibition, 401-432 Outstanding Recent Accessions, 395 ISLAMIC Carpets: The Joseph V. McMullan Collection, exhibition, 401-432 IVORIES

Egyptian Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, I49 Medieval Sir Gawayne and the Three White Knights, H. Nickel, I74-I82

FURNITURE

American Outstanding Recent Accessions, 396-397

JOHNSON,Marilynn. Craftsmanship, Past and Present, exhibition, 365-368

KAUFMANN, Edgar, jr. Environment Is an Art, exhibition,

321-330 KUEFFNER, Nancy. Leaping the Century Gap, 388-389

LEAPINGthe Century Gap, N. Kueffner, 388-389 LEHMAN,Robert. obituary, 32 LENDERS, list of (I968- 1969), I12 LOANS, institutions and organizations receiving (I968- 969), 113

MCMULLAN Collection, Islamic Carpets: The Joseph V., exhibition, 401-432 MADONNASof the Rhone-Meuse Valleys, W. H. Forsyth, 252-261 MANUSCRIPTS

Medieval Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 148 MARTIN,"Valuables and Ornamental Items": The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley, exhibition, i47-i6o MEDIEVAL art

Art of the Medieval Blacksmith, exhibition, J. M. Hoffeld, 161-173 Beautiful Madonna in the Cloisters Collection, T. Husband, 278-290

"The Cloisters . . . The Cloisters . . . The Cloisters . . . ," C. Tomkins, 308-320 Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 148, I52-154 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 208-213 Djumati Enamels: A Twelfth Century Litany of Saints, M. E. Frazer, 240-251 Documents in Gold, K. R. Brown, 232-239 Madonnas of the Rhone-Meuse Valleys, W. H. Forsyth,

Museum of Art METROPOLITAN Architecture Renovation of the Great Hall, 362-364 Temples of the Arts: Museum Architecture in NineteenthCentury America, J. Cantor, 331-354 Centennial celebration Centennial Tours, J. Schwarz, 304-307 Leaping the Century Gap, N. Kueffner, 388-389 Nineteenth-Century America, exhibition, 365-368 Rise of an American Architecture, exhibition, 321-330 Second Hundred Years, C. D. Dillon, 369-376 Year 1200, exhibition, 229-231, 293-303 Reproductionsworkshop Fabulous Fakes, 390-393 Traveling exhibitions How to Look at Art, J. Norman, I91-201

NEAR Eastern art, see Ancient Near Eastern art and Islamic

art NEEDLEWORK

by Nuns: A Medieval Religious Embroidery, B. Young, 262-277 NICHOLAS of Verdun. The Year I200, exhibition note, F. Deuchler, 229-231 NICKEL,Helmut Armorers' Shop, 183-188 Sir Gawayne and the Three White Knights, 174-182 NINETEENTH-CenturyAmerica, exhibition. Craftsmanship, Past and Present, M. Johnson, 365-368 NORMAN, Jane. How to Look at Art, traveling exhibition, 191-201

OUTSTANDING Recent Accessions, 394-399

252-261

Medieval Stained Glass from St. Leonhard in Lavanttal at The Cloisters, J. Hayward, 291-292 Needlework by Nuns: A Medieval Religious Embroidery, B. Young, 262-277 Sir Gawayne and the Three White Knights, H. Nickel, 174-182

Year 1200, exhibition note, F. Deuchler, 229-23I MEDIEVALStained Glass from St. Leonhard in Lavanttal at The Cloisters, J. Hayward, 291-292 MEMBERSHIP by classes (i968-i969), i02 METALWORK

Ancient Near Eastern Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 150-15I Outstanding Recent Accessions, 394-395 Byzantine Documents in Gold, K. R. Brown, 232-239 Medieval Art of the Medieval Blacksmith, exhibition, J. M. Hoffeld, I6I-I173 Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 152 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 208-209

