DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI article:Spychalska-Boczkowska, Anna: Diana with Meleagros and Actaeon: some remarks on a XV-century Italian cassone
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18816#0046
The same arrangement lias been underlined in our picture througłi representation of a lion
within the circle, seen in its upper part. For the lion is the popular symbol of the cardinal virtue
Fortiludo divina answering to the deed of Meleagros.18 The lion was also the attribute of Hercu-
les.19 The figurę of the woman, with the plait falling on her back, pointing to the representation
of the lion, is Atalanta, the „heroic virgin" affianced to Meleagros, for only he who could over-
power the Calydonian boar could marry her.20 We find her in the hunting scenę, fighting beside
Meleagros, taking part in the morał victory over the beast. Atalanta as the betrothed points
to the lion which is the symbol of manly virtue Fortitudo while Meleagros as affianced to her
points to Diana and the Nymphs as emblems of the womanly virtue of purity. The foTiial co-
unterpoint answers to the counterpoint of the idea in the same scenę. This corroborates the
supposition that the cassone from which the Warsaw picture originates was a bridal coffer.
In that picture Meleagros with the symbolic lion could stand for an example of virtue for the
bridegroom while Atalanta along with Diana and the nymphs as symbols of bridal virtues.
The figurę of the king holding a falcon in the hunting scenę and the figurę of a sedentary
monk placed in the upper part of the picture constitute a symbolic accompaniment proper to
a „wedding scenę". An example of the arrangement of the idea can be found in the Bibie Mora -
lisee of 1400.21 It belongs to the regular repertoire of illustrated moralizing parables in numerous
versions of Bibles Moralisees of the first half of the XV century. In a miniaturę of that Bibie
beside the figurę of a man holding a falcon there is a monk kneeling before Christ. The commeu-
tary to the miniaturę preaches contempt for the body and wordly pleasures. This contempt is
represented by the monk offering his soul to God. His opposite is the man with the falcon going
hunting, without paying any attention to the presence of Christ. He is the symbol of vita mun-
dana. Side by side with the motifs of memento mori such as skulls, skeletons, coffins a monk
often appears in the XV century pastorał scenes as a motif reminding of the transitoriness and
emptiness of wordly pleasures.22 In the medieval representation of „wheels of life" a monk
appears as a symbol of old age, connected with the idea of withdrawal from wordly pleasures.23
He accompanies visions of Death as well.24 In the Warsaw picture the symbol of Death is the
tomb emerging from the rocky grotto. This picture furnishes one of the instances of introducing
into a secular scenę symbolic elements reminding of the approach of death and vanity of earthly
life. Its arrangement of the idea does not find an analogy in cassones mentioned by Schubring
and Antal.The picture is an interesting example of an individual iconographic program, connec-
ted with nuptial ceremonies.
18. L. Rćau, Iconograpliie de Fart chretien, Paris, 1955, 5. V. Lion, G. de Tervarcnt, Altribuls el symboles dans Varl profani',
Geneve, 1958, s, v. Lion.
19. Maury, op. cii., p. 240.
20. Zieliński, op. cii., p. 55.
21. Bibie Moralisee, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms Franc. 166. See E. Małe, L'art religieux de la fin du Moyen Age en France,
Paris, 1925, p. 299.
25. E. Siple, „Recent aoquisitions by American colleotors", The Burlinglon Magazine, CCXVII, 1927, p. 297, PI. III; H. W.
Janson, ,,A memento mori among Italian prints", Journal of the Warlmrg and Courlaidd Institutes, III, 1939 — 40, p.
243-4, pl. 36a.
23. S.C. Chew, The Pilgrimage of Life, London, 1962, p. 150, Fig. 194.
24. Antal, op. cii., Fig. 33, p. 246. In a Florentine manuscript of the XIV century, Laudi Spirituali, prcserved in the Biblio-
teca Nazionale in Florcnce, the monk St Macarius, representing ascetic life, shows three dead men to three youths. Intro-
duction of that figurę is a Florentine iconograpliie innovation of this popular medieval subject-matter as a thread of a story.
