bryn mawr college paradigms of renaissance grotesques...alfonso chacón [?], letter to camillo...

CRRSVictoria University

University of Toronto71 Queen’s Park Crescent East

Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1K7, Canada

Since the grotesque frequently manifests itself as striking incongruities, ingen-ious hybrids, and creative deformities of nature and culture, it is profoundly impli-cated in early modern debates on the theological, philosophical, and ethical role ofimages. This consideration serves as the central focus from which the articles in thecollection then move outward along different lines of conceptualization, chronology,cultural relevance, place, and site. They cover a wide spectrum of artistic media, fromprints to drawings, from sculptures to gardens, from paintings to stuccos. As theydo this, they engage with, and bring together, theoretical perspectives from writ-ers as diverse as Plato and Paleotti, Vitruvius and Vasari, Molanus and Montaigne.Whether travelling a short distance from Nero’s Domus Aurea to Raphael’s Vaticanlogge, or across the ocean from Italy to New Spain, this volume goes further than anyprevious study in defining the historic understanding of grotesque and, in so doing,providing us with a more nuanced resource for our understanding of an art formonce viewed as peripheral.

This book offers new readings of the history, meanings, and cultural innovationsof the grotesque as defined by a diversity of current critical theories and practicesanchored by solid, enlightening scholarship. The research presented in these essaysis not only sound but impressive.Michael Giordano, Wayne State University

This is an important study on the ever more interesting subject of the idea of thegrotesque throughout the Renaissance. It deserves many readers.David Cast, Bryn Mawr College

Damiano Acciarino is Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Università Ca’ FoscariVenezia and at the University of Toronto. He works on Renaissance Antiquarianism.He has published several articles concerning Renaissance grotesques on academicjournals, such as Venezia Arte (2016), Storia dell’Arte (2016), Schede Umanistiche(2016), and the monograph Lettere sulle grottesche (1580–1581) (2018), for which hewon the 2019 best book prize from the Association for Textual Scholarship in ArtHistory.

Paradigms ofRenaissance Grotesques

Edited byDamiano Acciarino

CRRS

Acciarino

Paradigms of R

enaissance Grotesques

174090 C C1C4 4C_OK-Proofs.pdf_PG 1_Juillet 23, 2019_09:25:15

Publications of theCentre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies

Essays and Studies, 43

Series Editor Konrad Eisenbichler

Victoria Universityin the

University of Toronto

Paradigms of Renaissance Grotesques

Edited by

Damiano Acciarino

TorontoCentre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies

2019

CRRS PublicationsCentre for Reformation and Renaissance StudiesVictoria University in the University of TorontoToronto, Ontario M5S 1K7, CanadaTel: 416/585–4465 Fax: 416/585–4430Email: [email protected] Web: www.crrs.ca

© 2019 by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance StudiesAll Rights ReservedPrinted in Canada.

The CRRS gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support it receives for its publishing activities from Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

Dr. Damiano Acciarino’s research project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie ATRA — “Atlas of Renaissance Antiquarianism” H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, G.A. n°745704.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Paradigms of Renaissance grotesques / edited by Damiano Acciarino.Names: Acciarino, Damiano, editor. | Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Centre for Reformation

and Renaissance Studies, issuing body.Series: Essays and studies (Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Centre for Reformation and Renais-

sance Studies) ; 43.Description: Series statement: Essays and studies ; 43 | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190126698 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190126809 | ISBN 9780772721952 (softcover) | ISBN 9780772721938 (PDF)Subjects: LCSH: Aesthetics, Renaissance. | LCSH: Art, Renaissance. | LCSH: Grotesque. | LCSH: Gro-

tesque in art. | LCSH: Grotesque in architecture. | LCSH: Grotesque in literature.

Classification: LCC BH301.G74 R46 2019 | DDC 700/.415—dc23

Cover image: Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, French (Paris c. 1505–c. 1586 Montargis or Paris), Grotesque with Two Winged Females Bound to an Urn, 1562.

Typesetting, cover design, and production: Iter Inc.

Contents

Acknowledgments 9

Contributors 11

List of Illustrations 15

Introduction 27

1. Between Renaissance and Reformation: Grotesques and the Debate on Images Damiano Acciarino 29

Theoretical Perspectives 55

2. Grotesques and the Antique. Raphael’s Discovery of the Fourth Style Alessandra Zamperini 57

3. “Sense of Nonsense.” a Theology of Grotesques Dorothea Scholl 85

4. Laughing with the Grotesques in the Renaissance Philippe Morel 123

5. Plato’s Stag Goats: Sophistic Heritage in Renaissance Grotesques Clare Lapraik Guest 155

6. Telling Time: Representations of Ruins in Grotesques Maria Fabricius Hansen 201

7. Grotesque Poetics. Michel de Montaigne’s Use of Grotesques in De l’Amitié (I:28) Simon Godart 219

8. Unwinding the Arabesque: Grotesque Ornament and Modern Meaning Frances S. Connelly 241

Practical Applications 265

9. The Logic of Grotesques in Renaissance Art: Marian Figuration at the Limits of Representation Kathryn Blair Moore 267

10. Interplay of Grotesques in Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi Liana De Girolami Cheney 297

11. Old Forms Grow in New Lands: Grotesque Decoration in the Open Chapel at San Luis Obispo (Tlalmanalco, Mexico) Barnaby Nygren 331

12. Plants of the Gods and Weird Creatures: The Cryptic Language of Sixteenth-Century Convent Walls in Mexico Patrizia Granziera 361

13. “Nocturnal Fowl Disorientated by Sunlight:” Grottesche and Gardens in the Late Sixteenth Century Luke Morgan 401

14. Other Bodies and Other Forms: Grotesque Departures in Seventeenth-Century Naples Maria-Anna Aristova 433

15. Ridicolosa Rassomiglianza: The Art of Exaggeration in the Carracci’s Caricatures Veronica M. White 473

Appendix 499

16. Ulisse Aldrovandi. Five Letters on painting Thomas DePasquale (trans.) 503

17. Pirro Ligorio. Three Letters on Grotesque Painting John Garton (trans.) 535

18. Giambattista Bombelli. Three Letters on grotesques Sylvia Gaspari (trans.) 561

19. Egnazio Danti. Letter to Camillo Paleotti Sylvia Gaspari (trans.) 569

20. Federico Pendasio. Letter to Giovanni Francesco Arrivabene Sylvia Gaspari (trans.) 571

21. Alfonso Chacón [?], Letter to Camillo Paleotti Sylvia Gaspari (trans.) 573

Index 577Laura Avesani

9

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Konrad Eisenbichler, who encouraged, fostered, and empowered this book. I also thank him for mentoring and inspiring me, and for exemplifying for me the art of working hard for a vision.

I thank all the authors of the present volume who made this vision possible.

Damiano Acciarino Università Ca’ Foscari VeneziaUniversity of Toronto

11

Contributors

Damiano Acciarino is a Marie Curie Fellow at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia and at the University of Toronto. He works on Renaissance Anti-quarianism. He has published several articles on Renaissance grotesques in academic journals such as Venezia Arte (2016) Storia dell’Arte (2016) Schede Umanistiche (2016) and a monograph, Lettere sulle grottesche (1580–1581) (2018).

Maria-Anna Aristova received her PhD in Art History from the University of York (UK) with a thesis on The Problem of Ornament in Early Modern Architecture. In 2017 she published “Decoration in the Desert: Un-settling the Order of Architecture in the Certosa di San Martino” in Orna-ment and Monstrosity, edited by Maria Fabricius Hansen and Chris Askholt Hammeken (Amsterdam University Press).

Liana De Girolami Cheney is Professor emeritus of Art History at the University of Massachusetts–Lowell, Visiting Scholar in Art History at the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro (Italy), and Investigadora de Historia de Arte at the Universidad de Coruña (Spain). A winner of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, Cheney is a Renais-sance and Mannerist scholar, author, co-author, and editor of many articles and books, including, most recently: Homes of Giorgio Vasari (2006), Giorgio Vasari’s Teachers: Sacred and Profane Art (2007), Readings in Italian Man-nerism (2012), Giorgio Vasari: Artistic and Emblematic Manifestations (2011), Giorgio Vasari’s Prefaces: Art & Theory (2012), Arcimboldo (1527–1593) (2013), and Agnolo Bronzino: The Muse of Florence (2014).

Frances S. Connelly is Professor of Modern Art and Graduate Advi-sor for Art History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is one of the leading scholars on grotesques. She has published, among other works, The Grotesque in Western Art and Culture (2012), Modern Art and the Grotesque (2003) and The Sleep of Reason (1995).

Thomas DePasquale is a PhD candidate in art history at the Univer-sity of California Santa Barbara. His doctoral dissertation, “Leonardo and the Commentators: Seeing Things Hidden in the Earliest Essay on the Work of

Paradigms of Renaissance Grotesques12

Art, Naples, circa 1560” is about the emergence of viewer fallibility — the no-tion that one might fail to ‘get’ what there is to be had from a work of art — as a problem, but also a new thrill, in the history of visual culture.

John Garton is Associate Professor of Art History at Clark University. His interests include Renaissance and Baroque art, Latin-American Art and modern architecture. His scholarly research has focused on European por-traiture, Venetian art and architecture, Renaissance engineering and designed landscapes.

Sylvia Gaspari is pursuing a PhD in Italian literature at the department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the relationship between prayer and invocation in Dante Alighieri’s Commedia, set against the background of medieval classicism and theology.

Simon Godart is a post-doctoral researcher in philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin within the Cluster of Excellence 2020 “Temporal Com-munities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective.” His PhD thesis on Michel de Montaigne’s Essais and Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire was completed in 2019. He was awarded a Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School for Literary Science scholarship (2016–19).

Clare Lapraik Guest is an Associate Research Fellow at Trinity Col-lege Dublin. She is the author of The Understanding of Ornament in the Italian Renaissance (2015), which includes an extensive section on grotesques.