PAINTINGS American Outstanding Recent Accessions, 399 European Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 220-226 Footnotes to the Painted Page: The Iconography of an Altarpiece by Botticini, H. Friedmann, I-I7 Guido Reni's Painting of the Immaculate Conception, H. Hibbard, 18-32 PALAISPaar, The Hotel de Varengeville Room and the Room from the, A Magnificent Donation, J. Parker, 129-146 PARKER,James. The Hotel de Varengeville Room and the Room from the Palais Paar: A Magnificent Donation, I29146 PRESIDENT'S Report (I968-I969), A. A. Houghton, Jr., 33-38 PRIMITIVE art. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 158-159 PRINTS

European Flemish Drawings and Prints of the Seventeenth Century exhibition,

227-228

Outstanding Recent Accessions, 398-399

RENI, Guido. Painting of the Immaculate Conception, H. Hibbard, 18-32 of the Great Hall, 362-364 RENOVATION RISE of an American Architecture, exhibition. Environment Is an Art, E. Kaufmann, jr., 32I-330 Arthur. Architects and Museums, 355-36I ROSENBLATT, RUGS Islamic Islamic Carpets: The Joseph V. McMullan Collection, exhibition, 40I-432

of the Arts: Museum Architecture in NineteenthCentury America, J. Cantor, 331-354

TEMPLES

TEXTILES

Medieval Needlework by Nuns: A Medieval Religious Embroidery, B. Young, 262-277 TOMKINS, Calvin. "The Cloisters . . . The Cloisters . . . The Cloisters ... ," 308-320 TREASURER'S report for the year ended June 30, i969, D. K. Herrick, 122-123 TRUSTEES

SCHWARZ, Jane. The Centennial Tours, 304-307 SCULPTURE

American Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, I60 European Statue of the Composer Gretry by Jean-Baptiste Stouf, J. D. Draper, 377-387 Far Eastern Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 155 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 214-215 Greek and Roman Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 202-203, 206-207 Medieval Beautiful Madonna in the Cloisters Collection, T. Husband, 278-290

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 153 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 212-213 Madonnas of the Rhone-Meuse Valleys, W. H. Forsyth, 252-26I

Primitive Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 158-159 SECONDHundred Years, C. D. Dillon, 369-376 SIR Gawayne and the Three White Knights, H. Nickel, I74I82 STAFF, list of (1968- 969), 116-121 STAHL,Harvey. Chartres, The Year 1200: The Metropolitan on Location, exhibition, 293-299 STAINEDglass Medieval Medieval Stained Glass from St. Leonhard in Lavanttal at The Cloisters, J. Hayward, 291-292 STATUEof the Composer Gretry by Jean-Baptiste Stouf, J. D. Draper, 377-387 STOUF, A Statue of the Composer Gretry by Jean-Baptiste, J. D. Draper, 377-387

Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., and C. Douglas Dillon elected Chairman and President of the Board of Trustees, T. P. F. Hoving, I89-190 Lehman, Robert. obituary, 32 List of (1968- 1969), I14 Visiting Committees (i968-i969), I I5 and Ornamental Items": The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, i47-16o VISITING Committees (I968-i969), I15 "VALUABLES

WESTERN European arts Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin, exhibition, 156- 57 Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 216-219 Hotel de Varengeville Room and the Room from the Palais Paar: A Magnificent Donation, J. Parker, 129-I46 Statue of the Composer Gretry by Jean-Baptiste Stouf, J. D. Draper, 377-387 WILKINSON,W. D. Works of Art: Use Extreme Care, 300-303 WOODWORK

European Director's Choice, T. P. F. Hoving, 2I6-217 Hotel de Varengeville Room and the Room from the Palais Paar: A Magnificent Donation, J. Parker, I29- 46 WORKSof Art: Use Extreme Care, W. D. Wilkinson, 300-303 rooms: The Hotel de Varengeville Room and WRIGHTSMAN the Room from the Palais Paar: A Magnificent Donation, J. Parker, I29-146 YEAR 1200, exhibition Chartres, The Year I200: The Metropolitan on Location, H. Stahl, 293-299 Note, F. Deuchler, 229-231 Works of Art: Use Extreme Care, W. D. Wilkinson, 300-303 YOUNG, Bonnie. Needlework by Nuns: A Medieval Religious Embroidery, 262-277

