The Palazzo del Tè

Author(s): E. H. Gombrich
Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 122, No. 922, Special Issue Devoted to Sculpture
(Jan., 1980), pp. 70-71
Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/879877
Accessed: 11-08-2019 22:06 UTC

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 SHORTER NOTICES

with, the first entry in the Verheyen's

1542 monograph on the Palazzo now
inventory offers
of a welcome
the conte
Isabella d'Este's camerini. According to new evidence which I conspectus of all the relevant facts and documents.* Re-
wish to introduce here, it seems fairly certain that Isabella examining the documentary evidence he takes issue with John
d'Este never owned the stone in Vienna, a gem which apparent- Shearman's reconstruction of the history of the palace and with
ly entered the collection of the dukes of Mantua at some earlier authors about their interpretation of its stylistic and
undetermined point in time after her death. historical significance. Here I must 'declare my interest', for
Other matters aside, there is reason to maintain that though he is very tactful about this matter, I am the earliest
Isabella's cameo ('uno cameo grandefornito d'oro con due testein 1934 and 1935) of these authors whose interpreta-
(writing
di relievo di Cesare et Livia legato in oro con una gherlanda tion in-
he is most eager to dispose of. Luckily, after nearly half a
circa con foglio di lauro smaltato di verde, con una perla de I no longer have any axe to grind and I largely agree
century,
sotto, et da reverso lavorato a niello, et una tavola con il nome
with his criticism.

della Illustrissima Signora Madamma di bona memoria')When mustI first visited Mantua as a student my head was full of
have resembled the Augustus and Livia gem reproduced debatesonabout the status and meaning of 'Mannerism' in
Plate 39 in Fulvio Ursini's Imagines Illustrium, Antwerpsixteenth-century art. Being startled by the Palazzo del Te I
[1606]. Accordingly, it could never have shown the was horned
surprised to find that it had not yet been mentioned in
these discussions and that in particular Giulio Romano's
Jupiter associated with Alexander as seen in the double portrait
of Alexander and Olympias reproduced on Plate 6. In hisbuilding
com- designs had been completely neglected. This was
mentary Ursini specifies that the Augustus-Livia plasma beforein-
Rudolf Wittkower had published his seminal paper of
taglio closely resembles one formerly in Pietro Bembo's 1934 on the Laurenziana as a document of mannerist
collec-
tion. From this it can be ascertained that Ursini was speaking aesthetics,
of and the question whether or not the term Man-
the cornelian version also known to Enea Vico who discussed it nerism could be usefully applied to architecture was still sub-
on page 92 of Book Two of his Discorsi sopra le medagliejudice. de gliJulius von Schlosser readily accepted the thesis subject
antichi [1555]. Vico was not directly concerned with the of Bem-
'Giulio Romano als Architekt' and I found to my satisfaction
bo cornelian, however, but with a most beautiful andthat large
much of what I had read about the alleged anti-classical
cameo of inestimable worth in the Grotta of the Duke of Man- style applied to many of Giulio's bizarre designs, while others
tua. Whereas Peiresc, writing at the beginning of the seven- seemed to me to be almost ostentatiously restrained and
teenth century, merely mentioned the then present owner, classical.
Vico I made much of this tension and of what it appeared
located this cameo in the very rooms built for Isabella d'Este to signify in psychological terms, though I explicitly rejected
the recourse to the 'spirit of the age' as an explanation of these
and he did this in print less than twenty years after her death.
In the course of discussing various errors in past attempts to
characteristics.
identify portrait types, Vico turned to the question of the true When I revisited the Palazzo after the war, I wondered
portrait of Livia which si vede al naturale insieme con quella
whether I had not been too portentous about the festive and
del suo marito e col suo nome in lettere scrittofra le cose rare
frivolous
e decoration of this pleasure house; at the same time I
preciose della Grotta dell'Eccellentissimo Signor Duca di had
Man-also been conditioned, through my association with the
tova scolpita in uno bellissimo e gran cameo di inestimabile
Warburg Institute, to look at mottoes and emblems I had not
prego, alla cui similitudinene ha una in corgniuola intagliata
even noticed as a student. It soon turned out that Frederick
Monsignore Bembo. In the light of Vico's description (his asser-
Hartt's eyes had been equally sharpened, and when he pub
tion that Isabella's gem was inscribed with Livia's name)
edand
his important article in the Journal of the Warbur
based on the visual evidence provided by the engraving in Ur-
Courtauld Institutes of 1950 on 'Gonzaga symbols in the P
sini's book, it would now appear that neither the gem in Len-
zo del Te', a lucky find enabled me to supplement his ac
ingrad nor the cameo in Vienna can be traced back to Isabella
with a text explaining the astrological imagery of the Sala
d'Este's collection. If correct, this means that the Gonzaga
Venti. Soon afterwards I also noticed a motif derived from the
cameo known to Rubens and described by Peiresc mustHypnerotomachia
have in the Sala di Psiche - a clue not mention
entered the collection at a later point. by Verheyen though it led him to a fresh reading of that cyc
The type of archival research initiated by McCrory and the
(but refusing to recognise Adonis in the youth in the bath).
search through sixteenth-century printed sources advocated While
by my comments remained close to the texts, Frederick
this note will certainly lead to new and potentially exciting
Hartt followed the trend of the post-war period in emphasisin
discoveries concerning a major aspect of renaissance collec-
the allegorical import of the topics represented, seeing in the
tions. Indeed a hitherto overlooked reference to a Hannibal Psyche room 'A sort of Neoplatonic ascensio, from inanima
medallion in Isabella's collection has recently surfaced in matter
the to the godhead' - the very theme that had also bee
writings of Paolo Giovio and this may be taken as indicativefound
of on more or less good evidence in several of
the discoveries that remain to be made even concerning Michelangelo's
her religious creations.
well documented possessions. Professor Verheyen rejects both the psychological and
CLIFFORD M. BROWN
philosophical bias of these previous interpretations. He righ
points out that some of the irregularities which have been
credited to Giulio's anti-classical leanings were simply due to
The Literature of Art the practical need of incorporating an existing villa in a larger
structure. Moreover he has commonsense on his side when he
The Palazzo del Te
warns us against taking lighthearted jokes as symptoms of de
BY E. H. GOMBRICH anxiety. Maybe he goes a little too far here; for though I
In recent years much progress has been made in our sympathise with his reaction against my own reading of t
knowledge of the Palazzo del Th and its history. The publica- Sala dei Giganti in terms of Edgar Alan Poe's nightmare
tion in 1967, by Professor Verheyen, of a set (now in stories, I am not sure that humour need exclude the frisson o
horror.
DUisseldorf) of detailed drawings, of the building, accompany-
ing Giacomo Strada's description of 1567-8, provided in- I believe the author is also right in pointing to Aretino rather
valuable information, and was supplemented in 1971 by Kurt *The Palazzo del TO in Mantua, Images of Love and Politics. By Egon
Forster and Richard Tuttle, who analysed the extensive Verheyen. 224 pp. + 72 ills. + 6 plans. (John Hopkins University Press),
eighteenth-century restorations and alterations. Professor ?15 .85