Patrizia Granziera is full professor of Art History at the Universi-dad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Mexico). She received her PhD in Art History from the University of Warwick. At present her research interests concern the religious and political symbolism of Mexican gardens and land-scapes as well as the iconography of landscape and its relationship with the divine feminine.

Maria Fabricius Hansen is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Copenhagen. Her field of research is art and architecture from late antiquity until c. 1600, with a focus on Italian art. She is currently focusing on grotesques in the sixteenth century and, more generally, on the relation between art and nature, on which she published many articles and

Contributors 13

the monograph The Art of Transformation: Grotesques in Sixteenth-Century Italy (2018).

Philippe Morel is Professor of Art History at the Université Paris 1 Pathéon Sorbonne. His works on grotesques, especially his book Les Gro-tesques (1997), paved the way for all subsequent studies on this topic.

Kathryn Blair Moore is Assistant Professor of Art History, Col-lege of Fine Arts & Communication, Texas State University, and currently Fellow at Villa I Tatti. She has received many awards, including the Renais-sance Society of America Newberry grant (2015) and the Kress pre-doctoral Rome Prize fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2009–11). She has published The Architecture of the Christian Holy Land: Reception from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance (2017)

Luke Morgan is Associate Professor of Art History at Monash Univer-sity. His books include Nature as Model: Salomon de Caus and Early Seven-teenth-Century Landscape Design (2007) and The Monster in the Garden: The Grotesque and the Gigantic in Renaissance Landscape Design (2015), both published by The University of Pennsylvania Press. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes and, with Kathleen Perry Long, editor of the book series Mon-sters, Prodigies, and Demons: Medieval and Early Modern Constructions of Alterity (MIP, The University Press at Kalamazoo).

Barnaby Nygren is Associate Professor of Renaissance and Baroque Art History at Loyola University Maryland. He obtained his PhD from Har-vard University. His contributions on grotesques mainly regard the reuse of this ornamental style in Mexico. He has published “That savage should mate with tame: Hybridity, Indeterminacy, and the Grotesque in the Frescoes of San Miguel Arcángel (Ixmiquilpan, Mexico)” in Ornament and Monstrosity: Visual Paradoxes in Sixteenth-Century Art, eds. Maria Fabricius Hansen and Chris Askholt Hammeken (2017).

Dorothea Scholl is Assistant Professor in the Department of Ro-mance Languages and Literatures at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (French and Italian Literature). She also teaches at the University of Tübingen. Her research fields include Renaissance and Baroque literatures with a special


interest in the interrelation of the arts and literature, ethics and aesthetics. She is the author of Von den “Grottesken” zum Grotesken. Die Konstituierung einer Poetik des Grotesken in der italienischen Renaissance (2004).

Veronica M. White is Curator of Academic Programs of the Prince-ton University Art Museum. She received her PhD from Columbia Univer-sity. Her research interests focus on grotesque figures and monstrous heads, especially those of Leonardo and the Carracci brothers. She has published on these as well as on Guercino’s drawings.

Alessandra Zamperini is Assistant Professor at the Università di Verona, where she teaches History of Venetian Art and History of Renais-sance fashion. Her interests include Venetian art, the recovery of Antiquity, the relationship between patronage and iconography. She has published Le grottesche. Il sogno della pittura nella decorazione parietale (2007).

15

Illustrations

2.1 Raphael and Workshop, Stufetta of Cardinal Bibbiena, Vatican Palaces, Vatican City. 1516–1519. (Photo: Alessandra Zamperini).

2.2 Raphael and Workshop, A deity and an Eros, detail of Stufetta of Cardinal Bibbiena, Vatican City, Vatican Palaces, 1516–1519. (Photo: Alessandra Zamperini).

2.3 Raphael and Workshop, Loggetta of Cardinal Bibbiena, Vatican City, Vatican Palaces, 1516–1519. (Photo: Alessandra Zamperini).

2.4 Cryptoporticus 92, Rome, Domus Aurea. (Photo: Alessandra Zam- pe rini).2.5 Marco Dente after Raphael, Venus anadyomene, Rijksmuseum,

Amsterdam. (Photo: public domain at: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.104628)

3.1 Amico Aspertini, Adoration of the Shepherds, Book of Hours of Bonaparte Ghislieri, Yates Thompson MS 29, British Library, London, 1500–1503. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

3.2 Pinturicchio, Mermaid painting a Sirene, Palazzo dei Penitenzieri (Palazzo della Rovere), Rome, c.1490. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

3.3 Pinturicchio, Saint Luke painting the icon of the Virgin with the child Jesus, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1509–1510. (Photo: Kathryn Moore).

3.4 Luca Signorelli, Portrait of Dante, Cappella di San Brizio, Duomo of Orvieto, Orvieto, 1499–1502. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

3.5 Giovanni di Stefano, Hermes Trismegistus [HERMIS MERCVRIVS TRISMEGISTVS CONTEMPORANEVS MOYSIS]. Pavement I, Duomo of Siena, Siena, c. 1488. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

3.6.a Bernardino Poccetti after Vasari, Grotesque detail, Salone Poccetti, Palazzo Capponi-Vettori, Florence, 1583–1586. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

3.6.b Bernardino Poccetti after Vasari, Grotesque detail, Palazzo Ramirez di Montalvo, Florence, built in 1568 by Bartolomeo Ammanati. (Photo: Dorothea Scholl).

3.7 Impresa of the Accademia degli Occulti di Brescia, Frontispiece, Rime de gli Academici occulti con le loro imprese et discorsi, Brescia, Vincenzo Di Sabbio, 1568. (Photo: Courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto).


3.8 Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Self-portrait as Abate of the Accademia del-la Val di Blenio, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, 1568. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

4.1 Alessandro Allori, Grotesque, detail, Eastern Corridor, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1581. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.2 Alessandro Allori, Grotesque, detail, Eastern Corridor, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1581. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.3 Unknown, Grotesque, detail, Palazzo del Giardino, Sabbioneta, 1582–1587. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.4 Cesare Baglione, Grotesque, detail, Rocca Meli Lupi, Soragna, 1588. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.5 Raffaello Coda da Rimini, Grotesque, detail, Volta Pinta, Palazzo Comunale, Assisi, 1556. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.6 Raffaello Coda da Rimini, Grotesque, detail, Volta Pinta, Palazzo Comunale, Assisi, 1556. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.7 Durante Alberti, Grotesque, detail, Sala Tiburtina, Villa d’Este, Tivoli, c. 1571. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.8 Giovan Antonio Paganino, Grotesque, detail, Palazzo Vitelli a Sant’Egidio, Città di Castello, c.1574. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.9 Giovan Antonio Paganino, Grotesque, detail, Palazzo Vitelli a Sant’Egidio, Città di Castello, c. 1574. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.10 Unknown, Grotesque, detail, Palazzo della Corgna, Castiglione del Lago, 1574–1590. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.11 Giovan Antonio Paganino, Grotesque, detail, Castello di Torrechiara, 1574–1588. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.12 Cristofano Gherardi, Grotesque, detail, Palazzo Vitelli a Sant’Egidio, Città di Castello, c. 1574. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.13 Pietro Dolce, Grotesque, detail, Castello Tapparelli d’Azeglio, Lagnasco, 1562. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.14 Giulio Parigi, Grotesque, detail, Stanzino delle mattematiche, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1599–1600. (Photo: Philippe Morel).



4.17 Unknown, Grotesque, detail, Palazzo della Corgna, Castiglione del Lago, 1574–1590. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

Illustrations 17

4.18 Cesare Baglione, Grotesque, detail, Castello di Torrechiara, 1574–1588. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

4.19 Giovan Antonio Paganino, Grotesque, detail, Castello di Torrechiara, 1574–1588. (Photo: Philippe Morel).



4.22 Cesare Baglione, Grotesque, detail, Rocca Meli Lupi, Soragna, 1588. (Photo: Philippe Morel).


4.24 Cesare Baglione, Grotesque, detail, Castello di Torrechiara, 1574–1588. (Photo: Philippe Morel).

5.1 Pirro Ligorio, Federico Barocci and assistants, Vault of the second room, Casino of Pius IV, 1559–1562. (Photo: Biblioteca Hertziana — Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome).

5.2 Marco da Faenza, Corridor of the Terazza di Saturno, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 1556–1557. (Photo: Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione, Open ICCD, Creatice Commons Attribution Share-alike).

5.3 Luca Signorelli, detail of decoration, altar wall, Cappella di San Brizio, Duomo of Orvieto, Orvieto,1499–1502. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

5.4 Francesco Salviati, Sala Mappamundi, Palazzo Ricci-Sacchetti, Rome, 1553–1554. (Photo: Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione, Archivio fotografico).

6.1 Attributed to Federico Zuccari, Antonio Tempesta and Raffaellino da Reggio, Detail of the frescoes with ruins, Cardinal Gambara’s casino at the Villa Lante (attributed to Vignola), Bagnaia, c. 1578. (Photo: Pernille Klemp. Courtesy of Polo museale del Lazio — Bagnaia. Villa Lante).

6.2 The Fall of Babel, from the Bamberger Apocalypse, Msc. Bibl. 140, fol. 45r, Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, c. 1000. (Photo: Gerald Raab).

6.3 Maso di Banco, St. Sylvester and the Dragon, Bardi di Vernio Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, c. 1340. (Photo: © 2019, Scala, Florence/Fondo Edifici di Culto — Ministero dell’Interno).


6.4 Andrea Mantegna, St. Sebastian, detail of the background architec-ture, Louvre, Paris, c. 1480s. (Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais, Musée du Louvre).

6.5 Cesare Baglione, Juggler’s Hall, Castello di Torrechiara 1586–1592. (Photo: Pernille Klemp. Courtesy of Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo — Polo Museale dell’Emilia-Romagna).

