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MICHEGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
ARLENE ARDAY GARRETT
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"LIVILTiS—" Si‘ATCARZ III. ITALIAL? :*.<-;;.:;.Iss_ss:cs 3.41131“:er

 

Haly =xamgles of statuary wtich seem to possess the essential ‘T
.5
qualities of real, living beings are to be found in the paint-
ings and drawings of the Regsisssmce, csgeCislly those dating
"' ‘ ' - ‘v f \ '\ ' -‘ 'V’! r t' 'w f‘l . - K“ ‘V‘ '10”. a
from the SlAtdELtL Ccflid 3. of the cinqueccnto, cue lines _
the examples tenfiin; to fall into several quite distinct i
categories--such as thos involved With idol worship, illus-
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these categories, and thus inflicats the sbugfiance and variety

.1...

of "living" statuary in

U)

ixteenth century gaintits Then,

‘3’

I will suggest wsat ideas and developments, esvecislly in

the fourteenth aid fiiteenth centuries, brourot about this

x.)

1 "‘F I: u‘ .-»--r-\--_' ‘- 7
aouussnce and variet-.

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LIST OF ELACCJLLS O O O O O O O C O O O O O O O I O O 0 iv

1 ‘f
TALAT o o O o 0 0 I O O o o o o o o o I I o o o o o o l

BIBLIOGRAPHY O 0 0 O O I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 30

iii

 

f} l h...“ “I“
J.

II.

III.

IV.

Fra Angelico:

c. 1435

Annunciation,

(l? ELATLS

 

Museum,

Cortona,

 

 

S. Clemente,

Masolino: St. Catherine Pleads with the
Emgeror to Remove the Idols, Rome,
l4423‘31 o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Filippino Lippi: St. Ihilip Exercising

Dragon,

Florence,

Pontormo:
Gallery

 

 

Strozzi chapel, Sta.
l4t39-1502 o o o o o o 0
Joseph in igygt, London,
0 O O O O O I O O O O 0

iv

National

haria Novella,

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an evident interest in the action and even the ability to
exercise power over other figures in the scene, and soeetimes
what appears to be an active participation in what is going
on: veritable "living” statues. hany examples are to be found
in the paintings anE drawings of the Renaissance, especially . .
those dating from the sixteenth century, and the practice E_-
continues well into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
as seen in the works of fiubens, Watteau, and Fragonard. By 1

the sixteenth century, one finds the examples tending to fall

 

into several quite distinct categories--such as those involved
with idol worship, illustrations of mythological or religious
stories, enlivened niche figures and so forth. I intend,
first, to show examples of these categories, and thus indicate
the abundance and variety of "living" statuary in Cinquecento
painti g. Then, I will suggest what ideas and develOpments,
especially in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, brought

about this abundance and variety.

A copy of a lost picture by Giorgione, The Horoscope,

 

dating from the early sixteenth century, shows a below life-
size, but very lifelike, statue elevated above the other figures
in a niche in the dead center of the picture. her sinuous
softness, very human expression, and the fact that one foot
projects beyond the niche, might well deceive one into mis-
taking her for a real woman, were it not for the fact that she

is much smaller than the human figures and has one arm broken

off just below the shoulder in the antique manner. In contrast
to fifteenth century examples of "living" statuary, which tend
to be connected with Christianity {e.g. religious images or
allegorical figures) or with pagan idolatry (a reflection of
the medieval superstition to the effect that sensuous pagan
images possesse evil powers), the sixteenth century paintings
often intend to recreate the spirit as well as the forms of
antique statuary, and show even an apparent fondness for the

theme of idol worsiip in particular. An enlivened and elevated

 

1‘)! -[ n n a...

statue is the focus of attention in heccafumi's Cult of Vesta,

 

in which all pictorial elements are so arranged as to lead the
eye to the idol. her dominant importance in the composition

is emphasized by her central position, the elaborate enframing
architecture around her, the reverent approach of worshippers
from all corners of the scene as they incline themselves toward
her, and the emphatic gesture of a very large female figure at
the lower right who stares out of the picture and points to the
statue, as if to invite the viewer to participate in the homage.

