Introduction
p. 1-82
Texte intégral
1. Proportion Theory: Disciplinary Intersections
1In his treatise on the visual arts written a century before Giorgio Vasari, the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455) would claim that “only proportionality creates beauty.”1 This Renaissance axiom would be universally promulgated in treatises in the visual arts and beyond, forming the foundation on which academic training in the field is built. The belief that beauty is only possible through proper proportion would rarely be challenged, since it had its grounding in venerated classical texts that were reinforced by, and seen as demonstrable in, contemporary workshop practices. Regardless of their medium, painters, sculptors, and architects used human anatomy and proportion as the touchstone for their designs and to illustrate notions of harmony, commensurability, and symmetry. The interest naturally extended beyond the botteghe. The subject of human proportion and its relationship to beauty would be taken up repeatedly in early modern era treatises in a range of disciplines, not just the visual arts.2 In fact, few subjects afford the intersection of so many disciplines, including theories of proportion derived from antiquity and applicable to the visual arts as well as music, anatomical studies, physiognomics and humoral theory, astronomy, astrology and cosmology, theology and philosophy, and even mnemonics and poetry. Given the range of topics, treatises on human proportion, traditionally seen to be written for and the benefit of practicing artists, would find a much wider audience.3
2By the end of the sixteenth century, there was already a rich body of scholarship dedicated to proportion theory on which to reference and build, testifying to the fertility of the topic.4 It was within this confluence of topics and a mind for diverse readership that the Italian polymath-translator Giovanni Paolo Gallucci (1538–1621) published his Della simmetria dei corpi humani in 1591 (see Fig. 1).
3The treatise on human proportion was an Italian translation of the Latin edition of the Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion [Four Books on Human Proportion] (or Proportionslehre) by the German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528).5 The translation reveals the place of symmetry and proportion in the context of contemporary education, especially that of artists. In this new edition, Gallucci reintroduced the popular work in a more accessible language not only for Italian readers, but for those who traveled to study there. Dedicated to Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, On the Symmetry of Human Bodies consists of the original four books by Dürer, published posthumously in 1528, along with a new Dedication and Preface, a short biography of the original author, and an additional Fifth Book. Serving as an epilogue for the encyclopedic treatment on human proportion theory, this last book contextualizes the preceding sections, relating them to other disciplines, and providing a philosophical framework within which to interpret them. The Fifth Book also importantly expands on Dürer’s nascent interest in the proportions of the diversity of types of humans and extends this interest in diversity to elaborate systems of physiognomy and humoral readings. This expanded edition in Italian (reprinted in Venice, 1594) would become the most influential version, covering topics that were seen as central to arts education, connoisseurship, patronage, and the appreciation of the studia humanitatis in general. With regards to training in the visual arts, apprentices were expected to master more than mere ratios, stereometric measurements, or “ideal” canons. Furthermore, the exercise of copying illustrations like those of Dürer’s were not simply ends unto themselves, nor were they merely intended to elevate the artist’s social stature.
4The study and use of such treatises can be better understood when considering their perceived necessity in the visual arts community. The demand for a new systematization of human proportions began with Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), the first art theorist of the Renaissance.6 Later reiterated by Ghiberti, Alberti sets forth the premise that beauty was dependent on a harmony of parts in all of the arts, stating: “… thus we may say that beauty is a certain agreement and harmony of parts within that to which they belong with regard to a definite number, proportionality, and order, such as concinnity demands.”7 These three interrelated aspects of harmonious congruity described by Alberti (number, proportion, and order) were further discussed in his Della pittura [On Painting] of 1435, as he laid out the specific order in which an artist should proceed: “First one must observe that the single members fit together well, and they will fit together well if in relation to the size and measure, character, color, and other similar things they harmonize and form one unified beauty.”8 The harmonious arrangement of the parts of a particular work of art, or “the consonance and mutual integration of the parts,” was central to the nature of beauty itself, and as such was defined by harmony and proper proportion.9
5While this proportion system was most often applied to painting and/or sculpture, the belief that beauty was related to harmonious arrangement was in fact derived from ancient treatments of architecture and music, specifically Vitruvius and the Pythagoreans respectively, who believed such arrangements could be quantified in their value resulting from certain mathematical relationships.10 These early formulations by Greek thinkers declared that beauty be expressed by the proportions of the parts, the arrangement of those parts, and the size, equality, and number of the parts and their interrelationships.11 The most detailed and famous exposition for this valuation comes to us from the first-century BCE Roman architect Vitruvius, who, in De architectura [On Architecture], maintained that beauty in a building is achieved when all of its parts have the appropriate proportions.12 The same was true in sculpture, painting, and in nature, which is illustrated in that it “has created the human body in such a way that the skull from the chin to the upper brow and hairline makes up one tenth of the entire length of the body.”13 As Vitruvius continued, he presented the proportions for a well-formed human figure that would inspire Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and his Vitruvian Man (see Fig. 2).14
6The Roman architect notes that a perfect circle may be formed using the navel of the figure whose arms and legs are extended laying on his back as the central point, his fingers and toes touching the circumference: “And just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square.”15 The circle and the square were considered perfect by the Pythagoreans and Plato, and thus were considered a reflection of the cosmos; man, in this instance, is understood as the microcosm, reflecting the universe, or macrocosm. In this view, it is possible to present the proper canon of proportions of human bodies in numerical terms, thus resulting in mathematical harmony.16
7Throughout the Renaissance, artists and theorists had attempted to extrapolate from these ancient authors the ideal proportions for the human figure. Among them were Alberti, followed by Leonardo. Seen in the Vitruvian Man, the idealized and nude human figure became the exemplum of beauty by the end of the fifteenth century. Given that beauty was understood as tied directly to proportionality, so the systematization of proportion espoused by Alberti was thus elevated to an empirical science and doctrine.17 With his anatomical knowledge expanded through dissections carried out later in his career in Milan, Leonardo sought to create a definitive set of proportions for artists to follow and for mathematicians to illustrate the nature of the cosmos.18 These discoveries made by Leonardo in his proportion illustrations were published in Venice by a fellow mathematician, Luca Pacioli (1446/7– 1517) in his De divina proportione [On the Divine Proportion] of 1509.19
8The ideas of Pacioli were equally influential for Leonardo as they were for contemporary mathematicians.20 In his treatise on mathematical proportions named for the golden ratio, Pacioli includes three books illustrating the applicability of Euclidian geometry to the visual arts.21
9The diagrams included from Leonardo helped reinforce the text, which assisted in popularizing geometric concepts beyond mathematical circles. The woodcut illustrations included the application of the golden ratio to a human model and Vitruvius’ system of integers. Yet, while the first three books provide the descriptive overview with simplistic geometric diagrams illustrating the precepts presented, the illustrations that follow, including the woodcut of the human head illustrated by Leonardo, are mostly dedicated to geometric overlays of the alphabet, polyhedra, and various geometric shapes (see Fig. 3). These illustrations were indispensable for proportion studies moving forward, but severely limited in their application of different parts of the human body to demonstrate the ratios inherent in their forms. It would be left to the artist, who would categorize all human types through proportion studies, to continue the work started by Pacioli and visualized by Leonardo.
10While the first steps towards a doctrine of proportion had been taken in Italy with Leonardo, the relationship of beauty to a canon of proportions and mathematics was most fully expressed in pedagogical publications in Germany by Dürer. It should be noted that even Leonardo was unable to apply his own proportion and anatomical studies to his work given he painted little, or not at all, during the last decade of his life. Hence, the applicability of the study of proportion to practicing artists was still unclear. Dürer would spend nearly three decades working to remedy this ambiguity. He completed two treatises that would be the dominant basis for art theory in Renaissance Germany; their popularity and influence spreading with their subsequent translations. In 1525, Underweysung der Messung, or Four Books on Measurement, was published as a practical guide to geometric perspective for students of the arts;22 and, in 1528, Vier Bücher von Menschlicher Proportion, or Four Books on Human Proportion, appeared a few months after his death. Taken together, the studies illustrated the Renaissance belief that mathematics formed the firm basis and grounding for the arts. This conviction is confirmed in the 1532 introduction to the Latin edition of the Vier Bücher by the translator Joachim Camerarius (1500–1574): “Letters it is true, he had not cultivated, but the great sciences of Physics and Mathematics, which are perpetuated by letters, he had almost entirely mastered. He not only understood principles and knew how to apply them in practice, but he was able to set them forth in words.”23 He did not come to this conclusion alone, for Leonardo was working with Pacioli in Venice at the same time Dürer made his second trip to Italy in 1505–1507.24 Giovan Paolo Lomazzo’s 1584 Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scultura ed architettura [Treatise on the Art of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture] attests to Dürer’s knowledge of theoretical currents in Venice at the time, especially that of Vincenzo Foppa (1427/30–1515/16) and his drawings.25 The interest in engaging with these debates on the classical canon can be seen in his Fall of Man from 1504 (see Fig. 4), an engraving created prior to his second trip where he demonstrates his understanding of the classical proportions based on statuary in Italian collections, such as the Belvedere Palace. Upon his return, having been in contact with Italian art and theory, Dürer sought to establish and define the mathematical relationships of the human body for the purposes of artistic representation more thoroughly.26 But the nature and variety of those relationships with beauty were shifting.
11Dürer would come to realize that no single canon of beauty could be achieved; there was not a single, universal set of human proportions.27 In his “Discourse on Aesthetics” — an essay on beauty published as a conclusion to the Third Book of his proportion studies — the artist started questioning the universal nature of beauty and investigating individual types due to variations, not only between men and women, but of different nationalities and races, as well as the infinite variety within each where we find figures that are tall, stocky, lean, noble, rustic, and leonine, each governed by humors. He writes: “Thus one finds among the human races all kinds and types useful for a whole variety of images, according to complexion.”28 The judgment of such a variety of figures as objectively beautiful is also questioned, as is our very ability to make such assertions:
When we ask, how we shall make a beautiful image, some will say: follow the general taste. Others will not concede that, and neither do I. Without true knowledge, who will give us a reliable standard? I believe there is no one alive capable of perceiving the ultimate ideal of beauty embodied in the least of living creatures, let alone in a human being, which is the special creation of God with dominion over the rest of creation. I do admit that one person conceives and makes a more beautiful image and explains the natural basis of its beauty with more persuasive reasoning than others, yet not to the extent that it might not be yet more beautiful. Such a conception cannot arise in the human mind. Rather, God alone knows that, and if he were to reveal it, man would know it too. Divine truth alone, and no other, contains the secret of what the most beautiful form and measure may be.29
12Taken together, the acceptance of the diversity of figural types and “infinite number of opinions” on beauty results in not one, but several canons of proportion.30 Here, we find Dürer shifting away from idealizing, anatomically accurate models to more abstract “types.”31 In fact, the artist seems to have scarcely studied anatomy in detail at all. He treats the subject only once in his treatise.32 Instead of detailing the musculoskeletal system, he focuses on the silhouette of the human figure and the ratios, measurements, and projections of the external aspects of the form in a total of four books. In these books, he assembles alternate sets of proportions that detail the different shapes and sizes of human figures, for which he took measurements from several hundred individuals.33 He accumulated no fewer than twenty-six sets of proportions, plus an example of an infant’s body with detailed measurements of the head, foot, and hand. Not satisfied with even this, he indicated ways of further varying these many types so as to capture even the abnormal and grotesque by strictly geometrical methods.34
13The progression of the Four Books on Human Proportion reflects the author’s own quest to identify a canon of beauty where an ideal is first established, elaborated on in detail, and, finally, questioned. The First Book introduces Dürer’s fixed scale for a normal man and a woman, first at seven head lengths tall per figure (see Figs. 5 and 6).
14Expanding on his division into fractional parts, he then explains how to proportion figures eight heads in lengths, then nine and ten heads in length. The height of the figures remains the same, demonstrating how the proportions change with each attenuation from stocky to lean (see Fig. 7). Each of the descriptions of the ten sets of proportions is accompanied with three woodcut illustrations representing the figures from the front, side, and back, along with the associated fixed measurements. Instructions on how to use the leading lines of perspective to find and apply the fixed points on a human model are then explained. Then, parts of the body are discussed with instructions on how to draw the hand and foot of a “strong man” (see Figs. 8 and 9), the heads of a man and a woman, and, finally, the book ends with a table of the proportions of a child from the front, side, and back (see Fig. 10). The head of the child is overlaid with a grid divided into the same thirteen units as the previous examples of the man and a woman, signaling greater precision to come.
15The Second Book elaborates on the sets of proportions introduced in the first and shows how to construct the normal figures of a man and a woman with a new principle, appending a more elaborate measurement scheme. Laying out his new method, Dürer writes:
In this book I will teach how to measure the human figure with a rule, which I make either long or short depending on whether the figure be large or small. The rule I always make one sixth of the length of the figure… I then divide the rule into ten equal parts with each part called a zall; each zall I then divide into ten and call each tenth a teil; each teil into three and call each third a trümlein.35
16The overall figure would then be divided into six-hundred teile, which is a similar scale also used by Alberti. As in the First Book, he then divides each figure with three vertical lines representing the three sides of the figure, and then divides them further with horizontal lines (see Fig. 11). The resulting transections can now be expressed in a series of fractions of the whole height, as he introduced at the outset of the book. This is by far the longest of the books, with descriptions of sixteen figures in total. Here, we find men and women subdivided into fractions, and then shown with extended arms (see Fig. 12); a thin man and two corresponding women, also with arms outstretched, illustrate the various ratios and fractions with different bodily types. Lastly, we are shown two more ways in which to draw men’s heads with seven and ten grid sections instead of the thirteen from the First Book.
17The Third Book, as has been noted, opens with a discussion “Of the Variety of Figures,” including those that are small, stout, large, long, thick, narrow, thin, young, old, lean, fat, ugly, pretty, hard, soft, and so on. Dürer describes these as “Words of Difference,” meaning any word with a descriptive quality that “may be divided and differentiated from the one first made.”36 Investigating this difference, and the role that proportionality plays within it, Dürer then shows how to distort various figures of men and women, as well as their body parts. He begins with heightening or shortening the body and limbs (see Fig. 13), which continues those original ten sets of proportions outlined in the First Book and how changing the head lengths alter the figures. Next, he alters the proportions of faces and parts of the head in order to demonstrate how a normal face may be distorted to form that of a fool, African, and other “monstrosities” (see Fig. 14). The reasoning behind such exercises, the artist explains, is to ensure that “out of many trials he [the artist] may attain manifold knowledge.”37 The variations of faces are distorted by expanding or contracting sections of the grid superimposed over the men’s heads. The woodcuts here remove the grid and instead outline the various angles of the ears, brow, nose, and chin.
