The Meaning of Mantegna's Battle of Sea Monsters

Author(s): Michael A. Jacobsen

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Dec., 1982), pp. 623-629
Published by: College Art Association
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NOTES 623

The Meaning of Mantegna's Battle of Sea Monsters

Michael A. Jacobsen

1 Mantegna, Battle of Sea Monsters, engraving. Ithaca, Cornell University, Johnson Museum of Art

on Battle
any single
text, but rather on a literary topos, ther
The engraving by Mantegna that Vasari called the
of Sea
ing the
likelihood
that his subject would be recognized
Monsters (Fig. 1) must be counted among the artist's
most
inaudience.
those familiar with Mantegna him
fluential works, and it ranks among the masterpieces
of Further,
early
recognized
printmaking.' Despite its clear imagery and the have
inscription
IN- in the print a reference to his person
VID (Envy) on a plaque held by one of the figures ment
in thewith
left the
halftheme of envy among artists. The top
Mantegna
built his iconography is that of the T
of the composition, problems continue to attend the
interpretation of the work. In particular, it has not been mythical
clear howrace
the of sea monsters famed as artists.
Sea Monsters was engraved across two copper
iconography relates to literary sources, ancient orThe
Renaissance,
halves joining
or indeed if such sources played any role in the invention
of theto suggest the format of a classical f
low, marshy
area, a group of nine figures, includin
subject. The present study will attempt an explanation
of the
nereids,
and eshippocamps, battle among themselves,
print's iconography that, it is hoped, readers will
find less
Envy,
who rides
a sea monster at the left. Personifi
oteric than previous ones. It proposes that Mantegna
relied
not

Vienna,
1 Le opere di Giorgio Vasari con nuove annotazionigraveur,
e commenti
di 1802-1821, xiii) and Hind (as in n. 1) 5,
340 Xin
445mm
Louvre.) The right half is B 17
Gaetano Milanesi, Florence, 1906, ri, 409: "... intagliare
rame (platemark,
le
The dimensions
stampe delle figure, che b commodith veramente singularissima,
mediante are the same, leading Hind to speculat

engraved on
sides of the same copper plate. On th
la quale ha potuto vedere il mondo non solamente la Baccaneria,
la reverse
batof thedidesign
taglia de' mostri marini, il Deposto di Croce, il Seppellimento
Cristo,to
lathe antique, see F. Eichler, "Mantegnas S
und
die
Antike," Festschrift Karl Swobodas, Vienna, 19
Resurrezione con Longino e con Sant' Andrea, opere di
esso
Mantegna,

ma le maniere ancora di tutti gli artefici che sono stati."Bilostocki,

The influence
of Sea Thiasos in Renaissance Sepulchral
"The
Presented
to Anthony
Blunt, London, 1967, 69f.; P. Bober
Mantegna's printmaking and prints is attested to by the
large number
of

Sea Early
Thiasos
in the Renaissance," Essays in Memory of Kar
copies and derivations from them listed in A. M. Hind,
Italian
New York,
1964, 43-48; M. Vickers, "The 'Palazzo Santacroce
Engraving, London, 1938-48, v, 15-16, and in my Columbia
University

Sketchbook;'
A New
Ph.D. thesis, "The Engravings of Mantegna," 1976,
161f. For
the Source for Andrea Mantegna's 'Triumph of

probable date of the Sea Monsters, see below, n. 25. Caesar,' 'Bacchanals,' and 'Battle of Sea Gods,'" Burlington Magazine,

cxiii,by
1976,
My research on Mantegna has been generously supported
the 823-34.
S. H. The sources proposed by Vickers are entirely
hypothetical,
as Unipointed out by Pollard in a subsequent issue of the same
Kress Foundation, the Department of Art History,
Columbia

versity, the Graduate School, Cleveland State University,

and (cxIx,
the Office
journal
574.) For existing ancient sarcophagi with marine imagery,
A. Rumpf,
Die Meerwesen
auf den antiken Sarcophagreliefs, v in C.
of Research, University of Georgia, for which I am see
most
grateful;
a
Robert,
Dieowed
antiken
monograph on the artist is in progress. My special thanks
are
to Sarcophag-reliefs, Berlin, 1890-. For their
Professor James H. Beck, Columbia, and to Professor Peter
Meller,
availability
in Unithe Renaissance, see I. Ragusa, "The Re-use and Public

versity of California, Santa Barbara.