70

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 SHORTER NOTICES

than Ficino as an inspiration ofbecame

the theimagery though
Palace) resembles that here,
of Isabella d'Este's too,
famous
he may occasionally have overshot
studiolo.the
'We mustmark.
assume that He is justified
the intention behind this ob- in
dwelling on the erotic charactervious
ofreference
the Sala was to di Psiche,
give visual but
expression iswell-known
to the this
fact that
identical with the 'celebration of love Federigo's
andmistress successfully rivalled
happiness'? Thehis im-mother'.
But must
presa of the lizard reads Quod huic we really?
deest meThe arrangements
torquet, are in
not even identical,
other
words it speaks less of the happiness
but even ifoftheylove than
were, who, of through
in going its torments.
the place without
The lizard lacks what plagues mortals
a groundplan in hisand immortals
hand would have noticed the- hot
similarity,
blood. This affliction also belongs
and why, to
even the 'nature
if he had of anyone
noticed it, should love' haveasreadit
it
as a message
always has been sung by poets and that Federigo's
analysed by mistress was 'thereby
moralists, andclaiming
it a
is also reflected in some of Giulio's positionless
which pleasant
dejure belonged inventions.
to Federigo's mother'?
The author is prevented from stressing The example provide- this aspect
a transition frombecause
the 'images ofhelove
sees in the mythological stories to those of Ariadne,
of politics which are indeed Pasiphae
interpreted withanda similar
Olympias 'the allusions to the love excess of of Federigo
ingenuity. to thecycle
Take the astrological married
of the Sala dei
Boschetti'. His book bears the title Images
Venti: its overt message ofis Love
summed up and
in thePolitics
inscription Distat
and in pursuing this theme he enimhas sometimes
quae sydera succumbed
te excipiant a quotation to
from Juvenal's Satira
another intellectual fashion which is not
VII, 194/5 recently likely
identified by RodolfotoSignorini
last in -a the
note to
conception of images as codedbemessages. published in the JournalImages certainly
of the Warburg and Courtauldcan In-
be used to convey messages of almost stitutes XLII any kind,
[1979]. 'For it makesbut in trying
a difference what stars to
decode them we must also clarify welcome to
you'whom
(when you come theout ofmessage is sup-
the womb). 'The fates',
posed to be addressed. Maybe the psycho-analyst can says Juvenal, 'bestow kingdoms on slaves and triumphs on cap-
sometimes afford to neglect this question, for what he wants to tives', and the cycle also shows us that some die in prison, others
decipher are unconscious drives and wishes. But the historian's are lucky. There is no likelihood, in my opinion, of any of these
aims are usually different, and if he opts for the approach to prognostics being intended to apply to Federigo, least of all the
images in terms of meaning he cannot ignore the aspect of roundel of the gladiators - not a very honorific calling. It
communication.
seems to me even more far-fetched to suggest that the in-
It is here that I have great difficulty in accepting scription
the author'son the fireplace which styles Federigo Captain
suggestions. In discussing the David cycle of the loggia he writes
General of the Church is a devious allusion to his later 'political
again: 'It seems that the choice of the Bathsheba scenes choice refers
in favour of Charles V', thanks to which 'his star rose.
to the fact, that like Federigo, David was torn by love Whoof a mar-
would be expected to make this connection?
ried woman; that, like David, Federigo tried to kill the Thuslawful
it is with some relief that one reads in the author's ac-
husband of his mistress; and that as Bathsheba had conceived count of the ceiling panels of the Sala degli Stucchi that 'they
by David, Federigo's mistress had conceived by him. It seems
appear like an assembly of all possible ancient scenes arrang-
almost as if the reference to these events in David's life woulded...for their own sake...no intellectual framework seems to ex-
legitimise Federigo's own'. Legitimise to whom? His father con- ist which links all of them'; in other words, he does not consider
