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XXII.—The Calumny Op Apelles in the Literature of the Quattrocento

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Rudolph Altrocchi
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Extract

In Florence, in the Uffizi Gallery, is the famous painting by Botticelli entitled La Calumnia d'Apelle. The picture shows several allegorical figures dramatically grouped and exquisitely colored against a background of classical arcades looking upon a distant sea. The exact date of this picture is not known, but Horne, the greatest authority on the life and works of Botticelli, places it about 1494. It is the object of this paper to trace the theme of the Calumny of Apelles from its origin in classical antiquity to the time of Botticelli, noting particularly the literary manifestations to which it gave rise in Florence in the Quattrocento.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1921 , pp. 454
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1921

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References

1 I wish at the outset to thank heartily my friend and colleague, Ernest H. Wilkins, for generously suggesting this study. My thanks are also due to Professors H. W. Prescott, A. Noe and Dr. Offner for valuable indications, and most of all to my mother for constant help.

2 Herbert Horne, Sandro Botticelli, London, 1908.

3 For a curious account of the life and work of Apelles, painstakingly gleaned from Pliny, Lucian and others, see Carlo Dati, Vite de' Pittori Antichi, in Firenze nella Stamperia della Stella 1667, e di nuovo in Napoli per Francesco Ricciardo MDCCXXX, pp. 76 to 148. Dati's account is taken also from a translation of Lucian's Dialogue On Slander done by G. B. Adriani in his letter to Vasari. See Dati, p. 128, Note xx. See also J. D. Champlin and C. C. Perkins, Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, which gives for Apelles the exact dates, 352-308 B. C.

4 Lucian, with an English Translation by A. M. Harmon, London and New York, 1913, i, 363, n. 1.

5 Professor Harmon's translation is splendidly accurate. I am indebted to Professor Gordon J. Laing for examining it.

6 Richard Förster, Die Verläumdung des Apelles in der Renaissance, in Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, viii, 1887, p. 32, note 1. Note that Förster obtained much of his information from C. Rosmini, Vita e disciplina di Guarino Veronese, ii, pp. 130, 133; and from R. Sabbadini, Guarino Veronese e il suo epistolario, Salerno, 1885, p. 33, n. 329 a. The text of Guarini's letter was taken from Cod. Vatic. 3155, fol. 48r-50.

7 R. Sabbadini, La Scuola e gli studi di Guarino Guarini Veronese (con 44 Documenti), Catania, 1896, p. 125 and note 1 referring to Bandini, Catalog. Cod. Lat. iii, p. 646. Let us observe that this second volume by Sabbadini on Guarini, which brings so much new critical material to the understanding of the Veronese humanist, was published nine years after Förster's above-mentioned study.

8 Sabbadini, La Scuola, pp. 1, 2, from which I gather my subsequent data on Guarini.

9 The same mistake was made by Carbone, and by Rosmini, and is due to insufficient data on the life of Chrysoloras, data now permanently secured by Sabbadini. See both his La Scuola, p. 10, particularly note 3 in which he refers to his article: L'ultimo ventennio della vita di Manuele Crisolora, in Giornale Ligustico, xvii, 1890; and his Le Scoperte dei codici Latini e Greci nei Secoli XIV e XV, Firenze, 1905, especially pp. 43 ff.

10 For Manuel Chrysoloras see R. Sabbadini, L'ultimo ventennio (see note 9).

11 Sabbadini, La Scuola, p. 12.

12 Balbadini, La Scuola, p. 13.

39 The Study of Celtic Literature, ed. by Alfred Nutt, London, 1910, 143.

40 Culture and Anarchy, “Sweetness and Light.”

41 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels, Trans. by Thomas Carlyle, London, 1858, I, 60.

42 Matthew Arnold's Notebooks, ed. by the Hon. Mrs. Wodehouse, London, 1903, 24.

43 Wilhelm Meister, I, 235.

44 Autobiography, II, 68.

18 Sabbadini, Le Scoperte, 1905, pp. 46, 47. See also Förster, Lucian, p. 356, n. 1 and 3 and Verläumdung, p. 31, n. 3.

19 For Aurispa see Sabbadini, Biografia documentata di Giovanni Aurispa, Noto, 1890, and for Aurispa's translations from Lucian, p. 31, n. 1 and p. 62, n. 1.

20 F. P. Luiso, Studi su l'epistolario e le traduzioni di Lapo da Castiglionchio Juniore, in Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica, vii, 1899, p. 205.