36
within the circle, seen in its upper part. For the lion is the popular symbol of the cardinal virtue
Fortiludo divina answering to the deed of Meleagros.18 The lion was also the attribute of Hercu-
les.19 The figurę of the woman, with the plait falling on her back, pointing to the representation
of the lion, is Atalanta, the „heroic virgin" affianced to Meleagros, for only he who could over-
power the Calydonian boar could marry her.20 We find her in the hunting scenę, fighting beside
Meleagros, taking part in the morał victory over the beast. Atalanta as the betrothed points
to the lion which is the symbol of manly virtue Fortitudo while Meleagros as affianced to her
points to Diana and the Nymphs as emblems of the womanly virtue of purity. The foTiial co-
unterpoint answers to the counterpoint of the idea in the same scenę. This corroborates the
supposition that the cassone from which the Warsaw picture originates was a bridal coffer.
In that picture Meleagros with the symbolic lion could stand for an example of virtue for the
bridegroom while Atalanta along with Diana and the nymphs as symbols of bridal virtues.
The figurę of the king holding a falcon in the hunting scenę and the figurę of a sedentary
monk placed in the upper part of the picture constitute a symbolic accompaniment proper to
a „wedding scenę". An example of the arrangement of the idea can be found in the Bibie Mora -
lisee of 1400.21 It belongs to the regular repertoire of illustrated moralizing parables in numerous
versions of Bibles Moralisees of the first half of the XV century. In a miniaturę of that Bibie
beside the figurę of a man holding a falcon there is a monk kneeling before Christ. The commeu-
tary to the miniaturę preaches contempt for the body and wordly pleasures. This contempt is
represented by the monk offering his soul to God. His opposite is the man with the falcon going
hunting, without paying any attention to the presence of Christ. He is the symbol of vita mun-
dana. Side by side with the motifs of memento mori such as skulls, skeletons, coffins a monk
often appears in the XV century pastorał scenes as a motif reminding of the transitoriness and
emptiness of wordly pleasures.22 In the medieval representation of „wheels of life" a monk
appears as a symbol of old age, connected with the idea of withdrawal from wordly pleasures.23
He accompanies visions of Death as well.24 In the Warsaw picture the symbol of Death is the
tomb emerging from the rocky grotto. This picture furnishes one of the instances of introducing
into a secular scenę symbolic elements reminding of the approach of death and vanity of earthly
life. Its arrangement of the idea does not find an analogy in cassones mentioned by Schubring
and Antal.The picture is an interesting example of an individual iconographic program, connec-
ted with nuptial ceremonies.
18. L. Rćau, Iconograpliie de Fart chretien, Paris, 1955, 5. V. Lion, G. de Tervarcnt, Altribuls el symboles dans Varl profani',
Geneve, 1958, s, v. Lion.
19. Maury, op. cii., p. 240.
20. Zieliński, op. cii., p. 55.
21. Bibie Moralisee, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms Franc. 166. See E. Małe, L'art religieux de la fin du Moyen Age en France,
Paris, 1925, p. 299.
25. E. Siple, „Recent aoquisitions by American colleotors", The Burlinglon Magazine, CCXVII, 1927, p. 297, PI. III; H. W.
Janson, ,,A memento mori among Italian prints", Journal of the Warlmrg and Courlaidd Institutes, III, 1939 — 40, p.
243-4, pl. 36a.
23. S.C. Chew, The Pilgrimage of Life, London, 1962, p. 150, Fig. 194.
24. Antal, op. cii., Fig. 33, p. 246. In a Florentine manuscript of the XIV century, Laudi Spirituali, prcserved in the Biblio-
teca Nazionale in Florcnce, the monk St Macarius, representing ascetic life, shows three dead men to three youths. Intro-
duction of that figurę is a Florentine iconograpliie innovation of this popular medieval subject-matter as a thread of a story.
36