re-creating adam at villa carducci

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Re-Creating Adam at Villa Carducci Author(s): Robert L. Mode Source: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 47. Bd., H. 4 (1984), pp. 501-514Published by: Deutscher Kunstverlag GmbH Munchen BerlinStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1482289Accessed: 11-12-2015 21:48 UTC

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I. Andrea del Castagno, Uomini Famosi from Villa Carducci, Legnaia. Florence, Uffizi

MISZELLEN

Robert L. Mode

Re-Creating Adam at Villa Carducci

Between 1449 and 1451 Andrea del Castagno was engaged in the decoration of a semi-enclosed chamber (variously referred to as sala or loggia) in the Carducci family villa at Legnaia. For this site, located on the outskirts of Florence, the artist un- dertook to portray uomini famosi including civic heroes (Pippo Spano, Farinata degli Uberti, Nic- colo Acciaiuoli) and literary giants (Dante, Pet- rarch, Boccaccio) - all eminent Florentines of the preceeding two centuries - as well as ancient female paragons (Cumaean Sibyl, Esther, To- myris). Taken as a whole (Fig. i), this group of worthies served to personify Quattrocento no- tions of lofty character or noteworthy achieve- ment'. On an adjacent side wall to the left of the main

mural decoration there was revealed, during a 1948-49 restoration campaign, additional subjects compatible with the known frescoes2. Although

not mentioned in the early sources, these subjects - Adam and Eve flanking a fictive >>Madonna and

? Castagno was credited with the Villa Legnaia uomini famosi scheme by Albertini, Memoriale, Florence 1510o, 17 and Antonio Billi (see Frey, II Libro di Antonio Billi, Berlin I892, 23) prior to I530. Further confirmation was provided by Vasari (ed. Milanesi, 1878), II, 670, with the 1568 edition specifying the Carducci proprietorship of the villa (acquired and renamed by the Pandolfini in 1475). After 1847 the uominifamosi from the principal wall were removed, to be subsequently located in Sant'Apollonia and - more recently - the Uffizi (Flor- ence). Historical exemplars had been incorporated into earlier Tuscan mural decorations at the Palazzo Datini in Prato (ca. 1390), the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena (1413- 14), and the town hall at Lucignano (ca. 1445). Mario Salmi, >>Gli affeschi di Andrea del Castagno rit- rovati<<, Bolletino d'Arte, XXV, 1950, 301-302. Prior to the 1948-49 restoration, a fragment of the upper section had been recovered (i9io), enabling Salmi to formulate a schematic architectural format for the side wall even before the figures were found below (see Salmi, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Domenico Veneziano, Rome 1936; Paris 1937, Fig. 146 and 147).

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Child< lunette with attendant angels - have since been ascribed to Castagno's own hand3. The architectural surrounds for the principal figures con- form in all essential aspects to those found on the long wall, with the exception of an open-curtained baldachin above the central portal and its fictive lunette. Much of the scheme has survived intact, but significant portions remain obscure despite the careful restoration (Fig. 2). The condition of this side wall varies to a consid-

erable degree, most of the surface loss being to the right of center. From what is discernible there can be no doubt that the baldachin section was intended to be an illusionistic, self-contained area. The projection of the baldachin pinnacle outside the architectural enclosure of the main level, together with the reduced scale of the attending angels and monochromatic treatment of the lunette, combine to isolate this entire section from the scheme around it. Conversely, the relationship of Adam and Eve to the uominifamosi on the long wall is heightened by the special way Castagno portrayed these subjects and their settings. Every effort was made to avoid discontinuity be-

tween the compartments containing the >>primal parents<< and those on the main wall. The greater il- lusion of depth in the side wall compartments re- sulted from the more acute progression of ortha- gonals within a wall 7.5 m. wide (vs. 5.5 m. across the main wall). This allowed Castagno to position the Adam and Eve behind the front plane using plinths beneath their feet to assure isocephalic unity with the uomini famosi. The possibility of their possessing a >>statuary<< identity has been suggested4, but their polychromatic presentation

3 So exact is the correspondence between the side wall decoration and the uomini famosi scheme that both must be presumed to have been executed in the same campaign; subsequently, the addition of a doorway beneath Esther on the main wall may have diminished the importance of the side portals and allowed the covering of any lateral decoration. Vasari provides the most cursory mention of the entire scheme, suggesting that he (like Albertini and Billi) lacked access to what was still a priv- ate, residential villa.