Exhibition of Roman Sarcophagi during the Middle Ages and Early
Renaissance,"
M.A. thesis, New York University, 1951.
2 The left half of the Sea Monsters is Bartsch 15 (A. Bartsch,
Le peintre-

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624 THE ART BULLETIN DECEMBER 1982 VOLUME LXIV NUMBER 4

telligence, so among humans the Venetians are the least capable

of humanity, and naturally, for they pass their lives in the water,

companions of fish and crowds of marine monsters."6 The

moralizing nature of the composition is confirmed by Mantegna's use of several motifs that commonly occur in northern
Italian art of the period. The swamp is contrasted with the city or

fortress on a hill, or simply with the hill, a motif Panofsky

2 Late Roman, Sea Thiasos Sarcophagus. Pisa, Camposanto

termed the Tugendburg.7 Hence virtue and vice are contrasted in

the landscape itself, a motif featured in scenes of Hercules at the

Crossroads and similar situations, such as the allegory in the

National Gallery, Washington, from Bishop de'Rossi's portrait
cover by Lorenzo Lotto (Fig. 3).8 In it, a drunken satyr lolling by
hag, Envy extends her arm toward the others, dangling over the a lagoon inhabited by a sea monster is contrasted to a winged
battle scene a plaque inscribed with her name.3 Nearby is genius who studies liberal arts and then ascends the path up the
positioned a statue of Neptune, seen from the rear; he faces a dis- mountain of virtue at the left. Besides the Tugendburg, Mantant hill-top city. There can be no question that a Roman relief tegna also included in the Sea Monsters the clipeum virtutis, or
sculpture of the sea thiasos type, such as on a sarcophagus at shield of virtue, suspended to Neptune's right. A motif familiar
Pisa (Fig. 2), inspired the forms of Mantegna's sea monsters. But from antique sculpture but not previously properly identified in
the action of the battle and the connection with Envy must have the context of Mantegna's engraving, the clipeum virtutis occome from elsewhere, for no known ancient relief shows these curs, for example, on the Column of Trajan, in exactly such a
motifs.a Scholars have sought these elements in literary sources, foreshortened view. From that source it was drawn in the Codex
but up to now no proposal has found widespread acceptance.5 Excurialensis by a late quattrocento artist close to Ghirlandaio.9
Clearly, no specific literary source is necessary to understand One might also include the statue of Neptune on the list of
the subject on a basic level. That the vice of envy has motivated recognizably moralizing motifs, for it is placed close to the other
this scurrilousness is evident. The use of mythological creatures, such motifs and Neptune faces away from the battle and toward
half human and half animal, to indicate mankind's baser nature the Tugendburg; in addition, later Renaissance sources such as
was common in the Renaissance. Similarly, the swampy locale the mythographer Vincenzo Cartari specifically made the conwas often associated with vice, a long-standing Platonic notion nection between virtue and the image of Neptune with a
that had become widely known. Thus Pope Pius II (1458-1464) dolphin.10
wrote, on hearing that Venice had outmaneuvered him in the
The message of the engraving, then, would not have mystified
purchase of the town of Cervia, "What do fish care about law?Mantegna's audience, for most reasonably learned persons of the

As among brute breats aquatic creatures have the least in-period would have been familiar with some or all of these motifs.

SThe plaque is inscribed INVID, abbreviated from Invidia. Several attempts have been made to decipher the marks below the inscription, all

unsuccessful. Most have interpreted them as a date, e.g., A. Petrucci,

"Andrea Mantegna, Incisore," Dedalo, n, 1930/31, 416, as the year 1461;
P. Zani, Materiali per servire alla storia dell'incisione, Parma, 1872, 57f.,
as 1481; K. Shepard, "Antique Sculpture in Prints," Hesperia, xxxvimi,
1969, 223-30, as 1493. E. Battisti proposed that the symbols repeat the
word Invidia in pseudo-Greek, in "Mantegna e la letteratura classica,"
Atti del VI Convegno di Studi sul Rinascimento; Arte, pensiero, e cultura
a Mantova nel primo rinascimento, Florence, 1965, 23f. They are called

mere scribbles by E. Tietze-Conrat, Mantegna, London, 1955, 241, but

M. Meiss, Mantegna as Illuminator, Princeton, 1957, has correctly

deciphered a much longer inscription written in similar characters in a
work which, if not by Mantegna, is closely associated with him. The

marks are also similar to certain astrological signs associated with

melancholy, an interpretation that would complement the iconography
as explained here; see F. Saxl, et al., Saturn and Melancholy, London,
1964, fig. 122, etc. Finally, similar marks have been made by scoring over

the signature on a Mantegna-inspired engraving by Nicoletto da

Modena, for which see M. Jacobsen, "Vulcan Forging Cupid's Wing,"
Art Bulletin, LIV, 1972, 418, and fig. 1.
Mantegna's Envy follows a tradition begun by Giotto, whose personification of the vice is the first in Italian art, according to S. Pfeiffen-

berger, "The Iconography of Giotto's Virtues and Vices," Ph.D. diss.,

Bryn Mawr, 1966, 51.1. A relationship of Mantegna's Envy to some
drawings by Leonardo was first pointed out in my Ph.D. thesis (as in n.

1) 111f., and since published by M. Vickers, "The Sources of Invidia in

Mantegna's 'Battle of Sea Gods,'" Apollo, Oct., 1977, 270f.