.C‘

A very prominent and fleshy monochromatic statue oi Venus domin-

ates Titian's Feast of Venus (sometimes entitled the Worship

 

of Venus). hlevated above a crowd of playful cupids, the

statue of the goddess gazes calmly and majestically down upon
the festivities going on in her honor; she holds a wine vessel
in her hand, which further serves to make her a vital partici—

pant in the scene. Although monochrome, sne is rendered with

the same vibrant brusQistrokes as are the pigrjmented cu}_1;ids,
and her eyes contain darl pupils and apyear to be focussed

with interest on what is goin: on.

There are a number of paintings in the sixteenth cen-

E”

tury which illustrate pagan myths »ad thus give artists the

A. l'

opportunity to paint enlivened statues. Although the myth of

the Iromethean creation of man must have been generally known

 

in Athens in the fourth century (it is incidentally mentioned 5
by several authors of that time}, it did not inspire Greek ‘:;

artists, and was not represented by them in any form. Ihe

-r-a/ i med'e a ' 1 asm 's s u '; bi‘ E k l V's: ,
th e d of “i v l lCOlOCl e i re ert iq the 00 of Jisdom

 

where the first ceviser of idols is made indirectly responsible

H;
O

r the spread of idolat y, providing an excellent fiiblical

"d

arallel to the legend of frometheus "plasticstor"; the natural
outcome was therefore to condemn him as the maker of the first
idols. the learned fomponio Gaurico lists Erometheus as the

first sculptor in his De Sculptura, and the familiarity of

 

Renaissance authors with the Prometheus myth probably accounts
for the increased popularity of the subject as an independent
story in painting. But although a number of artists dealt with
this theme, only fiero di Cosimo, in his two panels in hunich
and strassbourg showed the first men as statues in a fully
statuesque way. lhe hunich panel shows the handsome triumph-

ant statue of the new man modelled by the old Titan; and in

the left foreground of the btrassbourg panel, we see frometieus

v

applying his torch to the

ntation of a crest

(D

rebres
inert creature he has jus
that liero evidently borr

Genealogiae, and also dsr

 

trated Italian edition of
The nannerist, beccafumi,
story as part of a series
from classical mythology.

to be in the final stage~

U)

uidly and mindlessly on a
life. Another mythologic
of a living statue was th
Quite statuesque is the v
shows Galatea, apparently
living flesh by Aphrodite
had fashioned her, while

her with rapture and wonu

Another category

aloft on columns. the mo

|

of lontormo, as in two of

with the story of Joseph.

the :utler Restored to bf

heart of the statue——a very graphic
or imparting the spark of life to the
t modelled. Olga nab-sic maintains
owed the details from boccaccio's
ivee some inspiration from the illus-
Uvid, printed in Venice in l437.
also illustrated the Prometheus
of frescoes dealing with themes
ln his version, Prometheus appears

of modelling his man, who sits lang-

Q)
)

large be —stal, awaiting the spark of

.~

al story which called for the depiction

e tale of Fygmalion and Galatea.
ersion by Pontormo and Bronzino, which
having just been transformed into

, still postured the way Iyemalion

the enamored sculptor kneels before

CI‘.

consists of "living" statues placed
tif is well illustrated in the work
the scenes from his series concerned

l"1 The iiaker 'l‘alzen to ,2::ecution and

 

fice, a small but highly animated

 

statue atop a Roman column points vehemently at the dramatic

scene being enacted below

him, as if he were indeed aware of

 

what was happening; and in the picture of gpseph in ggynt,
there is a triumphantly-posed, flesh-toned statue on a column
towering over the scene and a very animated figure of-a child,

presumably living, placed on top of a column in the manner of

a statue.

 

fi.- *1 n- .1
There was an idea widely held in the nenaissance to
the effect that a painted image was more powerful than a sculpted L
one; this may have been a holdover from the medieval supersti-
h

tious faith in the magic of wonder-working ikons of the Madonna. —~Le~
According to the tenets of neoplatonism, man is a step removed
from the ideal reality; thus sculpture is a step less real than
man, and painting (by extension) in its lack of three—dimension-
ality, is still another step farther removed. Although it is
true that several Renaissance statues were so realistically
rendered as to seem alive, notably Donatello's Zuccone (which
the artist reputedly struck, demanding that it speak) and the
work: of Lichelangelo (in which rater sees the creation of life
itself in the cold lifeless stone), painted illusions of statu-
ary can often be far more "living" than their sculpted counter—
parts. lhis situation can be partially eXplained as stemming
from the very nature of painting. Whereas the viewer can walk
around a piece of sculpture (which is likely not to be equally

