Born under Saturn : the character and conduct of artists ; a documented history from antiquity to the French Revolution (1963)

430 Pages·2016·30.11 MB·English

by  Rudolf Wittkower

Born Under
Saturn
The Character and Conduct of Artists:
A Documented History from Antiquity
to the French Revolution
RUDOLF AND MARGOT WITTKOWER
RANDOM HOUSE NEW YORK
©
19% ky Rudolf and Margot Wittkower
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY THE SHENVAL PRESS LIMITED
LONDON, HERTFORD AND HARLOW
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS X
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Xvii
PREFACE xix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION : FROM CRAFTSMAN TO ARTIST I
1 The Artist in the Ancient World 2
2 Medieval Regression and the Struggle for Freedom 7
3 The New Ideal of the Artist 14
CHAPTER TWO
ARTISTS AND PATRONS! REMARKS ON A
CHANGING RELATIONSHIP I7
1 Financial Resources and Professional Practices 17
2 Old and New Ways of Evaluating Works of Art 22
3 Religious Convictions and Vicissitudes of Patronage 25
4 Merchant Class Patronage and the Emancipation of
Artists 31
5 The Volte-Face in the Relation between Artist and
Patron 34
6 Julius II and Michelangelo 38
7 Dilatoriness of Artists 40
CHAPTER THREE
artists’ attitudes to their work 42
1 Artists’ Personalities and the Beginning of the
Renaissance 42
2 Wandering Craftsmen and Artisans 44
3 The Lure of Rome 4^
CONTENTS
4 Obsession with Work 53
5 Creative Idleness 59
6 Creation in Solitude 63
CHAPTER FOUR
ECCENTRIC BEHAVIOUR AND NOBLE MANNERS 67
1 Florentine Eccentrics of the Early Sixteenth
Century 67
2 Michelangelo’s‘Distress of Mind and Temper’ 71
3 Leonardo’s Aloofness 75
4 Tribulations of Mind and Body 7^
5 Cleanliness Mania 83
6 Alchemists and Necromancers 84
7 Weird Hobbies 88
8 Sixteenth Century Critics of Eccentric Artists 90
9 The Image of the Noble Artist 93
10 Rubens—the Perfect Gentleman 96
CHAPTER FIVE
GENIUS, MADNESS, AND MELANCHOLY 98
1 Genius and Madness 98
2 The Saturnine Temperament 102
3 Hugo van der Goes’ Case History 108
4 Seventeenth Century Melancholics 113
Annibale Carracci 113
Mastelletta 115
Adam Elsheimer 118
Francesco Duquesnoy 120
Carlo Dolci 122
5 Was Franz Xaver Messerschmidt insane? 124
CHAPTER SIX
SUICIDES OF ARTISTS I33
1 A Statistical Enquiry 133
2 Rosso Fiorentino 136
3 Francesco Bassano 139
4 Francesco Borromini 140
5 Pietro Testa 142
6 Marco Ricci 143
vi
CONTENTS
7 Suicides of Northern Artists i44
Holland and England i44
France ^45
Denmark ^47
8 Conclusion 14^
CHAPTER SEVEN
CELIBACY, LOVE, AND LICENTIOUSNESS I5O
1 Celibacy ^ 5°
2 Raphael—the Lover i53
3 Licentiousness and Religious Art _ ^ i55
Filippo Lippi’s Elopement with Lucrezia Buti 155
Unprincipled Renaissance Artists 15^
4 Debauchery among Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Century Artists ^ ^ ^ _ i59
5 Agostino Tassi—the Seducer of Artemisia Gentileschi 162
6 Illicit, Ideal, and Platonic Love 165
7 ‘The Unspeakable Vice’ 109
Public Opinion and Homosexuality _ 169
Leonardo’s Denunciation and his Relation to
Salai _ ^ ^70
Giovanantonio Bazzi—the ‘Sodomite’ i73
8 Moral Conduct and Obscene Art 05
CHAPTER EIGHT
181
ARTISTS AND THE LAW
181
1 Three Cases of Criminal Artists
2 Legal and Psychological Aspects of Crime in the
183
Renaissance
187
