DOI Artikel:
Laskowska-Hinz, Sabina: Who are our gods?: The iconographic, religious and cosmic commentary on William Shakespeare's The Tempest by Wojciech Siudmak (1978)
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59533#0056
WHO ARE OUR GODS? THE ICONOGRAPHIC, RELIGIOUS AND COSMIC COMMENTARY...
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9. Master of Grossgmain, Saint Jerome as a Cardinal,
1498, oil on panel, 670 mm x 490 mm, Museo Nacional
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid, © Fundación Colección
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid
10. Master of Grossgmain, Saint Jerome as a Cardinal (detail),
1498, oil on panel, 670 mm x 490 mm, Museo Nacional
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid, © Fundación Colección
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid
who has lost faith in the redemptive power of knowledge and returns to the real world of Milan to think about
death (5.1.31112) because “[t]his is the fate of those who abandon life in solitude, life devoted to reflexion
and contemplation, in order to live in cities among people full of sin.”42
Finally, Prospero’s fascination with science, which would include the so-called new astronomy, his
solitude and intellectual detachment as well as his melancholy which becomes his mental ailment, all these
features bring about some associations of the Prince with the planet Saturn.
The planet [Fig. 11] is associated with numerous contradictory features. For example, it is said to be
responsible for “the melancholiac’s unfortunate character and destiny”.43 Significantly enough, what caused
Prospero’s misfortune was his passion for books, an intellectual urge calling for loneliness and unsociability.
Moreover, the knowledge gained from reading provided him with power over natural and supernatural forces:
he “presides over fathers; over old age; over magicians, demons, devils; [...] over far travels, long absence”.44
42 Leonardo da Vinci, Note-Books quoted by Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary..., p. 264.
43 R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky, and F. Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy. Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion and
Art, Nendeln 1964, p. 127. Klibansky et al. point out at other qualities of Saturn that can be found in The Tempest, though they do not pertain
to Prospero but to Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio:
Like melancholy, Saturn, that demon of the opposites, endowed the soul both with slowness and stupidity and with the power of
intelligence and contemplation. Like melancholy, Satum menaced those in his power, illustrious though they might be, with depression, or
even madness. (159)
They are all influenced by Prospero who, by inflicting madness on them, becomes the embodiment of the planet. J. Kott, Szekspir
współczesny, Warszawa 1965, p. 360.
44 Klibansky et al., op. cit., p. 131.
55
9. Master of Grossgmain, Saint Jerome as a Cardinal,
1498, oil on panel, 670 mm x 490 mm, Museo Nacional
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid, © Fundación Colección
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid
10. Master of Grossgmain, Saint Jerome as a Cardinal (detail),
1498, oil on panel, 670 mm x 490 mm, Museo Nacional
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid, © Fundación Colección
Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid
who has lost faith in the redemptive power of knowledge and returns to the real world of Milan to think about
death (5.1.31112) because “[t]his is the fate of those who abandon life in solitude, life devoted to reflexion
and contemplation, in order to live in cities among people full of sin.”42
Finally, Prospero’s fascination with science, which would include the so-called new astronomy, his
solitude and intellectual detachment as well as his melancholy which becomes his mental ailment, all these
features bring about some associations of the Prince with the planet Saturn.
The planet [Fig. 11] is associated with numerous contradictory features. For example, it is said to be
responsible for “the melancholiac’s unfortunate character and destiny”.43 Significantly enough, what caused
Prospero’s misfortune was his passion for books, an intellectual urge calling for loneliness and unsociability.
Moreover, the knowledge gained from reading provided him with power over natural and supernatural forces:
he “presides over fathers; over old age; over magicians, demons, devils; [...] over far travels, long absence”.44
42 Leonardo da Vinci, Note-Books quoted by Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary..., p. 264.
43 R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky, and F. Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy. Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion and
Art, Nendeln 1964, p. 127. Klibansky et al. point out at other qualities of Saturn that can be found in The Tempest, though they do not pertain
to Prospero but to Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio:
Like melancholy, Saturn, that demon of the opposites, endowed the soul both with slowness and stupidity and with the power of
intelligence and contemplation. Like melancholy, Satum menaced those in his power, illustrious though they might be, with depression, or
even madness. (159)
They are all influenced by Prospero who, by inflicting madness on them, becomes the embodiment of the planet. J. Kott, Szekspir
współczesny, Warszawa 1965, p. 360.
44 Klibansky et al., op. cit., p. 131.