18Another process of adjusting pions is demonstrated throughtaking the first woman and fourth man from the First Book (see Fig. 15), who are no longer bisected vertically. Like the heads in the previous section, Dürer shows that in making horizontal markers aligned at specific points on the body — eyes, brow, neck, shoulders, breast, hips, knees, ankles, and so on — and moving them closer together or further apart, the proportions of the bodies stretch or compress accordingly. The final illustrations take this distortion to extremes with the figures of a man and a woman using the method for producing monstrous figures, only “for strangeness’ sake” (see Fig. 16).38 The warped perspectival scheme seen to the left of each figure aligns with the various points of the body, such as the top of the head, nose, top of the shoulders, chest, bottom of the breast, bottom of the buttocks, and so on until the bottom of the feet. The figures are narrow, lanky, and attenuated; their necks are greatly elongated along with the mid-torso and legs. These distortions produce figures that would rarely be used, Dürer admits, which calls into question their usefulness. Gallucci, in his Fifth Book, uses such distortions to elaborate on his physiognomic reading of Dürer’s system. Regardless of the seemingly rare use of such figures, editors of the text found it necessary to include an explanation at the end of the text culled from Dürer’s own memoranda books. This section became known as the “Aesthetic Excursus,” outlining his defense of variety in human figures and of the impossibility of understanding that which is beautiful, which concludes the Third Book.
Woodcut from Della simmetria dei corpi humani, libri quattro (Venice: Roberto Meietti, 1594), First Book, 100v, https://archive.org/details/dialbertodurero00gallgoog/page/n207
19The Fourth Book explains and demonstrates how to modify the posture of figures described in the First and Second Books. In this introduction, Dürer outlines seven “Words of Difference,” specifically bent-at-an-angle, curved, turned, twined, stretched, shortened, and shifted. Each is then illustrated with a series of woodcuts with simple lines angled, curved, transecting one another, and so on. Next, the artist demonstrates how to draw heads in various positions with the methods of perspective outlined in his Four Books on Measurement. These are shown in grid overlays from the front, side, below, and at a three-quarter angle. The heads are followed by seven illustrations of human figures (see Fig. 17), each demonstrating one of the “Words of Difference,” which bend forward or backward, curved or at an angle. Each figure is first shown from the front and the side bisected vertically with the horizontal markers connecting the two views; for instance, the top of the head may be seen frontally and connected to that seen in profile. The next page finds a contour drawing of the same figure from the front and the side with shadows surrounding them, emphasizing their outlines and how the final version would appear without the overlay. Lastly, Dürer describes the manner in which artists can construct geometric boxes that can be modified according to the qualities discussed earlier (e.g. turned, stretched, and shortened). These imaginary boxes are then used to illustrate the human form and various members of the body (see Fig. 18), all enclosed in box-like sections. This particular method of enclosing the body in imaginary boxes, and how it might be used to assist in foreshortening, was adopted from Italian studies. Lomazzo claims that the practice was invented by Luca Cambiari, but Dürer’s publication would become much more influential.
20Part of the treatise’s subsequent broad appeal would be due to Gallucci’s Italian translation and his additions to the work, which were intended to address the notion of utility in proportion studies. From the outset, Dürer had in fact intended his Four Books on Human Proportion to be useful for students of the arts and as a practical reference guide when constructing a variety of figures. In his draft for the introduction to the study, he wrote: “It is most necessary for a man to be competent in some thing by reason of the usefulness which arises therefrom.”39 Yet, while his Four Books on Measurement would be accepted for its practicality and clear presentation of perspective exercises, many of those in the corresponding proportion treatise were questioned with regards to their usefulness in daily workshop practice. Not only were the grotesque and monstrous distortions questioned, the very measurement system of Dürer would come under scrutiny in academic institutions as impractical.40 Additionally, while the “Aesthetic Excursus” attempts to frame what the artist was trying to accomplish with his proportion studies, touching briefly on art theory, metaphysical notions of beauty, astrology, physiognomy and humoral theory, he failed to thoroughly address the significance of his exhaustive enterprise to these various disciplines.
21In 1591, Gallucci would address concerns of utility with his translation and additions to the original edition in his expanded version and translation of Dürer’s Four Books — Della simmetria dei corpi humani. More importantly in his new Dedication, Life, Preface, and, principally, his Fifth Book, the pedagogue-translator places the original Four Books in the broader context of late sixteenth-century education in various fields of study. The Dedication to the Habsburg Archduke Maximilian opens with the argument that because painting is used to communicate goodness and move people to piety, it is “… surely true that the utility that comes from painting is more divine than would derive from other art, mechanical or liberal.”41 The value of this art, which is capable of expressing “all of the passions that are generated in our souls,” extends beyond the theological.42 The success of De divina proportione, for instance, lay in the successful illustration of mathematical principles in the woodcuts of Leonardo. In the same fashion, Gallucci reminds the archduke that astrology, geometry, and all of the liberal arts, are unable to explain their concepts “without using painting to make illustrations with lines, figures, and often even with colors, as can clearly be seen through their books.”43 Thus, at the outset he demonstrates the relevance of the material to various disciplines.
22Turning to the translation, Gallucci states that, aside from two Latin editions, the Four Books on Human Proportion were nearly impossible to find, and so he took to translating the work “with great effort,” as he says, “due to the many mistakes that were in the Latin edition, and because the material itself is difficult to explain.”44 Nevertheless, this was insufficient to explain the great importance of the original Four Books, making it necessary to add a Fifth Book, “which is taught through the authority of philosophers and poets, who, along with those colors and lines, can explain both the natural and the incidental passions of the souls of men.”45 The paragone of painting and poetry is further addressed in the following Preface where, citing the authority of Aristotle, Gallucci reiterates a familiar Renaissance axiom: “… painting is a poem that is silent, and poetry is a painting that speaks.”46 This argument structures much of his new Fifth Book, which comprises fifty-eight chapters47 with descriptions of temperaments, characters, and their respective, “appropriate” body parts often accompanied by excerpts from famous poets, both ancient and modern, to validate Gallucci’s assertions. These physiognomic and humoral readings further find their classifications framed in another system — that of astronomy and astrology, as one would expect from Gallucci given his professional preoccupations. In fact, the attempts made to categorize and map the human body were understood by art-theorists, astrologers and natural philosophers as an attempt to reveal the macrocosm of the universe, and thus uncover its “divinely” ordered beauty in the microcosm of man. Such information concerning the structure of the universe was seen as necessary for artists to understand in order to reveal the beauty buried in imperfect material existence.
23A complex system, which had evolved to categorize the links between humans and the natural world, assisted artists in understanding these correspondences. Derived from the ancient Greeks, and more specifically the Pythagorean tetractis (where the number four was venerated), all phenomena would be arranged into a series of quadripartite schema; each of which had overlapping relationships that allowed them to be superimposed. Beginning with the macrocosm, the universe was believed to be comprised of four basic elements, which also made up the human body, transformed by way of food through the organs into the four humors. These elements were connected to fluids in a system of associated qualities: hot/warm, dry, cold, and wet/moist. The stars, planets, and seasons were likewise affected by these relationships, as the seasons reflected the ages of man. Thus, the humors corresponded to the four elements of the earthly world, which in turn corresponded to the four ages of man, as well as to the twelve zodiac figures, divided into four groups of three. This correspondence further extends into all areas of the universe and the nature of man: everything was seen as interrelated. Such a complex series of interrelationships required authors to develop mnemonic devices to assist their readers. Gallucci thus uses proportion studies as a structuring conceit for explaining these overlapping classifications to a much wider audience.
24Two treatises that used another type of mnemonic machine had, at that time, been recently published, and Gallucci would have been familiar with these. In 1584, Gian Paolo Lomazzo (1538–1592) published his massive encylopedic study on painting, Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scultura ed architettura. This exhaustive work has seven chapters, each devoted to one of the seven parts of painting. In order to explain the correspondences between microcosm and macrocosm, the Milanese theorist also published his Idea del tempio della pittura [The Idea of the Temple of Painting] in 1590 (a year before Gallucci’s Della simmetria). The treatise takes the Trattato’s divisions and introduces them as a Temple of Painting with seven pillars representing the planetary temperaments as an architectural structure in order to organize the various manners of their governors, such as Michelangelo, Leonardo and Andrea Mantegna. The design of this temple, Lomazzo openly admits, was inspired by Giulio Camillo’s LIdea del theatro [The Idea of the Theater] (published posthumously in 1550). Aspiring to encapsulate the whole of the universe, Camillo’s theater adapted a Vitruvian plan with a large auditorium divided by seven aisles, each dedicated to one of the planetary deities.48 These were further divided into seven rows that ascend from floor level to the upper tiers representing the terrestrial and celestial spheres of the world. In each row and aisle were doors painted with significant memories designed to recall a specific location in the universe. The whole of the theater was designed so as to allow the human mind to grasp nothing less than the macrocosm. Camillo would even go on to build examples of this theater in Venice and Paris in the early 1530s.49 The ascension from the earthly to heavenly realms also inspired Lomazzo in his Idea del tempio to adopt the Neoplatonic belief in cosmic influence that implies a harmonious correspondence between various links in a chain.50
25The organizing principles at play in the LIdea del theatro and Idea del tempio would influence many early modern authors.51 In the case of Gallucci, understanding the universe in the microcosm of man afforded a similar opportunity as conceiving of a subject in architectural terms. He would also adopt a similar Christianized Neoplatonism, even quoting a passage by Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) directly from Lomazzo.52 Moreover, while Lomazzo understood his treatise as another type of mnemonic machine, inviting a student of art to experience artists and their corresponding temperaments in architectural terms, Gallucci presented a similar Neoplatonic argument for understanding beauty in the visual arts, but in a more practical fashion. Whereas Lomazzo’s Idea del tempio would serve as the introduction, or as Lomazzo puts it, its “abstract and summary,”53 for his earlier encyclopedic Trattato, so too does Gallucci’s Della simmetria serve as an indexical epilogue for Dürer’s Four Books. Placing the technical work of Dürer in its broader intellectual and theoretical context, and using it as a mnemonic device to understand these various disciplines, Gallucci reveals his true intent. First and foremost, Gallucci was a pedagogue and tutor for the Venetian elite, along with his profession as a translator and tutor. His work was, therefore, designed for two distinct, yet interdependent audiences: the amateur-connoisseurs and collectors who patronized the works produced with the guidance of such trattati, and the artists who sought to speak to an audience well-versed in classical themes and who expected to see references made to them. Speaking as a non-specialist, the pedagogue creates both an accessible translation of an immensely influential proportion treatise and an indexical reference guide for appending to that a broader understanding of physiognomics, humoral theory, astronomy, and poetics to hang on Dürer’s original armature, enlivening and expanding on it in a vivid fashion.
2. Gallucci: Translator, Academician, Pedagogue
26The life of Gallucci, and his professional interests, greatly shaped the final form of his translation and the framing devices that he chose. While his Della simmetria is the only text on the visual arts that Gallucci translates or writes, in this work, he by no means limits its scope of interest to astronomy (one of Gallucci’s primary areas of interest). As a pedagogue, translator, and author, he would demonstrate his interest in diverse fields in no less than twenty-two books, pamphlets, and translations, ranging from astrological medicine, astronomy and astronomical instrumentation, mathematics, pedagogy, philosophy, theology, linguistics, optics, the military arts, and the art of memory.54 His activity can be framed in the context of a group of writers, editors, and translators in the sixteenth century. These poligrafie were active in the major publishing centers in Italy (Venice, in the case of Gallucci and of many others).55 A true homo universalis, the academician and tutor was equally concerned with questions of how scientific investigation could reinforce the Counter-Reformation’s concerns on doctrinal correctness and the value of la lingua latina as a galvanizing tool for the dissemination of information.56 In his extensive oeuvre, which was remarkably produced in under two decades, we can see why he was such a sought after teacher. Many of the works are dedicated specifically to the education of young students and often introduce complicated and ponderous topics, like Dürer’s proportion studies or Aristotelian logic. At the end of such works, Gallucci appended synopses, tables, and indexes to aid readers’ retention of the material. Though a passionate educator, he always returned to his adoration of astronomy and mathematics and worked diligently to bring the benefits of the sciences to the attention of policy makers, such as popes, cardinals, and high-ranking Church officials. He also dedicated many of his works to them and explained that astronomy should be considered separate from the more superstitious interpretations found in modern astrological divination.57
27Despite the vast number of extant works we have from Gallucci, little has survived in the way of biographical information. Therefore, despite the important role he played in the fields of science and the arts, little has been published on his life. Most of what is known is derived from the publications to be briefly reviewed here. Born to Giovanni Battista Gallucci in 1538 in Salò near Brescia in Lombardy, Gallucci studied Salò and in Padua before moving to Venice. At the age of twenty-six, Gallucci, along with eighteen others, found the Accademia degli Unanimi on 20 May, 1564, in Gallucci’s hometown.58 The school was dedicated to promoting harmony among its literati members, and its title, “Academy of the Unanimous” indicates the nature and motivation of their venture. The emblem of the academy was a swarm of bees accompanied by the motto idem ardor ( “The same flame”).59 According to Camillo Camilli in his Imprese illustri di diversi [Impressions of Famous Men] of 1586, Gallucci would adopt the sobriquet the “the tolerant one” (tolerante), a fitting selection given his lasting dedication to educating youth over the course of his career.60 Moving from Salò to Padua to study at the Università degli Studi di Padova, his first printed work as a student there took the form of a Latin text of an oration held in the cathedral of Padua in 1579 by the acting rector, Dominko Zlatarič (1558–1609) from the Republic of Ragusa (modern day Croatia). Unfortunately, the first edition in Padua was full of errors. Embarrassed, Gallucci condemned it as an unauthorized printing and had the oration reprinted in Venice in September of 1580.61
28After studying in Salò and Padua, Gallucci settled in Venice, which he would praise as the most vibrant center of intellectual life of the time. He spent the rest of his life devoting himself to private tutoring of young nobles, as well as to writing and printing his books. His pedagogical activity can be demonstrated in works such as his De formis enthymetatum [On Types of Syllogism] published in 1586, where he sought to expose his students to the Rhetoric of Aristotle.62 In this work, Gallucci lamented how neglected Aristotle’s Rhetoric was, and restated the importance of learning Aristotle’s precepts for further study in the studia humanitatis. As a foundation for further study, he strove in the work to reduce the variety of Aristotelian arguments into specific, easily understood rules.63 The assertion of the primacy of Aristotle, whom Gallucci refers to as il Filosofo, as an ancient authority would remain constant throughout the rest of Gallucci’s career. Indeed, in his later works, Gallucci would cite Aristotle as validation when he wished to reinforce a declaration. Yet, the philosopher is not referenced as an end unto himself, but as part of a classical education used to frame investigations into other fields, and to discern the legitimacy of these other fields. This interest in foundational education is continued in two short pamphlets that follow De formis, each dedicated to the instruction of young students. The first, De iis in quibus Venetians pueri erudiendi sunt, ut sic suam Rempublicam administrare possint [On the Manner in Which Venetian Children Are Educated so that They Can Manage Their Republic], explicitly deals with “Venetian youth and the matters in which they are instructed so that they can manage their own Republic” and the importance of education to the future of the Venetian Republic, especially that of the city’s future rulers: the aristocracy. The second publication, De usu tabularum, demonstrates practical ways in which to accomplish this task through organizational techniques and “use of records.” Here, Gallucci introduces a learning strategy that would guide the rest of his career: he insists on the usefulness of drawing up indexes and synopses of authors to be studied. This allows for a greater breadth of information to be covered, while maximizing a pupil’s time. The method is drawn from previous scholars who also published on a variety of topics, including the great defender of orthodox Aristotelian logic, Giacomo Zabarella (1533–1589), Marco degli Oddi (1526–1591), professor of medicine at the university of Padua, and the Persian polymath Avicenna (980–1037), whose interests paralleled Gallucci’s publishing on a range of topics.64 Gallucci especially encouraged his students to use the tables given in Avicenna’s five-volume medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine, given their highly effective facilitation of learning, and their capacity to help readers memorize learnt material in an orderly way. Over the course of his career, Gallucci would publish such reference guides to assist in the retention and explanation of complex issues pertaining to logic and classical education, which he then applied to the emerging sciences of astronomy, anatomy, physiognomy, and proportion theory.