21 Sabbadini, Le Scoperte, 1905, p. 26 and p. 27, n. 22; and Le Scoperte, 1914, p. 168. See also P. De Nolhac, Pétrarque et l'humanisme, Paris, 1892, pp. 184, 216, 283.

22 Förster, Verläumdung, p. 31, n. 4; Luiso, op. cit., p. 283, n. 1. See also G. Pansa, Giovanni Quatrario di Sulmona, Sulmona, 1912, pp. 167, n. 3, 178-180. Lapo's life was first written by L. Mehus, Lapo da Castiglionchio. Epistola ossia Ragionamento, colla vita del medesimo, Bologna, Coriolani, 1753, then by Colle, Storia scientifico-letteraria dello Studio di Padova, Padova, 1824-25, vol. iii; then by A. Gloria, Monumenti della Università di Padova, Venezia, 1884, vol. i, p. 329, n. 929. The country house of Lapo's family, situated in the hills about ten miles east of Florence, is still called Castiglionchio, though only one tower of the old villa is left. There is still a tradition that Petrarch visited this place in order to obtain from Lapo Senior some Latin texts.

56 Conversations with Eckermann, 522.

57 Wilhelm Meister's Travels (Bell trans.), 387.

58 Wilhelm Meister, I, 68.

59 Ibid., II, 119.

60 Maxims, 175.

61 Conversations with Eckermann, 67.

62 Autobiography, I, 422.

63 Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe, I, 307.

64 Wilhelm Meister, II, 251.

65 Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe, I, 379.

66 Autobiography, I, 237.

67 Maxims, 175.

68 Criticisms, 26.

69 Ibid., 100.

30 Förster, Lucian, p. 356, n. 3; Sabbadini, Le Scoperte, 1905, p. 49.

31 Förster, Verläumdung, p. 31, n. 4.

32 See my note 26.

33 Sabbadini, Le Scoperte, 1905, pp. 63, 64.

34 Ibid., p. 66.

35 Ibid., pp. 63, 64.

36 Luiso, op. cit., p. 285, who refers to G. Mancini, Francesco Griffolini . . . , Firenze, 1890, p. 30 ff. For the humanism of John Tiptoft see Lewis Einstein, The Italian Renaissance in England, New York, Columbia University Press, 1902.

37 Horne, not having gone deeply into the Lucianic question, does not mention the initiative of Guarini. See his p. 257.

79 Maxims, 99.

80 Maxims, 162.

81 Mixed Essays, “A French Critic on Goethe.”

Helen C. White.

43 A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, Milano, Hoepli, 1911, vii, p. 629.

43 Förster, Verläumdung, pp. 34, 35.

44 Paul Schulze, Lucian in der Literatur und Kunst der Renaissance in Bericht uber das Schuljahr, Ostern, 1905, bis Ostern, 1906, Dessau, 1906, p. 11.

45 Förster, Verläumdung.

46 Horne, op. cit., p. 258.

47 André Michel, Histoire de l'Art, Paris, 1908, III, p. 686 ff.

48 Horne, op. cit., p. 261.

4 Lucian, with an English Translation by A. M. Harmon, London and New York, 1913, i, 363, n. 1.

5 Professor Harmon's translation is splendidly accurate. I am indebted to Professor Gordon J. Laing for examining it.

54 Ibid., p. 147.

55 Ibid., p. 294, which contains a complete discussion of the inscription.

56 Ibid., p. 183, quoting Vasari's Vite, edition of 1550, I, 495.

57 Ibid., p. 184.

58 Grazzini, op. cit., 1779, p. xiv.

59 A modern note refers to Proctor 6380 (Robert Proctor, An Index to the Early Printed Books in the British Museum, London, 1898).

60 This poem can also be found in O. Targioni-Tozzetti, Antologia della Poesia Italiana, Livorno, Giusti, 1909, 11th Edition, p. 349.

61 The following notes on text variants come from the Boccia edition.

62 Chiaramente.

63 Che di vario color s'è travestita, C B. (Codice Bracci, Boccia's main MS. source).

64 quand'ella il vegga, C. B.

65 ammanto, C. B.

66 stanno, C. B.

67 L'un ch'è da se, C. B.

68 A book on the subject: G. Melillo, Intorno ai Carmi Carnascialeschi, Foggia, Zobel, 1920, though announced in the Italia che scrive for January, 1921, was unfindable, even in Italy, at the time of this writing. As, however, it consists of only 33 pp., it cannot be an exhaustive treatment. See A. D'Ancona, Le Origini del Teatro, especially Vol. II; and Federico Ravello, Attraverso il Quattrocento, Torino, Derossi, 1904, especially pp. 45 ff.