4 James Beck, Italian Renaissance Painting, New York 1981, 154. For the Adam and Eve to be identified as fictive statuary, a true monochromatic rendering in grisaille (as with Niccolo da Tolentino) would be neces- sary. In fact, natural flesh tones and pale drapery hues belie any such intention on the part of Castagno.

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3. Andrea del Castagno, Detail of Eve. Villa Carducci, Legnaia 4. Andrea del Castagno, Detail of Adam. Villa Carducci, Legnaia

belies this; and in any case the demands of ar- chitectonic and spatial consistency adquately ac- count for the plinths having been introduced in this fashion. The selection of mankind's original ancestors for

a series of painted exemplars is not without parallel in the mid-fifteenth century. During the fourteen thirties a large chamber in the Monte Giordano palace of the Cardinal Orsini at Rome was deco- rated with murals depicting uominifamosi begin- ning with Adam and Eve. More of a >universal history< than a select grouping of repesentative worthies, the Monte Giordano fresco cycle can be related to the shop of Masolino and thereby a Florentine tradition accessible to Castagno5. In addition, Filarete was to propose a courtyard decoration within the precincts of ?Sforzinda< consisting of paragons from the great ages of human history - starting with Adam and Eve6.

Essential to this form of program is a strong historical emphasis, which constitutes but one aspect of humanistic model selection7. The introduction

5 W. A. Simpson, >Cardinal Giordano Orsini (t 1438) as a Prince of the Church and a Patron of the Arts<<, Jour- nal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXIX, 1966, 138-140, and Robert L. Mode, >Masolino, Uc- cello and the Orsini Uomini Famosiw, Burlington Magazine, CXIV, 1972, 369-378.

6 Antonio Averlino, called II Filarete, Trattato di Ar- chitettura, ed. W. von Oettingen, Vienna I890, 304- 306. Filarete proposed a division of historical person- ages into six ages (following the scheme utilized by Eusebius and Isidore of Seville), opening as follows: ,Et a questa prima eti era appresso figurato Adamo et Eva; e gli altri seguitavano...<<. The Sforzinda scheme was intended to surround a cortile, as a mural positioned

,sotto il porticho<<. Its conception must have been con-

temporary with the Castagno project at Legnaia, though its influence (in manuscript form) cannot be determined.

7 For a full discussion of humanistic model selection in uominifamosi projects of the Quattrocento, see Robert

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5. Andrea del Castagno, Head of Christ (reversed) in Resurrection mural. S. Apollonia, Florence

of Adam and Eve into the Villa Carducci program is sufficient to shift part of its original emphasis from the illumination of virtu' to the progress of humanity. Such added complexity supports the notion that Castagno had a humanistic advisor re- sponsible for selecting the subjects he was to paint'. The presence of the progenitor figures on

the side wall is thus of critical consequence to an enlarged reading of the entire program at Legnaia. By far the better preserved of the images is that of

Eve (Fig. 3). Castagno endowed her lightly clad form with the strength and self-assured demeanor of an Amazon princess or Olympian deity. Ac- cording to Horster, the artist may have used a familiar classical type of Diana the huntress9. Such a bold interpretation has little to do with the inno- cent Eve who dwelled in Eden nor the guilt-stric- ken Eve of the Fall and Expulsion. Her animal- skin dress and long-handled distaff hardly distract from the proud bearing and level gaze with which she turns toward the future. She rather assumes the guise of witness to future generations, a role made clear by the inscription beneath her: EVA. OM(NIVM). MATER. SVASIONE SVA. GENVS. PEREMIT(MALIS)' . The Villa Carducci Eve is represented facing

away from Adam so as to concentrate her attention on the open vista to the left. Not only does this deny any conjugal concern for her mate, but it runs counter to Quattrocento norms of symmetrical figure disposition. One would properly expect Eve to look toward the right. The fact that she does not disturbs both the physical and psychological in- tegration of the two. To explain this relationship it is vital to comprehend how Eve's consort was presented by Castagno, in itself a task of virtual >>re- creation<<. The condition of Adam is such that even the

closest scrutiny cannot fully reveal its intended appearance (Fig. 4). There is little remaining of the feet, legs, trunk and head of the figure. What does remain of the more intact arms and mid-section cannot be wholly grasped owing to the fragmen- L. Mode,