4 For the antique sources, see n. 2. Also, S. Lattimore, The Marine

but it seems unlikely. The only example of an ancient relief showing

fighting monsters remotely resembling sea monsters known to me is a
gigantomachy illustrated in P. Bober, "The Census of Antique Works of
Art," Studies in Western Art; The Renaissance and Mannerism, Acts of
the XXIII International Congress in the History of Art, Princeton, 1963,
pl. 43, fig. 15.
s R. Forster, "Die Meergotter des Mantegna," Jahrbuch der koniglichen

preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xxmii, 1902, 205f.; P. Kristeller,

Mantegna, London, 1901, 405f.; E. Simon, "Diirer und Mantegna:
1494," Anzeiger Germanisches Nationalmuseums, 1971-72, 21-40; also
the articles by Battisti and Vickers cited above, nn. 2 and 3.
6 L. Gabel, ed., Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope, the Commentaries of
Pius II, trans. by F.A. Gragg, New York, 1959, 301f.; also quoted in
trans. in D.S. Chambers, The Imperial Age of Venice, London, 1970, 96.
For the Platonic origins of the combination man/animal, see E. H. Gom-

brich, Symbolic Images, London, 1972, 216, n. 146.

7 E. Panofsky, Hercules am Scheidewege, Leipzig, 1930, 70f.; Jacobsen,
1972 (as in n. 3) n. 19.
a F. R. Shapley, The Samuel H. Kress Collection, Italian Paintings of the
XV-XVI Century, New York, 1968, 157f.

9 H. Egger, Ein Skizzenbuch aus der Werkstatt Domenico Ghirlandaios,

Vienna, 1906, 95. The same figure served as a model for a drawing of the
Paduan school, close to Mantegna and perhaps by Parentino, for which

see J.B. Shaw, "A Lost Portrait of Mantegna and a Group of Paduan
Drawings," Old Master Drawings, Ix, 1934, 1-7. For the motif in the antique, see G. Picard, Les Trophies romains, Paris, 1957, 267f., 386f., who
discusses the connection of the shield to virtue, and R. Winkes, Clipeata

Imago, Bonn, 1969, 41f. In the drawing of the Ghirlandaio school the

Thiasos in Greek Art, Los Angeles, 1976, gives a clear account of the

shield is inscribed Victory (a winged Victory sits before it); for the op-

types of sea monsters that figure in ancient art. The possibility that Man-

position of Envy and Victory, see below.

tegna misinterpreted a damaged ancient sculpture may be entertained,

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NOTES 625

We might then ask, as have others, whether the artist intended

anything more specific, and whether he utilized any texts in

developing a further meaning. Long ago Richard Fi6rster

proposed that Mantegna's sea monsters were the pacifist
Icthyophagi described by Diodorus Siculus - fish-eaters who
lived off the coast of Ethiopia."11 Tlhis proposal found limited
acceptance earlier in the century but has since been widely
rejected.12 The text provides no specific connection with Envy or
the other motifs cited above, but apart from that, the strongest

reason for rejecting Fdrster's proposal has always been that it

requires the artist's familiarity with a single, fairly obscure
(though available) text - a frequent complaint about the suggestions in iconographic studies. In searching for a classical text as a
source for Mantegna's design, however, it appears that F6rster
overlooked a rather commonly mentioned race of sea monsters,
the Telchines. Their legend, it is proposed, did inform Man-

tegna's print. The Telchines lived at Rhodes, then called

Telchinis according to legend, and they were the famous
sculptors of that locale. Proverbially spiteful, they are mentioned
or described in a variety of texts not only available to Mantegna,
but in several instances collected or translated by humanists with

ties to the Gonzaga of Mantua, Mantegna's employers.

The most complete account of the Telchines is given in

Strabo's Geography, which locates them at Rhodes and relates

their skill as artists, especially sculptors, and as sorcerers and
maligners. They especially quarreled with rival artists, Strabo
reports.13 The Geography was translated by Guarino of Verona
and by Francesco Filelfo, both known at the Mantuan court, and,

according to Millard Meiss, the Strabo manuscript now at Albi

was illuminated in Mantegna's shop soon after the artist began
working for Lodovico Gonzaga.14 Pindar, an author
recommend3 Lorenzo
Lotto, Allegory. Washington, National Ga
ed by Lionello d'Este, whose family was closely tied to the Gonzaga, explains that these early Rhodians were sculptors whose
statues were so lifelike they were constantly getting up and running away, an example of the type of anecdote
beloved
by the lower air ... with a mind arm
moving
through
Renaissance artists.15 All of the ancient sources
agree
on the
and
mischief
as the Telchines."'6 The Biblioteca La
spitefulness of the Telchines, while Nonnos goes
further,the
compreserves
original text of the Dionysiaca collected
paring them in his Dionysiaca to Envy: "Swiftquently
lept uptranslated
Envy
by Francesco Filelfo; a quattrocen

10 V. Cartari, Le imagini degli dei degli antichi, Venice,

(repr. Graz,
13 1647
Strabo, Geography
xxv. 2, and x. 3 (Loeb Classical Library, trans. H.L.
For example:
"Since the
1963), 314f., where a gem in the Grimani collection,Jones.)
Venice,
is cited
as Telchines excelled in workmanship, they
werefor
themselves
maligned by rival workmen and thus received their bad
showing Neptune holding a dolphin to signify his love
Amphitrite,