imposing from all angles) and see it from its weaker points of

. 1 . . . I .
View as well as from tne optimum angle, a painting \which can

only be viewed from the optim a viewpoint contrived by the
painter) can hold one arrested in its grip. She pictorial
version of a statue can also benefit from the greater fluid—
ity of the paint medium and from the context of the scene in

thich it appears: he relationship which the painter is free

L
‘1

to suggest between the statue and human figures. A Florentine, _
contemplating the supple, soft curves of Michelangelo's Eapchus,
once said that Michelangelo could not have sinned more with
the chisel, implying that this sensuously-carved statue was

such a close imitation of living human flesh that it might

 

become an object of desire. However, a certain Renaissance
sketchbook (now in Trinity College, Cambridge) contains a
drawing of Michelangelo's Eacchus which is considerably more
fleshy and lifelike in apnearance than the statue itself;
indeed, the drawing with its soft and sensitive transitions

Of modelling, resembles a studio life drawing. Vasari, in his

Life of Balda 1::

4‘

~re feruzzi, describes a Peruzzi drawing which

(
£1

1M3 considers to be a most fanciful invention, and which may be
COnstrued as a Renaissance answer to some of the fantastic

things that were done to statues in antiquity:

It represents a fiazza entirely filled with arches

of triumph, colossal statues, obelisks, temples...
after the manner of the ancients. On a pedestal in
the midst of these edifices, is a figure of mercury,
and around him are thronging all sorts of alchemists
with bellows, some large and others small, crucibles,
retorts and other instruments used in distillation,
proposing to administer an enema to the statue, to
the end that he, the said Mercury, might be delivered

from peccant humors...a ridiculous and fantastic

delineation, but a singular idea and very well

executed.d

The Renaissance concept of "living" statuary would
appear to have roots ultimately traceable back to ancient and
medieval beliefs and traditions. Although the majority of
living statues in fienaissance 3aihting seem to derive from r
knowledge and appreciation of ancient precedents, we also find

some that apparently reflect the medieval tradition, or a com—

bination of the two sources. The impressive accounts of ancient

 

statuary--often of an enlivened nature--and of the vital role

it played in the antique city environment and in the lives of
Greek and doman citizens contained in the writings of Pliny

and Vitruvius were a source of inspiration to the thinkers and
artists of the Renaissance. Kanuscripts, and, later, printed
editions, of their vritings became available during the Quattro-
cento. Also available were editions of treatises by Renaissance
humanists who had studied and interpreted the ancients. To
describe antique grandeur in all its force, Fomponio Gaurico

of Padua declared that at one time in Rome, imaginary people in
the form of statues (populus fictus) were the equals of living
men; and that "this view of ancient Rome as possessing two pop—

ulations, one of extraordinary human beings of flesh and blood

 

2 . . . . T. n l m . i .
Giorgio Vasari, hives OI the host nminent raintersj
Sculptors, and Architects (London, lylz—lb), vol. 5, p. 74.

 

and the other of marble and bronze, appears to have greatly
stimulated Larly Renaissance imaginations."3 Charles Seymour
maintains that "semewhere along this line of thought, the two
kinds of 'man' may have seemed almost to merge."4 According

to the humanist, Poggio Bracciolini, the fragmentary remains

H;

o antique statuary that he found in Rome around 1430 lacked

only breath and the power of speech to seem completely "alive,"
to be animated reincarnations of ancient Roman Virtus. This
attitude implies more than a parroting of ancient cliches or

a naive view of antique sculpture as simply a remarkably life-

 

like imitation or transcription of outward appearances. In
order to understand this exciting Renaissance concept of
ancient statuary, one ought to consider it in the light of
the evidence they were able to glean from the writings of
Vitruvius and fliny, evidence which does in fact give even
the modern reader the impression that the boundary separating
man from his heroically sculpted image was rather blurred in
the minds of the ancients. Vitruvius says that all the altars
of the gods should look to the east, so that persons under—
taking vows may look upon the temple and the eastern heaven
and "the very images may seem to rise up and gaze upon those

"5

who make vows and sacrifices. In another passage, he pre—

sents the concept of the cult statue as an idol which must be

 

3Seymour, p. 5.
4
5Vitruvius Pollio, On Architecture (London & New York,

l9El, 1934), vol. l, p. 23l.

Ibid.