29The interest in including reference guides at the ends of his works, as he did with his translation of Dürer’s Four Books on Human Proportion, can be seen in many early publications. One of these earlier publications that demonstrate Gallucci’s own interests is an edited volume (published 1584 in Venice, on the request of the Bishop of Modena) of various tracts on astrological medicine, including works by the celebrated astrologer Johann Virdung von Hassfurt, Johannes Stadius’ translation of the Iatromathematica [Iatromathematics] by Hermes Trismegistus, Jacobus Antonius Mariscottus of Florence’s translation of the pseudo-Galenic Prognostica ex egroti decubitu [Prognosis for the Decubital Sick], as well as Ficino’s Consiglio contro la pestilenza [Council Against Pestilence] and De vita libri tres (or De triplici vita) [Three Books on Life].65 Taken together, the works share the mid-sixteenth-century view that states that the purpose of astronomy is calculative in nature, while astrology would then judge and interpret these findings. The volume concludes with selections from Gallucci’s own work on astrological tables and on constructing the “celestial figure, finding the part of fortune and of the liver, dividing the zodiac, essential and incidental dignities of the planets, and the times appropriate for taking medicine.”66 He would follow this interest with his own writing on mathematical and astronomical topics in texts that describe how to build and use observational tools and various types of sundials. In 1590, he published two treaties, dedicated to Pope Sixtus V (1521–1590), on the use of astronomical instrumentation: Della fabrica et uso del novo horologio universale [On the Creation and Use of the New Universal Clock] and Della fabrica et uso di un novo stromento fatto… per fare gli orologi solari [On the Creation and Use of a New Instrument to Make Sun Dials]. These treatments would be followed by a large-format volume dedicated to Cardinal Francesco Morosini of Venice entitled Speculum Uranicum [The Mirror of Urania] (1593), which distinguished the different senses in the theory of the planets and by astrologers.67 He also provided another method for dividing the zodiac into twelve houses.68 The following year came a new volume, this time in Italian, entitled Della fabrica et uso di diversi stromenti di astronomia e cosmografia in which the author went through the different types of observational instruments, both ancient and modern.69
30Despite the impact of the above-mentioned works, the text that would make Gallucci a staple in libraries throughout Europe was his Theatrum mundi et temporis [Theater of the World and Time] published in Venice in 1588 (reprinted in 1589). The publication came in the wake of an increased interest in celestial mapping in the second half of the century, spurred on by the papacy (especially that of Pius IV and Gregory XIII).70 In the same manner, the highly influential treatment was dedicated to Sixtus V (Felice Peretti di Montalto), and even invokes the name of the pope in the hope that he would promote the study of celestial science by establishing an astronomical observatory in Rome. The author notes the favorable conditions of clear skies and elevated hills and also claims that the renowned German Jesuit mathematician and astronomer Christopher Clavius (1538–1612) would be on hand to assist in such investigations.71 Published shortly after the Sixtus V’s papal bull, in which astrology and other methods of divination were banned, Gallucci’s Coeli et terrae [Sky and Earth] (1586) reiterates the importance and nobility of celestial science properly understood and purified from any aspects of superstition.72 He then discusses the nature and qualities of each planet, their radiation and the influence which they exert on human bodies through the positions of the zodiac; these, in turn, are discerned by way of their distinguishing characteristics of masculine or feminine, commanding, obedient, or hostile.73 Not only did particular zodiacal signs affect different bodies in general given propinquity, but, Gallucci enumerates, individual members of the human body were likewise affected.74 This, in turn, necessitated the drawing up of astrological diagrams (or the figures of constellations in medical practice) in order to ascertain when and what type of treatment to administer. The sign under which a patient was born was also paramount and would determine a variety of preexisting conditions both in body and mind. Though he insisted that the practice among physicians was not contrary to the Council of Trent, nor the papal bull of Sixtus V banning astrological divination, he warned physicians to use the information only as a guide and not to attribute too much authority to it.75
31The seminal publication would set forth the framing devices that he would extend to his works on the visual arts. The numerous reprints and even a Spanish translation attest to the popularity of the work.76 In the following century, the work would be published under a different title, clarifying that this Theater of the World and Time “explains celestial bodies by means of instruments and figures.”77 The text is divided into six parts and dedicated to the description and mapping of the entire celestial and terrestrial worlds, placing the inferno inside the earth in ten concentric circles.78 As the first modern celestial atlas, the maps use a coordinate and trapezoidal system of projection that allow for the accurate determination of the star positions, which were derived from the Copernicum catalog. In this and earlier publications, such as Coeli et terrae, Gallucci also consulted the celestial models of Ficino.79 Here, Gallucci intended to offer an informative text that was accessible to nonspecialists with simple mathematical demonstrations illustrated with appropriate images; the descriptions are presented as pictures of the items under discussion, and the text is illustrated with forty-eight maps of the Ptolemaic constellations with corresponding mythological figures. The personification of constellations anthropomorphizes the universe, much as in Vitruvian cosmology. The attempt is made, as such, to categorize and relate the heavens and earth through the microcosm-macrocosm pair. Moreover, the very title of Gallucci’s work reveals its relationship to other mapping systems that were common around the same time. There were several publications throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that used Theatrum as an encompassing description.80 Of the most famous and influential of those discussed by Frances Yates was Giulio Camillo’s (ca.1480–1544), which was also developed in Venice.81 In his LIdea del theatro, which was lost after his death, Camillo sought to encapsulate “a complete treatment of its theme.”82 The notion of a “Theater” was widespread in many diverse treatments from calligraphy to women’s fashion, and it came to denote an extensive treatment of any given subject. From astrological treatments, Yates also noted that the Utriusque cosmi historia [History of the Two Worlds] by Robert Fludd (1574–1637) represented Shakespeare’s Theatrum Mundi [Theater of the World].83 The same can be said of Gallucci’s Theatrum mundi et temporis, whereby the “Theater” sought to encapsulate all of the “world and time.”84 The Venetian system developed by Camillo was not merely an exhaustive treatment. The Theater itself was a “mnemotechnic tool” originally intended to provide orators with well-ordered material for their thoughts.85 A system of “places and images” had been arranged, “sufficient for the location and management of all human concepts and of all things in this world, not only those which belong to the various fields of knowledge, but also to the noble arts and the mechanical.”86 Through the careful classification of all knowledge, an ideal ordering of all possible topics, the human mind itself could be made a perfect reflection of the macrocosm. Gallucci would refer again to Camillo’s L Idea and the art of memory in 1599 when translating, updating and completing the Margarita philosophica [The Philosophical Pearl] (1503) of Gregor Reisch (1467–1525), a popular encyclopedia reprinted several times since the beginning of the century.
32The interest in universal mapping, illustrated in Camillo’s system, was well-known in Venetian academic circles around mid-century. In 1560, Federico Badoer (1519–1593), founder of the Accademia della Fama, sent a letter to the Procurators of St Mark’s concerning the “Program of Universal Knowledge.” In the letter, Badoer sets forth that his academy seeks the sole rights to publishing in Venice, and states that he wishes to be put in charge of the library, so that it might better impress visiting dignitaries. The quest for a “universal knowledge” was further elucidated as Badoer continued:
In short, the whole nobility, and anyone else of whatsoever condition, who comes to listen to the matters under discussion in the Academy everyday, both morning and evening, will obtain two precious and delicious forms of nourishment. One of these is the taste of true virtue, the left hand of God on earth and the empress of the world, served by the twenty queens who are the sciences and faculties. What I mean to say is that not only will everything which the whole of mankind needs to know for necessity, profit, contentment and self-enhancement become attainable, but, as I can readily affirm, everything concerning all the virtues will be attained easily by listening to the discussions and their resolutions.87
33The same interests were carried on by Gallucci, who went on to found, along with eight others, the second Accademia di Venezia on 21 June, 1593. This academy was established with the intention of continuing the activities of the first, dissolved by the death of its organizer Badoer in the same year.88 The first head publisher for the new academy was Giovan Battista Ciotti (1560–1625), who would be the printer, publisher, editor, and agent for the poet Giambattista Marino. Ciotti would be followed by Andrea Muschio as publisher.89 The activities of the new academy were protected by the aristocracy of the city, a relationship maintained from the original, for Badoer had claimed that the “nobility in particular will receive… instruction” as part of the institution’s mission.90 The arrangement would come naturally to Gallucci, for he was already a tutor to young nobles, retained for his vast knowledge and dedicated pedagogy.
34Having already gained notoriety for his Theatrum, and with a wider acceptance of his discipline in other fields, Gallucci turned his attention to several works that would become some of his most influential publications. Along with his original publications, Gallucci was an accomplished translator, practicing intently. In the late 1580s, he translated into Latin the Catechismus in symbolum fidei [The Catechism of the Faith], originally written in Spanish by the Spanish Dominican friar Luis de Granada (1505–1588). In the dedication to Francesco Morosini, the Venetian Cardinal who served as the Bishop of Brescia, he writes that the Latin language is the bond that unites the different members of the Catholic Church, while vernacular languages are limited to the borders of individual countries.91 Although Granada’s work is little known today, Gallucci would call on him in his Della simmetria, along with Aristotle, on the relationship between beauty and utility. Ironically, despite his impassioned plea in defense of la lingua latina, his greatest success at teaching and popularizing these themes are seen in his vernacular translations of historical and scientific texts. In 1593, he translated a classic manual of optics from the thirteenth century, I tre libri della perspettiva commune dell’ illustriss [Three Books of the Shared Perspective of Famous Men] by John Peckham (ca.1240–1292).92 In the dedication to the apostolic secretary Giovanni Battista Cucina, Gallucci ingeniously praises the advantages of the optical doctrine presented with a simile relating the clarity provided by faith and ability to discern good and evil to the tools that allow us to discern with our external senses. He encourages his audience to be grateful to those who offer tools that allow us to discern the truth from falsehood, as Peckham communicates clearly and comprehensively every rule of perfect vision. The following years saw the translation of a natural history of India, originally written by the Spanish Jesuit, José de Acosta,93 along with two martial treatises. The first was a translation from the Spanish of the Specchio e disciplina militare [The Mirror of Military Discipline] by Francisco Valdes,94 followed by a short Discorso intorno al formare uno squadrone di gente e di terreno [Discourse on Forming a Squadron of Soldiers on the Field] written by Gallucci himself. The two treaties would be included in an influential collection of texts on the military arts, Fucina di Marte, published in 1641.95
35The successes of his vernacular publications demonstrate their efficacy in disseminating information to a broader audience than Latin afforded, especially as readership shifted. When he turned his attention to the arts, Italian was a natural choice as artists and art collectors from around Europe flocked to Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for training and education and/or to purchase works for their collections back home. Reference material for artists and guides for amateur-connoisseurs and patrons were in high demand. Gallucci would capitalize on both markets with one of his most influential vernacular translations, his Della simmetria, first published in 1591 and again in 1594. The translation can be situated within the context of other translations carried out in this period by Granada, Peckham, and Valdes. Just the same, given the additions made by Gallucci and the fact that he arguably updated and completed the treatise on proportion (along with the fact that he would also use the art of memory inspired by Camillo’s L idea), his translation of the Four Books on Human Proportion finds its counterpart in his translation of the Margarita philosophica of 1599. As in his Margarita, Gallucci again appends new sections, including a Dedication, Preface, short biography of the original author, and the Fifth Book, which, as stated on the title page of the Fifth Book, aims to teach “… the way painters are able to express the passions of the body and soul in the figures of men and women with lines and colors, whether they be natural or incidental, according to the opinion of philosophers and poets.”96
36The connection to the volume’s original author is made clear, as well as the contemporary religious environment in Europe. In his Dedication to the Habsburg archduke, Gallucci celebrates painting’s ability to penetrate into the most intimate parts of our soul through the eyes: “… as windows to our soul, while locked in this prison, penetrates into the most secret parts, eliciting pain, joy, desire, and fear.” The great emotional appeal and strength of painting is further associate with the power of religious iconography, as Gallucci cites images of the Holy Fathers, Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, and the works of Dürer. He demands: “Who does not burn of the love of Christ our Lord having seen his life represented with diligence…?”97 The utility of this enterprise is thus defended in post-Tridentine terms as a powerful tool for the Church’s use. Moreover, the decision to dedicate the translation to Maximilian III was a strategic consideration by the translator. Although the importance of the archduke can be understated by modern historians (due to the fact that he did not attain the title of King of Poland), his position as the Archduke of Austria, as well as a contender to the Polish crown, ensured that he was not merely a figurehead. In addition to his own political importance, given the proximity of Austria to Venice, he was also influential through his brother Rudolf II, who ruled as the Holy Roman Emperor throughout Gallucci’s most prolific period.98 In currying favor with the neighbors to the North, Gallucci translated one of the most famous German publications into Italian and upheld the importance and ideas of its original author. The connection of the dedicatee of the Della simmetria to Dürer’s greatest patron later in his career, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, would have been intentional on the part of Gallucci and would also not have gone unnoticed by his intended audience. As he notes in his Life of Albrecht Dürer, the artist was sought after by many kings and princes, “and, in particular, by Maximilian… ”99 Yet the connection between Venice and the ruling Habsburg line goes beyond Dürer working for Maximilian I. In fact, Maximilian II had an important influence on Venice, and was in turn affected by the politics of Venice, having negotiated peace with the Turks in 1567. The Eastern power was a continued threat to Venetian trading in the Mediterranean.100 Throughout much of the sixteenth century, the Austrian Habsburgs were at war with the Turks, while all of Italy was armed against the increasing threat to religion and trade.101 Moreover, the connection between the two political powers was further evinced through art and artists. Just as Dürer had traveled to Venice and worked there, from 1557 onward the Venetian Jacopo da Strada (1515–1588) stayed at the court of Maximilian II and acted as an art consultant and courtier.102 In as much as can be inferred, there was a maintained Venetian presence and interest in the Germanic courts throughout the sixteenth century, clarifying the dedication by Gallucci and conscious connection with Dürer.103
37While the Dedication praises Dürer, his original work, and his connection to the Habsburgs, pointing to the role art of art in promoting religious causes, the following Preface establishes the theoretical structure of the treatise. At the outset of the Preface, he emphasizes “the similarity that painting has with poetry” in that “… painting is a poem that is silent, and poetry is a painting that speaks.”104 Whereas one uses words and the other images, each seeks to imitate natural and imaginary subjects. In order to accomplish this, the painter and poet alike need to know how to appropriately characterize various types of figures, and must be able to comprehend the virtues and passions of the human soul. This requirement is couched in terms of physiognomics, where the extreme diversity of the appearance of individuals is connected to their natural inclinations and how their character and psychological disposition can be related to various animal traits: “For instance, the man who has some similarities with the members of the lion is robust and strong, as seen from experience, but if he has legs similar to that of the deer, he is shy.”105 Therefore, talented painters should make themselves familiar with the different body parts, their functions, and the natural disposition of each. The Fifth Book is devoted to laying out the appropriate figures and their various members based on character traits and disposition. In this way, the Fifth Book acts as a very useful index that follows and supplements Dürer’s original Four Books.