But most was

authorities, Strabo continues, have it that they
who herself symbolizes virtue, according to Cartari.reputation."
The dolphin
their bad reputation.
long connected to virtue and to salvation on the basisdeserved
of ancient
myths On the Telchines, see the article by Herter

in Pauly-Wissowa,
der klassischen Altertumsand their transformation in Christian imagery. The story
of Arion Real-Encyclopiidie
saved
Wissenschaft,
1934, v-a, i, 197-224; further sources are cited
by a dolphin, one of the most important of these myths,
is told Stuttgart,
by Manbelow. The Icthyophagi
cited by Forster out of Diodorus Siculus, Delle
tegna on the ceiling of the Camera degli Sposi, the iconography
of which
antique historie
fabulose,
Venice, 1542, Iv, 56f., may have been confused
awaits a thorough study. The mythological lunettes have
not yet
been

with the Telchines,

butThe
they are clearly a different race, dwelling off
satisfactorily related to the central oculus or to the Gonzaga
family.
Ethiopia. I am explained
very grateful to Professor Peter Meller for suggesting I
meaning of the spectators in the oculus has now been plausibly
pursue the
identification
of Mantegna's sea monsters with the Telchines.
by G. Mulazzani, "La fonte letteraria della 'Camera degli
sposi,'"
Arte
lombarda, L, 1978, 33-46. Arion on a dolphin was clearly
with des classischen Altertums, Berlin, 1880, 189,
14 G.associated
Voigt, Weiderbelebung
virtue, as a Venetian medal of 1457 by Giovanni Boldi
proves;
it repren. 1.
For the Strabo
MS now at Albi, Bibliothbque Rochegude 4, see Meiss
sents on the obverse the poet or musician Filippo Maserano,
and on the
(as in n. 3), 30f.
reverse Arion with the inscription "virtuti omnia parent." (G. Hill and G.
15 Pindar, Olympia vii. 57f. For the reference to Pindar at the Este court,
Pollard, Renaissance Medals at the National Gallery of Art, London,
see W. Gundersheimer, Ferrara, the Style of a Renaissance Despotism,
1967, 29, n. 139.)
Princeton, 1973, 115. No comments are made on Pindar's content other
11 See n. 5.
than to recommend him.
.12 Tietze-Conrat (as in n. 3), 243; Battisti, (as in n. 3) 32f.; K. Oberhuber,
J. Levenson, and J. Sheehan, Early Italian Engravings from the National
Gallery of Art, Washington, 1973, 192.

16 Nonnos, Dionysiaca vIII. 104f; my translation is corrected from

Rouse's, in the Loeb series (London, 1940), where "Boggart's mind" is
given for "Telchines." Rouse calls attention to his change in a footnote.

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626 THE ART BULLETIN DECEMBER 1982 VOLUME LXIV NUMBER 4

4 School of Mantegna, Virtus Combusta, upper half, engraving.5 School of Mantegna, Virtus Combusta, lower half ("Virtus
deserta")
Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund

appears as a painter who solicits advice from various scholars on

Venice.17 Nonnos also speaks of the Telchines as participating in
any fight in their vicinity (xxx. 226), and as riding sea horseshow to render a personification of Justice, finding no agreement
(xxvII. 105f.) Strabo provides the information that there wereamong his advisers.19
nine Telchines, a number that corresponds to the number of Among Mantegna's works that best demonstrate this method,
figures in Mantegna's engraving, Envy and Neptune asideit may be worth discussing briefly the engraving - again on two
(Geography x. iii. 19). Ovid credits them with the evil eye, andcontiguous plates - known as Virtus Combusta (Figs. 4-5).
relates that because of their vitriolic nature, "Jove, who hatedAlthough it was engraved by another artist, it is indisputable that
them, swept them off the earth to flounder in the waves of Nep-Mantegna invented and designed the subject, and a drawing for
tune's ocean" (Metamorphoses vii. 365).18 Thus the statue of the upper half by his hand survives in the British Museum.20 The
Neptune in Mantegna's print, already cited as a possible iconography of the Virtus Combusta was first explained by
reference to virtue, might also be an attribute of the TelchinesForster, and in this case his findings have been confirmed and
both as sculptors and as dwellers in "Neptune's ocean."
amplified by subsequent studies.21 In the print, Fortune and
The Telchines, then, were a topos representing irascibility, Mercury are contrasted, a motif traced by Forster to a text by
they were artists, and they were linked to Envy. Their legend is Galen. Representing the virtue of the intellect, Mercury rescues
related in a number of texts, some commonplace, others less wellan unfortunate soul fallen victim to the vices personified in the
known. But in the case of the latter, the texts were collected by upper half of the composition. Their foul council leads to the pit
humanists in Mantegna's orbit, and the most important of these of ignorance. The inscription "S.A.I." in the lower left, Forster
may well have been illuminated in Mantegna's own shop. Given
perceived, stands for a phrase found twice in Mantegna's extant
this situation, it is hard to imagine that the master's attention was
letters, "virtuti semper adversatur ignorantia."22 In one of these
not drawn to the story of the Telchines, the more so since hisletters, the sentiment is linked to envy. Writing to his employer
own problems with rival artists were legion - a point to whichFrancesco Gonzaga in 1491, Mantegna opines that "... virtuti
we will return. Beyond this, it is known that Mantegna's worksemper adversatur ignorantia, che b verissimo che sempre la ining method included the seeking of advice from his humanistvidia regna negli uomini da pocho e sonno inimici della virtti e
friends. If not amply demonstrated by other of his survivingdegli uomini da bene."
works and by documents, this point is the fulcrum of Battista "Small men ruled by envy" is a characterization Mantegna
Fiera's dialogue On the Painting of Justice, in which Mantegna
may well have applied to enemies such as his former guardian

