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Mythologising Portraits
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see also:
Bronzino
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Agnolo Bronzino:
Andrea Doria as Neptune
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Agnolo Bronzino
Portrait of Andrea Doria
as Neptune
(detail) |
Agnolo Bronzino
Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune
1550-55
Oil on canvas, 115 x 53 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
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This portrait heroises and idealises the Genuese admiral and
statesman Andrea Doria (1466/68-1560), showing him as Neptune.
Standing before a ship's mast on which his name is carved in gold
letters, Doria carries a trident in his sinewy right hand, while in
his left he holds part of a sail that hangs down from the top right
of the picture - gathering it into a kind of loincloth which barely
covers his genitals.
John Pope-Hennessy has suggested the portrait may have been painted
to commemorate Andrea Doria's occupation of Tunis in 1535. A medal
by Leone Leoni, also showing Doria as Neptune, places him in a more
narrative context, whereas Agnolo Bronzino's allegorical figure is
reminiscent of the statuesque plasticity of a Michelangelo. The
portrait has an official character. It represents the appropriate
form of idealisation for a condottiere who, a member of Pope
Innocence VII's personal body-guard, worked his way to the top of
the social ladder in the service of various Italian princes: in
other words, a state portrait. During the internecine disputes
between Charles V and Francis I, Andrea Doria initially served the
French king; swapping his allegiance to the German Emperor, he
finally, following the liberation of Genoa, became a dictator of
this republican city-state.
Doria's wish to give himself mythological stature is not perhaps the
most surprising aspect of this portrait; even more conspicuous is
his self-conscious exhibition of nudity, his apparent obsession with
virility. Vitality and aggressive, warlike behaviour, springing from
instinctual, libidinous drives, are shown here as the only route to
power. Nudity was not unusual for a mythological subject, but the
fact that Doria wished to portray his body in this way shows that he
was not interested in displaying the external trappings of a power
based on dynastic tradition, but in demonstrating a power which
derived its natural legitimacy from a new ethics of achievement, and
its supremacy from reserves of determination and physical strength
which were the exclusive domain of the powerful individual.
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Agnolo Bronzino
Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune
(detail)
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Leone Leoni
The Triumph of Andrea Doria
1541
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Nicoletto da Modena
(?):
Francis I of France as an Antique God
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Nicoletto da Modena (?)
Francis I of France as an Antique God
c. 1545
Oil on panel
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale
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Despite its small format, this portrait of Francis I (1494-1547)
is a state portrait, a genre whose function was similar to that of
the princely codes: to demonstrate the virtues and abilities of the
despot. Once attributed to Niccolo dell' Abbate, the portrait is now
thought to have been executed by Nicoletto da Modena, although it is
possibly the work of a French artist of the School of Fontainebleau.
Like Agnolo Bronzino's Andrea Doria as Neptune,
Francis I is portrayed in mythological costume. His facial features,
recognisable from Jean Clouet's dispassionate portraits of the
monarch, are evidently true to life. The full-length portrait is
vaguely reminiscent of the type of portrait painted by Jakob
Seisenegger and Titian of Charles V. The contrapposto is not quite
correct, since his prancing left foot should, in fact, bear his
weight. The king poses on a pedestal which fills the entire breadth
of the canvas and is ornamented with strapwork reliefs. On the front
of the pedestal is a panegyric inscription in French, according to
which the king's qualities "surpass" those of Nature herself. These
qualities are allegorised in the form of the attributes of five
antique gods who are said to be united in his person. Minerva
(Athena) is the dominant deity, represented by his robes, although
these are partly covered by the chiton of Diana, the goddess of the
chase. The tall, plumed helmet is a Minervan attribute, too, the
goddess of war and peace, as is the Gorgon's head on Francis'
breastplate. According to antique legend, the effect of the terrible
sight of the Gorgon's head was to make attackers turn tail and run.
The allusions to Minerva accentuate the king's outstanding wisdom
and presence of mind (the proverbial attributes in Classical
antiquity). Here, Minerva is the goddess of peace, while the
monarch's martial qualities are expressed through the attributes of
Mars: the raised sword, for example. Francis I had fought many wars;
the last, a few years before he died, against the superior allied
forces of the German Emperor and Henry VIII.
The naked left arm is associated with Diana, the goddess of the
chase, as is the horn and quiver of arrows; the latter, at the same
time, is a reference to Amor, the god of love. Since the beginning
of the sixteenth-century, with the formation of absolutist states,
the hunt had been the privilege of the courts and ruling
aristorcracy. Prowess in amorous pursuits, too, was ascribed to
princes, an ancient superstition still prevalent in the Renaissance.
This, associated with absolute power, was partly responsible for the
impressive charisma of the ruler. Finally, Francis I is given the
attributes of Mercury (Hermes), the god of commerce: the magic wand,
caduceus, which he holds like a sceptre, and the winged sandals worn
by the messenger of the gods.
In one person, these different characteristics add up to an
androgynous being, but it would be quite wrong to understand their
synthesis as a sign of transsexuahty or transvestitism. Their
allegorical significance is obvious enough. Certainly, philosophical
ideas, derived perhaps from the Aristophanic fable of the
"androgynous being", or from "Androgyne de Platon" (the title of a
book by Heroet in 1536), influenced portraits of this type, which,
demonstrably, were not considered irreverent.
Hermaphroditic motifs are frequently found in Mannenstic painting,
indicating that reflection on gender roles had entered a new phase.
This was partly due to the fact that distinctly defined sexual
identities were now emerging as a prerequisite for the success of
patriarchal society. In this respect, the court's privileged
position set it apart from the new - and essentially bourgeois -
social constraints. It was here, in the refined air of the courts,
that an ancient, threatened, social order could attain its final
apogee: if only in the realm of the imagination.