38Gallucci’s Della simmetria thus merges his expertise in pedagogy — as seen in his early publications concerned with the education of young Venetians, such as De usu tabularum — with his passion and ability in scientific and technical matters; matters that in turn constituted an interest of his patrons. In the various topics Gallucci touched on in his fairly short career, he would commonly include additional synopses, indexes, columns, and tables to assist the reader in gleaning more from the work with reference guides. The Fifth Book provides such an indexical reference where the work of the original author is contextualized, directing readers to the appropriate book after finding the character or body part to be represented. For artists, this was a very user-friendly manual that could be referenced as needed in the workshop as a practical guide. In the descriptions, Gallucci also includes excerpts from the most famous ancient and modern literary works. The summary of these classical sources could also function as a sort of study guide that would assist artists in engaging scholars in conversations. On the other hand, the canonical works associated with the visual arts provided a range of students another mnemonic device to remember their classical studies as part of their education. Finally, those interested in patronizing or appreciating the arts would find the material edifying and would gain a greater understanding and prestige in their circles.
39Gallucci is still known primarily as an pedagogue and translator, while his numerous publications on astronomy and astronomical instrumentation cement his legacy in the history of natural science. The importance of celestial cartography at the dawn of the seventeenth century and the discoveries of Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), a contemporary of his, provide the historical backdrop to locate him in the intellectual milieu of his day. Yet, that same environment saw a dynamic exchange of ideas across disciplines. Gallucci saw the applicability of his own field of study and others to that of the visual arts. In fact, it would be impossible to fully understand a subject such as painting without drawing on various interpretative strategies. In the case of Della simmetria, these would include the relationship between the sister arts of poetry and painting; physiognomy and its ability to reveal the “passions of the soul;” and cosmology as revealed through proportion theory.
3. Ut pictura poesis: Sister Arts
40The relationship between poetry and painting was well established by the time of Gallucci’s translation. Of the various disciplines with which students of the visual arts must be familiar, poetry was considered necessary for both the insight that it provided to the affetti dell’animo and its role as the acknowledged sister art of painting. As Gallucci opens in his Preface, “… painting is a poem that is silent, and poetry is a painting that speaks.”106 The Renaissance axiom was attributed to Horace in his Ars Poetica and became central to art theory and education from the fifteenth century onward. In his I commentarii [Commentaries] (1447), Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455) was among the first theorists to extend Vitruvius’ instructions for the education of the architect to the painter and sculptor.107 Vitruvius had specified the disciplines in which an architect should be knowledgeable in his De architectura by stating:
Let him be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens.108
41The painters and sculptors of the fifteenth century were to aspire to gain the knowledge that the ancients saw as necessary to carry out their trades, encompassing the branches of the quadrivium: music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Ironically, it was Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), whose primary educational concern was that artists should learn geometry, who bundled Vitruvius’ specifications into one general recommendation that artists be as knowledgeable as possible in all of the liberal arts. Unwittingly, Alberti would influence the addition of the trivium to complete the seven branches of learning with the addition of grammar, logic, and, most importantly, rhetoric. He suggested an artist cultivate associations with poets and orators, who “are full of information about many subjects” and could aid the painter in “preparing the composition of an ‘historia.’”109 As the first theorist of the Renaissance to demonstrate a pragmatic understanding of art education, Alberti advised “the studious painter to make himself familiar with poets, orators and other men of letters, for he will not only obtain excellent ornaments from such learned minds, but he will also be assisted in those very inventions which in painting may gain him the greatest possible praise.”110
42The paralleling of the aims of both poetry and rhetoric with painting and sculpture found the two inextricably intertwined towards the end of the century with the Horatian creed of ut pictura poesis firmly establishing painting as mute poetry.111 Following tradition, Gallucci cites Aristotle’s Poetics to confirm the assertion, stating that the two arts “… live together in balance, because both… imitate natural and artificial things — one with the words, represents things to the ears, while the other one with its colors in the eyes of mortals.”112 The interrelationship of painting and poetry had further elevated the status of the artist, while simultaneously placing greater demands on him. The Venetian theorist and dramatist Lodovico Dolce (1508–1568) argued in his dialogue L’Aretino (1557) that: “painters have always been appreciated for it appears that they surpass the rest of humanity in intellect and spirit.”113 For Dolce, “well-developed intelligence” and knowledge of historical narrative and poetry were essential for the facility in invenzione, mastery of one’s subject, and adherence to the laws of propriety.114 Moreover, like Alberti, Dolce did not find it necessary for the artist to be a man of letters. He suggests instead that the artist merely “keep in close touch with poets and men of letters.”115 In the same fashion, Gallucci’s audience, which included readership outside of arts practitioners, were made familiar with the field of the visual arts, while simultaneously reinforcing their own education and standard humanist reading list. Expertise and firsthand knowledge of the creative process is not a prerequisite for a full appreciation of Della simmetria. In fact, the primary goal of the work was, arguably, to introduce new topics of study while referencing and reinforcing the standard educational curriculum that developed over the last two centuries.
43The curriculum of this liberal education expected from families of means was codified in Italy in the sixteenth century and was only slightly modified in the seventeenth.116 It commenced with education in elementary and then grammar schools where students would first gain a command of the vernacular followed by a working knowledge of Latin. After the desired level of literacy had been achieved, usually between twelve and fourteen years of age, artists would then be apprenticed to a local master, while upwardly mobile students would continue in the university with law or letters.117 The impetus behind the new curriculum came from humanists who sought to reform the late medieval education system based on Greco-Roman classics. This programmatic definition of the sequence of studies would become known as the studia humanitatis. It would be first published in 1472 in the posthumous work by Pier Paolo Vergerio (1370–1444/1445) in his treatise De ingenuis moribus ac liberalibus studiis [On the Manners of a Gentleman and Liberal Studies], which included grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy.118 Further refinement resulted in a normative syllabus that divided grammar education into two schools. The lower, or elementary school, utilized grammar manuals, such as Cato’s Disticha and Vives’Colloquia, and also included repetitive drills in basic grammatical structure. The upper school built on basic grammar by learning Cicero’s letters as an introduction to rhetoric, and Virgil as an introduction to poetry. It often added another poet, such as Terence, Horace, or Ovid, along with a historian, such as Caesar, Sallust, or Valerius Maximus. A few pedagogues even augmented the core curriculum with some Greek, and logic, or excerpts from Aristotle. Upon leaving grammar school, one would have achieved a firm foundation for reading and writing in Latin, as well as an extensive repertoire of ancient rhetoricians and poets.119 The canonicity of such syllabi is demonstrable through a quick review of the bibliography utilized in later treatises, such as Gallucci’s. Every author mentioned above is called upon to support various assertions. Knowledge of the entirety of these author’s works, and in which volume quotations are derived, is a presumed prerequisite for a full understanding of the arguments set forth. Aristotle is the philosophical authority most often cited, though Seneca and Plato are referenced; Cicero is repeatedly referenced for rhetoric, and Sallust, Catullus, Horace, Ovid, and Virgil for poetry; and, finally, Plutarch and Pliny for history.
44The organization of the new additions in Della simmetria cleverly interweaves these various literary traditions to assist in elucidating the original goals of Dürer’s proportion studies. In the Preface, dedicated to “showing the similarity that painting has with poetry,” Gallucci introduces the interpretative schema for his new translation and argues that painters and poets should learn from the other’s field, stating: “In addition, since the poet cannot imitate well with words that man whose actions he does not fully know, thus the painter cannot imitate well that body whose parts are not entirely visible.”120 Poetry assists the painter in selecting what is appropriate to communicate what was intended, for he “also needs to know what action is appropriate for whatever virtue.”121 Understanding the bodily types, expressions, and psychological disposition of different characters is necessary to ensure decorum and propriety, which primarily consists of two main things: “one is in knowing how to suitably form all kinds of bodies; the other in knowing for what type of person each of those is appropriate.”122
45In his Fifth Book, Gallucci categorizes various types of characters, personalities, genders, and dispositions, along with the appropriate features to illustrate each in fifty-eight chapters. In supporting his assertions, ancient and modern poets, philosophers, and rhetoricians are called upon as authorities. In addition to Homer, we also find Anacreon, Catullus, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, and other ancient poets read alongside Petrarch, Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso from the early modern era. For instance, in opening his discussion with the “Differences of Humans with Respect to Countries, Sex and Age,” the build, complexion, and appearance of men and women from various countries is discussed. Men from “Egypt, and other places in the south” are smaller than men in the north, and, as Tasso describes Arabs in Book 17 of Gerusalemme liberata [Jerusalem Delivered], “They have women’s voices, bodies short and thin, / and long, black locks of hair, and swarthy skin.”123 After discussing the appropriate build for men that approximate a lion, he continues on with what is appropriate for women and effeminate men should be that of a leopard or panther. He then calls upon Homer for confirmation of his description in the Iliad where the Trojan prince Paris is treated: “When, advancing together, the two armies/ came near, Alexandros, like a god, appeared wearing/ a panther skin on his shoulders, and his curved bow… ”124 In the following chapter on “The Beauty of Women,” there is a compendium of references on the characteristics on feminine beauty, specifically related to complexion, build, facial features, hair, and breasts. Describing this ideal, Gallucci calls on Homer, Ariosto, Tasso, Petrarch, Catullus, and Seneca, who all confirm the complexion should be “lily-white” or “alabaster,” limbs should be “lustrous” and soft, hair like “golden tresses flowing in the wind,” and, finally, “unripe apple-breasts.”125 This lengthy section reiterates the themes, leaving no doubt to the veracity of the translator’s claims for his audience. At the same time, readers are called upon to remember from what chapter, book, and section the excerpt is derived. Hence, in each section Gallucci attempts to draw on both modern and ancient poets to demonstrate the consistency in their descriptions and to support his own conclusions, while refreshing and reinforcing the reader’s knowledge of this bibliography.
46These poetic citations, however, go beyond physiognomic descriptors. While the confirmation of physical appearance in various personages is demonstrable in Della simmetria, there are broader implications for the association between the sister arts here with regards to the theoretical superstructure. In point of fact, the publication of the translation and commentary coincided with the Ariosto-Tasso debate and considered the merits of epic poetry over chivalric romances. Applicable to the arguments that would preoccupy artists and academicians in the following century, apologists on both sides would argue for the supremacy of one over the other. The different narrative styles were bound up in the Orlando furioso [The Frenzy of Orlando] (1532) by Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533) and the later Gerusalemme liberata (1581) by Torquato Tasso (1544–1595). The chivalric romance of Ariosto, which was characterized by “micronarratives” of an interlaced structure and myriad digressions, found a counterpoint in the epic of Tasso, a “macronarrative” with a linear progression leading towards an inevitable conclusion. The works represented two equally viable approaches to art, poetry, and rhetorical structure. Ariosto offered an entertaining mixture of “heroic and erotic actions”; his descriptions of characters and their actions were appreciated for the emotions that they could elicit, inspiring artists well into the following century. Tasso, on the other hand, provides a “seemingly seamless master discourse,” and a compelling model for history painting, especially of religious scenes.126 Both poets are given seemingly equal treatment by Gallucci, each being called upon for their perspective on all manner of heroic and dramatic themes. However, if we consider the goal of Gallucci and his understanding of Dürer’s goal in the Four Books, the epic works and theoretical treatises of Tasso are more influential.
47Gallucci laments at the outset of his work that so many artists in his own day work without precepts, which Dürer had attempted to establish, but were forgotten by the end of the century. He states:
For without any precept, which would certainly guide students, they instead propose their own or copy the drawings of others. Thus, all of this profession, which is truly worthy of science and practice, they reduce to practice alone, and, as a result, like so many amputees going about limping and blind people groping, deprive their histories of the variety of many colors in order to satisfy the ignorant and vulgar.127
48Instead of groping blindly, students of painting need firm rules founded on verifiable principles from the study of nature and mathematics, as well as academic disciplines in poetry, philosophy, and the like. With that in mind, and the defense of this “noble art,” Gallucci opens his Dedication with a defense of the power of art to move individuals to piety when viewing religious scenes, especially of martyrs: “Who does not burn of the love of Christ our Lord having seen his life represented with such diligence, and in art in the many drawings of our Albrecht Dürer?”128 Hence, imitable actions should be the goal of art, especially in post-Tridentine Italy. The new requirement is clearly related by the ecclesiastical authorities who would first elaborate on the pronouncements of the council.129 Reform-minded clerics, such as Archbishops Carlo Borromeo and Gabriele Paleotti, demanded clarity and simplicity in artworks that would, above all, inspire their viewers to pious action through contemplation and reflection laid out in treatises like Discorso intorno alle immagini sacre e profane [Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images] (1582).130 Calling on the authority of Aristotle in the Discorso, Paleotti cites that imitation is inborn in man; as such, paintings that are closer to sense-perceptible reality are more persuasive: “Whence those paintings that imitate the live and true more in such a manner that deceives animals, and sometimes even men, like those Pliny relates like Zeuxis and Parrhasius, are always more worthy of status and commendation as they have delighted onlookers so much more.”131 The rhetorical nature of the artist’s charge is aided by the mimetic properties of his medium. The closer he approximates the visible world, the more compelling his art will be to the viewers to inspire them to action through the pious display they see on the canvas.