6.6 Marco da Faenza (workshop of Giorgio Vasari), Detail of frescoes with grotesques and ruins, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 1555–1565. (Photo: Pernille Klemp. Courtesy of Musei Civici di Firenze).

6.7 Detail of frescoes with grotesques and ruins against a sunset, Castello di Torrechiara, 1574–1588. (Photo: Pernille Klemp. Courtesy of Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo — Polo Museale dell’Emilia-Romagna).

6.8 Antonio Tempesta’s workshop, Grotesques surrounding Jacopo da Barozzi da Vignola’s spiral staircase, Scala Regia, Villa Farnese, Caprarola, 1580–1583. (Photo: Pernille Klemp. Courtesy of Polo mu-seale del Lazio — Caprarola. Palazzo Farnese).

6.9 Antonio Tempesta, Alessandro Allori and others, Ceiling with gro-tesques, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1579–1581. (Photo: Pernille Klemp. Courtesy of Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo).

8.1 Paul Gauguin, Woodcut with a horned head, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund. 1936, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1898–1899. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

8.2 Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, Ornamental print with grotesque fig-ures, British Museum, c. 1510–1520. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

8.3 Philipp Otto Runge, The “Small” Morning, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 1808. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

8.4 Paul Gauguin, Soyez amoureuses et vous serez heureuses, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1889. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

8.5 Paul Gauguin, Te Rerioa (The Dream), Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 1897. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

9.1 Pinturicchio, Chapel of Giovanni di Montemirabile, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, c. 1479. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.2 Pinturicchio, Chapel of Domenico della Rovere, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome 1477–1490. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.3 Perugino, Delivery of the Keys, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, 1481–1483. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

Illustrations 19

9.4 Pinturicchio, Detail of a Corinthian capital (top left) from the frescoes in the Domenico della Rovere Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1477–1490. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.5 Pinturicchio, Detail of a window framed by frescoes in the Domenico della Rovere Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1477–1490. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.6 Pinturicchio, Frescoes in the Girolamo Basso della Rovere Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1484–1492. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.7 Pinturicchio, Detail of the vault frescoes in the Girolamo Basso della Rovere Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1484–1492. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.8 Pinturicchio, Frescoes in the choir vault, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1509. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.9 Pinturicchio, Detail of Saint Luke from the frescoes in the choir vault, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1509. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.10 Pinturicchio, Detail of the Delphic Sibyl (to the right of St John the Evangelist) from the frescoes in the choir vault, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1509. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.11 Detail of the central façade portal, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, c. 1477. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.12 Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, Candelabra Grotesque, Engraving, 23.39.9, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund. 1923, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, c. 1490–1515. (Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain).

9.13 Façade, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Brescia, begun 1488. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.14 Detail of the lintel from the façade, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Brescia, begun 1488. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.15 Detail of column base, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Venice, 1481–1489. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

9.16 Detail of a pilaster, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Venice, 1481–1489. (Photo: Kathryn B. Moore).

10.1 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of SCALA/Art Resource, NY).

10.2 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, Corner Frame, Ovato with Rampant Lion, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of Guido Barbi).


10.3 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, The Avenging Angels, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of Guido Barbi).

10.4 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, Four Angels Holding the Winds, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of Guido Barbi).

10.5 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, The Vision of Saint John, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of Guido Barbi).

10.6 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, The Whore of Babylon, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of Guido Barbi).

10.7 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, The Rain of Fire, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of Guido Barbi).

10.8 Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, The Four Horsemen, Refectory of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna, 1539–1540. (Photo: Courtesy of Guido Barbi).

10.9 Giorgio Vasari, God Blessing the Seed of Abraham. Chamber of Abraham, ceiling, Casa Vasari, Arezzo, 1548. (Photo: Courtesy of SCALA/Art Resource, NY).

10.10 Giorgio Vasari, Prudence/Spring, Chamber of Abraham, ceiling, 1548. Casa Vasari, Arezzo, Italy. Courtesy of SCALA/Art Resource, NY.

10.11 Giorgio Vasari, Temperance/Summer, Chamber of Abraham, ceiling, Casa Vasari, Arezzo, 1548. (Photo: Courtesy of SCALA/Art Resource, NY).

10.12 Giorgio Vasari, Fortitude/Autumn, Chamber of Abraham, ceiling, Casa Vasari, Arezzo, 1548. (Photo: Courtesy of SCALA/Art Resource, NY).

10.13 Giorgio Vasari, Justice/Winter, Chamber of Abraham, ceiling, Casa Vasari, Arezzo, 1548. (Photo: Courtesy of SCALA/Art Resource, NY).

11.1 Anonymous artists, Open chapel in the church of San Luis Obispo in Tlalmanalco, Mexico, c. 1560. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

11.2 Anonymous artists, Decoration of arches, open chapel at the church of San Luis Obispo in Tlalmanalco, Mexico, c. 1560. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

Illustrations 21

11.3 Anonymous artists, Decoration of south side of altar niche, open chapel at the church of San Luis Obispo in Tlalmanalco, Mexico, c. 1560. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

11.4 Anonymous artists, Salvator Mundi and angels from altar niche, open chapel at the church of San Luis Obispo in Tlalmanalco, Mexico, c. 1560. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

11.5 Anonymous artists, Last Judgment and Scenes from Genesis, back wall of open chapel at San Nicolás de Tolentino, Actopan, Hidalgo, Mexico, c. 1560. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

11.6. Anonymous artists, Scenes of torture and sin, open chapel at San Nicolás de Tolentino, Actopan, Hidalgo, Mexico, c. 1560. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

11.7 Anonymous artists, Grotesque decoration of cloister at the church of San Luis Obispo in Tlalmanalco, Mexico, c. 1580–1590. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

11.8 Anonymous artists, Doorway beside Santa Caterina in Coyoacan, D.F., c. 1560. (Photo: Barnaby Nygren).

11.9 Hieronymus Bosch, Temptation of St. Anthony, central panel, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, ca. 1505–1506. (Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais/ Art Resource, NY).

11.10 Hieronymus Bosch, Haywain, central panel, Oil on panel. Museo del Prado, Madrid, c. 1485–1490. (Photo: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY).

12.1 Grotesque in the upper cloister, convent of San Miguel Arcángel in Tlatiltzapán, (State of Morelos). We can detect these plants: two huacalxochitl, an izquixochitl (in the centre) a xiloxochitl (lower left), a tecomaxochitl (lower right). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.2 Huacalxochitl. Códice Badiano, fol. 18r, 1552. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.3 Grotesque, mural of the convent church of San Martin, Huaquechula (State of Puebla). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.4 Izquixochitl, Códice Badiano, fol. 39v. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.5 Xiloxochitl, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex (1540–1585). Book XII, fol. 191r. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.6 Yolloxochitl, grotesque detail, mural in upper cloister of the convent of San Miguel Arcángel in Tlatiltzapán (State of Morelos). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).


12.7 Yolloxochitl, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún Florentine Codex (1540–1585), Book XI, fol. 18v. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.8 Cempoaxochitl. Francisco Hernández, Historia Natural de la Nueva España (1615), 219. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.9 From left to right: cempoaxochitl, yolloxochitl, coatzontecoxochitl, xiloxochitl and a fantastic vegetal form that derive from marginalia of European books. (See fig. 12.12) Upper cloister of the convent of San Miguel Arcángel, Ixmiquilpan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.10 From left to right: cempoaxochitl open and closed and acocoxochitl. Upper cloister of the convent of San Miguel Arcángel, Ixmiquilpan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.11 Coatzontecoxochitl, Francisco Hernández, Historia Natural de la Nueva España (1615) 119. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.12 Diego Sagredo, Medidas del Romano, 1526, Toledo. First treatise on Renaissance architecture written in Spanish. It exerted a great influ-ence on Spanish architecture, sculpture and decorative arts. It was reprinted up to five times before 1553. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.13 Posa chapel, convent of San Andrés Calpan (State of Puebla), detail. (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.14 Peyote Cimarrón. (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).12.15 Pilgrim’s Portal convent of San Gabriel Cholula (State of Puebla). On

the left the hallucinogenic mushrooms Psilocybe aztecorum. (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.16 Grotesque detail on the archivolt, convent of San Francisco, Tepeapulco (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.17 Grotesque detail in the upper cloister, convent of San Martín, Huaquechula (State of Puebla). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.18 Grotesque detail in the stair wall of the convent of San Nicolás Tolentino, Actopan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.19 Grotesque detail in the upper cloister of the convent of San Miguel Arcángel, Ixmiquilpan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.20 Grotesque, upper cloister, convent of San Miguel Arcangél in Tlatiltzapan (State of Morelos). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.21 Grotesque detail in the sala profundis, convent of San Miguel Arcángel, Huejotzingo, (State of Puebla). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

Illustrations 23

12.22 Grotesque detail, convent church of San Miguel Arcangél, Ixmiquilpan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.23 Cipactli. Codex Borgia, plate 21. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.24 Grotesque, convent church of San Martin, Huaquechula (State of Puebla). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.25 Xiucoatl. Codex Nuttall, plate 79. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.26 Grotesque detail in the upper cloister of the convent of San Nicolás Tolentino, Actopan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.27 Grotesque detail in porter’s lodge of the convent of San Nicolás Tolentino, Actopan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.28 Grotesque detail. Church doorway of Saint María Tulpetlac (State of Mexico). Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

12.29 Grotesque detail in the vault of sotocoro, church of San Miguel Arcángel Ixmiquilpan (State of Hidalgo). (Photo: Patrizia Granziera).

12.30 Aztec goddess Mayahuel. Codex Borgia, plate 16. Drawing by Axel Posos (by permission).

13.1 Luca Signorelli, Portrait of Empedocles. Cappella di San Brizio, Cathedral, Orvieto, 1499–1502. (Photo: Luke Morgan).