,The Monte Giordano Famous Men Cycle of

Cardinal Giordano Orsini and the Uomini Famosi Tradition in Fifteenth-Century Italian Art<<, Ph. D. diss., University of Michigan, 1969, 200-242.

8 Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, ,Castagno's humanistic program at Legnaia and its possible inventor<<, Zeitschrift fiir Kunstgeschichte, XLV, 1982, 274-282. Joost-Gaugier convincingly puts forth the name of Alamanno Rinuccini as the humanist most likely to have advised Castagno in the planning of the Villa Carducci program. Her arguments demonstrate the improbabil- ity of Castagno having provided the actual plan, as suggested by George M. Richter, Andrea del Castagno, Chicago 1943, 19.

9 Marita Horster, Andrea del Castagno, Oxford 1980, 30. The figure of Eve is shown to resemble a Diana in Rome (Museo delle Terme), implying that the pendant Adam had equal reliance on antique sources. Horster provides a concise summary of the Villa Carducci frescoes and their traditional connections in a thorough catalogue entry (178-I180).

0o Without the comparable inscription beneath Adam (ob- literated) the historical and moral tone of their presentation remains tentative; nonetheless, by using elegant Latin majuscule lettering the artist has conveyed the au- thority of a Quattrocento humanistic epigram.

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6. Piero della Francesca, Detail of unidentified youths in Death of Adam mural. S. Francesco, Arezzo

tary relationship with other parts. And yet the disposition and general appearance of this damaged figure can be reformulated on the basis of surviv- ing details. Where areas are entirely missing, close comparison with related examples will further elucidate the subject. By comparing the remains of the Villa Carducci

Adam with the likeness of Eve it is possible to dis- cern a common approach to their arrangement and basic figure type. Their angles of disposition rela- tive to the front plane of each compartment are virt- ually identical. Both examples have the tall, slender physiques characteristic of sinewy youth; and both stand at graceful ease within their rigid architectural surroundings. At its base, the figure of Adam stands on a block-

like plinth extending from just beneath the partially visible left foot to just beyond the original lo- cation of the right foot. The positioning of his

lower legs can be reasonably inferred by the axis and angle of each thigh, while the resolution of weight on the right foot required a slight turn out- ward similar to that found in the Eve. What remains of the left foot suggests little or no rotation at the ankle, presumably as an accomodation to the hoe that descends next to it. Moving upward through the well-preserved mid-

section of the Adam it is clear that the classical contrapposto effect has been moderated (again, as with Eve) so that the axes of pelvis and lower trunk are nearly parallel. The supple, animal-skin drapery is of the very same type worn by Eve, although mod- elled with straighter and firmer folds. A cloth band cinches the thick material high on the waist, differ- ing from its female counterpart only in the display of an amply-tied knot. By suggesting a thicker waist via the knotted band, and a larger frame through drapery contours and visible muscula-

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ture, Castagno has subtly distinguished the male physique of Adam from the athletic femininity of Eve. As close as his renderings parallel one another in the lower bodies and mid-sections of these figures, there is never a hint of duplication or simple reversal of preliminary drawings. Judging from the V-shaped fold that starts be-

neath Adam's waistband, the continuation of the animal-skin garb to its culmination in shoulder knots (of which the one on the left is clearly visible) was likewise similar to Eve's. Unfortunately, this area of the Adam has been almost entirely ob- literated. Yet it is safe to assume that the garment continued more directly up the male torso and thus did not require the modest folding out of the fur lining as was done with the costume of Eve. Perhaps the most problematic area of the Villa

Carducci Adam is the neck and head region, which has been lost except for a fragment of the figure's right eye and its adjacent brow and cheekbone. Small though it may be, this critical fragment suf- fices to establish a leftward and slightly downward angling of the head. The physiognomy appears young and beardless, suggesting that it closely resembled the head of Christ in the Sant'Apollonia Resurrection - only in reverse (Fig. 5). The Adam differs slightly in its more regular hairline and sideways glance, but otherwise appears largely to agree in type.