 

ll

physically and dramatically elevated above common men. he
also implies that the statue should be so contrived as to in—
vite at least ‘he illusion of interaction between itself and
its human worshippers. We might wonder to what extent the
cult image, in the superstitiously-grounded minds of its wor—
shippers, became in effect the god itself. Some rather extra-
ordinary examples of "living" statuary may be gleaned from the
writings of Pliny. he reports that there was a statue of
hercules which mas actually dressed in triumphal vestments on
the occasion of triumphal processions. lysippus' Apovv menos,

" ‘41

which Karcus Agrippa ad set up in front of his warm baths, was

unusually beautiful and the emperor, iiberius, was remarkably

v —‘ v

fond of it. Although at the beginning of his principate, he
kept some control of himself, in this case he could not resist

his bedchamber,

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the temptation, and had the st
putting another one in its place at the baths. hut the public

was so opposed to this that they raised an outcry at the

"Give us back the Apoxyomenosi", and liberius,

theatre, shouting,
though he had fallen quite in love with the statue, had to
restore it. According to fliny, lraxiteles‘ statue of Venus

made Cnidus a famous city. lhe shrine in which it stands is

ess to be

a

od

J“

\

entirely open so as to allow the image of the e
viewed from every side, and it is believed to have been made
this way with the blessing of the goddess herself, for the

statue is equally admirable from every angle. There is a

story to the effect that a man once fell in love with it, and,

 

l2

hiding by night, embraced it, leaving a stain on the marble
which betrays his lustful act. lraxiteles also did a naked

H A r 44 .
L'Jtc}. bLLe

Cupid at the colony of Earium, a sensuously ”alive
which was similarly the object of indecent assault, having
aroused the passion of one Alcetas, a man from Rhodes.
Another factor contributing to the idea of "living"
statuary was a strong pOpular superstition about statues

possessing special powers. The Florentines of the middle Ages

and the Renaissance, when they went into battle, carried images
with them. nven flavonarola, though he was supposedly an enemy

of art, had a Donatello Infant Jesus borne in the procession

on the day of the Bonfire of the Vanities. Among the people,
it was believed that spirits were imprisoned in statues. The
statue of Neptune by Ammannati, despite its starkly cold white-
ness and pretentious size, was considered a "living" statue by
the uneducated people, who callad it "The Great White Ran."
They used to say he was the mighty river god of the Arno turned
into a statue because, like hichelangelo, he spurned the love
of women. According to the story, when the full moon shines

on him at midnight, he comes to life and walks about the Piazza
conversing with the other statues.7 Many stories were told in
Florence of beautiful maidens turned into pure white marble
statues. Four or five centuries before the henaissance, the

statue of bars in Florence had been crowned with flowers every

kary MC Carthy, Stones of Florence (new York: harcourt,
Brace & 00., 1959), p. 20.

 

Ibid.

 

l3

Larch if the season was good, anu smeared with mud if not. In

this way, people actually thought they were getting ”revenge"

against the god.5 during the Middle Ages, an actual liveliness
was often attributed to statues which was rather frightening.

In thirteenth century Florence, the statue of Mars became the
reputed cause of factional strife, when an unfaithful suitor

was murdered in the shadow of that image on a certain time and
date (which a chronicler attributed to the demonic power of

the statue). In a similar vein is the story related by Ghiberti
about the Sienese who put up a Venus statue in a public fountain,
whereupon the city suffered auseries of calamities; thinking

that their misfortunes were the result of the evil powers of
this gagan image, they carried it off and buried it on Florentine
soil. Another asaect of the Italian tradition regarding activ-
ated images stems from the medieval belief that painted and
sculpted religious images actually contained spiritual powers

and were capable of miraculously exhibiting signs of life on
certain momentous occasions. Stories were told of weeping
madonnas, of speaking Crucifixes, of a figure of Christ coming

to life in a priest's hand.

The earliest example known to me of an enlivened sculp-

ture in a painting occurs ca. lBCS-lO in Giotto's Allegory of

 

‘1

Justice (in the Arena Chapel). this fresco, one of a series of
grisailles of the Virtues and Vices, shows a monochromatic fig-

ure of Justice (quite typical of Giotto in its bulky monumental—

 

Bmc Carthy, p. 44.

 

14

ity, and static dignity) holding a very small "living" statuette

in either hand; the statuette in her right hand reaches out

energetically, draperies flowing out behind it, to perform a

sacrifice. There is a striking contrast between the liveliness

of these two little statues and the gravity of most of Giotto's

human figures.