13.2 Hybrid Figure, Villa d’Este, Tivoli, c. 1560–1572. (Photo: Luke Morgan).

13.3 Alessandro Araldi, Grotesques, Camera dell’Araldi, Convent of San Paolo, Parma, 1514. (Photo: Luke Morgan).

13.4 Workshop of Federico Zuccari, Rerum natura, Stanza della Nobilità, Villa d’Este, Tivoli, c. 1566–1567. (Photo: Luke Morgan).

13.5 Gillis van den Vliete and Pirro Ligorio, Fountain of Nature, Villa d’Este, Tivoli, 1568. (Photo: Luke Morgan).

13.6 “Hell Mouth,” Sacro Bosco, Bomarzo, 1552–1585. (Photo: Luke Morgan).

14.1 Guido Reni (designed by), Hesperides sive de malorum aureorum cultura et usu, title page, 1646. (Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48352726, public domain).

14.2 Aurantium foetiferum, plate 405, Hesperides, 1646.(Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48353081, pub-lic domain).


14.3 Aurantium corniculatum, plate 409, Hesperides, 1646. (Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48353085, public domain).

14.4 Aurantium distortum, plate 415, Hesperides, 1646. (Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48353091, pub-lic domain).

14.5 Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (designed by), The Transformation of Tirsenia, plate 277, Hesperides, 1646. (Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48352953, public domain).

14.6 Francesco Albani (designed by), The Hesperides Arriving at the Mouth of Tiber, plate 447, Hesperides, 1646. (Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48353123, public domain).

14.7 Giovanni Lanfranco (designed by), The Arrival of Oranges in Naples, Hesperides, 1646. (Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, https://biodi-versitylibrary.org/page/48352674, public domain).

14.8 Cosimo Fanzago, Corridor and corner doorway, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

14.9 Cosimo Fanzago, Corner doorway, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Maria-Anna Aristova).

14.10 Cosimo Fanzago, Detail (with capital-like forms circled), Corner doorways, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Maria-Anna Aristova).

14.11 Cosimo Fanzago, Detail (ribbon with fruit suspended), Corner doorways, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Maria-Anna Aristova).

14.12 Cosimo Fanzago, Detail (Lip-like termination on a capital-form), Corner doorways, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Maria-Anna Aristova).

14.13 Cosimo Fanzago, Detail (pedestal with snail and butterfly forms), Corner doorways, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Maria-Anna Aristova).

14.14 Cosimo Fanzago, Detail (curling and transforming flourishes), Corner doorways, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Maria-Anna Aristova).

Illustrations 25

14.15 Cosimo Fanzago, Detail (proliferating scrolls in the lintel), Corner doorways, the Great Cloister at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 1623–1656. (Photo: Maria-Anna Aristova).

15.1 Annibale Carracci, Caricatures, pen and ink, The British Museum, London. (Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum).

15.2 Agostino Carracci, Caricatures, pen and ink, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. (Photo: © The Henry Barber Trust, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham).

15.3 Leonardo da Vinci, Two grotesque profiles confronted, pen and ink with wash, Royal Library, Windsor, c. 1485–1490. (Photo: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019).

15.4 Leonardo da Vinci, Horses and other studies for the Battle of Anghiari, verso, Royal Library, Windsor, c. 1478. (Photo: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019).

15.5 Agostino Carracci, Studies of grotesques, pen and brown ink on cream antique laid paper, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Busch-Reisinger Museum, acquired in 1933 from the Herbert Straus Collection, c. 1590–1595. (Photo: © President and Fellows of Harvard College).

15.6 Agostino Carracci, Caricatures, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, c. 1597–1600. (Photo: © Hans Thorwid/Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).

15.7 Agostino Carracci, Landscape with two men, pen and brown ink Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, c. 1597–1600. (Photo: © Hans Thorwid/Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).

Introduction

29

Between Renaissance and Reformation:

Grotesques and the Debate on Images

Damiano Acciarino

God’s houses are buildings in which God alone should be glori-fied, invoked, and adored. As Christ says: My house is a house of prayer and you make it a murderer’s cave [Matt. 21:13]. Deceitful images bring death to those who worship them […] Therefore, our temples might be rightly called murderer’s caves, because in them our spirit is stricken and slain.1

This is the opening statement from Von Abtuhung der Bylder (“on the re-moval of images”),2 a short treatise written in German and published in 1522 by Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt,3 one of Luther’s fellow theologians in Wittenberg. His work expressed iconoclastic views and formally gave birth to the controversy over figurative art during the Reformation.4

Karlstadt’s opening is extremely effective. Because of the presence of deceitful images (betrügliche bilder) that lead to the death of the spirit, churches can be compared to murderers’ caves (“gruben der morder”). This concept is drawn from the gospel of Matthew, even if the biblical text does not directly refer to images but more generally to corruption within the epi-sode of the “cleansing of the temple.” With the German word grube (cave), Karlstadt translated the Greek spēlaion (cave), from which the Latin term speluncam (cave) derived. During the sixteenth century, grube and spēlaion had a strong semantic relation with the Italian grotta (cave), from which the word grottesche (“grotesques”) was coined.5 This lexical convergence creates an ideal (and unexpected) bond between the two parallel movements

1 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 19–20.2 Karlstadt, Von Abtuhung. 3 Stirm, Die Bilderfrage.4 Scavizzi, Arte e architettura sacra, 51–63.5 Acciarino, Lettere sulle grottesche, 61–68.


developing simultaneously in Renaissance art: grotesques in ornamental art and iconoclasm in worship.

Since its origin, Christianity has had a controversial and unstable rela-tionship with images.6 This is in part due to the co-existence within its ideol-ogy of two contrasting tendencies: one deriving from its Jewish background that forbade any kind of representation of the divine; the other deriving from its Gentile legacy that, instead, made ample use of images of the gods for its cults. This inherited tension produced an extensive and abundant literature on the matter throughout the centuries that sometimes engendered reforma-tions of style and iconography based on a changing ideal of appropriateness and, at times, resulted in the destruction of statues and other types of figura-tive representation. Tertullian, Lactantius, and Bernard of Clairvaux are just some of the most eminent authorities taking part in this long-lasting debate. They greatly influenced the nature of sacred art and inspired later religious reformers such as John Wycliff, the Lollards, Jan Huss, Bernardino da Siena, and Girolamo Savonarola.7

In the early modern period visual art became a fundamental tool in the investigations and understanding of creation, as well as an instrument to help idealize and imagine the spiritual universe.8 It was just a matter of time before all this touched the Reformation. Protestant ideas in this regard combined the traditional critique against figurative art (drawn by Sacred Scripture and patristic texts) with the abuses denounced in Luther’s 95 theses. As a result, throughout the entire sixteenth century the removal of images and the issue of idolatry became battlefields on which Catholics and Protestants confronted each other in an effort to promote and re-establish doctrine and a liturgy of the Primitive Church.9

Grotesques were never explicitly mentioned in any of these polemics, either by Protestants or by Catholics, at least until the end of the sixteenth century. As far as written sources are concerned, it seems that Protestants did not consider this ornamental style at all in their attacks against images. However, grotesques ended up entering “naturally” into Protestant polemics against images because of their widespread presence in almost all decorated buildings of the time, including churches. It is thus reasonable to assume that,

6 Bettini, Contro le immagini; Lingua, L’icona, l’idolo, 27–80.7 Palmer Wandel, Voracious idols, 38; Presezzi, Lutero: Riforma, 53–68.8 Burckhardt, L’arte italiana del Rinascimento.9 Scavizzi, Arte e architettura sacra, 130–143; Davis, Seeing Faith, Printing Pictures,

45–70.

Grotesques and the Debate on Images 31

even if Protestants did not directly address their critique against this type of decorations, their rhetoric could be read by Catholics also as an attack on grotesques, which were vivid and present in Catholic imagery (especially in Italy).

In humanistic circles, grotesques stimulated a heated debate that sought to understand their nature and function within art, whether their figurations carried any symbolic, hidden and arcane meanings, or whether they simply fell into the category of deceitful images, as classical sources such as Vitru-vius and Horace maintained. In this light, some of the positions advanced on the Reformation side of the debate on images coincided with those used in the debate on grotesques, creating unexpected reactions against this artistic category on the Catholic side. Curiously enough, the outburst of Protestant polemic against images coincided with the universal diffusion of grotesques in Renaissance art. In fact, just a few years before Karlstadt’s book, Raphael completed the decorations of the Vatican Loggias (1516–19) with a series of grotesques that became one of the most famous and renowned examples of this style during the Renaissance.

Reformation and Images

The entire debate on the use of images in religious contexts during the Renais-sance and the Reformation began with Karlstadt’s treatise.10 His polemic tract was based on the Mosaic precepts against images (Ex. 20:4–5; Deut. 5:8–9) and especially on the commandment “you shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the water under the earth,” which essentially excluded all creatures in the world from sacred figurations.11 Karlstadt’s intention was to remove any potential me-dium between God and man (that is, nature) because such a medium could become an obstacle in the relationship with divinity and misdirect venera-tion, eventually deceiving the believer.

This Old Testament injunction was corroborated by several occurrences drawn from the New Testament, where passages from Paul’s letters were used to demonstrate the absolute convergence between the Old and the New Law on the use of images in liturgy. This was especially evident in 2 Cor. 5:16, which specified: “Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on.

10 Scavizzi, Arte e architettura sacra, 48–82; Sider, Andreas Bodenstein.11 Lingua, L’icona, l’idolo, 19; Scavizzi, Arte e architettura sacra, 240–242.


Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.” In this light, if the understanding of Christ was impossible through the human senses — tied irreparably to a material dimension (that is, the flesh) — images in religious contexts lost any actual function, becoming only a deceitful device fostering idolatry.12

This led to a more significant and impactful conclusion, that is, images were no longer considered suitable for teaching religion:

Since, then, images are deaf and dumb, can neither see nor hear, neither learn nor teach and point to nothing other than pure and simple flesh which is of no use, it follows conclusively that they are of no use. But the Word of God is spiritual and alone is of use to the faithful.13

With these words, Karlstadt targeted one of the strongest criteria for the admissibility of images in churches and cults ever developed on the Catholic side: the Biblia pauperum or Bible for the poor or illiterate.14 Its creator was Pope Gregory I (r. 590–604), who formulated this theory in a pastoral letter of c. 599 to Bishop Serenus of Marseille (PL 77, 1128 C):

Aliud est enim picturam adorare, aliud per picturae historiam quid sit adorandum addiscere. Nam quod legentibus scriptura, hoc idiotis praestat pictura cernentibus, quia in ipsa etiam igno-rantes vident quid sequi debeant, in ipsa legunt qui litteras nesci-unt. Unde et praecipue gentibus pro lectione pictura est.

(One thing is to worship a painting, another thing is to teach through the subject of the painting [per picturae historiam] what should be worshipped. In fact, a painting shows to the illiterates, who look at it, that which a text transmits to the readers, since ig-norant people, who do not know how to read, could understand and actually “read” what should be followed.)15

12 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 6–11.13 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 27. 14 Corsi, Biblia pauperum; Nellhouse, “Mementos of things,” 292–321. 15 Here and elsewhere in this article all translations are mine unless otherwise indi-

cated.


To undermine this deeply-rooted justification, Karlstadt focused on two main aspects of Christian doctrine extrapolated from the Scriptures.16 On the one hand, he wanted to re-establish the superiority of the word (logos) over the image (eikona), because transposing God’s message in images would have meant converting it into a different semiotic vehicle, thereby distorting the original sense of the message. On the other hand, the use of images to teach Scripture meant that clergy and laity were not placed on an equal foot-ing, but that the former had some sort of pre-eminence over the latter, and this would break the unity of Christianity itself, creating two categories of the faithful: one that could directly access the message of salvation and another that instead was subjected to false rituals:

Thus saying that likenesses are the books of the laity is precisely the same as saying that the laity ought not to be disciples of Christ, should never be free from the bonds of the Devil and should also not enter into godly and Christian life.17

Karlstadt’s positions had a very strong impact on the ensuing debate on images and idolatry. His influence can be detected mostly in reformed environments, where it gave birth to a tradition of works by both Catholics and Protestants that were either in line with, or against his ideas.18

The first response is perhaps among the most meaningful. It was writ-ten in German in 1522 by the Catholic apologist Hieronymus Emser who, in his Das man der heyligen Bilder yn den Kirken nit abthon, noch unheren soll. Und das sie in der Schriff nyndert verboten seyn, literally explained the reasons

16 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 9–12.17 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 27–28.18 After Von Abtuhung der Bylder, the works published in sequence are the following:

a short Latin treatise by Johannes Eck on the same topic (1522); Luther’s eight sermons Invocavit (1522) and his Widder die hymmelischenn Propheten, von den Bildern und Sacra-ment (1525), in which he opposed iconoclastic positions and proposed a judicious use of images together with a reformation of iconography; Johannes Stumpf’s collection of sermons (1523) and Huldrych Zwingli’s Vorschlag wegen der Bilder und der Messe (1524) that is, literally, “proposal concerning images and the Mass;” up until Jean Calvin’s chapter XI of the first book of his Institutio Christianae Religionis (1536) and Heinrich Bullinger’s De origine erroris (1539), especially the section De deorum falsorum religionibus et simula-chrorum cultu erroneo. For further Protestant positions, see also the Magdeburg Centuries, XII:863.16. For a Catholic response in the first half of the sixteenth century, see Scavizzi, Arte e architettura sacra, 130–153.


“why images should not be removed from churches and other religious build-ings, should not be dishonoured, and were not forbidden in Scripture.”19 In Emser’s view, images were allowed for three main reasons: first, because they kept track and memory of the events; second, because they could teach il-literate people, according to the scheme of the Biblia pauperum; and, third, because they inspired faith in the observer.20

Of course, Emser had to admit that sometimes images were misused, specifically in the iconography of the Virgin Mary and the saints.21 He at-tributed the origin of this misapplication to the Devil, who created a series of deceitful idols with the intent of being worshipped in place of the real God (“The Devil arranged for the misuse of this and other pagan images in or-der to elicit divine veneration for himself ”).22 In addition, Emser stated that sometimes Pagans themselves understood that these images were deleterious and noxious and openly condemned them:

These pagan images and idols through which the Devil is invoked, and God is robbed of his divine honour, are an abomination be-fore God and have been condemned not only by the canonical Scripture but also by wise and intelligent pagans themselves.23

Both Karlstad and Emser, and all their followers, had precise targets in mind when they respectively formulated their attacks on, or tried to de-fend the status quo. They referred mostly to statues and licentious paintings, but also, in more general terms, to all those artworks and furnishings that distracted people’s attention from the Word of God or placed in danger the administration and reception of the liturgy.24

If we consider all these debates retrospectively, we find that they could be perfectly compatible with the critique on grotesques advanced in the sec-ond half of the sixteenth century in Catholic environments — the deceitful nature of images, the impossibility of teaching or transmitting a message through them, and the veneration of infernal divinities. In light of the above,

19 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 41–88; Emser, Das man der heyligen Bilder.

20 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 12–14.21 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 14.22 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 46.23 Mangrum and Scavizzi, A Reformation Debate, 51.24 Simpson, Reform and Cultural Revolution, 383–457.


one can further extrapolate that the attacks against grotesques developed during the Counter-Reformation came about as a direct consequence of the Protestant polemics against images.

Counter-Reformation and Images

Even if some sporadic attempts to oppose the growing iconoclastic impulses developing in Protestant regions can be seen during this time, no official Catholic response emerged before the decrees “on invocation, veneration of the relics of Saints and sacred images” (De invocatione, veneratione et reli-quiis sanctorum et sacris imaginibus) promulgated by the Council of Trent in 1563.25 The Tridentine pronouncements sought to restore the honour of figu-rative art in Christian cults and worship, basically adopting the traditional arguments that sacred art promoted memory, learning, and faith. In addition, these decrees encouraged an improvement of the iconography in order to help increase the effectiveness of the images and reinforce the reasons for their use.

And if any abuses have crept in amongst these holy and salutary observances, the holy Synod ardently desires that they be utterly abolished; in such wise that no images, (suggestive) of false doc-trine, and furnishing occasion of dangerous error to the unedu-cated, be set up.26

The Tridentine decrees set the ground rules for a re-interpretation of images by the bishops; they did not, however, discuss particular cases, thereby leaving bishops free to apply the regulations as they saw best and most appropriate for their dioceses. Guidelines, however, soon followed. The first work that gave a series of concrete examples for what should and should not be depicted in sacred art was composed by the Flemish scholar and theo-logian Jan Vermeulen (1533–85), also known as Johannes Molanus, who in 1570 published De Picturis et Imaginibus Sacris, a treatise on the correct use of images that sought to give concrete shape to the Council’s more general

25 Alberigo, “Studi e problemi,” 239–298; Firpo, Storie di immagini; Noyes, “Aut numquid,” 239–261; Pigozzi, Il Concilio di Trento e le arti; Prodi, Arte e pietà; Firpo and Biferali, Immagini ed eresie.

26 The Council of Trent, The Canons and Decrees, 246


proclamations.27 It also referred to the former tradition of treatises on art and iconography stemming from humanistic circles and to the strong iconoclastic tensions that had erupted in previous decades in Protestant areas.

Molanus never mentioned grotesques in his work, even if in some cases he alluded to their ornamental figurations. He referred, for exam-ple, to those mysterious hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians (“aenigmata pingebant Aegyptij”) that were often associated with the enigmatic print of grotesques after the late fifteenth century discovery of Hermes Trismegistus and Horapollo.28 Molanus stated that these depictions were never admitted in ecclesiastical contexts (“Numquam item Ecclesia approbabit Aegyptiorum morem”) because they could serve as idols of the pagan gods (“inter Aegyptios, quosdam aenigmatum artifices qui idolis serviebant”). In fact, if hieroglyphs were considered to be profane idols bearing some kind of obscure meaning, then they should be excluded from Christian temples.

In chapter 30, entitled “Profane images must not be mixed with the sa-cred ones, neither in temples nor in monasteries” (“Prophana non esse sacris intermiscenda, nec in templis, nec in monasterijs”), Molanus connects the exclusion of profane iconography from churches or sacred buildings with the pronouncements of the Council, openly recalling the words of the decrees:

Nihil prophanum, nihiloque inhonestum appareat cum domum Dei deceat sanctitudo: contra eos, qui in Ecclesijs prophana sac-ris admiscent.

(Nothing profane nor indecent should appear, because only sanctity is appropriate in the house of God: this is against those, who mix profane things with the sacred in churches.)29

Molanus ended this discussion by quoting Bernard of Clairvaux’s fa-mous invective against the strange figures (curiosas depictiones) that were very common in medieval monasteries:

Quid [in claustris] facit illa ridiculosa monstruositas, mira quaedam deformis formositas, ac formosa deformitas? Quid ibi

27 Molanus, De picturis.28 Molanus, De picturis, 3 d. Giehlow, The Humanist Interpretation of Hieroglyphs;

Giehlow, Hieroglyphica.29 Molanus, De picturis, 62–63.


immundae simiae? Quid feri leones? Quid monstruosi centauri? Quid semihomines? Quid maculosae tigrides? Quid milites pug-nantes? Quid venatores tubicinantes? Videas sub uno capite cor-pora multa, et rursus in uno corpore capita multa. Cernitur hinc in quadrupede cauda serpentis, illinc in pisce caput quadrupedis. Ibi bestia praefert equum, capram trahens retro dimidiam, hic cornutum animal equum gestat posterius. Tam multa denique, tamque mira diversarum formarum ubique varietas apparet, ut magis legere libeat in marmoribus, quam in codicibus: totumque diem occupare singula ista mirando, quam in lege Dei meditando.