fessor would quickly have disabused the prince by telling him them images of either love or politics.
what Nathan said to David (2 Samuel 12); but in any case to While I regard the compulsive search for personal allusions
whom could such an outrageous message be addressed and who as an aberration, no better, (though also no worse) than the
could have dared to spell it out? previous aberrations the author wishes to rectify, the author is
If this and similar readings seem to do violence to historical certainly on safer ground when he focuses on the prestige ele-
conditions, others raise the question of how anyone but the ment in the patronage of renaissance princes. No doubt the
prince's analyst could have picked up the allusion the author hastily erected wing of the palace served its purpose well during
wants to find there. We know from one of Federigo's letters the visits of Charles V in presenting a picture of affluence and
that, among the condottieri he wanted represented in the same grandeur which was rather at variance with the real position of
Loggia, he looked for a portrait of Gonsalvo Ferrante. Pro- the Gonzagas. True, even in this sociological bias he inevitably
fessor Verheyen remembers that there is a passage in the Cour- pays tribute to the preoccupations of his generation. To head a
tier saying that Gonsalvo was proud to owe much of his success chapter 'Federigo as the Ideal Prince' seems a trifle exag-
to his Queen, Isabella. 'Is it possible' he asks, 'that the selection gerated. Even if we were to accept the author's reading of the
of condottieri... was made with Castiglione's implication in fresco cycles, Federigo is not really exalted in such terms. There
mind, that "remarkable ladies" have inspired the greatest men is no portrait of the prince in the palace, let alone the kind of
to their glorious deeds? Is it further possible that the identity of pictorial panegyric which Vasari lavished on Cosimo I Medici
the names of the lady who meant so much for Gonsalvo Fer- in the Palazzo Vecchio. The author had the happy thought of
rante and the one who occupied Federigo's mind was an in- concluding his last chapter with a Latin Ode by Niccolo d'Arco
tended parallel? In 1530 Isabella Boschetti was definitely at the composed in 1540 on the duke's death. The themes are mainly
height of her influence over Federigo'. the magnmficentia of the prince as a builder and patron of the
Now, as far as I can see, Castiglione nowhere says that Queen arts, a breeder of horses and his own splendid horsemanship.
Isabella 'inspired' anyone. He only ends her eulogy with a Of the four cardinal virtues, therefore, which traditionally
reminder that anybody who is anybody in Spain these days was grace the ideal ruler, Fortitude, at the most, could be ascribed
'created by her' (ai nostri tempi tutti gli uomini grandi di to him. Even the eulogist was reticent about his Prudence,
Spagna, e famosi in qualsivoglia cosa, sono stati creati dalla Temperance and Justice. But was there not a similar flaw in the
Regina Isabella), and that this debt was proudly acknowledged artist he employed? Great as Giulio Romano was as an inventor
by Ferrante. On this reading there is no conceivable analogy and impresario, he lacked that quality which distinguished his
between him and Federigo, for whatever Federigo may have teacher Raphael and his precursor Mantegna - nobility of
owed to his Isabella, it was not his position. Granted that if mind.
Professor Verheyen here misread Castiglione, it is 'possible' Is it too much to hope, that yet another turn in the whirly
that Federigo did the same, but if the historian decided to con- of fashion will bring this problem back into prominence on
sider any such remote possibility he could never start or end.
The author also makes much of the fact that the lay-out of more, and that when Professor Verheyen re-visits the palac
perhaps in the early decades of the third millennium, he wi
Isabella's presumed apartment in the original villa (which also see it with different eyes?

71

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