49In as much as the goals of painting were to depict human action to inspire piety, so too was poetry defined as the imitation of human action. Tasso confirmed this in his own definition of the goals of epic poetry when writing in his Discorsi del poema eroico [Discourses on the Heroic Poem] of 1594:
Therefore, I would say instead that poetry was none other than the imitation of human actions, which properly constitute imitable actions; and the others were not imitated in and of themselves, but incidentally, nor as the principal part [of the poem], but as accessory. In such manner one can imitate not only the actions of beasts, such as the battle of the unicorn with the elephant, or of the swan with the eagle, but natural events, such as tempests at sea, pestilences, deluges, conflagrations, earthquakes, and other such things.132
50Gallucci, as mentioned, opened his translation reiterating the importance of understanding “which action is appropriate for whatever virtue.”133 Inspiring virtuous action should be the goal of the painter as it is the poet, and the same expectations were then translated into art theory from Tassian poetics. Early modern artists, in fact, understanding the united goals of the sister disciplines, would take such definitions and apply them to the visual arts, especially that of painting — replacing “pittura” for “poesia.” Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), the artist who would use Gallucci’s translation in his own unfinished treatise on art, demonstrates its applicability in his Osservazioni sopra la pittura, or Definition of Painting and of the Imitation Proper to It. Here, Poussin quotes directly from Tasso’s Discorsi and the definition that, like poetry, “Painting is none other than the imitation of human actions… ”134 The relationship between these goals was further elaborated on by Tasso, who in demonstrating the analogy between the exemplary actions of epic poetry and the goals of painting, compared the ideal virtues in epic verse to images that the intellect paints in the mind’s eye of the readers:
Their own intellect is the painter who goes on painting in their souls, based on this similitude, the forms of strength, of temperance, of justice, of faith, of piety, of religion, and of every other virtue, which is either acquired through much exertion, or infused by divine grace.135
51Tasso claims that epic poetry “paints” the forms of strength, faith, and other virtues, upon the minds of its readers. In like fashion, Gallucci often uses the term “paints” as opposed to “says” when explaining how poets describe, or “paint” a picture of an image for the reader. Finally, the related goals of poetry and painting, especially relating to the potential for capturing emotions and virtues, would be recorded by one of the last great art theorists and biographers, Giovan Pietro Bellori (1613–1696). In his famous lecture delivered to the Accademia di San Luca in 1664, Bellori would define painting as the imitation of human action, and in his speech he encourages the painter to emulate the poet in crafting a universal representation of different emotional traits. In addressing this relationship, he writes:
We must further consider that since painting is a representation of human action, likewise the painter must retain in his mind the exemplar of the emotions that accompany these actions, much as the poet preserves [in his mind] the idea of the wrathful, the fearful, the sorrowful, the joyful, and thus of laughter, of weeping, of fear, and of temerity.136
52The two disciplines share the goal to display human action in order to reveal a truth behind the appearance of humankind. Human action and activity are highlighted in order to communicate ideals of behavior and belief, and to reveal the underlying nature of the universe. Importantly, Bellori exhorts artists to be knowledgeable of these emotional exemplars and their corresponding actions that make their psychological states known to the viewer. As a matter of fact, the importance of human activity and its ability to convey meaning moves beyond depicting humans. As noted, Tasso points out that painters and poets even represent gods, natural disasters, and animals from the perspective of human activity and often assign to them human attributes. What Gallucci, Bellori, and Tasso all agree on is that while the art forms of painting and poetry have the ability to represent any range of natural or fantastic phenomena, human action is their principle and proper enterprise. The ability to identify an individual character through appearance and classify a figure’s movements led to the development of two interrelated disciplines in the Renaissance. Building on the importance of human action and particularities to interpret an infinite range of real and imagined things, the discipline of physiognomics emerged as a mechanism by which to discern the judgment of human character from individual features, while the theory of pathognomics grew alongside to assist in interpreting how expressive movements of figures reveal their passions.
4. Physiognomics: The Science of Passion
53The dialectic on human expression, especially the ancient theory of physiognomic typology, occupied authors throughout the sixteenth century. The considerations consumed Dürer’s studies at the outset of the century as he assembled his twenty-six sets of human proportions, as well as Gallucci, at the end of the century, with his attempt to contextualize Dürer’s studies. Drawing upon the ancient and the revived science as applied to the visual arts, Della simmetria attempted to prepare artists for the two complementary aspects of the discipline: “the diagnostic significance ascribed to the morphology of human faces and the communication of emotions by means of the dynamic mimicry of the features.”137 For Gallucci, that meant providing an accessible index or reference to represent a range of characters and emotional states. This quantitative and taxonomic reference guide walked the reader through the creative process for various figures for history paintings. When a character, or their type, was known for a particular narrative, the reader could turn to the corresponding description where Gallucci directs the reader to the relevant book in which Dürer outlines the mathematical armature on which to hang the appropriate affetti.138 These physiognomic case studies include quick axiomatic references for appropriate musculature and complexion, as well as attitude, facial features, hair, beard, and eye color, and even the lines of the face. Examples range from particular body parts (such as ears, hands, and lips) — appropriate to jealous, angry, or loquacious men — to very specific character combinations, such as “The Figure of a Man, Who Is by Nature Cold and Wet, Therefore, Meek and Humble, Feeble, Slow, Quiet, and Effeminate.”139 The range of characteristics and passions are illustrated in a comparative method: after describing the characteristics relating to a particular temperament, the opposite is then described as a binary distinction.
54The comparative approach can be illustrated with the “Figure of a Cheerful Man” described by Gallucci. Once an artist has properly proportioned the figure, based on Dürer’s formula, a quick reference relates that: “The figure principally consists of the appearance of the forehead and eyes, which all ancient writers agree upon, demonstrate this passion through its opposite when the brow cringes, showing pain and severity.”140 Here, he cite as his authority Ariosto, quoting the effects of joy from the chivalric epic Orlando furioso: “‘So strange a sight smoothed Jocondo’s brow and cleared his eyes. He became more jocund, as his name implied, and his glumness turned to gaiety. He became happy again, filled out, took on colour, looked once more like a cherub from paradise.’”141 Along with the forehead and eyes, this passion is identified through the fleshy and flushed face of the figure. As with each description, Gallucci then provides the contrary emotion, “A Melancholic and Grieved Man,” whereby we are told that: “the forehead must be wrinkled like a newly plowed field with relaxed eyebrows that appear to quiver, but with fixed and stern eyelids. In all aspects he should appear troubled, having discomfort in everything.”142 As with all of the passions, the initial description of figures experiencing emotions cite only the momentary response to an external stimulus. Behind such evaluations, though, lies the belief that a figure’s appearance is also tied to their character. Thus, anyone’s character can be known if following certain diagnostic criteria set forth in many earlier physiognomic treatises.
55The advent of natural physiognomy can be traced to antiquity, where a number of treatises provided important technical handbooks.143 The most important ancient work, and first of its kind to treat the subject, was the Physiognomica attributed to Aristotle (though now agreed to be by an anonymous third century BCE author). Reprinted and illustrated in several Renaissance editions, the author, referred to as Pseudo-Aristotle, relates that careful observers can ascertain the nature of men and women through certain physiognomic signs, such as: movements and gestures of the body, color, characteristic facial expressions, growth of hair, smoothness of the skin, the voice, the condition of the flesh, the parts of the body, the build of the body as a whole, etc. Important for later writers on the subject, the author relates humans to animals, dividing the whole animal kingdom into two physical types — male and female.144 In all species the female is tamer, gentler, less powerful, easily trained, and more manageable, but, at the same time, more deceitful and mischievous. Their heads are smaller and faces narrower; furthermore, the female’s neck thinner, chest weaker, and sides smaller. At the same time, her hips and thighs are fuller, though thin-legged and with more delicate feet. Males are the opposite of all of these things, including being hotter and dryer due to their humoral disposition. After a comparison of humans with their animal counterparts to determine character based on appearance, Pseudo-Aristotle considers the signs of psychological comportment in the cases of courage, cowardice, good disposition, dullness of sense, shamelessness, etc. These signs are drawn from observation of human behavior; for example, in the case of “courage,” he lists: coarse hair, upright carriage of the body, size and strength in the bones, sides, and extremities, a stomach that is broad and flat, a sturdy, not overly fleshy neck, a chest that is broad and fleshy, the calves of the legs are larger towards the ankles, a gleaming eye, neither too wide nor too closed, a rather dry skin, and a sharp forehead, straight and not large, neither very smooth nor very wrinkled.145 The belief that the characters of animals were universal and stable was uncontested. For instance, asses were insensitive to pain; deer, cats, and hares were timid; bulls were strong; lions courageous and magnanimous, and so on. Yet, since antiquity and the publication by Pseudo-Aristotle, artists and writers were warned that no one would resemble an animal in its entirety; it was necessary to clarify which features of the beast indicated which characteristics.146 Following these principles, Renaissance thinkers like Gallucci presumed as Pseudo-Aristotle wrote: “that soul and body react on each other; when the character of the soul changes, it changes also the form of the body, and conversely, when the form of the body changes, it changes the character of the soul.”147
56Evidence of the use of the classification laid out in the Physiognomica may be seen in both Dürer’s original text and Gallucci’s later additions. In his “Aesthetic Excursus” in the Third Book, for instance, Dürer relates the differences in figures based on race, along with their temperament and physiognomy. He writes: “Thus one finds among the families of men all manner of type, which may be used for diverse figures according to temperament. As such, the strong are firm in body as with lions, while the weak are softer and less rugged and strong.”148 In his Fifth Book, Gallucci addresses the same subject and states: “Nevertheless, if it is possible, painters are obliged to represent men with the limbs of a lion, while that of a leopard is appropriate for women and effeminate men.”149 Following the introduction to nationalities and genders, where men and women are associated with animals, instructions on how to paint specific passions further illustrate the scheme. The complexion, build, facial features, and behavior of various temperaments are identified that range from strong, angry, or ingenious to loquacious, drowsy, or libidinous. This is followed by which body parts are appropriate to which passions (e.g. legs, knees, chest, fingernails, etc.) and their movements. The Fifth Book culminates in a theoretical defense of the nature of beauty, citing Marsilio Ficino’s (1433–1499) Commentary on Plato.150
57The treatise joined a growing body of literature by the end of the century on the applicability of the system to the visual arts, such as Lomazzo’s 1584 Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scultura ed architettura. While the Milanese painter had little to say concerning facial expressions, nearly an entire book is dedicated to physiognomics. Beginning with a Horatian introduction, Book Two, “Del sito, posizione, decoro, moto, furia, e grazia delle figure,” addresses the movements related to expressing the passions and concludes with eleven passions that are divided into those that are desirable and irascible.151 These temperaments affect the body in various ways that are also restated in the Della simmetria: joy expands the posture of figures, and expands the heart, while fear contracts figures and, likewise, grief retracts inwards; fear also brings coldness, a quick-beating heart, loss of voice, and paleness.152 Gallucci had also commented on the effects of fear on the body: “The timid man pulls his limbs as tightly to his body as possible, as when all the men are, for any reason, alarmed by any serious fear; this comportment makes it look as though they are shrinking into themselves, looking for a narrower place to hide. They look like they are running away and are pale overall.”153 This observation is confirmed through a number of citations that follow from various poets, including Ariosto, Homer, Ovid, Virgil, and Tasso.154 In a similar fashion, Lomazzo follows the account of these general passions with descriptions of nearly a hundred more in greater detail, wherein a few general remarks on typical features are followed by accounts drawn from ancient and modern poets.
58Such physiognomic treatments developed within the context of a variety of fields publishing on the relationship between character and appearance. These took the form of iconographic manuals, anatomical texts, emblemata, and whole treatises dedicated to the subject. The first was in the form of a special chapter dedicated to physiognomy in De sculptura [On Sculpture] in 1504 by the humanist and amateur sculptor Pomponoi Gaurico (1482–1620). The treatment was followed in 1522 with a complete treatise on astrology, chiromancy and physiognomy in one volume entitled Introductiones Apotelesmaticae [Introduction to Apotelesmatics] by the German chiromancer John Indagine. Chiromancy or palmistry (the interpretation of one’s character from the lines and other features on their hands) is discussed in the first section and physiognomy the second. This text formed the basis for physiognomics indebted to astrology. In 1548, Paolo Pino (1534–1565) briefly touches on physiognomics and its importance for artists in his Dialogo di pittura [Dialogue on Painting], citing Gaurico.155 The same year finds Francisco de Hollanda (1517–1585) mentioning Gaurico in some observations on physiognomics in Tractato de pintura antigua [Treatise on Ancient Painting].156 Later in the century, several important works on the subject were published. Francesco Bocchi (1548–1618) in his Eccellenza della statua del San Giorgio di Donatello [Excellence of the Statue of Saint George by Donatello], written in 1571 and published in 1584 in Florence, would move beyond a general discussion of the subject to be the first to specifically articulate the role of physiognomics to expression in the visual arts.157 But the most influential treatise on the subject was Giovanni Battista della Porta’s (1535–1615) De humana physiognomonia [On Human Physiognomy], originally published in 1588, later translated into Italian (like Della simmetria, making the text more widely accessible to artists) as Della fisionomia dell’huomo [On the Physiognomy of Man] in 1598 and reprinted in 1608.158 Drawing heavily on the classification techniques described in Pseudo-Aristotle’s Physiognomica, Della Porta assigned the variety of human types based on their similarity to the features of certain animals, claiming that a man’s resemblance to an animal indicates that he shares those behavioral habits. As he writes: “For instance an individual’s similarity to a lion would indicate an ardent personality, resemblance to a hare would show that a person is easily frightened, a likeness to a cock stands for liberality, while canine traits suggest avarice, etc.”159 The human-animal comparative method would influence the most famous of these publications on the passions and physiognomy. Published after a series of lectures delivered at the French Academy, Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner les passions [Method for Learning to Draw the Passions] of 1668 by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690) illustrates the main points through a series of drawings comparing human and animal faces (based on the Physiognomica). In all, the French academician describes twenty-two passions, along with the “mixed passions,” including: Joy, Hope, Anger, Fear, Love, Astonishment, and so on. Each one was illustrated and paired with a description of the particular passion.160
59Such passions and physiognomic types were also dictated by humoral disposition. As with physiognomics, the medical theory of the humors was also concerned with the study of the relationship between the body to mental characteristics.161 Since antiquity, the blending (krasis) of the humors was assumed to determine physical, as well as psychological disposition (complexio).162 In the period under investigation, writers used the terms “temperament” and “humor” interchangeably due to the fact that they identified the dominant elemental properties inside the body, which in turn affected psychological disposition and complexion. For instance, if the hot wetness of fire predominated, an individual was choleric, and thus quick to fierce action and emotion; if the hot wetness of air was prevalent, that individual was sanguine, loving of pleasure and cheerful; if the cold wetness of water abounded, the person was phlegmatic, and thus slow in both mind and body; and if the cold dryness of earth was most common, the person was melancholic, depressed and solitary. Understanding which humor was dominant was necessary for both poets and artists. The Italian sculptor Orfeo Boselli (1597–1667) discusses the necessity of humoral balance in his treatise Osservazioni della scoltura antica [Observations on Ancient Sculpture], noting that although true health — both mental and physical — derives from a perfect humoral equilibrium, this rarely occurs; one humor will predominate and the artist will need to understand the external symptoms to correctly capture all individual personalities. Boselli advises the sculptor to be mindful of these dominant humors:
Now, when these [humors] are in equilibrium, the soul is the perfect master of the natural powers, and according to the external forces is angered, perturbed, or rejoices. Because in the composition of the body one of the elemental humors often has the upper hand, one face thus has a naturally melancholic physiognomy, another glad and another majestic. For this reason, one can conclude that, in the face, one of these [humors] will be expressed either naturally, or through external causes. Therefore, in making the face, one should first think of which of these affects is underlying, and throw oneself into expressing that one.163
60Whether the figure to be created was of sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, or choleric personality, the dominance of one humor in the body was the cause, externally influencing appearance seen through skin tone; thus, the term “complexion” also came into widespread use when discussing artistic style in relationship to humoral balance. When Lomazzo became blind and turned to writing, he instructed artists to blend their colors to ensure that the skin of phlegmatics is paler, melancholics swarthier, sanguine figures rosier, and cholerics yellower.164 Thus, in addition to physical characteristics shared with the animal kingdom, temperament could be ascertained through an individual’s complexion.