_ «has; 1.-.

A second early example of "living" statuary in painting

occurs in Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Lartyrdom of the Franciscans

 

in Morocco (ca. 1330), in which enlivened monochrome statuettes

 

 

are used as architectural ornamentation. In this painting
Lorenzetti decorates the pinnacles of a Gothic structure with
small, energetic figures of kinerva, Mars, and Venus. In
addition to their decorative function, these little pagan fig—
ures symbolize the Roman idolatry which lead to persecution of

the Christians.

To my knowledge, the practice of imitating large scale
sculpture in painting begins with Gentile da Fabriano, who,
according to Eartolomeo Fazio, painted five life-size Prophets
in the church of St. John Lateran in Rome (1427) in such a way
that they appeared to be wrought from marble. Because Fazio
stresses their marmoreal character and does not suggest they
have anything fleshly about them, these figures were probably

' statues. Their importance lies

not made to seem like "living'
in the fact that they are the first Italian examples known to

me of painted illusions of statuary of life-size. Although

15

Fazio does not say whether these IrOphets were placed in niches,

it is quite possible that they were.

A corollary to the placement of grisaille imitations
of statuary in niches was the practice-—destined to become
very widespread-—of placing human figures in architectural
niches in the posture and manner of statues, presumably to
enhance their dignity and prominence. By the late fourteenth
century, if not earlier, the ostensibly life~size figure in

full color standing in a niche appears, as seen in a painting

 

by an anonymous artist of the late Trecento (located in La
Sagra, Carpi). This figure recalls contemporary polychrome
images of saints. Fra Angelico, during the first half of the
Quattrocento, painted full-length figures of St. Nicholas and
St. Michael on two panels on the frame of the S. Domenico di
Fiesole altarpiece, contriving to turn the panels illusionistic-
ally into austere, dark-backgrounded niches, indicating a
limited depth of floor space beneath the feet of the saints

as well as the effects of shadow that the forms cast on the

ground.

After scattered examples in the fourteenth century,
the earliest instance known to me of enlivened sculpture in
painting in the fifteenth century is found in hasolino's

fresco, St. Catherine Pleads with the Emperor to memove the

 

Idols, dated 1428-51 (dome, s. Clemente). In this picture,

we see one of these idols represented as a rather lively statu—
ette standing aloft on a short Corinthian column which is
placed on a pedestal, and it is significant to note that this
little statue is a good deal more limber and "living" than
hasolino's somewhat wooden peeple (thus recalling the examples

by Giotto and Lorenzetti, which are similarly more enlivened

than the human figures by these painters).

Quite similar in spirit, and also related to medieval
"notions about suspected evil powers residing in pagan statuary,

is Fra Angelico's painting of Sts. Cosmos and Damian Before

 

Lysias froconsul, in which a flesh-colored and very enlivened,

 

but again under life-sized, pagan statue stands on a pedestal
overlooking the scene. This example, particularly by virtue

of its flesh—color, is the most sensuous and "living" painted
representation of a statue to date. We see another confronta-
tion between religious personages and an "evil" pagan image——
again, flesh—colored and enlivened, although under life—size—-

in Vivarini's iconoclastic St. Catherine Casting Down the Idol

 

H.

o Bacchus (ca. 1455).

 

In Fra Angelico's Annunciation (Museum, Cortona), dated

 

1430-55, we see a very animated, but, again, small, and only
half—length, grisaille figure of God reaching out of the roundel
which encloses Him to release the Dove of the Holy Spirit; by
virtue of this action, the figure spans two planes of reality--

that of the architectural decoration and that of a living par-

 

l7

ticipant. Indeed, the little grisaille is the most animated
figure in the picture, calling to mind Giotto's fresco of
Justice, in whicn the small statues are considerably livelier
than the allegorical figure holding them in the palm of her
hand, and also recalling the examples by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
and hasolino, in which extra animation is again seen in the

statuary. Ihe Annunciation has some precedent in Lorenzetti's

 

use of enlivened grisailles as architectural ornamentation.
One finds Fra Angelico using the motif of a medallion contain-
ing a grisaille figure of God in two other paintings—~the

Annunciation of 1432 (Prado) and Pope Sixtus Giving the

 

 

Treasures of the Church to St. Lawrence-—although in both

 

instances, the grisailles are of a rather static character and

the living figures take no notice of them.