(Why is this ridiculous monstrosity represented [in cloisters], this kind of marvelous deformed beauty, or beautiful deform-ity? Why are foul monkeys found here? Why fierce lions? Why horrific centaurs? Why half-men? Why speckled tigers? Why soldiers in battle? Why hunters sounding their horns? You see many bodies under one head and again one body with many heads. You can see on one side a four-legged-animal with a snake as a tail, on the other side the head of a four-legged-animal on a fish. Here, a beast is half horse in the front and half goat in back; there, a horned animal gives birth to a horse. This surpris-ing and rich variety of heterogeneous forms appears everywhere, so much so that people prefer to read statues rather than books: they prefer to waste their time staring at these images rather than contemplate the Law of God.)30

Bernard’s words helped Molanus give a precise shape to those “mixed” figurations present in churches. His detailed description reflected an imagery made of dynamic figures combining vegetal, animal, and human features that, in the 1570s, inevitably evoked the usual iconographies of grotesques. However, beyond this significant and probably devised coincidence, greater attention should be paid to his final statement, which suggested that these images were distracting the faithful from Christian truth. Bernard’s remark, though originally written in the twelfth century, echoed Karlstadt’s polemic against the Biblia pauperum and Gregory the Great, and identified for the first

30 Molanus, De picturis, 63–65.


time (on the Catholic side) the deceitful images that were to be excluded from the canon so as to avoid confusing and ambiguous messages.

Carlo Borromeo followed up this position by adding further details in his Instructionum fabricae et suppellectilis ecclesiasticae libri duo (“Two books of instructions for ecclesiastical buildings and furnishings”), a Counter-reformation work on images published in 1577. In chapter 17 “On sacred images and paintings” (De sacris imaginibus picturisve) Borromeo devoted several passages to the appropriateness of the imagery within religious envi-ronments.31 In the first section, entitled “What should be avoided in sacred images, and what should be saved” (Quae in imaginibus sacris cavenda, quae rursus servanda sunt), he set a first parameter in order to reject figurations from the iconographic system still in use during his time:

Praeterea sacris imaginibus pingendis sculpendisve, sicut nihil falsum, nihil incertum apocryphumve, nihil superstitiosum, nihil insolitum adhiberi debet, ita quicquid prophanum, turpe vel obscaenum, inhonestum procacitatemve ostentans, omnino caveatur; et quicquid item curiosum, quodque non ad pietatem homines informet, aut quo fidelium mentes oculique offendi possint, prorsus vitetur item.

(Furthermore, in painting and sculpting sacred images, nothing false, uncertain, apocryphal, superstitious, must be displayed; everything profane, depraved or obscene, shameless or impudent must be avoided; similarly, everything unusual, which does not educate the people at devotion or can offend the minds of faith-ful, again, must be forbidden.)32

Borromeo then specifically explained what should be excluded from the canon of sacred images. In the secion “On side-works and marginal ap-paratus for ornament” (De parergis et additamentis ornatus causa) he issues his famous sentence on marginal decorations, thereby condemning the sort of imagery that was typical of grotesques, though he does so without men-tioning them explicitly:

31 Borromeo, Instructionum fabricae, 42–45.32 Borromeo, Instructionum fabricae, 42.


Parerga, utpote quae ornatus causa imaginibus pictores sculpto-resve addere solent, ne prophane sint, ne voluptaria, ne deliciose ne denique a sacra pictura abhorrentia, ut deformiter efficta ca-pita humana quae mascaroni vulgo nominant, non aviculae, non mare, non prata virentia, non alia id generis, quae ad oblecta-tionem deliciosumque prospectum atque ornatum effinguntur; nisi eiusmodi sint, quae cum historia sacra, quae exprimitur, vere conveniant, aut tabulae votorum, in quibus et capita et alia, ut supra, ad eorum explicationem pinguntur. Ornamenta item, in-dumentave alia, quae sacris imaginibus appinguntur, nihil inep-tum, nihil denique habeant, quod nihil parumve cum sanctitate conveniat.

(The parerga, which painters or sculptors usually add to images as ornaments, should not depict birds, seas, green prairies, and in general anything that might seek to produce a pleasant landscape or delightful ornament, in order to be neither profane, nor volup-tuous, neither luxury nor abhorrent of sacred art, such as those human heads usually depicted that the people call mascaroni [big masks]. Parerga should feature only those things that pertain appropriately to the sacred history represented; otherwise votive-tables, in which those heads and other things, like the above, are depicted to explain them. Similarly, ornaments or other gar-ments, on which sacred images are represented, must not carry anything that is inappropriate and not suitable with sanctity.)33

If Borromeo’s passages are read alongside those of Molanus, it becomes clear that, after the decrees of the Council of Trent, Catholic apologists sought to weaken Protestant positions on the matter of images by attempting to break the Protestants’ unity: they argued that not all images were deceptive or distracting — as Karlstadt and most of his followers suggested — but only those that did not conform to precise iconological patterns. In this light, im-ages could still be included in Christian liturgy; however, Catholics needed to remove those that had been improperly used and preserve those that served their purposes (memory, education, inspiration) and safeguard them from future attacks.

33 Borromeo, Instructionum fabricae, 44–45.


The Counter-Reformation and Grotesques

Even if both Molanus and Borromeo alluded to those representations that were, in their words, enigmatic and undecipherable, hybrid and monstrous, false, uncertain, apocryphal, superstitious, profane, depraved, obscene, shameless, impudent, unusual and deceitful, a definitive scapegoat for Catho-lic figurative art was identified only in 1582 by Gabriele Paleotti in his Dis-course on Sacred and Profane Images.34 It was here that grotesques (grottesche) appeared to embody all the negative aspects of art that should be left out of the canon, both in sacred and profane contexts.35

Paleotti devoted six chapters of the second book to this ornamental style (2, 37–42) — the most extensive section of his treatise. This part is preceded by twelve chapters (2, 25–36) in which he discussed single negative aspects of art. Here, he gradually deleted those features that required condemnation and a thorough reformation in order to not be censured. He indicated pre-cise categories that were to be rejected and others that could be acceptable if brought in line with certain fixed parameters. He focused, as his subsections indicated, On lying and false pictures (25), On nonverisimilar pictures (26), On inept and indecorous pictures (27), On disproportionate pictures (28), On imperfect pictures (29), On vain and otiose pictures (30), On ridiculous pictures (31), On pictures that bring novelty and are unusual (32), On pictures that are obscure and difficult to understand (33), On indifferent and uncertain pictures (34), On fierce and horrendous pictures (35), On monstrous and prodigious pictures (36).36 Grotesques seemed to embody all these imperfections simul-taneously (Discourse, 2, 41):

If each of the defects discussed in various chapters of this treatise greatly lowers the dignity of this art, what will be upshot of this kind of work [i.e. grotesques], in which all, or the greater part of them come together? What else can one call such pictures but lying, inept, vain, imperfect, nonverisimilar, disproportionate,

34 Hecht, Katholische Bildertheologie; Bianchi, La politica delle immagini; Prodi, Arte e pietà.

35 Paleotti took active part in the Council of Trent during the years 1562–64; this means that he could access directly the discussion on images (1563) and bear in mind the guidelines established during these sessions, from which he then developed his Discourse in line with the spiritual and political needs that emerged during the Council.

36 Paleotti, Discourse, viii, trans. McCuaig.


obscure, and extravagant? This was the reason, as Philo writes and as we have already mentioned, that Moses drove out of his republic makers of statues and pictures who corrupted the truth with their lies.37

This position is perfectly in line with Renaissance critiques on gro-tesques that had begun almost from their re-discovery in the Domus Aurea (c. 1479) and continued throughout the entire sixteenth century. Pomponio Gaurico (1504 and 1531), Guillaume Philandrier (1544), Paolo Pino (1548) and Daniele Barbaro (1556) are some of the most significant figures who questioned these decorations with the aim of rejecting any anti-naturalistic or irrational figuration from the artistic canon.38

Paleotti’s originality can be found, however, in his final statement where he tried to overturn the very strict Mosaic condemnation of images. By relying on Philo of Alexandria’s allegorical reading of the book of Genesis (De gigantibus), Paleotti argued that Moses drove away artists from his com-munity because they depicted “useless and fabulous” things and “because they vitiate truth with falsehoods, visually deluding easy and credulous souls” (“quod veritatem mendaciis vicient, illudentes per oculos animabus facilibus et credulis”).39 According to this interpretation, the function of images pre-vailed over the images themselves. It is not by chance that Paleotti accompa-nies these words with an attack on grotesques (“How could it possibly benefit anyone to look at a façade full of grotesques? […] Where is the utility […] in all those masks [mascheroni] and counterfeit animals?”).

By linking a typically profane art (grotesques) with the issue of recep-tion of sacred art during the Reformation (idolatry), Paleotti brought the profane dimension of grotesques directly into the debate on idolatry. In so doing, he succeeded in mitigating the inflexibility of the Mosaic precepts by orienting his focus toward the Protestant interpretation of the Old Testament, while at the same time identifying a category of profane painting on which to centre the iconoclastic fears that had emerged in the previous decades. Thus, not all sacred art was to be excluded from the liturgy, but only that art that appeared deceitful — that is to say, grotesques.

37 Paleotti, Discourse, 274, trans. McCuaig.38 For a general overview on the Renaissance literature about grotesques, see Barocchi,

Scritti d’arte, 3:2621–2698.39 Paleotti, Discourse, 237, trans. McCuaig.