3 Passion and Crime in Cellini’s Life
190
4 Leone Leoni—a Successful Villain
192
5 Caravaggio, the ‘Bohemian’
196
6 Belligerent Artists
201
7 The Ethics of Faking
202
8 Claude’s Liber Veritatis
9 Faking of Old Masters and Fraudulent Restoration
204
Antiques
205
10 Thefts of Works of Art
Vll
CONTENTS
CHAPTER NINE
MISERS AND WASTRELS SOg
1 Misers 209
2 Hans Holbein—a Squanderer? 213
3 The Pattern of Prodigality in the Low Countries 215
4 Artists’ Conviviality 220
The Dutch Bentbrotherhood in Rome 220
Festivities of Italian Renaissance Artists 221
5 Extravagance among the Italians 223
Lavishness Vindicated 223
The Gambler Guido Reni 223
Genoese Spendthrifts 224
6 Spanish, German, and French Wastrels 225
CHAPTER TEN
ACADEMIC AMBITIONS AND
PROFESSIONAL JEALOUSIES 220
1 Professional Pride 229
2 Baccio Bandinelli’s Pretensions 229
3 Academies of Art in Florence and Rome 232
4 Salvator Rosa’s Academy 234
5 Titles and Honours 235
6 Stylish Dress and Decorous Manners 238
7 The Reverse of the Medal 239
8 Jealousies in Academic Circles 240
9 Suspicious Masters 243
10 Warfare within Local Schools 244
Bologna 244
Rome 246
11 Regional Feuds 248
Federigo Zuccari’s ^Porta della Virtid 249
The Bolognese in Naples 251
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BETWEEN FAMINE AND FAME 253
1 The Economic Position of Artists in the Renaissance 253
2 Andrea Schiavone—a Neglected Master 255
3 Artists’ Professions of Poverty 255
Fra Filippo Lippi 256
Mantegna 257
Giambologna 258
Buontalenti 261
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CONTENTS
4 Some Wealthy Masters in the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Centuries 262
5 The Financial Aspect of Diirer’s Netherlandish
263
Journey
6 Titian’s Opulence and Financial Astuteness 265
270
7 Two Grand Seigneurs of the Baroque
270
Bernini
Rubens 273
276
8 Rubens and Rembrandt Contrasted
9 Van Dyck and Velasquez 277
10 The Acme of Dignity and Wealth:
278
Sir Joshua Reynolds
CHAPTER TWELVE
281
PERSONALITY, CHARACTER, AND WORK
281
1 Works as Keys to the Character of Artists
2 Giuseppe Arcimboldo—a Surrealist avant la lettre? 283
3 Typological Theories of Psychologists:
286
Lombroso and Kretschmer
4 Psycho-analytical Dialectics: The Interaction
288
between the Artist’s Personality and Work
288
Freud’s Study of Leonardo da Vinci
Andrea del Sarto’s Harpies: A Psycho-analytical
290
Mystification
291
The Psycho-analytical Sesame
292
5 Does a Constitutional Type of Artist Exist?
295
NOTES
314
BIBLIOGRAPHY
333
INDEX
IX
ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing
page
1 Jacob de Gheyn, ‘Melancholy’. Engraving. (By courtesy of
J. J. Poelhekke) 8
2 David Vinckbooms, A Fair, 1608. Detail. Herzog-Anton-
Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig 9
3 Albert Guyp, Shop-sign for a Wine Merchant. Rijks-
museum, Amsterdam 24
4 List of Castles and Monasteries destroyed in the Peasant
Revolt of 1524-25. Broadsheet of 1525. Graphische Samm-
lung, Munich 25
5 Albrecht Diirer, Monument glorifying the Victory over
the Peasants. Woodcut. From Unterweisung der Aiessung,
1525 25
6 Villard de Honnecourt, A Page from his Sketchbook,
c 1250. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 40
7 Map showing the Wanderings of three 15th century
German Architects. (Courtesy John Harvey and B. T.