17 Filelfo collected the Greek text now in the Laurenziana, Ms xxxII 16, in

1427. In 1459, when Lodovico Gonzaga was attempting to coax Mantegna to Mantua, Filelfo's son was the Gonzaga tutor, while Francesco
himself turned to the Gonzaga for financial help on several occasions; see
Kristeller (as in n. 5), 189-90. For the recovery of Nonnos' text and 15th-

century manuscripts, see A. Sabbadini, Le scoperte dei codici latini e

greche nei secoli XIV e XV, Florence, 1905, 48, and R. Keydell,
"Nonnos," in Pauly-Wissowa, Stuttgart, 1936, xvii, i, 917. A. Chastel,
Art et humanisme a Florence au temps de Laurent le Magnifique, Paris,

1961, 60, regards Nonnos as a possible source for Donatello's Bacchic

scenes, citing the Dionysiaca xx. 182.
18 F.J. Miller, ed. and trans., Ovid, Metamorphoses, London, 1960, n, 760f.
19 J. Wardrop, ed. and trans., On the Painting of Justice by Battista Fiera,

London, 1957. According to Wardrop, the dialogue is set in Rome (when

Mantegna was frescoing the Chapel of Innocent VIII) about 1488-1490,

but it was actually composed ca. 1515, nine years after the artist's death.
20 A. E. Popham and P. Pouncey, A Catalogue of Drawings in the British
Museum, The Italian Schools, I, London, 1951, 157. Since the drawing is
colored, it is unlikely that Mantegna's primary purpose was to design an
engraving.
21 R. F6rster, "Studien zu Mantegna und der Bildern im Studierzimmer der

Isabella d'Este Gonzaga," Jahrbuch der kbniglichen preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xxii, 1901, 54f., 78f; D. and E. Panofsky, Pandora's Box,
Kingsport, 1956; E. Dwyer, "A Note on the Sources of Mantegna's Virtus

combusta," Marsyas, xv, 1971, 58-62.

22 Kristeller, Mantegna, Berlin, 1902, Docs. 102,112. The English editionof
Kristeller's monograph does not contain all of the documents. The dates of
the two letters cited here are January 31, 1489 and November 28, 1491. A
portion of the latter is quoted below.

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NOTES 627

Sea Monsters reveal more of their creator's personalit

usual in fifteenth-century art. But they are not un
respect. The theme of the Calumny of Apelles had b
to artists' attention as early as 1435 by Leon Battist

Lorenzo Leombruno's variation on this theme (wh

drawn by Mantegna) now in the Brera Gallery (Fig
inscriptions that make it clear that the painting re

author's fall from grace at the Gonzaga court after th

Giulio Romano.27 As Mantegna's pupil, Leombruno

been acquainted with the theme and its ramificatio
Mantegna. He was perhaps even familiar with Mante
tions in inventing the subjects of the engravings in

least he borrowed motifs from both the Virtus Combu

Sea Monsters. The figure of Envy from the latter

Leombruno's Calumny group, her outstretched arm
holding a plaque but now pointing accusingly. From

Combusta Leombruno borrowed the humanized laurel tree that

6 Lorenzo Leombruno, Allegory of Fortune. Milan,

Breravirtue
Gallery
signifies
deserted; in the painting a little satyr urinates on
(photo: Alinari)
the tree. Others among the vices are similar.28

To return to Mantegna's own work, a few words concerning

the engraved Bacchanals (Figs. 7-8) are called for, since this combeen
regarded by many to be closely related, or even
Francesco Squarcione, whom Mantegna once position
sued has
and
who
to the Sea Monsters.29 As with the latter print, no
criticized Mantegna's paintings as too lapidary,23 pendant,
or the plagiarist

published
printmakers Zoan Andrea and Simone da Reggio,
who suggestion
in 1475 as to its meaning or sources has found
acceptance, notwithstanding the increasing number
evidently were issuing unauthorized copies widespread
of Mantegna's
of representations
of the subject in the Renaissance, and the atengravings.24 Mantegna's solution to that problem
was to have
tention
devoted to it in the literature. Mantegna's treatment of
the two beaten by hired thugs, according to Simone's
testimony.
If the date of the Battle of Sea Monsters may be the
putsubject,
abouthowever,
1475, is unusual in several respects. More commonly,
a Bacchic
scene took the form of a procession with a
as Mezzetti first cogently argued, citing stylistic
parallels
with
triumphal
as in Jacopo Bellini's drawing, or in a Florenthe Camera degli Sposi,25 then perhaps Mantegna
hadchariot,
exactly
these troubles in mind when he designed the engraving.
Be that
tine print about
contemporary with Mantegna's design.30 Mantegna
instead
features
as it may, such works as the Virtus Combusta and
the
Battle
of the vat, which must remained fixed, and

23 As reported by Vasari (as in n. 1), 389. Mantegna's litigation with Squar- Study in the Humanist Tradition, New Haven, 1981.
cione is documented; see E. Rigoni, L'arte rinascimentale a Padova, studi e 27 For Leombruno and his allegory, see C. Gamba, "Lorenzo Leombruno,"
documenti, Padua, 1970, and V. Lazzarini, "Documenti relativi alla pittura
Rassegna d'arte, v, 1906, 65-70; C. Perina, et al., Mantova, Le arti, ii, Man-

padovana del secolo XV," Archivio veneto, xv, 1908.