61Nonetheless, the centrality of taxonomic classification to physiognomics means that another aspect underpinning physiognomic studies is often overlooked: the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. While physiognomy lists diagnostic criteria, answering the what, when and, where of physical appearance, cosmology answers the how and why. Why are some men prone to anger with a quick temper and ugly, while others calm, cheerful and handsome? Why are some predisposed to illness and malady, while others healthy? How is temperament, complexion and attractiveness related to the time of year and one’s age? According to ancient and early modern writers, the answers to these questions lie in our relationship to the cosmos.
5. From Microcosm to Macrocosm
62At the outset of his treatise, Gallucci established that human proportions (or microcosm) reflect the harmony of the universe (or macrocosm). The Vitruvian pairing, where the universe could be numerically calculated and revealed through the human body, illustrates the perceived interrelationship between the cosmos and the human body. This worldview connected the balance and constitution of figures with the theory of the four elements and humors. These physiognomic and humoral readings find their classifications framed in terms of astronomy and astrology, appropriate given the translator’s background. Furthermore, the attempts made to categorize and map the human body, in the case of Dürer and others, were understood by art-theorists, astrologers and natural philosophers as an attempt to reveal the macrocosm of the universe. Through this process, the “divinely” ordered beauty in the microcosm of man is also revealed. Such information concerning the structure of the universe was seen as necessary for artists to understand in order to reveal the beauty buried in an imperfect material existence. In fact, Dürer himself had related the connected concerns of astrology and humoral theory in his “Aesthetic Excursus: ”
If one wished to create some strange Saturnine or Martial figure, or represent the charming loveliness of Venus, and you practice the aforementioned teachings, then by their aid you will know what standard and style you should employ for each. Through their bodily proportions, a varieties of men can be shown, whether fiery, airy, watery, or earthly in temperament. Thus, the power of art, as mentioned, masters each [type] in every work.165
63While the microcosm-macrocosm pair could be represented — and, thus, determined — numerically, the interrelationship between the universe and the human body sympathetically affected all matter; therefore, all things could be found to be connected to man. This system of relationships was expressed early on by Ficino, who demonstrated the applicability of Vitruvian cosmology to Neoplatonism. In fact, the body measurements given by Ficino in Speech V Chapter VI of his Sopra lo amore o Convito di Plantone [Plato’s Symposium on Love] are derived, in part, from the canon of Vitruvius, where we find that: “eight heads will make the length of the body; this same length the spread of the arms to the side and likewise of the legs and feet will also measure,” and where the face is divided into three lengths of the nose.166 Elaborating on the notion of the balance and constitution of figures, Ficino then enumerated the three steps that were to be taken to ensure matter’s acceptance of beauty — order, mode, and form. Within each of these steps, the appropriateness of type and the balance of each were critical to prepare matter so that it might result in something pleasant and harmonious. But, as he continues, the theory of the four elements and humors are cited as the actual basis for this beauty:
The basis of these three conditions is the harmonious constitution of the four elements in such a way that our body most resembles heaven, the substance of which is harmonious, and does not rebel against the formation of the soul due to an excess of some humor. In such a way, the splendor of heaven easily appears in the body as similar to heaven. And this perfect form of man, which the spirit possesses, will be more integral in peaceful and obedient matter…167
64The body and the universe, from microcosm to macrocosm, are here related not by geometrical relationships, but rather metaphysical balance. The same elements that made up the physical universe also constituted the human body. The conception has its origin in Greek cosmology, where Plato’s Philebus finds Socrates voicing the thesis that the elements in man’s body are derived from elements in the body of the cosmos; whatever man has, the cosmos must also have. Therefore, Socrates posits: “Whence can a human body have received its soul, if the body of the universe does not possess a soul?”168 As the world, and subsequently the universe, is balanced by the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), so to is the human body, and subsequently the soul, balanced by the four humors (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood).169 For physicians, who derived their ideas from Hippocrates and Galen, restoring health meant reducing the excesses through the introduction of opposites in processes, such as bloodletting.170 For artists, philosophers, and those concerned with astronomy and astrology, balance and harmony in the universe, human body, and art resulted in order, health, and beauty. Therefore, according to Ficino, if the proper preparation for beauty, which includes these concerns, is observed, then the “splendor of heaven easily appears in the body as similar to heaven.”171
65The interconnected nature of man and the universe naturally extended to heavenly bodies, and, as such, astronomy and astrology became intertwined with human proportion. For those interested in mapping the cosmos, such as Gallucci, the microcosm-macrocosm pairing allowed the extension of the knowledge of man to that of the universe, as they were self-reflective.172 This was made possible through the dispersion of the same four elements throughout the universe, as well as the belief that the universe was organized in a similar fashion to man. Plato’s Timaeus, for instance, had argued that: “The visible universe is a living creature, having soul (psyche) in body and reason (nous) in soul… Man is also composed of reason, soul, and body; but his body will be dissolved back into the elements, and the two lower parts of his soul are also mortal. Only the divine reason in him is imperishable.”173 In a model that would also appeal to Christian thinkers, the human body is derived from the elements and will return to them after death. The constitution of these elements can be found in the different planets and these in turn influence the makeup of bodies born under their astrological agency. The manner in which celestial bodies affected earthly ones reflected the organization of the cosmos. For as Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), antiquarian and founding member of the Royal Society, related in his Theatrum chemicum britannicum [The Theater of British Chemistry] (1652): the universe is divided into supercelestial, celestial, and natural realms; the sublunary world being the final recipient of divine ideas transmitted by the planets and stars.174
66The applicability of this belief to the arts was already demonstrated in treatises on art. Case in point, Lomazzo related proportions to astrology in Chapter XXVI of his Idea del tempio when he followed the Ficinian definition of beauty and importance of humoral theory with a detailed list of each planet and their appropriate corresponding proportions. The material is again derived from Ficino, in this case his De triplici vita [Three Books on Life].175 Citing the works of “mathematicians and astrologers,” Lomazzo notes: “But when it comes to fashioning the bodies, beauty is taken from the qualities that make all our bodies dissimilar, changing from one to the other more or less… ”176 This diversity is caused by the elements and planets: “There can be, however, only four main types of dissimilarity, in accordance with the number of elements and the strength of their qualities, which the mathematicians assert are the bases of all the forms or rather types of human bodies.”177 Each planet is associated with a particular quality inherent in the elements, and is thus transferred to earthly bodies. For instance, the hot and dry nature of fire causes Martian types to have larger limbs, whereas the cool and humid nature of water restricts the size of Lunar types. The same is true for Jovian types (where air produces full-bodied figures) and Saturnine types (where earth produces straight and concave limbs).178
67Furthermore, as man was seen as a microcosm in astrological terms, it was already asserted that the twelve zodiacal signs affected different parts of the body.179 Enumerated in his De triplici vita, Ficino’s model of human life held that there were thousands of lines of influence connecting every organ, part of the body and soul to a particular star and planet.180 The nature of this exchange is likened to the transmission of light. As he notes:
… every spirit is therefore instantly moved one way or the other and formed by these things. And however it turns out, such in turn in some degree it makes the mind, and absolutely such, the quality of the body. Then, as soon as it is opportunely exposed to the Graces through things pertaining to them, being also naturally in accord with those things, it immediately gains wondrous gifts of the Graces through their rays, which both flourish everywhere and are akin to it.181
68This symbolism was carried on in the seventeenth century by Robert Fludd in his Utriusque cosmi historia (1617–1621). As seen in the title page of his work illustrating the macrocosm-microcosm (see Fig. 19), the right foot is in Leo, while the left in Libra. The right hand is in Gemini, the left in Capricorn, and the head is at the Pisces-Aries cusp. The five classical planets are said to rule these signs. Thus, the cusp of Pisces-Aries corresponds to Jupiter and Mars; for Capricorn, Saturn; for Gemini, Mercury; and for Libra, Venus. In addition, Leo is ruled by the Sun, but none of the five members are found in Cancer, which is ruled by the Moon. Fludd shows the Sun and Moon above, along with the other planets, in the macrocosm; man, of course, is in the microcosm. The fact that man has these five chief members, arranged in such a correspondence, led to the pentagram becoming adopted as the special symbol of man as microcosm.182 Hence, the influence of the zodiacal spheres on different parts of the body is appropriate in their convenient juxtapositions. Their assigned adjacency or propinquity in space allowed for an appropriate understanding of the different areas of the body to correspond to different parts of the universe.183
69Importantly, the interest in astrology demonstrated by Lomazzo paralleled a shift in arts education seen in the Accademia del Disegno. While the study of mathematics and anatomy formed the core of the Academy’s studies, around 1590 (the same year as the publication of Lomazzo’s Idea) natural philosophy joined the program for the second generation of members. As part of the original curriculum, the mind and eye had been trained to discover the mathematical relationships of the parts of the body to one another, which would enable the artist to depict ideal human forms of perfect proportions. With an understanding of the mechanics of the body, the artist could animate his ideal forms and set them convincingly in motion. Yet, external movements of the body were but visible manifestations of the internal movements of the soul: pose, gesture, and facial expression, and all aspects of physiognomy (including hair color, skin tone, and texture), were dictated by the various humors and emotional states to which men were subject. According to these principles, men of sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic temperaments had their own pathological traits and idiosyncrasies. The artist would have to be able to distinguish men of different humors when subject to various emotional states (affetti dell’animo), which dictate the external movements of the body.184 Thus, natural philosophy, which encompassed such branches of knowledge as physiognomy and astrology, became part of the curriculum. A general knowledge of the discipline was expected since it formed a context for narrower discussions of physiognomy, because certain correspondences existed among all natural things. It was thus that the humors corresponded to the four elements of the sublunary world, which in turn corresponded to the four ages of man, as well as to the twelve zodiacal figures divided into four groups of three. These twelve zodiacal figures were each associated with one of the twelve gods and goddesses of the ancient world, and so the correspondences continued.185
70The delay in the inclusion of natural philosophy and astrology in arts education relates to the acceptance of the discipline itself, since astrology had only recently been acknowledged as part of natural philosophy. As late as 1547, the mathematician and astrologer Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576) found it necessary to argue for its acceptance in his Libelli, which included the Astrologicorum aphorismorum segmenta septum.186 In his impassioned plea, Cardano also wished to elevate and classify astrology as an art (not a science) and compared its revival in the Renaissance to that of medicine in Galen’s time.187 The classification by this astrologer is indicative of the perceived difference in the roles of astrology and astronomy at the time. Elaborated on by Ashmole in his Theatrum chemicum britannicum, the two distinct disciplines are described as such: “In the operative part of this Science [i.e., alchemy] the Rules of Astronomie and Astrologie (as elsewhere I have said) are to be consulted with… So that Elections (whose Calculatory part belongs to Astronomie, but the Judiciary to Astrologie) are very necessary to begin this work with.”188 The view that the purpose of astronomy was to be calculative in nature, while astrology would then judge and interpret these findings, emerged slowly at the outset of the fifteenth century. Nevertheless, the two disciplines still worked hand in hand to increase mankind’s understanding of the universe and their relationship to it.189 The interpretation is evidenced in the publications of Gallucci himself, for while he is primarily remembered for his work in astronomy and astronomical instrumentation, he helped edit publications on astrology. For example, he edited and published a series of pseudo-Galenic pamphlets on astrological medicine in 1584 with texts by Johann Virdung von Hassfurt, Hermes Trismegistus, as well as Ficino’s De triplici vita.190 The editions demonstrated the applicability of astrological explication to medicine and astronomy as he ardently defended the usefulness of astronomy devoid of superstition.
71As influential as these texts were, the text that made Gallucci a preeminent author throughout Europe, would be his Theatrum mundi et temporis. Theatrum provides the keenest insight into his mnemonic framing devices and interpretation of Della simmetria. As noted above, the publication came in the wake of an increased interest in celestial mapping in the second half of the century, spurred on by the papacy.191 The work is even dedicated to Sixtus V. Divided into six parts, the text is dedicated to the description and mapping of the entire celestial and terrestrial worlds.192 The first modern celestial atlas uses maps with a coordinate and trapezoidal system of projection that allow for the accurate determination of the star positions, which are derived from the Copernicum catalog.193 Illustrated with forty-eight maps of the Ptolemaic constellations and corresponding mythological figures, these personifications anthropomorphize the universe, much as in Vitruvian cosmology. The attempt is made, as such, to categorize and relate the heavens and earth through the microcosm-macrocosm pair. Inspired by other mapping systems, such as Camillo’s Theater discussed earlier, Gallucci’s “Theater” seeks to encapsulate all of the “world and time.”194 The original Theater described and then built after the description of Camillo itself was merely a “mnemotechnic tool,” originally intended to provide orators with a well-ordered structure for their thought.195 A system of “places and images” had been arranged, “sufficient for the location and management of all human concepts and of all things in this world, not only those which belong to the various fields of knowledge, but also to the noble arts and the mechanical.”196 Through the careful classification of all knowledge and an ideal ordering of all possible topics, the human mind itself could be made a perfect reflection of the macrocosm. Gallucci sets out the interrelated disciplines one must be familiar with in order to successfully capture an appropriate passion and portray it in an equally appropriate body, which includes proportion and anatomical theory; physiognomics and humoral theory; astronomy, astrology, and natural philosophy; theology; and even mnemonics and poetry. Given the overwhelming and interconnected nature of the topic, a mnemonic device borrowed from his own discipline is understandably suitable.