Then Paleotti went even further and addressed a question that im-plicitly pervaded his entire treatise; if images could be realized according to wrong parameters that ended up deceiving the observer, which were the cor-rect ones to follow? The answer was straightforward: those imitating nature as accurately as possible.40 His position, rooted both in Aristotelian precepts and scriptural passages, emerged after a long epistolary exchange with the great naturalist and antiquarian Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605).41 The point of his argument gravitated around a statement found in Paul’s letter to the Romans that proclaimed that through the visible world it was possible to see and understand the idea of the invisible (“invisibilia Dei, per ea quae visibilia facta sunt, conspiciuntur”; Rom. 1, 20). In this light, Paleotti could easily af-firm: “if art imitates nature, then grotesques fall outside the bounds of art.”42

This was directly related to the real function of art itself. Thanks to this position, Paleotti could present the argument in favour of the Biblia pauperum in a new light. The imitation of nature created an alphabet that the public could understand perfectly and developed a language that could not transmit fraudulent or dishonest messages. In this regard, Paleotti’s ex-change with Aldrovandi is essential for our understanding of the develop-ment of Paleotti’s positions because it points to Aldrovandi as the person who provided the scientific knowledge that was to be applied to a visual art. Aldrovandi put together a multiplicity of biological categories that could be drawn directly from nature and that could become a source for icono-graphies, thereby showing how the immense variety of natural phenomena could offer original figurative patterns that released artists from resorting to anti-naturalistic imagery.43

In order to support this position, Paleotti was forced to assume that in human history drawing, and hence painting, preceded writing.44 This assump-tion was necessary in order to break down the hierarchy of the written word over the image. The former was indeed considered a more complex system of communication compared to the latter, and hence more proper to God. How-ever, Paleotti tried to prove that writing had been developed by man from drawing in a subsequent phase of civilization, even if this did not exclude the existence of the written word in some early cultures. This hypothesis entailed

40 Prodi, Il cardinale, 527–529.41 Acciarino, Lettere sulle grottesche, 83–107; Olmi, L’inventario.42 Paleotti, Discourse, 274, trans. McCuaig.43 Acciarino, Lettere sulle grottesche, 103–107; Barocchi, Scritti d’arte, 1:923–929.44 Paleotti, Discourse, 62–69, trans. McCuaig.


the idea that God’s message could be conveyed beyond its vehicle, as actually happened in those times in which God himself spoke directly to his people, when writing (and books) were not yet available to mankind. To sustain this strong declaration — which overturned Protestant beliefs regarding the pre-eminence of the written word over images — Paleotti relied on John Chrys-ostom and Gregory of Nazianzus, who both defended the view that images were far more intelligible than writing as a means of communication because they were closer to the original that they represented. Thus, Paleotti could easily affirm:

there is no people or language or class of persons that cannot easily understand the unspoken words uttered by God’s created works, which […] represent his grandeur and majesty. Anyone can see how well this line of reasoning applies to images, which represent God’s very creatures in their form, and consequently make themselves known to and understood by all, which books certainly cannot do.45

This argument helped to consolidate his critique on grotesques: if the Word of God could be understood through his creation (that is, the natural world), then whatever images fell outside of this category should be excluded from the list of admissible images. In other words, if nature could transmit God’s message, then all the images that closely imitated nature were suitable for this task.

Yet, one additional problem connected to this theory had to be solved in order to protect the entire figurative system of sacred art in Catholic envi-ronments from future attacks. It was put forward by one of the apologists of grotesque paintings, Pirro Ligorio, in a letter he sent to Paleotti while his Dis-course was still in progress.46 Ligorio was one of the theorists of the symbolic and hieroglyphic dimension of grotesques (“Nonetheless, it is not possible, if everything is considered, that these pictures were not made for symbolic display […]”),47 which represented a cryptic alphabet that could be decoded by initiates and which transmitted the secrets of nature. As Ligorio points out:

45 Paleotti, Discourse, 68, trans. McCuaig.46 Acciarino, Lettere sulle grottesche, 108–128.47 Acciarino, Lettere sulle grottesche, 117, trans. John Garton, below 546.


for even though they appear false and supernatural, they are things that declare the reflection of nature, for their beauty the eyes are grateful, for the sharpness of the invention of the fabu-lous figures move the soul, and offer material to discuss […] and we have to believe that they are none other than things covered by the ancient poets in the things of physics.48

Furthermore, the fact that grotesques represented a sort of “language” allowed Ligorio to establish a meaningful parallel between their iconographic apparatus and libraries, as if they were a type of book to be read by the spectator:

they were made and decorated with such painting as a moral thing to edify the intellects and souls of all types that inhabited them, for the same reason that villas are not without libraries and other things necessary to the needs of erudition that edify this mortal life.49

This passage gave shape to those concerns regarding grotesques as a po-tential target for Protestant polemists, especially because they incorporated a parallel medium for reading creation, a medium that required knowledge of a mystic and oneiric language from which it was impossible to deduce a clear message. Paleotti strongly rejected these positions, not only by say-ing that ancient authors themselves did not recognize allegorical meaning in these extravagant paintings, but also conceding that, even if they had, it would have been so impenetrable that they would have been deceptive rather than didactic:

Never mind for now that great writers have judged that such fa-bles must not be tolerated on the pretext of some allegory; never mind the others who have stated clearly that this is just a way of giving some people colorable excuse, or an imaginary veil, in order to cover as best they can the ugliness or foolishness of these fables, and that the Romans never allowed for such allegories. We say that when it comes to grotesques, everyone knows that

48 Acciarino, Lettere sulle grottesche, 117, trans. John Garton, below 547. On the issue, see also Hansen, The Art of Trasformation, 219–240.

49 Acciarino, Lettere sulle grottesche, 115, trans. John Garton, below 543.


ordinarily they have no hidden, beneficial meaning and that they have produced in a desultory and capricious fashion. And even if there were, it is so recondite and abstruse that it serves very few and deceives a great many, and is therefore negligible.50

As a result, Paleotti admitted that, even if the pagans sometimes needed these paintings as a means to approach wisdom, Christians should follow a completely different path, because for them truth was manifested through Revelation.

For reasons already given, it is all the more improper to display them in public, open places; and as for churches, we think there is no one so deprived of reason that he will not confess that, church being where we adore the supreme majesty, through participa-tion in whom all things have their being and are true, there is nothing more repugnant to it than representing dream-objects and falsities there.51

Symbols and Grotesques

With these words, constituting an actual pars destruens, Paleotti provided the elements to replace grotesque imagery, with all its cryptic suggestions, and establish a pars construens. In the following section of his Discourse, he devoted a chapter entitled On pictures of symbols (45) to describing the cor-rect method of portraying enigmatic imagery.52 Here, the guidelines for ar-ranging symbolic figurations were set according to a specific (and regulated) iconographic repertoire based on a realistic naturalism (“natural or artificial things, such as trees, plants, rivers, metals, stars, men, animals, edifices, tow-ers, machines, and so on”).53 A symbol, properly defined, consisted of “several different images joined together to make a certain corpus of figures, whether they be humans or animals or plants, […] which represent some acts, true or verisimilar as it may be, or even feigned, from which there inwardly results another good and moral sense.”54

50 Paleotti, Discourse, 279–280, trans. McCuaig.51 Paleotti, Discourse, 280, trans. McCuaig.52 Paleotti, Discourse, 287–289, trans. McCuaig.53 Paleotti, Discourse, 287, trans. McCuaig.54 Paleotti, Discourse, 287, trans. McCuaig.


If one compares the elements usually utilized to arrange symbols, it becomes clear that they could be easily overlapped with those constituting grotesques (“By grotesques we mean exclusively those forms of men or ani-mals or other things […]”). The substantial difference lays in the way these figures were formed, that is, whether they carried some kind of “reality” or “verisimilitude,” and accurately reproduced nature by avoiding any kind of supernatural hybridity (“that never did or could exist in the manner in which they are represented and are the mere caprices of the painters, vain phan-tasms, irrational imaginings of their part”).55

A symbol should not, however, be so obscure and difficult that it always requires a subtle interpreter, […] So, for the greater ease of whoever wishes to make use of them, we see fit to warn the reader that, as well as avoiding a few well-known abuses like depicting lasciviousness or monstrosity or false gods or anything else we have mentioned above.56

The aim of this decision was to equate the symbolic dimension of art with the symbolic discourse used by Jesus Christ in the Gospels, that is, the parable, which always conveyed a moral message. In fact, this was the sole rhetorical expedient that avoided sophistry and obscure language in forming symbols. In Paleotti’s view, this must be the model to follow when adopting allegorical patterns:

But the main thing to stress is that the symbol should convey instruction and utility for living well. Whence, […] we strongly applaud those who avail themselves of the evangelical parables told by the Savior, […] which are good, safe, charming, and of great benefit to human life.57

In this light, a further assumption can be made. Just as the Hieroglyphica published in 1556 by Pierio Valeriano served as a sort of encyclopedia of sacred and profane symbols inherited from ancient cultures and intertwined with the creative tension of the Renaissance — from which many artists and

55 Paleotti, Discourse, 262, trans. McCuaig.56 Paleotti, Discourse, 288–289, trans. McCuaig.57 Paleotti, Discourse, 289, trans. McCuaig.


iconographers often benefitted — the renewed Catholic policy on images re-quired analogous tools capable of providing similar iconographic solutions, but based on Counter-Reformation guidelines.58 This was the case of Anto-nio Ricciardi’s Commentaria Symbolica (1591) and Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1593).59

Valeriano added uncountable meanings to traditional and innovative symbolic patterns drawn from an enormous amount of ancient literary and material sources (statues, coins, epigraphs). He moved from the assumption that hieroglyphs were used in ancient times to record “all the mysteries of nature” (omnem naturae obscuritatem); and, to do so, the elements used “for this kind of description were constituted by figures of animals and other things” (“descriptionem huiusmodi, animalium ceterarumque rerum figuris constitisse”) in which philosophers, poets and historians “saw hidden theological messages” (“divinarum etiam disciplinarum sententias delitescere viderunt”).60 It comes as no surprise, then, that his work became one of the points of reference in conferring significance to mysterious and cryptic im-ages and grotesques.61