Batsford Ltd.) 40
8 Jacob Asmus Garstens, Bacchus and Cupid. 1796. Statens
Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 41
9 Salvator Rosa, SS. Cosmo and Damian, 1669. S. Giovanni
de’ Fiorentini, Rome 41
10 Jacopo Pontormo, Study of a Young Man. Drawing. Uffizi
(6519F), Florence 48
11 Leonardo da Vinci, Self-Portrait. Drawing, Biblioteca
Reale, Turin 48
12 After Daniele da Volterra, Bronze Bust of Michelangelo.
Louvre, Paris 48
X
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
13 Federigo Barocci, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, I573'
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome 49
14 Jacob Gornelisz, Gobaert, called Gope, St Matthew and the
Angel. Marble. SS. Trinita de’ Pellegrini, Rome 49
15 Jan Lys, The Vision of S. Jerome. Pinacoteca Givica,
Vicenza 5®
16 Franciabigio, The Marriage of the Virgin, c. 1515* Fresco.
Detail. SS. Annunziata, Florence 57
17 Gerard Don, A Schoolmaster sharpening a Pen, 1671.
Gemaldegalerie, Dresden 7 2
18 Parmigianino, Self-Portrait and two female Figures of the
Steccata. Drawing. 10.5X7-3 Devonshire Gollection,
Ghatsworth. Reproduced by Permission of the Trustees
of the Ghatsworth Settlement (No. 79°^) 73
19 So-called Hausbuchmeister, ‘Ghildren of Mercury’.
Drawing, from a manuscript on parchment, c. 1480. Print
Room, Wolfegg 73
20 Albrecht Durer, Melancholy, 1514. Engraving 88
21 Raphael, School of Athens, 1509—11. Detail. Stanze,
Vatican
22 Hugo van der Goes, 'The Procession of the Magi, from
the Portinari Altarpiece, 1476. Uffizi, Florence 88
23 Hugo van der Goes, Death of the Virgin, i48i(?). Detail
of two Apostles. Musee Gomunal, Bruges. Gopyright
A.G.L. Brussels ^9
24 Francesco Bassano, Self-Portrait (usually attributed to
Leandro Bassano). Uffizi, Florence 89
25 Annibale Garracci, Self-Portrait, 1593. Galleria Nazionale,
Modena ^9
26 Giovan Andrea Donducci, il Mastelletta, A Feast in a
Landscape. Nijstad Antiquairs N.V., Lochem-The Hague 104
27 Adam Elsheimer, Landscape with Mercury and Argus.
Uffizi, Florence
28 Garlo Dolci, Magdalen, r. 1670. Palazzo Pitti, Florence 120
29 Francesco Duquesnoy, S. Susanna, 1629-33. Marble. S.
Maria di Loreto, Rome.
30 Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Bust of Gerard van Swieten,
1769. Gilt lead. Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna 121
XI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
31 Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Bust of Ignaz Aurelius
Fessler, 1780’s. Lead. City Gallery, Bratislava 121
32 Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, ‘The happily smiling old
Man’. Wood and wax. Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna 136
33 Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, ‘The Beak-Head’. After a
cast. (From E. Kris, Jahrb. d. Kunsthist. Sammlungen, Vienna,
1932) 136
34 Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, ‘The splenetic Man’. Lead.
Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna 136
35 Rosso Fiorentino, The Grand Galerie, Fontainebleau,
1534-37 137
36 Pietro Testa, So-called ‘Winter’ 1641. Engraving (Bartsch,
XX, 39) 144
37 Francesco Borromini, Dome of S. Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane, Rome. 1638-41 144
38 Francesco Borromini, Tower of S. Andrea delle Fratte,
Rome. 1653-65 145
39 Emanuel de Witte, Interior of a Church. Signed and dated
1656. Kunsthalle, Hamburg 145
40 Agostino Tassi, Frieze with Seascapes. Fresco. After 1630.
Palazzo Pamfili in Piazza Navona, Rome 152
41 Jean-Louis Sauce, A Bacchanal. Drawing, Signed; ‘Sauce’.
Private Collection, New York 152
42 Raphael, Preparatory Studies for Figures of the Disputd
in the Stanza della Segnatura. Print Room, British
Museum 153
43 Raphael, ‘Donna Velata’. Palazzo Pitti, Florence 168
44 Fra Filippo Lippi, The Virgin, from ‘Virgin adoring the
Child’, c. 1463. Uffizi, Florence 169
45 Carlo Grivelli, Pieta. Before 1490. Pinacoteca Vaticana,
Rome 169
46 Leonardo da Vinci, Allegory of Pleasure and Pain, early
1490’s. Drawing. Published by permission of the Governing
Body of Christ Church, Oxford 176
47 Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Salai at the Age of about
Eighteen, 1497-98. Drawing. Royal Library, Windsor.
By Gracious Permission of Her Majesty the Queen 176
48 Gristofano Allori, Judith with the Head of Holofernes,
c. 1609. Palazzo Pitti, Florence 176
xii