The patronage of sculpture in the Renaissance, far more
than in the case of painting, had to cope with the heavy ex-
pense of materials and of workmanship, and both Uccello and
Castagno were called upon to render painted substitutes for
equestrian statuary. Significantly, these painted monuments
were the next full scale painted illusions of statuary known
to me after Gentile da Fabriano's marmoreal Prophets of I427.
Uccello's portrait of Sir John Hawkwood (I436) is a careful
simulation of sculpture, as also are the four prophet heads
he painted as though they were emerging from roundels in the

corners of the rectangle framing the great clock in the cath-

 

edral of Florence. In contrast to the stiff stoniness of the
Hawkwood monument, Castagno's fresco portrait of hiccolo da
Tolentino (l456) exhibits a greater sense of movement, which

is enhanced by the fluttering draperies, and more muscular
detail, probably reflecting the influence of Donatello's

bronze sculptures as well as the characteristic vigor one
usually finds in Castagno's paintings. The animated, life—size
Tolentino monument may be viewed as a kind of summ ry, and a
bringing together, of the two dichotomous concepts of painted

statuary to date: the life-size but static and marmoreal concept

 

{W

very likely embodied in gentile da Fabriano's frophets, and

the enlivened but diminutive statuary pictured by Giotto,
gasoline, and Fra Angelico. Castagno also picked up the thread,
already seen in the works of the anonymous Trecento painter
from Carpi and bra Angelico, of ennobling human figures by
placing them in niches. This is seen in his imposing array of
famous men and women, painted to decorate a room in the
Pandolfini Villa in Florence (c. 1445-50), set in a continuous
series like statues against the dark paneled background of the
wall. The last quarter of the fifteenth century saw an efflor-
escence all over Italy of persons set in niches, and in the
Cinquecento, statuesquely—posed figures in niches recur in the
work of Andrea del Sarto, Era Bartolommeo, Beccafumi, and
others. According to Vasari, practical considerations entered
into Era Bartolommeo's decision to use the niche to enframe his

‘ -_

religious personages. Since Era hartolommeo was vexed to see

how much of his work was hidden under the massive cornice of

picture fram-s, he often painted arcnitectural niches around
subjects in the manner of sculptural treatment in order to be

"W

able to dispense with picture frames. In his salvator nundi,

 

the fine nude figure of Christ standing in a niche approaches
the characteristics of monocnr me sculpture, so little do the
flesh tints differ from the warm yellowish tinge of the back-

nfihfix— 1..

ground.

ihe last quarter of the fifteenth century saw an in— *

creasing variety of types of "living" statuary, with a number

 

of new types appearing in addition to the well-established "t“
themes of polychrome niche figures and iconoclastic confronta-
tions between saints and pagan images. The iconoclastic thread,
already seen in the works by hasolino and Vivarini previously
cited runs through one of Signorelli's now ruined frescoes in
the Cloister of Monte Uliveto, illustrating events from the

life of St. Benedict. In the second picture of the series,

St. benedict converts the inhabitants of Montecassino to
Christianity, while the friars pull down a pagan statue which
stood as an object of worship in a Renaissance temple; such a
statue may be considered "living" statuary of a sort in that

it is the focal point of the composition, with the living fig-
ures reacting violently against its "evil" powers. But a
revivalistic attitude toward the pagan aspects of antiquity

also began gathering momentum during the late Quattrocento,
perhaps stimulated in part by the publication of Vitruvius's

treatise on architecture, first printed in l486, and we see the

{\3
C)

introduction of the first Renaissance portrayal all'antica of

 

a pagan idol worship ritual in a painting entitled A Tribute

 

to Apollo, dating from the late fifteenth century and attrib-

 

uted to the "master of the Apollini Sacrum” (Kress Collection,

'0

K 77), in which offerings ar- being made to Apollo, with no

Christian and no apparent moralizing overtones present. The

I

theme was enthusiastically pick3d up in the sixteenth century,

culminating in Parmigianino's drawing, The Worship of Jupiter,

 

in which the cult statue is rendered of virtually the same
substance as are his worshippers, with fluid contours and agi-
tated lines suggestive of power-charged animation in every
detail, from his commanding gesture right up to the unruly
hair. Andre/Chastel says that the taste for animated ornaments

flowered towards l460, and cites Botticelli's Calumny of Appelles

 