24 As may be deduced from the letter written by the printmaker Simone da

tua, 1961, 392f., 425, n. 259; B. Intra, "Lorenzo Leombruno e Giulio

Romano," Archivio storico lombardo, ser. II, 1887-88, 569-578.

Reggio to the Marquis of Mantua in 1475 and first published by K. Brun, 28 Leombruno certainly also knew Mantegna's Minerva, in which many

"Neue Dokumente uber Andrea Mantegna," Zeitschrift f!ir bildende similar vices are also present; see E. Verheyen, The Paintings in the
Kunst, XL, 1876, 23-26, and in facsimile by G. Paccagnini, Mantegna, Studiolo of Isabella d'Este, New York, 1971; P. Hirschfeld, "Isabella d'Este
Milan, 1961, 52, and in English by C. Gilbert, Italian Art: 1400-1500, Gonzaga und Mantegna: Das Studiolo in Mantua," Deutscher KunstSources and Documents in the History of Art, Englewood Cliffs, 1980, 10- verlag, 1968,114-129; V. Tatrai, "Osservazioni circa due allegorie del Man-

11. Simone's orthographic errors cast doubt on his meaning. He writes,

"Quando vene in Mantova, Mantegna me fece offerte." Literally this
translates, "When he came to Mantua, Mantegna made me offers," and
thus refers to ca. 1460. So Brun inferred. But Kristeller proposed that

tegna," Acta Historiae Artium, xviii, 1972, 233-50; M.-A. Debout, "La

Representation des Vices par Mantegna: L'Hermaphrodite a tate de singe,"

Revuedu Louvre, xxv, 1975, iv, 227-230. Mantegna also made a drawing of
the Calumny of Apelles, today in the British Museum (Popham and PounSimone meant to say "when I came," referring to a time nearer 1475. For the cey [as in n. 20] n. 158.)
latter reading to be correct, "vene" should read "venni." The dropping of a
29 Although all of the authorities except Oberhuber (as in n. 12), 182f., date
consonant is common and harmless, but the changing of a vowel alters the
subject of the sentence. Thus Kristeller emends Simone's letter, predicated

the two sets of plates to the same time in consideration of their close stylistic

affinities, no one has successfully linked the two themes. The most recent

on the idea that ca. 1460 is too early a date for Mantegna's interest in
attempt to do so is M. Vickers, "The Intended Setting of Mantegna's
printmaking. Gilbert prefers Kristeller's reading, but perhaps the literal
'Triumph
of Caesar,' 'Battle of Sea Gods,' and 'Bacchanals,'" Burlington
sense should be retained.

Magazine, cxvy, 1978, 365f. Cogent arguments against this proposal have
25 A. Mezzetti in G. Paccagnini, Mantegna: Catalogo della mostra, Venice, already been made in the letters column of that journal in numbers cxx,
1961, 188f. Other proposed dates are: Kristeller (as in n. 5), 393f., 1488-

603f., and cxxI, 675f. One attractive aspect of Vickers' arguments,

1490; Hind (as in n. 1), ca. 1490; E. Tietze-Conrat, "Was Mantegna an however, is that Envy and Victory are connected. For further evidence of

Engraver?," Gazette des beaux-arts, xxiv, 1943, 375f., 1465-1470 (as ex- that connection, see below.

ecuted to Mantegna's designs by assistants); Battisti (as in n. 3), 33f., 1488-

3o For Bellini, see F. Saxl, "Jacopo Bellini and Mantegna as Antiquarians,"

1490 (as possibly inspired by Mantegna's rivalry with other artists while he
Lectures, London, 1958, 65f.; B. Degenhart and A. Schmitt, "Ein Musterwas in Rome during those years); Oberhuber, et al. (as in n. 12), 182-88,

blatt des Jacopo Bellini mit Zeichnungen nach der Antike," Festschrift

1485-88. I intend to discuss the dates of Mantegna's engravings elsewhere;

Luitpold Dussler, Berlin, 1972,139-68. For the engraving see Hind (as in n.
with Mezzetti and, to a lesser extent Oberhuber, I find in favor of earlier
1), II, "Florentine, n. 26." There are also distinct compositions from both
dates for the autograph prints.
sources of putti at the vintage (Oberhuber [as in n. 12], figs. 6-5, 6-6.)
26 On the Calumny of Apelles, see now D. Cast, The Calumny ofApelles, A

