DOI issue:
Nr. 1-2
DOI article:Miziołek, Jerzy: Porwanie Europy i historie Merkurego: fragmenty cassone z Muzeum Czartoryskich w Krakowie
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48734#0036
JERZY MIZIOŁEK
vit, filiam habuit mirificae formae, nomine
Europam, quam Jupiter in specie candidi tauri
rapuit. Unde postea in signum honoris taurus
translatus est in caelum, et ex eo factum
signum quod dicitur Taurus" (XV, 2, quoted
from Bode 1834, p. 253). In relation to the
path of the sun, the Bull is the Sign of April,
while in relation to the path of the planets,
it is one of the mansions of Venus. Indeed it
would be difficult to find a more appropriate
subject for a bridal present. It should also be
recalled that in terms of Christian allegory
Jove was seen as Christ incarnate in a bull
„pulcherrimus sine macula et ruga, albissi-
mus" carrying off a human soul to heaven
(see Berchorius' Ovidius moralizatus, fab.
XXIII).
In the case of the second panel one may
consider Battus and Aglauros as standing for
„proditores" and „invidiosi". Bonsignori re-
marks on Herse's sister: „per Aglauros (Ovi-
dio) intendo gli invidiosi". While Berchorius,
commenting on Battus, suggests that "ista
fabuła potest allegari contra proditores"' (see
notes 67—68).
Mercury, in Antiquity (as well as in mo-
dern handbooks of mythology), regarded as
a minor Olympian was much more important
in the Middle Ages (to be precise, starting
from Macrobe and Martianus Capella) and in
the Renaissance. He held patronage of oratory
and other intellectual pursuits, and was sup-
posed to be the patron of writers and painters.
His wings were called „alis contemplationis"
(Berchorius, see note 70). As he was also be-
lieved to signify the mind (Macrobe, Satur-
nalia I, 19, 7—9), there was enough reason
to consider him a guide to contemplation and
* All quotations from the „Metamorphoses" are ta-
ken from the Loeb ed. tr. by F.J. Miller, 1916.
all kinds of intellectual activities. To sum up,
if Europa was intended to be a figura for sposa
nuova, Mercury might have been a figura for
sppso nuovo.
It is worth noting that the Czartoryski
cassone should perhaps be viewed not from
the left side to the right, as it was done
in this paper, but vice versa. This is su-
ggested both by the Ovid's text, which first
speaks about Mercury and then on Europa,
and by the above mentioned cassone from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropoli-
tan cassone not only has a story to be „read"
a gauche but also the portrayal of Ladislav of
Durazzo (or his father Charles), who looks like
Mercury on the Czartoryski cassone. Note that
Ladislav was crowned the king of Naples on
29th May, 1390, when the Earth was under
the influence of the planet Mercury.
Translated by the author.
Miklós Boskovits (in a letter of September
8, 1990) kindly informs me that both Everett
Fahy of the Metropolitan Museum and him-
self, independently, have come several years
ago to the conslusion, that the „Master of the
Siege of Taranto" was a Florentine painter,
author of several painted cassoni, deschi da
parto and of other paintings, some of which
is certainly of Florentine provenance. The ano-
nymous painter was active, in their opinion,
between the last decades of the 14th and the
first of the 15th century. The figure of the
„Master of the Siege of Taranto" will be dis-
cussed by Boskowits in a forthcoming article.
In the same letter Boskovits argues that the
Gotha manucript of the Ovide moralise (figs.
7 and 15 in this paper) was illuminated not
around 1390 as I repeated after Panofsky and
Kohler (see in this paper n. 20) but c. 1340/50.
28
vit, filiam habuit mirificae formae, nomine
Europam, quam Jupiter in specie candidi tauri
rapuit. Unde postea in signum honoris taurus
translatus est in caelum, et ex eo factum
signum quod dicitur Taurus" (XV, 2, quoted
from Bode 1834, p. 253). In relation to the
path of the sun, the Bull is the Sign of April,
while in relation to the path of the planets,
it is one of the mansions of Venus. Indeed it
would be difficult to find a more appropriate
subject for a bridal present. It should also be
recalled that in terms of Christian allegory
Jove was seen as Christ incarnate in a bull
„pulcherrimus sine macula et ruga, albissi-
mus" carrying off a human soul to heaven
(see Berchorius' Ovidius moralizatus, fab.
XXIII).
In the case of the second panel one may
consider Battus and Aglauros as standing for
„proditores" and „invidiosi". Bonsignori re-
marks on Herse's sister: „per Aglauros (Ovi-
dio) intendo gli invidiosi". While Berchorius,
commenting on Battus, suggests that "ista
fabuła potest allegari contra proditores"' (see
notes 67—68).
Mercury, in Antiquity (as well as in mo-
dern handbooks of mythology), regarded as
a minor Olympian was much more important
in the Middle Ages (to be precise, starting
from Macrobe and Martianus Capella) and in
the Renaissance. He held patronage of oratory
and other intellectual pursuits, and was sup-
posed to be the patron of writers and painters.
His wings were called „alis contemplationis"
(Berchorius, see note 70). As he was also be-
lieved to signify the mind (Macrobe, Satur-
nalia I, 19, 7—9), there was enough reason
to consider him a guide to contemplation and
* All quotations from the „Metamorphoses" are ta-
ken from the Loeb ed. tr. by F.J. Miller, 1916.
all kinds of intellectual activities. To sum up,
if Europa was intended to be a figura for sposa
nuova, Mercury might have been a figura for
sppso nuovo.
It is worth noting that the Czartoryski
cassone should perhaps be viewed not from
the left side to the right, as it was done
in this paper, but vice versa. This is su-
ggested both by the Ovid's text, which first
speaks about Mercury and then on Europa,
and by the above mentioned cassone from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropoli-
tan cassone not only has a story to be „read"
a gauche but also the portrayal of Ladislav of
Durazzo (or his father Charles), who looks like
Mercury on the Czartoryski cassone. Note that
Ladislav was crowned the king of Naples on
29th May, 1390, when the Earth was under
the influence of the planet Mercury.
Translated by the author.
Miklós Boskovits (in a letter of September
8, 1990) kindly informs me that both Everett
Fahy of the Metropolitan Museum and him-
self, independently, have come several years
ago to the conslusion, that the „Master of the
Siege of Taranto" was a Florentine painter,
author of several painted cassoni, deschi da
parto and of other paintings, some of which
is certainly of Florentine provenance. The ano-
nymous painter was active, in their opinion,
between the last decades of the 14th and the
first of the 15th century. The figure of the
„Master of the Siege of Taranto" will be dis-
cussed by Boskowits in a forthcoming article.
In the same letter Boskovits argues that the
Gotha manucript of the Ovide moralise (figs.
7 and 15 in this paper) was illuminated not
around 1390 as I repeated after Panofsky and
Kohler (see in this paper n. 20) but c. 1340/50.
28