as an extraordinary effort to transform decoration into living
symbols. This is seen in the "living" quality of the niche
figures in this painting. Although they are monochromatic and
under life—size, these statues are very prominent. In overall
quantity, the picture is about equally divided between the

alert although relatively calm statues inhabiting the rear

plane and the agitated figures which activate the front plane;
perhaps the figure of Truth, in her very statuesque posturing,
may be viewed as a transitional figure linking the two planes

of reality. The niche statues represent the famous giant—Slayers;
Judith and David, St. George the Dragon Slayer, and other models
of virth, and are seen in a state of triumphant repose, having

completed their victories over evil forces. This offers a con—

 

trast to the living figures in their agitated process of
action. Although these statues do seem to be on a separate
plane of reality from the living figures, they nevertheless
appear to be watching the course of action with interest in
the manner of overseers or witnesses. By placing the trial of
Innocence against a foil representing the triumph of good over
evil forces, Botticelli implies the eventual triumph of good
over evil. Niche statues with living qualities appear many
times in the sixteenth centurX, as in Raphael's scene of gt;

Paul Ireachingkin Attens, or in the School of Athens, where

 

 

the niche statues, although larger than life and monochromatic,
seem to be almost on the same plane of reality as the living
figures (who are grandly and statuesquely posed), and one notes
a carefully contrived congruence of stance between the upward-

pointing Plato and the niche figure at the right.

Ierhaps the most extraordinary example of "living"
statuary in the Early Renaissance is the figure of mars in

Filipaino Lippi's hiracle of St. Philip (1489-1502), in which

 

ragon of the god

0;

St. lhilip is shown exorcising the deadly
Mars. The focal point of the picture is not the saint, but a
remarkably lifelike, polychromatic, 'mmnyhc" statue of Lars, wno,
by virtue of his natural coloration, supple and energetic pose,
dynamic interest in what is going on, and elaborate costume

all'antica, looks very much like a living man standing on a

 

pedestal; the statue, and the animated caryatids and ornaments

decorating his altar {which reflect the new taste for enlivened

decoration) grimace menacingly at the saint. Kathleen Neilson,
speaking more as an archaeologist than as one with a sensitiv-
ity to the Renaissance way of thinking, criticizes the artist
for not doing a closer imitation of Roman sculpture, as well

as for ceremoniously dressing the statue in fifteenth century
leg defenses, which are archaeologically inaccurate because

the Romans never wore any kind of metal protection on their
feet. But the statue's living quality is, of course, enhanced
by the fact that he is rendered more in terms of contemporary
Fil'ppino Lippi types than out of a strict antiquarian interest
in ancient statuary and details. Insofar as mars is virtually
on the same plane of reality as the living figures, approximat—
ing real life in size as well as in coloration and animation
(in contrast to all previous flesh-toned "living" statues,
which were considerably under life—size), this painting comes
close to the purposeful ambiguities between "living" statues
and real people which one finds in the works of the hannerists.
Thus, the dynamic form of the statue and his decorative access-
ories are exciting and new. One recognizes, to be sure, the
essential kinship in spirit between this picture and earlier
scenes depicting the confrontation of a malevolent p';an statue
and religious personages (cf. Masolino and Fra Angelico), but
the confrontation here is far more dramatic; the statue "fights
back," as it were. This painting may be viewed as both a sum—

mary of the main fifteenth century developments in ”living"

 

Cecil Gould, An Introduction to Italian denaissance
Fainting (London: fhaidon Press, 1957;, p. 62.

 

 

statuary——the flesh-toned and demonically enlivened pagan
image (of. Fra Angelico and Vivarini), set within the curved
enclosure of an altar (mhich, by virtue of its enframing
function, suggests a niche); the two enlivened grisaille
statue groups surmounting the altar (cf. the lively finial
figures by Ambrogio Lorenzetti); the animated architectural

decorations (cf. Botticelli)--and a preview of such sixteenth

century developments as the hannerist practice of placing

 

deceptively human-looking statues upon high pedestals.