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628 THE ART BULLETIN DECEMBER 1982 VOLUME LXIV NUMBER 4

7 Mantegna, Bacchanal with a Vat, engraving. New York,

Metropolitan Museum of Art

8 Mantegna, Bacchanal with Silenus, engraving. London, British

Museum

only a few figures on the far right hint at the possibility of aremains in doubt with regard to Mantegna's composition.33 Still,
procession; there is, of course, no chariot. And Bacchus himselfthere are elements of the engravings that could refer to virtue:
the revelry itself, music-making, the grape arbor and wine, and
is not certainly present, though I believe him to be the figure
possibly the nude Bacchus. Somewhat later in the sixteenth cenreceiving the crown. The closest parallel to Mantegna's composition is the well-known Bacchanal of the Andrians by Titian, for tury Cartari associates these elements with virtue, and the grape
and wine, of course, have Christian significance.34 But their roles
which Philostratus provided a source.3' The same text, however,
does not relate very clearly to Mantegna's composition, though ithere, and the establishment of the appropriate context for intergoes on to bring the procession of revellers to the shore to meetpretation, yet elude us. Care is required because other motifs in
Bacchus' ship, and thus might connect this scene to sea creaturesthe same composition may be associated with vice. The vulgar
pose of the obese Silenus contrasts with that of Bacchus; Silenus
(but not fighting ones.)32 This passage, if known in Mantua at
was usually ridiculed in antique sources.35 The piggyback rider
the time, could have been suggestive, but it hardly explains the
at the far left resembles the personification of Sloth in Minerva
artist's intentions in the engravings.
A Bacchanal in Renaissance imagery might signify either a vir-Expelling the Vices (Fig. 9) by Mantegna, and also of Fortune or
Ignorance (the seated figure in the upper right) of the Virtus
tue or a vice, and, alas, the plaque hanging from the tree in the
background of the Bacchanal with a Vat bears no inscription toCombusta.36 It happens that one of the few humanist texts of the
parallel that of Envy. Wind has argued that a Bacchic scene in theperiod that provided an artist a program of which we are fairly
certain includes a scene of drunkenness signifying vice. This ocRenaissance could have the sense of a mystic revelation through
drunkenness, and this may well be so in some instances, but it iscurs in Bartolommeo Scala's Apologues from which the iconogunconvincingly attributed to Jacopo Bellini's drawing andraphy of the relief sculptures in Scala's own Florentine palazzo

pears as the dignified tutor of the infant Bacchus, not as the fat drunk; see
31 H. Murutes, "Personifications of Laughter and Sleep in Titian's

W. Roscher, Ausfiihrliches Lexicon der greichischen und r6mischen

'Bacchanal of the Andrians,'" Burlington Magazine, cxv, 1973, 518f.
Leipzig, 1897, Iv, lxii, 503-515.
32 Philostratus, Imagines, trans. A. Fairbanks, New York, 1931, Mythologie,
Bk. I:
36 on
On athe identification of this figure, see the biblio. cited in n. 21. The
"Consider, however, what is to be seen in this painting; the river lies

piggyback
rider seems to have been suggested by a well-known sarconch of grape clusters, pouring out its stream [of wine], undiluted
and
agitated in appearance; thyrsi grow along its banks like reeds ... andcophagus
if one now in the British Museum, although the riders there are not of
the obese
type of Mantegna's; see R. O. Rubinstein, "A Bacchic Sargoes along ... past the land and drinking groups, he comes at length
on
cophagus
tritons at the river's mouth, who are dipping up wine in seashells."
E. in the Renaissance," British Museum Yearbook, 1976, i, 103-56.
As with the Sea Monsters, single figures in Mantegna's composition may
Wind, Bellini's "Feast of the Gods," Cambridge, Mass., 1958, 56, doubts
Philostratus was known in Mantua in 1506.
be derived from antique sources, but the whole is his own invention. I find
the comparison of Mantegna's Bacchus with the Apollo Belvedere, first
33 E. Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, New Haven, 1958, 177f.,
suggested
by I. Blum, Mantegna und die Antike, Strassburg, 1936, 90f.,
basing his position on Ficino's commentaries on the works of Plato; the latter's characterization of Bacchus as Philosophy occurs in the Phaedo. 67- unconvincing. C. M. Brown, "Gleanings from the Gonzaga Documents in
Mantua - Gian Cristoforo Romano and Andrea Mantegna," Mitteilungen
69.

4 Cartari (as in n. 10), 216f., "... li effeti del ubriachezza, che sono

rivelationi di cose occulte furore, libidini, e simili." For Christ and the

winepress, see G. Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Greenwich,

Conn., 1972, II, 228f.
3 E.g., Ovid, Fasti III. 735-44, in a passage used by Piero di Cosimo, according to Panofsky, Studies in Iconology, New York, 1962, 61f. In the few examples cited by Wind (as in n. 33), 71f., in which Silenus is exalted, he ap-

des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz, xvII, 1973, i, 153f., has

documented a sketchbook belonging to Mantegna that contained draw-

ings of Bacchic scenes. Similarities to other figures on classical sarcophagi

may be checked against the types catalogued by F. Matz, Die Dionysischen

Sarkophagen, 4 vols., Berlin, 1968-1975. Mantegna's Bacchus resembles

Matz's type 248-58, with the legs also similar to type 93 (typentafel 7).
Mantegna's figure at the far left, seen partially from the back, resembles

Matz's type 13.