In fact, there is a strong iconographic parallel between Adam and the risen Christ which supports an analogous treatment given their respective vis- ages. A connection between Adam and this aspect of Christ is found in the words of Paul from I Corinthians XV: 20-22, which led to a typological parallel between ?the risen Christ as agent of the glorious resurrection of the just and Adam as the author of natural life and death<<". The effect of this on artistic usage in Castagno's time can be found in works by Ghiberti and Uccello". In extending the figure search one can compare

the Carducci Adam and Eve with two similarly conceived subjects in the Piero della Francesca

" David Michael Stanley, Christ's Resurrection in Pauline Soteriology, Rome i96i, 177. The early church established the doctrine of >Recapitulation<< based on Irenaeus' interpretation of St. Paul: *What we had lost in Adam, that is, being after the image and likeness of God, we might recover in Christ Jesus<< (Against Here- tics, III. xix. I.) The >perfected< state of Adam as primal being and Christ as the risen saviour are thus related to one another in both >image and likeness<<, as abstract types and physical entities with a common spiritual im- print.

12 For the east doors of the Florentine Baptistry, Ghiberti portrayed Adam within the inner frieze (above-right) as muscular and idealized with a short beard and long hair, similar in all respects to Adam's appearance in Uccello's Creation of Adam and Fall of Man (Chiostro Verde, S. M. Novella) and directly parallel to the Christ of Uc- cello's own Resurrection window and Luca della Rob- bia's Resurrection lunette (both in Florence Cathedral).

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mural depicting the Death of Adam at San Fran- cesco in Arezzo (Fig. 6). Horster has rightly noted the connection between the female figure and Eve13, but passed over the possible link between the male figure and Adam. Although presented in profile, Piero's young male type is strikingly similar to that employed at Legnaia by Castagno. The partially clad youth even raises his right arm and glances sideways, closely approximating the Adam. Piero was too original an artist to repeat

exactly the formula of another, but the compara- bility of types in both pairs of figures cannot be ig- nored. Since no clear identity has been established for this couple, it may even be hypothesized that they represent a prefiguration of the elderly Adam and Eve on the right of the composition, already

'3 Horster, op. cit., 32. Piero transformed the Castagno feminine goddess/heroine type into a dramatic persona, fulfilling a narrative role within the Death ofAdam (San Francesco, Arezzo) while treated with reserve.

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Io. Reconstruction of Castagno's Adam. Drawing by C. Mode

aware of their mortality in the aftermath of the Ex-

pulsion. By a curious coincidence, the extended right hand

of Piero's male youth has been largely effaced in a manner similar to that of the right hand on Cas- tagno's Adam (Fig. 7). Whereas the left hand of Adam was made to clasp the handle of a hoe (or mattock), the right hand was extended forward with the palm upward in a gesture of presentation. The back of his right hand is sufficiently intact to suggest that the original contents were light and easily grasped - there being little bend or flexion in the tendons and fingers. A likely source for the arm and hand positions of

the Villa Carducci Adam is a well-known variant on the Landsdowne Herakles type, which had numerous Greco-Roman versions, where the ancient hero is shown clasping the handle of a knotty club resting beside him while presenting the apples

of the Hesperides in a demonstrative gesture (Fig. 8). That this type was known in Florence by the mid-1400's is attested to by the Bardi-Serzelli fresco version of the subject from the circle of Uc- cello (Fig. 9)14. In such examples, however, the up- raised hand of presentation grasps the apples with a curling of the fingers not indicated by what remains of Adam's right hand. It would not be acceptable for an Adam figure

with post-Expulsion characteristics to hold forth the forbidden fruit as if still in Eden. Nor does it seem likely that he should be offering fruits to the Madonna as Horster suggests'5, since the fictive >Madonna and Child<< in the portal lunette nearby is isolated within a separate, canopied space. Furthermore, a hand holding fruits of any kind would demand a grasping action which this Adam was denied on the basis of existing evidence. A more satisfactory solution to this problem is

provided by a passage in the apocryphal >Vita Adae et Evae<< which was found in texts of the so- called Apocalypsis Mosis known in North Italy from the i ith century onward'6. In recounting the

history of the Fall and Expulsion to her offspring, Eve makes the following declaration:

Thus spake the Lord and ordered us to be cast out of paradise. But your father Adam wept before the angels opposite paradise and the angels said to him: >>What wouldst thou have us to do, Adam?<< And your father saith unto them, >Behold, ye cast me out. I pray you, allow me to take away fragrant herbs from paradise, so that I may offer an offering to God after I have gone out

'4 Variants on the Landsdowne Herakles, both Greek and Roman, are surveyed in Seymour Howard, The Lands- downe Herakles, Malibu I966/rev. ed. 1978, 22-32. The fragmentary Herakles fresco from the Uccello workshop (Palazzo Bardi-Serzelli, Florence) is from late in the second quarter of the fifteenth century.

15 Horster, op. cit., 30. Referring to the raised hand of Adam, Horster properly identifies the gesture as offer- tory in nature without specifying an iconographic rationale for Adam literally engaging in an act of expia- tion before the >Madonna and Child&.

16 R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudoepig- rapha of the Old Testament in English, Oxford 1913, II, 148. Charles cites separate manuscript copies of the Apocalypsis Mosis originating in Milan (eleventh century), Venice (thirteenth century), and - outside Italy - in

.aris (fifteenth century). These and other appear- ances attest to its widespread and long-lasting influence within the apocryphal literature of the period.

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of paradise that he may hear me.<< And the angels ap- proached God and said: >>JAEL, Eternal King, com- mand my Lord that there be given to Adam incense of sweet odour from paradise and seeds for his foods.<< And God bade Adam go in and take sweet spices and fragrant herbs from paradise and seeds for his food. And the angels let him go and he took four kinds: crocus and nard, and calamus and cinnamon, and the other seeds for his food. And after taking these he went out of paradise. And we were on the earth'7.

It is not only apt but probable that the Carducci Adam held out herbs and seeds in his relatively open right hand. As the accompaniment to sacrificial offerings and the seeds of new life, these attri- butes would have special meaning in an enlarged program at the villa. Before essaying an overview of this program, the

complete likeness of Castagno's Adam can at last be surmised in all essentials (Fig. io). Standing on a low plinth, he resembled Eve in the way a slight contrapposto was imparted to an open stance that gave poise and balance to the lower body. The tilt of hips and trunk was resolved in squared-off shoulders, with the entire mid-section covered by an animal-skin garment. A youthful head was angled a bit downward to the left, with the eyes cast to the side. Long of limb, this Adam held an upright hoe in one hand while presenting herbs and seeds with the other. In his slender and graceful appearance he was depicted as mankind's ideal progenitor and the precursor of salvation. Another frame of reference for the Villa Carducci

Adam is provided by its association with the frescoed figure of St. John the Baptist (Fig. i i), executed (with a St. Francis) at Santa Croce in Flor- ence by Castagno's colleague, Domenico Ven- eziano. Wohl cites its derivation from the Baptist figure in the ,St. Lucy Altarpiece<< (ca. 1445-47), while maintaining that it predates an analogous figure by Castagno, the Annunziata St. Jerome (ca. 1454-55),8. His dating of 1450-53 places the Santa Croce St. John the Baptist in the immediate after-

17 Ibid. Apoc. Mos. xxix, 1-7. 8s Hellmut Wohl, The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano, New York and London 1980, 134-136. At one point Wohl notes an analogy between the St. John the Baptist and the Villa Carducci Eve (22), bypassing the more analogous Adam but identifying their commonality.