72Examined together, we are able to identify the applicability of the device to the visual arts. For instance, should an artist wish to portray a figure who is happy, all of these influential forces need be considered. As Gallucci writes, “A painter wanting to make a joyful and cheerful man must make the face large, plump, moist, and quite fleshy.”197 Therefore, the figure is sanguine, has a rosy complexion due to the abundance of blood, which is affected by the hot-wetness of Jupiter, spring and childhood. This physiognomy, or “passion,” would be appropriate for representing youthful figures and maidens, such as the Christ Child or angels. Alternatively, a choleric figure would be shown with a yellowish complexion, due to the excess of yellow bile, and is appropriate for soldiers or young men — such as Ariosto’s Rinaldo — who are irascible and quick to violence because they are under the influence of Mars, the god of war. The predominance of hot-dryness blows them about, with their passions compelling them. On the other hand, melancholic figures are swarthy with a dark and cool complexion due to the dominance of black bile and the cold-dry influence of Saturn on their systems. This type is appropriate for mature figures, but those especially whose dark and gloomy dispositions reveal something of their character, like Judas. And finally, phlegmatic figures are represented as pale, since illness is accompanied by an abundance of phlegm; this type is appropriate for elderly figures, like St Jerome, made sluggish and feminine through their proximity to the cold-wetness of the Moon and Venus. Furthermore, they also grow smaller later in life, their frames shrinking, until they are the size of women. In this way, gender, build, facial features, and character were understood as influenced by humoral theory; and astrological agency was adeptly outlined in a treatise that found an audience among artists and aspiring connoisseurs.
6. Proportion Studies: Reception and Legacy
73Renaissance treatises expanded to address a wider range of subjects in the sixteenth century, often within a humanist framework. Though information on these early modern discourses, including use and readership, is scarce, their relative success can generally be discerned through the number of editions and translations published of each treatise, and the frequency and nature of citations found in later works that make reference to them. With this in mind, both the original Vier Bücher by Dürer and the later Italian translations by Gallucci achieved notable acclaim. Dürer’s treatise on human proportion was, in fact, the German artist’s most popular book, which can be attested to in the number of editions and translations that followed the original posthumous 1528 edition. Of these twelve translations, the Latin edition by Camerarius would be printed in two parts in Nuremberg in 1532 and 1534, followed by a second Latin edition printed in Paris in 1537 and a third in 1557. The same year as the last Latin edition, Louis Meigret (1550–1558) translated the work into French. This fact is not surprising given the two prior Latin editions printed there. Italy, however, would remain a center for arts patronage and production and there Gallucci would write his translation in 1591, publishing it in Venice, as well as the second edition being printed in Venice in 1594. These would be followed by a Spanish translation by Luiz da Costa in Madrid, ca.1599, and da Costa’s translation into Portuguese, which was never printed. The second German edition appeared in Arnheim in 1603; the second French edition in the same city in 1614, followed by the final translations into Dutch in 1622 and a second edition in 1662.198
74Though the vernacular translations, especially French and Spanish, expanded readership of the Four Books, the most influential translation for artists and art education was Gallucci’s own from 1591/1594. The Italian editions were highly influential in two ways: first, as a translation of Dürer’s treatise into the target language of those living in the region responsible for dictating trends in the art world; and, second, as an interpretative device for the original author’s ideas. In the Dedication to Maximilian, Gallucci states that the translation was necessary, for “… even though it was printed twice, one cannot find a copy anymore, except with someone whose kept them as dear as oriental pearls, and in the most honored places of their studies. Now, so as to ensure that this valuable work would not remain dead, and to allow every painter to take advantage of it (given that only a few prefer the Latin language), I have translated it to our Italian language.”199 Though the text was widely known — having reached a greater readership through its translation from German into Latin — by the second half of the sixteenth century, it was rare to find or own. Compounding the problem of availability were the reading skills of the intended audience. Though artists were expected to have a grammar school education, and hence the ability to read in Latin, since the fifteenth century, the reality remained that few practicing artists were fluent in la lingua latina.200 Even artists highly regarded for their academic acumen, such as Nicolas Poussin, preferred the Italian version. In fact, Poussin would make extensive use of Chapter LVII in the Book Five of Gallucci’s publication in his own Osservazioni, printed by Giovan Pietro Bellori (1613–1696) in his Life of the artist.201 There was also an extensive reutilization of the chapter in a section on physiognomy in Vincenzo Carducci’s (ca.1578–1638) Diálogos de la pintura [Dialogues on Painting] (1633).202 These authors excerpted sections from Gallucci’s original contribution to the treatise in the last book. The translator had explained at the outset that he “… was not satisfied with [only the original Four Books] and found it very necessary to add a fifth book for students of this faculty, which is taught through the authority of philosophers and poets, who, along with those colors and lines, can explain both the natural and the incidental passions of the souls of men.”203 Many works following in the wake of Gallucci’s publication utilize Dürer’s system for laying out ratios and proportions for human anatomy, as well as Gallucci’s classification system for understanding utilize Dürer’s system in terms of physiognomy.
75The treatise taken as a whole greatly expanded the artistic discourse and availability of information on human anatomy in Italy, and remained the version most often cited in later treatises, though it is virtually unknown today.204 In fact, “Studies on the problem of proportions are generally received with skepticism or, at most, with little interest.”205 Such was Erwin Panofsky’s estimation of proportion studies in 1955. Though the direction and interest in the topic has shifted somewhat since then, studies of treatises (such as the one currently under review) are still rare.206 The lack of recognition for Della simmetria in particular is in part due to the dismissal of the work as a mere translation of another author’s work, while the original sections, which are the focus of this study, remain almost completely overlooked.207 Another reason for this oversight is the critical milieu in which Gallucci published. Whereas the number of publications on art was quite paltry from Alberti to Vasari, the late sixteenth century witnessed an explosion on various specialized topics, not least among them art.208 Looking forward to the seventeenth century, most of the authors were also no longer practicing artists, but were professionals in a variety of disciplines, including medicine, astronomy, law, and letters.209 As such, the usefulness of their treatments for working artists was questioned, even in their time. Compounding this situation is the perception that treatises like Gallucci’s were “inspired by the haste of contemporary taxonomy” prevalent in the period demonstrated in other encyclopedic treatments, such as Lomazzo’s Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scultura ed architettura of 1584.210 These seemingly self-indulgent, lengthy, and ponderous lists appear distanced from everyday practical matters of the craft and of interest only to amateur-connoisseurs and aristocratic dilettantes (like the author’s own pupils).
76In the mid-sixteenth century, a further complication developed that would tarnish the reputation of Dürer and the usefulness of his study. The development of a canon of proportions based on arithmetic ratios was the consequence of the belief in the relationship between beauty and harmony sought in arts education since the early fifteenth century. Yet, as the system had been established and disseminated through treatises like Dürer’s, another current of thought sought to undermine the premise that beauty could be attained purely through harmony, symmetry, and mathematics. This can be illustrated in the figure of the sculptor-theorist Vincenzo Danti (1530–1576). Only the first book of Danti’s essentially Albertian treatise on disegno ( “drawing”) was ever published (1567), but we know that eight of the remaining thirteen books were devoted to the subject of anatomy. Danti’s telling title of his treatment, Trattato delle perfette proporzioni [Treatise on Perfect Proportions], indicates that he was centrally concerned, like Dürer, with the perfect proportions of the human form, and, therefore, with the mathematical relationships of the parts of the body from one to another. Nevertheless, he writes explicitly of a misura intelletuale, or “intellectual measure.”211 The perceived interrelationships of forms in Danti’s conception were not to be measured with instruments. On the contrary, they could be discerned by the eye of a trained intellect, the greatest instrument of all.
77The understanding and circulation of such an ability was well known after the apotheosis of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564). In his biography of the “divine” artist of 1553, Ascanio Condivi (1525–1574) noted that Michelangelo intended to write a treatise on proportion himself, drawing upon the years of anatomical study and the dissection of corpses, “with a brilliant theory which he arrived at through long experience.” Extending the critique of Dürer’s rigid, mathematical conception of human proportions, Condivi reassures that:
I know very well that, when he reads Albrecht Dürer, he finds his work very weak, seeing in his mind how much more beautiful and useful in the study of this subject his own conception would have been. And, to tell the truth, Albrecht discusses only the measurements and varieties of human bodies, for which no fixed rule can be given, and he forms his figures straight upright like poles; as to what was more important, the movements and gestures of human beings, he says not a word.212
78The understanding that “no fixed rule can be given” for proper proportions is consistent with Danti’s concept of the misura intelletuale, a belief that Michelangelo’s biographers considered Michelangelo to have possessed.
79Proceeding from the disparaging judgment of Dürer’s theory of proportions by Michelangelo, according to Condivi and Vasari (Le Vite, 1568), many theorists later in the century vigorously and consciously criticized the earlier attempts to place artistic representation on a scientific, especially a mathematical basis.213 Leonardo da Vinci had taken pains to determine the motions of the body according to the laws of strength and weight, even to fix numerically the changes of measurement induced by these movements.214 He also contributed anatomical studies to Pacioli’s proportion treatise, while Dürer sought to master “foreshortening” through geometrical construction. All these theoreticians agreed that the proportions of the human body at rest could be ascertained and fixed within an agreed upon mathematical canon of human proportion, and that this was necessary for beauty.215 The belief was replaced by repeated warnings against overvaluing the theory of proportions that had been diligently established for posterity. Even though the artist was recommended to be familiar with established canons, he was instructed to disregard them, especially if attempting to reproduce the effects of movement in the human body, as Condivi noted.216 Such was the recommendation of Raffaello Borghini (1537–1588) in his Il Riposo of 1584, for he noted that:
As for measurements… it is necessary to know them; but one must bear in mind that it is not always advisable to observe them. For we often make figures bend, rise, or turn where the arms are now stretched out and now contracted; so that, in order to give the figures gracefulness, it is necessary to extend the measurements in some part and to shorten them in some other part. This cannot be taught; but the artist must judiciously learn it from nature.217
80To achieve the desired effect of “gracefulness” in figures to be produced for a given composition, the artist was required to alter the canon, which was important to internalize for just this reason. If a particular pose or gesture was desired, accepted precepts would offer a conceptual starting point for the artist, which would then be tempered by “nature” and improved upon by invenzione.
81By the turn of the century, the usefulness of mathematics for practicing artists was rejected in academic institutions. Federico Zuccaro (ca.1542–1609), co-founder and first principe of the Accademia di San Luca, attests to the hatred for mathematics in his LIdea di pittori, scultori et architetti [The Idea of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects] of 1607; for, as he set forth, “the art of painting does not derive its principles from the mathematical sciences…” since “painting is not their daughter, but the daughter of Nature and Disegno.”218 In response to those “mathematical rules” established by Dürer, Zuccaro notes that “such rules neither serve nor suit our actions [as artists].”219 In fact, he states that the German artist produced the studies “as a joke, a pastime, and to give diversion to those minds that are inclined to contemplation rather than to action… ”220 Such pursuits should be “left to those sciences and speculative professions of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and the like…” as they require “proofs.”221
82Much as Borghini had stressed, the artist need only be familiar with “the basic principles and instructions acquired from his predecessors, or also from nature itself, becomes a skillful man through mere natural judgment with proper care and observation of the beautiful… without any aid from or need for mathematics.”222 Relating the qualities cited by Condivi, Zuccaro calls instead for the quality discussed as giudizio dell’occhio ( “judgement of the eye”); he states, as “you make yourself so familiar with these rules and measures in working, that you have the compass and the square in your eyes, and judgment and practice in your hands.”223 Zuccaro then returns to the Aristotelian tradition cited in Aquinas that the artist’s goal should be that of mimesis, a truth to nature: “But we, professors of Disegno, have no need of other rules than those which Nature herself gives for imitating her.”224
83Thus, ironically, the same period that so zealously guarded artistic freedom against the restrictions of mathematical systems, also attempted to systematically organize art in such a way that even the most gifted had to learn and even the most untalented could learn.225 Therefore, even though Zuccaro denied that an artist must observe the laws of proportion, he, nonetheless, admitted that they must be known. The same can be said of Danti, who wrote in his proportion study that an artist should reject the mathematical schematization of the form and movement of the body; Danti, nevertheless, admitted that the anatomical method was unconditionally valid, since somehow a “scientific” approach to art had to be found. He stated expressly that his vera regola, or “true rule,” would be useful to those “born to art,” as well as to those not born to it, thus supporting the notion that art could be learned.226 Although a single proportion and canon was not championed as the norm of beauty, which had been customary earlier in the century, even Lomazzo, who espoused the idea of the figura serpentinata, also recounted Dürer’s detailed proportions in both of his treatises.227 Begrudgingly then, studies on human proportion were seen as necessary even by their most ardent critics.
84Despite the condemnation of proportion studies by all manner of writers on art, their proliferation did not slow, nor was their perceived benefit for arts education seriously doubted. Moreover, by the end of the sixteenth century, the theory of proportions and anatomy had been well-developed: with several treatises dedicated solely to the issue, and with dozens of treatments mentioning the theory in passing.228 In each of the treatises dedicated solely to proportion theory, their pedagogical application was a paramount concern. The widely available canons of proportions were necessary for young artists to initially internalize in order to derive poses, actions and emotions of figures in istorie, or history paintings. After these had been mastered, the mature artist could then modify each set of ratios to befit a given character or narrative. By its very nature then, the original purpose of Dürer’s publication was arguably both pedagogical and referential.229 This is confirmed when considering that before he died the artist was obsessed with compiling the typological sets for posterity and the benefit of young painters.230 The same function was retained by Gallucci, but was circulated within a very different artistic environment due to the perceived decline in the arts around mid-century.