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NOTES 629

Campin's Maiolica Pitcher

Ellen Callmann
The wealth of symbolism attached to everyday objects in Early

Netherlandish painting has so fascinated us and dominated

research that it has at times eclipsed the intrinsic value of the objects to the history of art. Thus, the maiolica pitchers in the altar-

piece by Campin at the Cloistersi and the related Annunciation

in Brussels2 have not been examined for the light they can shed
on the relation of the two paintings to each other, on workshop
practices, and on the difference in the two painters' approach to

familiar utensils (Figs. 1-4).

Generally, it has been assumed that the Brussels panel is a
copy of the Cloisters altarpiece, either from the workshop or by a
later artist. Gottlieb presented some arguments for an attribution

to Jacques Daret,3 while Campbell suggested that the Brussels

Annunciation was the work of Campin and that the Cloisters

panel was by a Master of the Mbrode Altarpiece who had

copy after the Brussels Annunciation,4 but on the
9 Mantegna, Minerva Expelling the Vices. Paris,produced
Louvrea (photo:
whole
the
piece
has not generated much interest.
Alinari)
Like other household goods in the picture, the pitcher that

holds the lilies is most probably imbued with symbolic

was derived about 1480.37 Scala's text also provides a connection

with Envy. The intent was to show the negative effects of Envy

on the consequences of victory: "When Victory had subdued

many foreign peoples, she requested leave to enter the city in
triumph, but Envy intervened ... said Envy, it were necessary to

have kept avarice in bounds, restrained cupidity, curbed

lusts ..."3s One of the tondos shows Ebrietas with the meaning

of unleashing bestial passions, and as in Mantegna's Sea

Monsters, Envy is the mover of these passions.

Mantegna is unlikely to have known Scala's text or his palace
sculptures at the time he composed the Bacchanal engravings.
But as Parronchi observed in publishing Scala's text and its relation to the reliefs, the humanist drew upon common sources and
synthesized them. The parallels between his work and Mantegna's are suggestive, but may be explained by the currency of
their sources. Scala, a second-rate humanist, and Mantegna, a
first-rate artist (but one very evidently trying to be an artisthumanist), possessed similar methods of constructing moral
allegories. This method was the usual one for the Renaissance
humanist. In composing the Battle of Sea Monsters, Mantegna
drew not upon a single text nor a single antique model, but on
such established conventions as the moralized landscape with
Tugendburg and the irascible artist, the Telchines.
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602

significance, and it has been thought to represent the body and

womb of the Virgin,s a precious vessel for which an ordinary jug,

locally made, would not have been fine enough.

That the pitcher on the table in the central panel of the
Cloisters altarpiece is an Italian import stemming from the en-

virons of Florence has found general acceptance, though the tantalizing inscription on it is recognized to be the painter's own in-

vention, and not a characteristic of Florentine blue-and-white

saffera ware. In all other respects, the similarities are so obvious
that at the end of the last century Bode felt justified in using the
painting to establish a working date for this type of maiolica.6

Less attention has been paid to the relation between the

pitchers in the two paintings. Strauss7 describes the one in the
Cloisters panel as probably having on its front a coat of arms and
in the band down the side "Gothic" letters said to spell out the
artist's name. He is briefer on the Brussels Annunciation, mentioning only that it has a bird amid foliate scrolls on the front and

dating it in the first half of the fifteenth century.

Scheil, whose study is more detailed, points out that the shape
of the pitchers and their handles were common in Florence during much of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; she describes

the "orientalizing" inscription on the Cloisters example as of

"pseudo-Greek and Hebrew" letters and says that the figure on

1 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, central

panel, The Annunciation, 64.1 X 63.2cm.

2 Brussels, Mushes Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, panel, 58 X

64cm.

3 C. Gottlieb, "The Brussels Version of the M&rode Annunciation," Art

Bulletin, xxxIx, 1957, 53-59.
4 L. Campbell, "Robert Campin, the Master of Fl~malle and the Master of

37 A. Parronchi, "The Language of Humanism and the Language of

M&rode," Burlington Magazine, cxvI, 1974, 643ff.

Sculpture," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxvII, 1964,

s C. Gottlieb, The Window in Art, New York, 1981, 117.

108-36. The traditional attribution of these sculptures to Bertoldo di

Giovanni should be considered doubtful (see W. von Bode, Florentine

preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xIx, 1898, 208f.

Sculptors of the Renaissance, London, 1928,180f.; U. Middeldorf, "On the

Dilettante Sculptor," Apollo, ccvii, 1978, 310-22.)

38 Parronchi (as in n. 37), 123f., provides the translation.

6 W. Bode, "Altflorentiner Majoliken," Jahrbuch der kbniglich

7K. Strauss, "Keramikgefaisse, insbesondere Fayencegefisse auf
Tafelbildern der deutschen und niederlindischen Schule des 15. und 16.
Jahrhunderts," Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, No. 84, 1972, 24.

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