69 See Boccia's Introduction to the Grazzini Edition, 1779, pp. ix, x; and F. Ravello, op. cit., p. 47.

70 For a complete treatment of English triumphs see Robert Withington, English Pageantry, Cambridge, 1918-1921.

71 Guglielmo Volpi, Il Trecento, Milano, Vallardi (1897-8), p. 78.

72 Vittorio Rossi, Il Quattrocento, Milano, Vallardi, p. 179; Francesco Flamini, La Lirica Toscana del Rinascimento anteriore ai tempi del Magnifico, Pisa, Nistri, 1891, pp. 121 ff.

73 Luigi Passerini, Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Rucellai, Firenze, M. Cellini e C., 1861, pp. 122 ff.; Guglielmo Pellegrini, L'Umanista Bernardo Rucellai e le sue opere storiche, Livorno, Giusti, 1920, pp. 1-22; Elogi degli Uomini Illustri Toscani, Lucca, 1771, Vol. II, pp. clxi ff.; G. Marcotti, Un Mercante Fiorentino e la sua famiglia nel Secolo XV, Firenze, Barbera, 1881.

74 Here are the titles of his books: De auxilio Typhernatibus adferendo, an oration published in London in 1733 as an example of perfect Latin, De Bello Pisano historia, De Bello Italico, Bellum Mediolanense, De Urbe Roma (his best work), De Magistratibus Romanorum Veterum. But see G. Pellegrini, op. cit., who proves that Bernardo's historical writings were the rhetorical exercises of a humanist more than the scholarly studies of a historian.

75 Passerini, op. cit., p. 126.

76 I had the good fortune to enlist the services of Doctor Ferdinando Massai, Assistant Librarian of the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana of Florence, who had just been appointed to put in order the archives of the Rucellai family. He now advises me that nowhere among the Rucellai papers has he found data about Bernardo's Triumph, except in one document of the eighteenth century, which barely mentions the poem, referring to both the Grazzini collection and to Crescimbeni's Commentarii all' Istoria della Volgar Poesia, Venezia, Basegio, 1730, Vol. IV, Lib. 1, p. 49. Bernardo is also mentioned in Vol. I, Lib. II, p. 186, where his Triumph is called a madrigal, a form particularly adapted to music.

I take this opportunity of heartily thanking Dr. Massai for his assistance.

77 For an interesting reference to this ms. see Ferdinando Neri, Sulle prime commedie fiorentine in Rivista Teatrale Italiana, XIV, 1, 18 Maggio 1915, p. 5, n. 2. I make no claim to having exhausted all Italian libraries, especially as there are published catalogues of only a few. I found no reference to this work in Giuseppe Mazzatinti, Inventari dei Manoscritti delle Biblioteche Italiane, Forli, L. Bordandini, 1890—–.

78 A. D'Ancona e O. Bacci, Manuale della Letteratura Italiana, Firenze, Barbera, 1912. Vol. II, p. 421; Guido Mazzoni, Le Opere di Giovanni Rucellai, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1887, Preface.

79 In editing this transcription I added punctuation, making it parallel with that of the Grazzini text, I added apostrophes and accents, I resolved obvious abbreviations, leaving in italics the omitted letters, I changed the u to v, wherever necessary, as customary, and I separated words scribally attached. I did not change the orthography.

80 This word is uncertain.

81 Ferdinando Neri, op. cit., loc. cit., affirms that Bernardo's description derives certainly from Lucian and not from Alberti.

82 Lapo da Castiglionchio says, in his version: “ hunc invidiam esse coniectare licet,” echoing Lucian's doubt. See F. Neri, ibid., who quotes Lapo from Ms. Laur. plut. LXXXIX inf. 13, c. 114 a.

83 G. Pellegrini, op. cit., p. 12 ; Francesco Guicciardini, Opere Inedite, Vol. III, pp. 95-97 and Storie Fiorentine, X.

84 Op. cit., p. 123.

85 Op. cit., p. 9.

86 Colonel G. F. Young, in The Medici, New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1913, pp. 357, 358, pointed out the probable political allegory of Botticelli's picture, but, assuming 1498 or 1499 as the date of the painting, he saw in the prince the symbol of the state, and in the victim of slander the symbol of Savonarola, who was martyred exactly in 1498.

87 Ibid., p. 358. Colonel Young gives no authority for this report. See his discussion of the portrait, Vol. I, Appendix IX, and cf. Horne, op. cit., pp. 27, 28, and T. De Marinis, Un ritratto di Piero de'Medici . . ., in Dedalo for June, 1921.