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math of the Villa Carducci project. Though close to its predecessor in the forties' altarpiece, this version of the Baptist also betrays familiarity with the Carducci Adam. Though angled in reverse the position of the legs, tilt of the trunk, and cinching of the animal-skin garment are close derivations from the figure at Legnaia. Most convincing is the treatment of the downthrust arm, which assumes a position precisely comparable to the arm of Adam holding the hoe. While the Castagno figure re- quires such a gesture to support an important attri- bute, the Baptist by Domenico Veneziano has no such requirement, indicating a self-conscious bor- rowing of the motif for its expressive effect. This leads to a consideration of the aforemen-

tioned St. Jerome, which Castagno untertook as part of the >>Trinity<< vision used in the Corboli Chapel at SS. Annunziata'9. Postdating the Villa Carducci scheme and reflecting the influence of Donatello, this figure still harks back to the Adam, expecially in its upper portion (Fig. 12). But of even greater interest is the sinopia for this St. Jerome discovered in 1967 (Fig. I3), which in its overall disposition and specific treatment of stance and gesture belongs midway between the Carducci and (final) Annunziata figure type. Thus in a brief span encompassing the early fourteen fifties, both Domenico Veneziano (to whom the sinopia has

'9 Horster, op. cit., 34-35 and i8i-i82.

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been occasionally ascribed)'2 and Castagno himself refined and expressively modified a formula that >>originated&< with Adam. The St. Jerome connection has yet another aspect

which bears upon the Villa Carducci loggia decoration. Antonio Billi, one of the earliest sources to identify Castagno's work at the villa, included there >et nella loggia de'Carducci a Soffiano, che oggi e decta casa de'Pandolfini, uno crucifisso, et uno s.to Girolamo e Maria, opera excellentis- sima<<". No trace of this was uncovered when the side wall opposite the Adam and Eve was investi- gated in 1966, but the documentation stands. It is possible that the singular phrasing >opera excel- lentissima<< after a listing of >uno crucifisso, et uno

s.to Girolamo e Maria<< implies a unified panel presentation rather than frescoed compartments. Such a rendering is found in S. Domenico at Fiesole, where a Botticellesque altarpiece depicting >>The Crucified Christ with Virgin Mary and St. Jerome< was long attributed to Castagno's cir- 20 Wohl, op. cit., 52-I 53. Wohl agrees with Meiss' initial

evaluation of the sinopia as the work of Castagno, ap- proaching the manner of Domenico Veneziano, whereas Domenico himself is credited with the under- drawing by Frederick Hartt, History of Italian Renais- sance Art, New York I969/2nd ed. I979, 269.

" Frey, op. cit., 23. This passage in Billi (c. 48v.) cannot refer to any other known Castagno fresco or panel, although the subjects appear in separate contexts as at S. Apollonia and (for St. Jerome) in the Madonna di Casa Pazzi (Palazzo Pitti) or SS. Annunziata, Florence.

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S. Domenico, Fiesole

cle (Fig. 14). More likely, a fresco with little architectural interruption - such as the baldachin opposite - filled the wall across from Adam and Eve but was subsequently removed because of surface deterioration or structural damage. In considering the entire program for the loggia

one must suppose the image of Mary opposite Eve and St. Jerome opposite Adam (with the crucified Christ at the center, fulfilling the promise contained in the >>Madonna and Child< lunette across from it). What emerges is a plan that integrates both side walls and places the uomini famosi within an enlarged context. Since there are no physical remains of the right side wall decoration, a precise reconstruction there is impossible. But knowing the essential components of its subject

matter, and inferring a continuity of setting, there is much that can be deduced without speculation. Across from Eve the figure of Mary would an-

nounce a new era of grace and the institution of the historical Ecclesia. Logically, Mary would be turned toward her Son, shown on the cross above a central doorway. This would properly counter the gaze of the figures opposite, i.e. Adam looking past a sacred prefiguration in the semi-enclosed lunette and Eve staring away into distant time and space (quite literally, beyond the loggia). The major epochs of Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfillment might then confront one another, while centered on Christ as the source of redemption in a fallen world. Lastly, St. Jerome, as father of the church and translator of