MUSEUM

THE METROPOLITAN

OF ART

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., President Robert Lehman, Chairman Walter C. Baker, Vice-President C. Douglas Dillon, Vice-President J. RichardsonDilworth, Vice-President Roswell L. Gilpatric, Vice-President

Ex Officio JohnV. Lindsay,

Elective

P. Aldrich Malcolm Mrs. Vincent Astor John R. H. Blum R. Manning Brown, Jr. Mrs. McGeorge Bundy Terence CardinalCooke Daniel P. Davison Mrs. JamesW. Fosburgh Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen JamesM. Hester John N. Irwin II Devereux C. Josephs Andre Meyer Henry S. Morgan

rdM.Paget Richa

Honorary

Mayorof the Cityof New York Mario A. Procaccino, Comptroller of the Cityof New York August Heckscher, AdministratorforParks,Recreation, and CulturalAffairs Alfred Easton Poor, Presidentof theNationalAcademy of Design

Mrs. (CharlesS. Payson Roberrt M. Pennoyer Richa:rd S. Perkins Francis T. P. Plimpton Roland L. Redmond Francis Day Rogers Arthur 0. Sulzberger Irwin Untermyer Arthu,r K. Watson Mrs. 'SheldonWhitehouse Arnol(d Whitridge es B. Wrightsman Charle

Mrs. Harold L. Bache Henry Ittleson, Jr. AlastairBradley Martin MillardMeiss Roy R. Neuberger C. Michael Paul Nelson A. Rockefeller Craig Hugh Smyth R. Thornton Wilson

Emeritus Henry C. Alexander Cleo Frank Craig Mrs. Ogden Reid

STAFF Joseph V. Noble, Vice-Director for Administration

Thomas P. F. Hoving, Director Curatorin Chief Theodore Rousseau,Vice-Director,

Secretary

Carolyn L. Richardson, Administrative Assistant Arthur Klein, Supervisor of Plans and Construction Ruth Wedekind, Administrative Assistant

John E. Buchanan,Archivist Mildred S. McGill, Assistant for Loans Susan Copello, Assistant for Community Relations PAINTINGS

AND

SCULPTURE:

John K. Howat, Associate

Curator in

WING: Berry B. Tracy, Curator. Mary C. Glaze, Associate Curator.

Morrison H. Heckscher, Assistant Curator ART: VaughnE. Crawford,Curator. PrudenceOliver NEAR EASTERN ANCIENT Harper and Oscar White Muscarella, Associate Curators ARMS AND ARMOR: Helmut Nickel, Curator. Harvey Murton, Armorer CONTEMPORARY ARTS: Henry Geldzahler, Curator. James Wood, Assistant Curator Polaire Weissman, Executive Director. Stella Blum THE COSTUME INSTITUTE: and Mavis Dalton, Assistant Curators DRAWINGS: Jacob Bean, Curator. Merritt Safford, Conservator of Drawings and Prints. Linda Boyer Gillies, Assistant Curator EGYPTIAN ART: Henry G. Fischer, Curator. Nora Scott, Associate Curator.

Virginia Burton, Assistant Curator Claus Virch, Curator. Hubert F. von Sonnenburg, EUROPEAN PAINTINGS: Conservator of Paintings. Margaretta M. Salinger and Elizabeth E. Gardner, Associate Curators. Sally Mason, Administrative Assistant FAR EASTERN ART: Fong Chow, Associate Curator in Charge. JeanK. Schmitt, Assistant Curator

AMERICAN

EVENTS:

AUDITORIUM SHOP

Hilde Limondjian, Manager

REPRODUCTIONS:

AND

Kate C. Lefferts, Conservator

Harry S. Parker III, Chairman. Thomas M. Folds, Dean. Louise Condit, Associate in Charge of the Junior Museum. John Walsh, Jr., Associate EDUCATION:

for HzgherEducation.Roberta Paine, Allen Rosenbaum,and Margaret V. Hartt, Senior Lecturers EXHIBITION

DESIGN:

StuartSilver, Manager. Peter Zellnerand VincentCiulla,

Associate Managers LIBRARY:

Elizabeth R. Usher, Chief Librarian. Victoria S. Galban, Senior

Librarian

Robert Chapman, Building Superintendent George A. McKenna, Captain of Attendants Theodore Ward, Purchasing Agent William F. Pons, Manager, Photograph Studio Betsy Mason, Manager of Office Service

Dietrich von Bothmer,Curator. AndrewOliver, Jr., AND ROMAN ART: Associate Curator. Nicholas Yalouris, Senior Research Fellowv

GREEK

ART: RichardEttinghausen, Consultative Chairman. MarieG. Lukens, Associate Curator. Marilyn Jenkins, Assistant Curator ISLAMIC

Florens Deuchler, Chairman. William H. ART AND THE CLOISTERS: MEDIEVAL Forsyth, Curatorof MedievalArt.CarmenGomez-Morenoand JaneHayward, Associate Curators. Michael Botwinick, Assistant Curator. Thomas Pelham Miller, Executive Assistant at The Cloisters. Bonnie Young, Senior Lecturer, The Cloisters MUSICAL PRIMITIVE PRINTS:

INSTRUMENTS:

Emanuel Winternitz, Curator

Dudley T. Easby, Jr., Consultative Chairman John J. McKendry, Curator. Janet S. Byrne, Associate Curator.

ART:

Mary L. Myers, Assistant Curator

JohnGoldsmith Phillips, Chairman. CarlChristian Dauterman,JamesParker,and Olga Raggio,Curators.Edith A. Standenand

WESTERN EUROPEAN ARTS:

Jean Mailey, Associate Curators, Textiles. Malcolm Delacorte, Assistant Curator, Textiles. Yvonne Hackenbroch, Senior Research Fellow. Jessie McNab Dennis and Clare Vincent, Assistant Curators MEMBERSHIP:

Bradford D. Kelleher, Sales Manager.

Margaret S. Kelly, General Supervisor, Art and Book Shop. Daniel S. Berger, Assistant to the Sales Manager CONSERVATION:

Operating Administrator

Robert A. Pierson, AssistantTreasurer Maurice K. Viertel, Controller James0. Grimes, CityLiaison George M. Benda, Auditor Ann R. Leven, FinancialAssistant JessieL. Morrow, PlacementManager

Charge

BOOK

Richard R. Morsches,

Arthur Rosenblatt, Administrator for and Planning Architecture

Ashton Hawkins,

AMERICAN

Daniel K. Herrick, Vice-Director for Finance and Treasurer

Dorothy Weinberger, Manager. Suzanne Gauthier, Assistant

Manager

Emma PHOTOGRAPH AND SLIDE LIBRARY: Margaret P. Nolan, Chief Librarian.

N. Papert and Evanthia Saporiti, SeniorLibrarians.Jane Brindle, Administrative Assistant

Katherine Warwick, Senior Writer in Charge. Ryna A. PUBLIC RELATIONS: Segal, Writer. Joan Stack, Manager, Information Service PUBLICATIONS: Leon Wilson, Editor. Jean Leonard and Katharine H. B. Stoddert, AssociateEditors.Allan J. Brodsky, Susan Goldsmith, and Margaret M. Madigan, Assistant Editors

William D. Wilkinson, Registrar. Hugh G. AND CATALOGUE: REGISTRAR O'Neill, Associate Registrar. Marica Vilcek, Chief Cataloguer. Hanni Mandel, Computer Systems COMMITTEE: IOOTH ANNIVERSARY George Trescher, Secretary. Inge Heckel and Dorothy Bauman, Associate Secretaries. Duane Garrison, Social Events

Information Open weekdays,except Tuesdays,IO-5; Tuesdays Io-Io; Sundaysand holidays I-5. Telephone information:736-2211 I. The Restaurant

THE

MAIN

BUILDING:

is open weekdays 11:30-2:30; Tuesday evenings 5-9; Saturdays Sundays 12:00-3:45; closed holidays.

Open weekdays, except Mondays, io-5; Sundays and holidays 1-5 (May-September, Sundays I-6). Telephone: WAdsworth 3-3700.

THE CLOISTERS:

I:30-3:45; MEMBERSHIP:

Informationwill be mailed on request.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 速 www.jstor.org

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