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Carravaggio
Head of the Medusa
after 1590
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Portraits of Popes and Cardinals
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see also:
Raphael
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Raphael:
Pope Leo X
with Cardinals Giuliano de' Medici
and Luigi de Rossi
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Raphael
Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de'
Rossi
1518-19
Oil on wood, 154 x 119 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
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With this group portrait, executed on the occasion of Lorenzo de'
Medici's marriage in Florence (September 1518), Raphael established
an enduring model for portraits of popes. Melozzo da Forli had
already painted Pope Sixtus IV on the throne, but the concentration
of a small number of mute, motionless and apparently unrelated
figures in interior space was seen in Raphael's work for the first
time.
One of these figures, Luigi de Rossi, is shown gazing out of the
painting at the spectator. He stands behind the pope with both hands
resting on the backrest of the papal throne. The pose pays tribute
to him as one of the pope's most trusted confidants. Raphael has
accentuated the role of Rossi here because the portrait was
completed a short time after Rossi was elevated to the college of
cardinals on 26 June 1517. The reason for co-opting Rossi had been a
plot, hatched by leading members of the Curia, to assassinate the
pope. Following the purging of his opponents, Leo X had enlarged the
college of cardinals. By appointing a number of loyal supporters,
three of his own nephews among them, he had managed to turn the
situation to his own advantage.
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Melozzo da Forli
Pope Sixtus IV appoints Platina as Prefect of the Vatican Library
1475
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Leo X sits at a table which extends diagonally into the picture
against a deeply shadowed background. The central axis of the
painting passes through his imposing head, which is flanked
symmetrically on either side by the faces of the two cardinals.
Attired in purple pontificals, the Medici pope is shown with an
illuminated manuscript, the so-called Hamilton Bible (now in the
Staathche Museen zu Berlin), open before him. In his left hand is a
magnifying glass with which he has been studying the artistic merit
of the miniatures. His eyes now raised from the book, he meditates
on what he has seen.
The reflection in the golden knob on the backrest of the throne of
part of a room with a double window -which can only be behind or to
the side of the spectator is a device probably learned from Jan van
Eyck, Petrus Christus or other early Netherlandish artists, who
would sometimes paint compressed reflections of the otherwise
invisible parts of an interior - on armour, for example, or in a
convex mirror.
The official function of Raphael's portrait of Leo X is to show the
pope in full command of his powers even when apparently engaged in
private pursuits. The presence of two assisting cardinals does not
relativise, but rather adds to the effect of this display of the
pope's might.
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Raphael
Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giuliano de' Medici and Luigi de Rossi
(detail)
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see also:
Titian
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Titian:
Pope Paul III,
Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
and Duke Ottavio Farnese
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Titian
Pope Paul III with his Grandsons Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese
1546
Oil on canvas, 200 x 127 cm
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples
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Raphael
Julius II
1512 |
Titian, in this portrait of a pope, adapts to his own ends the
group-of-three portrait invented by Raphael with his portrait of Leo
X. Unlike Raphael, however, Titian does not portray his subject,
described by Francesco Guicciardim as an "uomo or-nato di lettere"
(a man whose erudition is ornamental), as a bibliophile, or lover of
the arts. Pope Paul III is not shown with a priceless manuscript,
but with an hourglass. This symbol of transience perhaps refers to
the advanced age of the seventy-eight-year-old pontiff, who was born
in 1468 and died in 1549. Whereas the figures in Raphael's painting
hardly interact at all, Titian's portrait is given a narrative
structure by the approach of Ottavio Farnese, the pope's grandson,
from the right. Ottavio is shown bending down to speak to the pope,
who is evidently hard of hearing. His gesture is reverential, his
right arm held in front of his body, his left hand holding the
sheath of his sword. Paul III is shown granting Ottavio an audience;
stooping with age, he turns his head with the long white beard round
to face his grandson. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589) is
shown (like Raphael's Luigi de Rossi) holding the backrest of the
papal throne. The ceremonial gesture evidently reveals his proximity
to the Pope, even within the hierarchy of the Curia. The pose
demonstrated the person's rank as personal adviser and confidant.
The cardinal, Otta-vio's brother, was only twenty-six at the time;
he appears to stand outside the dramatic interchange captured by the
painting. Posing behind the pope, he holds the spectator in his
placid gaze.
Following a tendency in the work of Jacob Burckhardt and Ludwig von
Pastor to demonise Italian Renaissance power-politics, this painting
has been interpreted as a dramatisation of every possible form of
malice. Commentators have read slyness, cunning and trickery into
the pope's features, while attributing to Ottavio the obsequious
hypocrisy of a scheming conspirator. Moralising opinions of this
kind, based as they are on outmoded methods of evaluating historical
data, should be treated with the utmost scepticism. Puritanical
historians in the nineteenth and early twentieth century considered
Paul III morally despicable because he had fathered two bastards as
a young man. This was not unusual, however, since the institution of
celibacy had taken some time to find acceptance. It was an
expression of the pope's patriarchal support for his dynasty when
Paul III made his son Pierluigi Duke of Piacenza and Parma, or
invested his grandson Ottavio with the fee of Ca-\merino.
Traditional views of the painting have failed to look closely enough
at its representative, courtly function, its ceremonial role as a
means of defining relationships within the closed community of the
papal state. Its gestural vocabulary expressed the ritual
subjugation of nobility - even of the pope's own family - to the
Holy See, which had developed an absolutist system of government by
monopolising state power.
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