DOI article:
Kilian, Joanna: Locus amoenus, Delightful Place: the courtly return to nature in sixteenth century Northern Italian painting
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18947#0033
time, whose privileged place originated from sources of Neo-Platonic
philosophy.7 Musical harmony is governed by the same mathematical laws
that regulate the harmony of the celestial spheres. Musie is a moment of
inspiration, and harmony is a gift of the heavens that can be reached through
musie. Like literaturę and philosophy, musie was a privilege of the elite.
Neo-Platonic concepts of musie had been spread through Venetian culture
mainly thanks to the unusual popularity in the Veneto of Piętro Bembo’s Gli
Asolani (1504) and Leone Ebreo’s Dialogbi di amore (1535).8
The setting for music-playing in Cinąuecento Venetian paintings was almost
always the natural environment, a garden itself, or the villa loggia opemng
onto it. In the Warsaw work by Cariani, the country concert is performed with
a nostalgie landscape in the background. Shepherds hołd flutes, the instrument
of Pan, Marsyas, fauns, and satyrs, symbolising bucolic poetry. The music-
-makers maintain symbiosis with naturę. Pastorał musie and particularly the
sound of the flute completed the landscape of Arcadia, a distant mythical land.
The reclining figurę, distmguished from the others by its nudity, is the typical
semi-divine natural inhabitant of Arcadia. It can be interpreted as the nymph
of pastorał musie.
The pastorał romance Arcadia by Jacopo Sannazaro, a poet at the Aragon
court, first published in Venice in 1502, was of breakthrough sigmficance in
the history of the Arcadian tradition. The hero Sincero, seeking to forget an
unreąuited love, left the city and escaped to Arcadia, where he shared
the simple life of the shepherds, joining their poetic contests and pagan
celebrations. Not finding peace there, he returned to the city, led through an
underground cave by a nymph, an inhabitant of Arcadia. Since the time of
Sannazaro, standard features of the myth of Arcadia have been the theme of
death, as well as the dramatic dissonance between the sublimity of gentle
feelings and the beauty of naturę, as opposed to human unhappiness and
suffering. Melancholy interrupts the idyllic dreamland.
The concert, a favourite theme of the Venetian Cinąuecento, was freąuently
undertaken by Giovanni Busi, known as Cariani, who was born in Bergamo.
He was a peer of Giorgione, a pupil of Gioyanm Bellmi, who worked throughout
his entire life in Vemce. In addition to the Warsaw Concert, Cariani painted
another work with similar dimensions and an analogous compositional scheme,
W Melczer, “11 Neoplatonismo nel Veneto nell cpoca di Giorgione (1490-1510)”, in I tempi
di Giorgione, ed. by R. Maschio, Romę 1994, pp. 65-89.
x Cf. N. Pirotto, “Musiche intorno Giorgione”, in Giorgione. Atti del Conuegno Internazionale
di Studi, Venice 1979, pp. 41-45; E Petrobeli, “II musicista nella societa veneta al tempo di
Giorgone”, in La letteratura, la rappresentazione, la musica al tempo e nei luoghi di Giorgone.
Atti del Conuegno Internazionale di Studi, Castelfranco Veneto, ed. by G. Folene, M. Muraro,
N. Pirotto, Romę 1987, pp. 273-277; E Hammond, “Musica e spettacolo”, ibid., p. 295-97;
G. Francastel, “Le concert champetre de Louvre et les espaces significants”, ibid., p. 215-221;
A. Ballarin, “Le concert champetre” in Le siecle de Titien. LAge d’or de la peinture a Yenise,
exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais, Paris 1993, pp. 392M00, no. 43; A Gentili, “La tematica
musicale nella cultura figurativa di Venezia, ca. 1500-1515”, in I tempi di Giorgone, op. cit.,
pp. 84-91.
27
philosophy.7 Musical harmony is governed by the same mathematical laws
that regulate the harmony of the celestial spheres. Musie is a moment of
inspiration, and harmony is a gift of the heavens that can be reached through
musie. Like literaturę and philosophy, musie was a privilege of the elite.
Neo-Platonic concepts of musie had been spread through Venetian culture
mainly thanks to the unusual popularity in the Veneto of Piętro Bembo’s Gli
Asolani (1504) and Leone Ebreo’s Dialogbi di amore (1535).8
The setting for music-playing in Cinąuecento Venetian paintings was almost
always the natural environment, a garden itself, or the villa loggia opemng
onto it. In the Warsaw work by Cariani, the country concert is performed with
a nostalgie landscape in the background. Shepherds hołd flutes, the instrument
of Pan, Marsyas, fauns, and satyrs, symbolising bucolic poetry. The music-
-makers maintain symbiosis with naturę. Pastorał musie and particularly the
sound of the flute completed the landscape of Arcadia, a distant mythical land.
The reclining figurę, distmguished from the others by its nudity, is the typical
semi-divine natural inhabitant of Arcadia. It can be interpreted as the nymph
of pastorał musie.
The pastorał romance Arcadia by Jacopo Sannazaro, a poet at the Aragon
court, first published in Venice in 1502, was of breakthrough sigmficance in
the history of the Arcadian tradition. The hero Sincero, seeking to forget an
unreąuited love, left the city and escaped to Arcadia, where he shared
the simple life of the shepherds, joining their poetic contests and pagan
celebrations. Not finding peace there, he returned to the city, led through an
underground cave by a nymph, an inhabitant of Arcadia. Since the time of
Sannazaro, standard features of the myth of Arcadia have been the theme of
death, as well as the dramatic dissonance between the sublimity of gentle
feelings and the beauty of naturę, as opposed to human unhappiness and
suffering. Melancholy interrupts the idyllic dreamland.
The concert, a favourite theme of the Venetian Cinąuecento, was freąuently
undertaken by Giovanni Busi, known as Cariani, who was born in Bergamo.
He was a peer of Giorgione, a pupil of Gioyanm Bellmi, who worked throughout
his entire life in Vemce. In addition to the Warsaw Concert, Cariani painted
another work with similar dimensions and an analogous compositional scheme,
W Melczer, “11 Neoplatonismo nel Veneto nell cpoca di Giorgione (1490-1510)”, in I tempi
di Giorgione, ed. by R. Maschio, Romę 1994, pp. 65-89.
x Cf. N. Pirotto, “Musiche intorno Giorgione”, in Giorgione. Atti del Conuegno Internazionale
di Studi, Venice 1979, pp. 41-45; E Petrobeli, “II musicista nella societa veneta al tempo di
Giorgone”, in La letteratura, la rappresentazione, la musica al tempo e nei luoghi di Giorgone.
Atti del Conuegno Internazionale di Studi, Castelfranco Veneto, ed. by G. Folene, M. Muraro,
N. Pirotto, Romę 1987, pp. 273-277; E Hammond, “Musica e spettacolo”, ibid., p. 295-97;
G. Francastel, “Le concert champetre de Louvre et les espaces significants”, ibid., p. 215-221;
A. Ballarin, “Le concert champetre” in Le siecle de Titien. LAge d’or de la peinture a Yenise,
exhibition catalogue, Grand Palais, Paris 1993, pp. 392M00, no. 43; A Gentili, “La tematica
musicale nella cultura figurativa di Venezia, ca. 1500-1515”, in I tempi di Giorgone, op. cit.,
pp. 84-91.
27