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the Vulgate, would have stood opposite Adam so as to witness the establishment of human history sub grazia in which faith transcends mere submis- sion. The earlier suggestion that Adam was holding

both herbs for offerings and seeds of new life can be strengthened by this presumed confrontation with St. Jerome. The Villa Carducci St. Jerome, like a derivative Castagno school-piece at San Miniato (Fig. 15), would have displayed his holy text as well as an implement of penitence. Whereas Adam could only submit to the laborious con- sequences of his sin, penance and salvation being impossible without divine grace, St. Jerome aspires to rise beyond the limits of the flesh. And just as early sacrificial offerings were superseded by Christ's sacrifice (contemplated here by the saint), so were the seeds of terrestrial life replaced by the seeds of spiritual life contained in Jerome's Vul- gate. As part of the thematic order within the Villa

Carducci loggia scheme, St. Jerome had particular importance because of his dual identity with penitential and intellectual devotions. Millard Meiss has demonstrated the close ties between devout scholarship and penitence in the Quattrocento interpretation of the saint". In fact a special venera- tion of Jerome was encouraged when Pope Mar- tin V established a separate rule for the Hierony- mites in 1429, leading Florence to revive the pious cause of the saint first established at S. Gerolamo in Fiesole by Beato Carlo around 1360. Meiss espe- cially notes the crisis of conscience that began af- fecting Tuscan humanists such as Boccaccio, and he even draws a parallel between the latter's rejec- tion of pagan influences and the simultaneous re- tirement from the world made by Beato Carlo in the name of St. Jerome'3. It is in this context that a representation of St.

Jerome on the right side wall of the loggia gains added significance. Not only would he have been located opposite the Adam, but also in a corner position directly adjacent to Boccaccio on the main wall. The moral and historical connection could not be overlooked, since Jerome had to reconcile pagan humanism with Christian faith in a transi-

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15. Circle of Castagno, St. Jerome. S. Miniato, Florence

tional age as had Boccaccio (together with Dante and Petrarch). Both as church father and penitential saint,

Jerome belonged on the side walls of the decora- tive complex together with the other sacred per- sonages. Their images, including those of Adam and Eve, were in keeping with archetypal and hagiographic ideals that determined their manner of presentation. They were meant to appear dis-

22 Millard Meiss, >>Scholarship and Penitence in the Early Renaissance: The Image of St. Jerome<<, Pantheon, XXXII, 134ff.

23 Ibid., 138. As Meiss effectively argues, the first wave of devotion to St. Jerome (ca. 136o) was followed by a later movement culminating around 1450 when the pietism fostered by St. Antoninus affected a patrician Florentine society (witness Cosimo de'Medici's foundation of a new church and monastery for S. Gerolamo, Fiesole, and the commissions to Castagno from the Pazzi, Cor- boli, and - based on Billi - Carducci families).

513



tinct from the uomini famosi, with their portrait- like features and elaborate costumes. Yet they con- tributed to a programmatic synthesis that could not otherwise have been accomplished. The complex meaning of the Villa Carducci fres-

coes by Castagno was dependent upon a Christ- ian/humanistic fusion of moral history with a pro- cess of exemplar selection that ranged from Adam to the contemporary world of Quattrocento Flor- ence. When viewed in isolation the uominifamosi were seen as a set of character models following iconographic lines popular during the fifteenth century, albeit individualized by a guiding humanist advisor. But put together with the Adam and Eve, as well as the lost figures on the wall opposite, they constitute a syncretic formula that no

comparable undertaking of the period could equal24. From Adam onward, history has been ab- ridged by humanistic thought into a peculiarly Re- naissance juxtaposition of temporal achievment with divine inevitability.

24 Although the uomini famosi programs undertaken for the Orsini at Monte Giordano in Rome (ca. 1430-32) and proposed by Filarete for Sforzinda were grander in scope, they did not attempt a selective syncretism unit- ing pagan and moral views of history. Worthy paragons from antiquity appeared with Christian exemplars in late medieval neuf preux imagery; but among fifteenth century schemes, only the civic examples such as Tad- deo di Bartolo's frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (1413-14) or Domenico Ghirlandaio's mural in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence (1482-85) show a humanistic approach to their planning.

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