However, Valeriano then added that this legacy served to interpret and understand the Bible and other sacred texts, merging the profane dimension of the symbols he collected with the truth of Christian wisdom. Valeriano pushed this idea even further: by comparing the reading of hieroglyphs with the parables in the Gospels he created a very dangerous contamination be-tween two extremely delicate aspects:

In the new law, as our Savior says, I will open my mouth in a parable and speak in dark sayings [in aenigmate] of old, which we have heard and known, and this I will do in hieroglyphs [hieroglyphice] and I will construct ancient monuments of things in allegories [allegorice].62 This obscurity could no longer be tolerated in Counter-Reformation

times, especially since it could be misread and confused with the imagery of

58 Valeriano, Hieroglyphica; Gielhow, The Humanist Interpretation, 208–235.59 Ricciardi, Commentaria; Ripa, Iconologia. For the relations between Ripa and Vale-

riano, see the introduction of Sonia Maffei to Ripa, Iconologia, LXXXVIII–XC.60 Valeriano, Hieroglyphica.61 Morel, “Il funzionamento simbolico,” 13–32; Morel, Les grotesques.62 Gielhow, The Humanist Interpretation, 229.


grotesques. Therefore, a thorough rethinking of the concept of symbol and its crafting was required. This was done by Antonio Ricciardi and Cesare Ripa who, moving from different premises, provided a first detailed alphabetical list of iconographies compatible with the figurative reorganization imposed by the Council of Trent.

According to the Flemish scholar Jan van Gorp van der Beke, also known as Johannes Goropius, hieroglyphs were nothing but symbols; and, “if symbols were analogous to words” (“si enim nomina symbola sint”), they must refer to a precise, clear and defined object to serve their purposes: there-fore “it is necessary that they conform to visible images, and express the name signified by the figure” (“necesse est ut cum ipsis adspectabilibus imaginibus consentiant, et illud exprimat nomen quod figura demonstrat”).63

This assertion led to a new way to perceive hieroglyphs: all symbols had to respect the object to which they referred, adapting their features to their original model. Ricciardi, for example, stated that symbols should have “nec-essarily some kind of likeness” (“similitudo quaedam necesse est”) with what they try to express, in order to allow an “interior understanding” (“animum nostrum deducunt”) through an “exterior perception” (“exteriori sensui”).64

A comparable attitude can be found in Ripa. In his preface, he points out the methodological approach that should be followed in arranging symbolic images. Beyond the principle of similarity, which implied a relationship with the object evoked (“that these sort of figures may easily be brought to a like-ness in their limitation”),65 Ripa established four criteria for crafting any type of figuration, clearly referencing Aristotle’s Physics (2, 3) and Metaphysics (5, 2): a material cause, an efficient cause, a formal cause, and a final cause (“from the Matter or stuff; from the Efficicus or working; from the Forme or figure; and from the Fine or end”).66 Respecting these norms would ensure a clear understanding of the symbol, without creating confusion in the spectator:

Where these four together have been used only to express one thing; for all that, we find this in some places all together; then this must principally be noted to represent a hidden case, or an unusual manner; that the same, by an ingenious invention, be

63 Goropius, Opera, Hieroglyphica, 13.64 Ricciardi, Commentaria, ad lect.65 Clark, The Iconologia, 4; on Ripa’s method of making symbols, see Maffei, Le radici

antiche and Gabriele, Galassi and Guerrini, L’Iconologia di Cesare Ripa. 66 Clark, The Iconologia, 4.


made pleasant. And it is commendable that we do that in one thing only, to cause no obscurity or displeasure, to keep too many things in memory.67

This new rational approach to symbolic iconography, which can ideally be opposed to the “chaos of the mind” of grotesques,68 created a multifarious alternative to those irrational and imaginary figurations, and placed a newly re-established tolerance threshold for sacred art in Catholic environments through rationality and naturalism. This was still a shifting phase, which would lead to a totally renovated style in the application of ornamental art for the following centuries; but it guaranteed the survival of a “language” with an age-old tradition that had been questioned by renewed spiritual tensions and religious needs.

•

Renaissance grotesques appear to be considered an “art in transition,” sus-ceptible to external influences in defining their own style and expressive means. Grotesques reflected the cultural vibrations that manifested from time to time, internalizing them and re-arranging them according to patterns in continuous evolution. Most importantly, the meditation on grotesques by various authors contributed to the growth of Renaissance art itself.

The intent of the present volume, which gathers contributions from the conference sessions “Between Allegory and Natural Philosophy: New Perspectives on Renaissance Grotesques” held at the annual meetings of the Renaissance Society of America (New Orleans, 22–24 March 2018), is to offer a new reading of the phenomenon of Renaissance grotesques according to the new artistic guidelines that developed as a consequence of philosophical and religious debates in the Renaissance and Reformation. In fact, in con-sideration of the pivotal contributions made on this matter, and also of new unpublished sources recently come to light, it is possible to see how the ramifications of grotesque art between the fifteenth and seventeenth century represent a real cultural dynamic, involving multiple branches of knowledge, and not simply the passive application of a decorative feature to artworks.

67 Clark, The Iconologia, 4–5.68 Scholl, Von den “Grottesken”, 95–96. On the symbolic use of grotesques see also

Conticelli and De Luca, Le grottesche degli Uffizi.


For this reason, this collection of articles, which includes almost all the most relevant scholars who have written on the matter in the last twenty years, attempts to reopen the question of Renaissance grotesques according to “theoretical perspectives” and “practical applications,” and aims to show the interactions of this ornamental form with the ideological anxieties of the time. The final objective is to better understand which forces drove the development of this art.

The first part of the book, Theoretical Perspectives, includes contribu-tions on grotesques by Alessandra Zamperini on their relationship with the antique; Dorothea Scholl on their theological readings; Philippe Morel on their comic and ridiculous intents; Clare Lapraik Guest on their original sophistic nature; Frances Connelly on the evolution of their emblematic and hieroglyphic essence; Maria Fabricius Hansen on time as one of their possible manifestations; and Simon Godart on their ideal poetic aspects in literature.

All the above mentioned general ideas — “antiquity,” “theology,” “amusement,” “sophistry,” “emblematic,” “time,” “poetics” — can be found in several different manifestations in the second part of the book, entitled Practical Applications. This section comprises specific case studies on gro-tesques from Kathryn B. Moore, concerning the contamination of grotesques with Marian iconographies in Rome; Liana De Girolami Cheney, regarding the apparatus of Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi in Bologna and Arezzo; Barnaby Nygren and Patrizia Granziera, developing two different aspects of the diffusion of grotesques in the New World; Luke Morgan, in-vestigating their presence in Italian gardens; Maria-Anna Aristova, focusing on their permanence in botanical imageries of seventeenth century Naples; and Veronica M. White, treating their potential persistence in the Carracci’s grotesque heads and caricatures.

In the first section of the book, the theoretical investigation is the basis for each additional practical digression, while in the second part potential theoretical conclusions are developed mostly on specific case studies. The structure of the volume wants to establish a sort of Ringkomposition, which finds its exchange of information in internal circular structures. In this light, several fils rouges can be identified within the volume, overlapping and react-ing with other thematic cores. The idea of antique as explained by Zamperini related to grotesques, for example, irradiates across all contributions, as if it were an original starting point for acknowledging the genre after the first years of development. Her reading links to Hansen’s investigation of how the


antique (as a form of perception of time) featured in grotesques. Scholl’s arti-cle recalls the polysemic nature of grotesques, recognizing them as a potential medium for religious heterodoxy. This finds a prefiguration in Moore’s read-ing of Marian iconographies in interplay with grotesques ornamentations, as well as Nygren’s subsequent description of the function of grotesques in spe-cific liminal contexts — whose the counterpart emerges in Granziera’s work. Unfolding the endemic tension towards laughter present in grotesques, Morel opens the way to the understanding of one of their final metamorphoses as described by White. The use of rhetoric as a matter of disposition and seman-tics of elements in grotesque decorations emerges in Lapraik Guest’s article and finds its echo in Cheney’s work, where the issue of meaning is brought about, and in Morgan’s understanding of gardens. Moreover, this is connected to Aristova’s ideal garden in rear-guard grotesques and forms a further core if combined with Granziera’s plants. A projection of Renaissance grotesques out of the Renaissance features in the persistence of arabesque patterns, as pointed out by Connelly, and relates with the poetic approach towards grotesques as set by Godart. This offers a literary counterpart to the artistic mechanisms outlined in the other articles; in fact, through the poetic alignment, universal trends driving the compositional spark emerge more evidently.

The collection ends with an appendix of English translations of newly published sources. It contains a group of letters by several famous scholars sent to Gabriele Paleotti between 1580 and 1581, who used them to arrange the chapters on grotesques in his Discourse. They illustrate the views on this controversial pictorial style held by Ulisse Aldrovandi (translated by Thomas DePasquale), Pirro Ligorio (translated by John Garton), Giambattista Bom-belli, Egnazio Danti and Federico Pendasio (translated by Sylvia Gaspari). The purpose of this section is to offer to the academic community a guide through very difficult artistic literature and thus facilitate interaction with the original primary source.

All three sections should be read according to three fundamental dates for a clearer understanding of the overall dynamic: first, the rise of the de-bate on images (1522); second, the decrees on images by the Council of Trent (1563); third, the publication of Gabriele Paleotti’s Discourse (1582). In this light, the gradual progress of grotesques, their evolution and censorship, and their defence and transformation within Renaissance art and thought acquires new potential perspectives through which to read this global artistic phenom-enon that contributed to paving the way for a new phase of modernity.


Università Ca’ Foscari VeneziaUniversity of Toronto

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http://www.levity.com/alchemy/iconolog.html

bryn mawr college paradigms of renaissance grotesques...alfonso chacón [?], letter to camillo...

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