In the sixteenth century, one finds restatements and
elaborations of a number of the types of "living" statuary
that had been introduced in the preceding century, as I have
already pointed out. It is interesting to note that h'gh
Renaissance examples of "living" statuary tend to be less
lively than those of the Quattrocento, in Keeping with the
Cinquecento taste for classical balance and dignified grandeur.
Although one rarely finds a human figure statuesquely-posed
upon a pedestal in fifteenth century painting, the motif is
stated over and over in the sixteenth century. It is partic—
ularly common in the late works of Bellini, Cima, bignorelli

r\'

and his followers, and Andrea del Sarto (e.g. ine Iadonna cf

 

\

larpie ). A most extraordinary example is found in Piero

C")

i-‘I

4—1 -
tne

 

di Cosimo's Story of Irometheus (the exact date of this work

 

is unknown, but it is thought to date from the early sixteenth
_ \ . , . 1 _. .. .
century), in which tne first men are snown as statues in a

fully statuesque way, triumphantly posed on pedestals. Also

by Piero di Cosimo is a painting of The

”mmaculate

Conception

 

with Saints, in which nary is statuesquely

 

A bizarre aneceote about a veritable

is teld bv Vasari, in the Giunti edition of his
effect that Jacopo sansovino's model
a certain Pippo del Fabro, went mad either

from standing too long in the hot

His insanity took the
in

finding pedestals, short-~and posing,

the pose of an apostle, or a saint,

frequently in the pose of Sansovino's Bacchus,

never forget.

"livin;

for the marble

sun with his head uncovered.
form of climbing into
often in the nude,

or a warrior,

posed on a pedestal.

U
;)

pedestal figure
lives, to the
Eacchus,
from overwork or

" In. .5 12.1 “a

strange places-—

in

but most

 

which he could

Also peculiar to the sixteenth century is the Lannerist

indulgence in playful ambiguities between real people and

' ' -s ea . ' ' b In s ee;,t- ' 1
An earl‘ in t nce is Pontor o' g_ e h 11

"living" statues.
Egypt, where we see hichelangelo's marble Bacchus transformed

”V1

into a lesh—colored "living"

I

statue,
sily hovering over the scene,

of a child, ostensibly living,

manner of a statue kthis, again, recalls a

Verrocchio's Putto with Dolphin).

 

mannered, but less playful, nature are

Kartyrdom of St. Lawrence, in which humans

 

to have switched places with regard to the

1

man and his sculpted image: tne artist has

his statues look almost human, and to make

aloft on a pedestal,

tip-

and also a very animated figure

placed on top of a column in the

particular statue-—

Ambiguities of an equally

seen in Bronzino's

and statues seem
boundary between
contrived to make

his living figures

I'D
\fi

look like living "statues." Veritable "living" statues took
part in a bizarre Renai sance procession in which boys were
gilded with gold paint to make them look like statues. The
date of this procession is uncertain, but it is quite probable
that it took place during the hannerist phase of the sixteenth

.1.

century, and it vhows the extreme to which the taste for

1

"living" statuary was carried.

 

\

w

’\

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iiatu

 

 

 

flute III

\L‘

C

   

BIBLICGdAfnY

- o \ -v o ~‘
Chastel, Andra. Art et humanisme a Florence. faris: lresses

"1

Universitaires de France, 1957.

 

Chastel, Andre. Le Grand Atelier d'Italie. Paris: Editions
Gallimard, 1905.

 

Gould, Cecil. An Introduction to Italian Renaissance Painting.
London: fnaidon tress, 1957.

 

We Carthy, hary. The Stones of Florence. New York: Harcourt,
Brace e Co., 1959.

 

Leilson, Katharine B. Filippino Lippi. Cambridge, Mass.:
harvard University rress, 1956.

 

Elinius Secundus. Natural History. Translated by H. Rackham,
Vol. IX; Vol. X translated by D. a. Licholz. Cambridge,
Mass. & London, 1938-62.

 

haggio, Clga. "The Kyth of Prometheus," The Warburg Journal,
Vol. XXI, 1958.

 

Seymour, Charles Jr. Sculpture in Italy,_l4OC-lSOO. Great
Britain: Penguin books, 1966.

Valentiner, W. R. Studies of Italian Renaissance Sculpture.
London a New York: lhaidon Press, 1950.

 

Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the host hminent Iainters. Vol. IV.
Edited by b. H. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins. Kew
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926.

Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the host Eminent lainters, Sculptors,
and Architects. Vol. V. Translated by Gaston du C
De Vere. London: Philip Lee Warner, publisher to the
Medici Society LTD., 1912-15.

 

Vitruvius Iollio. Ln Architecture. Vol. I. Translated by
Frank Granger. London a new York, 1931, 1934.

 

3O

 

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