85Those artists living in the wake of the High Renaissance, as related by critics like Mancini, were discussed as living in the “the age of senescence and decrepitude.”231 The notion of art as a biological organism was applied by Vasari to illustrate the continual march towards perfection in his Lives: “The arts, like men themselves, are born, grow up, become old and die.”232 Nevertheless, such a “decline” in the arts did not prevent one of the greatest periods of publication on art of the early modern period.233 One explanation for the spike in literary interest, surprisingly, was the belief in art academies, such as the Accademia di San Luca in Rome (founded in 1593 by Federico Zuccaro), that art had sunk into pratica and needed reform through a thorough reintroduction and reinforcement of theory.234 Though the reasons varied, most of the publications emerging at the end of the sixteenth century were designed to rectify this imbalance in the production of art and overvaluing “practice.” In like fashion, we find that in his Preface, Gallucci does not spare criticism for contemporary painters who proceed without precepts and rely solely on practice without theory:
For without any precept, which would certainly guide students, they instead propose their own or copy the drawings of others. Thus, all of this profession, which is truly worthy of science and practice, they reduce to practice alone, and, as a result, like so many amputees going about limping and blind people groping, deprive their histories of the variety of many colors in order to satisfy the ignorant and vulgar.235
86The pedagogue laments that “modern painters” have deviated from the canon established by Dürer, producing figures of nine or ten head-lengths. These artists ignore the proportions “in every kind of body” that the artist had “toiled over in his studies.”236 In this way, Gallucci can be seen to have the same instructive goals as Giovanni Battista Armenini, Lomazzo, and, later, Zuccaro, as the translation of the quintessential treatment on human proportions for artists offered a perfect supplementary text to an artist’s education in an academic or workshop setting.
87In point of fact, it was in the first academy established for the arts, the Florentine Accademia del Disegno, that the need for such texts already existed when Gallucci entered the discourse on proportion studies in 1591. Founded as an instrument of liberal education, the Florentine Academy codified existing principles of theory and practice in a formal program for artists of all ages.237 Disegno, the theoretical principle uniting the three arti di disegno, was embraced as the guiding principle of the new institution. In the Introduction to the second edition of the Lives, Giorgio Vasari, one of the founders of the organization, defined disegno as the realization of the idea, which is born in the intellect.238 Through endless study and practice, and the application of measured judgment, the hand could be trained to reproduce the inventions of the intellect. This notion of disegno called for the union of theory and practice; the mind had to be exercised as well as the hand in order to lead to perfection in art. The curriculum of the Academy was a progressive sequence of study, beginning with foundation sciences and exercises, and then advancing to related disciplines and activities. In the sixteenth century, mathematics was recognized as the foundation of knowledge, as a means for rationalizing the external world, and, therefore, study commenced with mathematics to provide the artist with the conceptual key for comprehending the world around him. Since Florentine art was primarily concerned with the human figure, anatomy followed mathematics and was complemented by drawing the figure from life. Natural philosophy came next, along with the study of inanimate forms like drapery; all of these studies intended to aid the artist in the composition of istoria. Knowledge of one subject conditioned comprehension of the next, and together they constituted a coherent theory of art. This codification of the curriculum was drawn directly from Renaissance traditions and earlier theorists, such as that of Alberti, while towards the end of the century unpublished manuscripts of Leonardo’s art theory started to circulate in Florence.239
88In a letter from 1591 to his brother in Genoa, the painter Giovanni Battista Paggi (1554–1627) summarized the curriculum of the Academy and began by affirming the Albertian dictum that theory begins with first principles, which, for the arts of disegno, meant the mathematical sciences.240 He asserted that contemporary artistic theory was grounded partly in arithmetic and partly in geometry.241 From these sciences the artist would gain a knowledge of perspective and symmetry. The rigorous drafting of three-dimensional forms, such as regular and irregular polyhedra, according to the rules of geometry, provided fundamental exercises necessary for developing a facility of the hand. In addition to this, the study of mathematics was thought to develop measured judgment in both action and intellect.242 Dürer, like Alberti and especially Leonardo, understood the importance of a firm grounding in mathematics for artists, which informed his publication in 1525 of Die Unterweisung der Messung mit dem Zirkel und Richtscheit [Instructions for Measuring with Compass and Ruler], the guide to geometrical and perspective constructions. The treatise was to be read in tandem with the Vier Bücher, as it offered a mathematical foundation for the study of human proportion to benefit the education of the young artist.243
89This sequence was adopted by the Accademia as the next part of the curriculum with anatomy and life drawing, particularly for the painter and sculptor. In order to discern the mathematical relationships of the parts of the body, one studied mathematics first and then anatomy in great detail, followed by life drawing. This process would enable the artist to recognize and then produce ideal human forms whose beauty was the result of harmonious proportions. After anatomy, the artist turned to the study of the human figure from life. According to Alberti, although the beauty of the body’s planes and surfaces could be grasped from ancient sculpture, it was best mastered from nature directly.244 Alberti had urged artists to study human anatomy in a systematic fashion, concentrating on those parts of the body responsible for mobilization. The study of bone structure, musculature, and the flesh stripped of skin would follow each other sequentially. Of course, these internal anatomical components had to be mastered in addition to those external features studied in life drawing classes. They had to be understood in their individual appearances and functions, and in their proportional relationships to one another, in order for the artist to fully comprehend the mechanics of mobility. Annual dissections were carried out at the Academy from its inception in 1563, but the interest in anatomical dissection accelerated in the wake of Michelangelo.245 There was a pervasive notion that the perfection of the “divine” Michelangelo’s art, which celebrated and ennobled the human form, lay in his profound knowledge of anatomy. Academy members sought to perfect their own art by way of a solid grounding in this science.246 The goal of such a rigorous series of studies was to effectively relate the emotional state of figures to be represented in works of art. Based initially on Alberti’s recommendations, and then reinforced by the prescripts of Leonardo, the artist was trained to have their works communicate mutely, with their inner thoughts and passions, or affetti dell’animo, made visibly manifest.247 This exhortation remained a central theme in the publications surrounding Gallucci’s work. In fact, the proposed theory of physiognomy in Della simmetria is a primary leitmotif used as a literary precept to effectively express the “passions that [men and women] perceive.”248 The same interest had already been expressed by Lomazzo in his Trattato in such chapters as “Delle passion dell’animo e loro origine e differenza [On the Passion of the Soul, and Their Origin and Difference]” and “Dell’amicizia et inimicizia [On Friendship and Enmity]”.249
90Yet, in order to divine the internal passions, or affetti, of figures, the stages of anatomical study were organized to build one upon the next. Knowledge of the internal structure of human bodies and their mechanics preceded the study of live models. Only after the mathematical components of the parts had been analyzed could the artist move to assembling multiplicity into a unified whole. And only then could he begin producing numerous drawings from a live nude model. There were many supplementary materials at the disposal of students at the Academy to assist in the process of creating proportional human figures. Along with sculptures and plaster casts, supplementary texts on anatomy would be used to further investigations that started with geometrical construction, dissections and life drawing. These texts would have included Danti’s Trattato delle perfette proporzioni, which was incomplete, but available by 1567, as well as the now lost Il Microcosmo [The Microcosm] by Pietro Francavilla, which discussed physiognomy, various humors and temperaments along with human anatomy.250 Of extant examples, Juan Valverde’s Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano [History of the Composition of the Human Body] was widely circulated and translated into Italian in 1560, while the encyclopedic treatment De humani corporis fabrica libri septum [On the Fabric of the Human Body in Seven Books] by Andreas Vesalius of 1543 was the most influential for the arts and medicine. Appended to this list must be Gallucci’s Della simmetria, as its influence is demonstrable among artists in the following century. The illustrations that accompanied these texts would have provided excellent models for copying by young artists, as Alessandro Allori (1535–1607) claims in his own treatise.251 Evidence of this use comes not only from examples artists have left to posterity, but also information associated with art academies. According to the statues of the Roman Accademia, a library was created with donated books from its members. The volumes would be attached by chains to counters where members could consult the various texts. Designed to accommodate both academicians and practicing artists of various educational backgrounds, the collection was furnished with treatises on general, as well as specialized topics. In an inventory requested in 1624 by Simon Vouet, the library had grown to around forty volumes, an impressive collection for a single institution dedicated to teaching art. Included in the works were the authors: Alberti, Dürer (Gallucci’s translation), Lomazzo, Ripa, Castiglione, Flavio, Heron, Euclid, and Ovid.252 Inasmuch as library patrons would read Della simmetria alongside other art treatises, ancient and modern poets, so too would they with Gallucci’s own volume, a microcosm itself of arts libraries and a compendium of knowledge.
91Gallucci’s translation of Dürer’s Vier Bücher deliberately attempted to connect with the intellectual and political interests of the original author. Through an association with one of the greatest patrons of the artist, Maximilian I, the polymath-translator demonstrated that his association with Dürer was political, as well as theoretical. In doing so, the Della simmetria is a testament to the applicability of astronomy and astrology to the arts and vice versa. Gallucci’s interest in mapping the universe through Vitruvian cosmology naturally lent its mnemonic tool to the theory of human proportion. In turn, the anthropomorphizing of astronomical phenomena can be seen to have been influenced by Dürer’s systematization and schematization of the human form, which the artist then translated to his own astrological maps.253 Furthermore, the publications surrounding that of Gallucci’s, which also utilized universal mapping systems, like Lomazzo’s Trattato and Idea, demonstrate that the translation was reflective of the dominant interests of art theory late in the cinquecento. As proportion studies evolved, we find that the intent of Dürer, both as represented in his own work and as illustrated in Gallucci’s translation, foretold the evolution of art theory. For by the century’s end, beauty in human proportion theory had metamorphosed from a general “notion” in the artist’s mind that related to “harmonious arrangements,” to a regularized concept that is formed and infused in matter through a specific stratagem. The emphasis on quantifying and, subsequently, qualifying mathematical interrelationships between objects, resulted in a continued effort to distill a universally valid set of harmonious relationships in the parts of human anatomy. The resultant canon of proportions that derived from the study of Vitruvius was coupled with the incorporeal conditions of universal Forms. In the tradition of Ficino adopted by Dürer, Lomazzo, and Gallucci, a system was developed whereby the intellective faculty for “universal knowledge” gave the human mind the ability to perceive, comprehend, and expectantly, express all of Creation. In a similar fashion, proportion theory became a way in which to train artists to express not only the motions and emotions of figures in their works, but offered a metaphysical basis for the construction of perceived or intended visual phenomena. The epistemological model allowed the whole of the universe to be comprehended in the microcosm of man and, resultantly, be reproduced in art, as man had the intellective and creative power of Nature to create imbued by God. It is no wonder then that treatises like Gallucci’s remained a favorite reference for artists until the modern era. The specificity and taxonomic interest in listing increasingly specific parts of the human body, appropriate to different passions, shows just how discerning early modern viewers and collectors were. It also reveals the daunting task of artists, who were expected to master these various interrelated physiognomies and correspondences. Unlike their more privileged counterparts, artists often did not advance as far in their grammar studies and thus required additional resources to construct elaborate pictorial conceits; a highlight or summary of the most salient points or themes in the studia humanitatis assisted in bolstering the claims of the visual arts as liberal. In short, Gallucci’s Della simmetria reveals the perceived benefits of symmetry and proportion in the context of contemporary education, but especially that of artists. As seen in the following sections of his original contribution to Dürer’s earlier enterprise, the author would expand on this interest in diversity of human types to elaborate systems of physiognomy and humoral readings.
Notes de bas de page
1 “la proporzionalità solamente fa pulchritudine.” Lorenzo Ghiberti, I commentarii, ed. Ottavio Morisani (Naples: R. Ricciardi, 1947), 2: 96.
2 See, for example Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione (Venice: Paganini, 1509), Summa de arithmetica, geometrica, proportioni et proportionalita (Venice: Paganini, 1494), and De viribus quantitatis (Bologna: unpublished, 1500); Giovanni Battista della Porta, De humana physiognomia, libri VI (Vico Equense: Giuseppe Cacchi, 1586).
3 Massimiliano Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” in Il volto e gli affetti: fisiognomica ed espressione nelle arti del Rinascimento: atti del convegno di studi, Torino 28–29 novembre 2001, ed. Alessandro Pontremoli (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 2003), 83–102.
4 From antiquity, scholars and artists had access to Vitruvius’ De architectura, the Pseudo-Aristotelian Physiognomica, and Galen’s Doctrines, while contemporary treatments included Alberti’s De re aedificatoria and Della pittura, Albrecht Dürer’s Die Unterweisung der Messung mit dem Zirkel und Richtscheit and Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion, Francisco de Hollanda’s Tractato de pintura antigua, Giovanni Battista della Porta’s De humana physiognomonia, and Gian Paolo Lomazzo’s Idea del tempio and Trattato.
5 Albrecht Dürer, Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (Nuremberg: Hieronymous Andreae, 1528).
6 Alberti dedicates Book II of his Della pittura (1435) to the problem of symmetry and harmony in istoria, focusing on the relationship of members. Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting, transl. John R. Spencer (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1966), 70–79.
7 Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria, ed. Giovanni Orlandi and Paolo Portoghesi (Milan: Edizioni Il Polifilo, 1966), 9: 5. Quoted in Erwin Panofsky, Idea: A Concept in Art Theory (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1968), 54.
8 Alberti, On Painting, transl. Spencer, 111.
9 Alberti used various Latin and Italian words to describe the concept: concinnitas, consensus, conspiratio partium, consonantia, concordanza. Alberti, De re aedificactoria, 9: 5. Cited in Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, “The Great Theory of Beauty and Its Decline,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 31.2 (1972), 165–80, at 168, https://doi.org/10.2307/429278
10 The terms harmonia and simmetria were connected to the theory after it was developed by the Pythagoreans. Tatarkiewicz, “The Great Theory of Beauty and Its Decline,” 167; see also Christopher Celenza, Piety and Pythagoras in Renaissance Florence, The Symbolum Nesianum (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2001).
11 Tatarkiewicz, “The Great Theory of Beauty and Its Decline,” 169.
12 The treatise on architecture, also known as the Ten Books on Architecture, was rediscovered in 1414 by the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, The Ten Books on Architecture, transl. M. H. Morgan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1926)). However, it would not be until ca.1450 that Leon Battista Alberti would finish his seminal treatise based on Vitruvius, De re aedificatoria.
13 Vitruvius, De architectura, 3: 1. Quoted in Tatarkiewicz, “The Great Theory of Beauty and Its Decline,” 169.
14 Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, transl. Morgan, 73–75.
15 Ibid., 73.
16 Vitruvius gave measurements for the ideal proportioned human figure as: the length of the head being equal to one-eighth of the total length of the body; the length of the face being equal to one-tenth of the total length of the body. Ibid., 73.
17 Joseph Leo Koerner, The Moment of Self-Portraiture in Renaissance Germany (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1993), 189; Erwin Panofsky, “The History of the Theory of Human Proportions as a Reflection of the History of Styles,” in Meaning in the Visual Arts (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1955), 55–107, at 93–99.
18 Leonardo returned to Milan in 1506 and, despite a brief sojourn to Florence in 1508, remained there until being called to Rome in 1513 by Leo X. Frederick Hartt and David G. Wilkins, History of Italian Renaissance Art, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2011), 468.
19 While Pacioli used Leonardo’s proportion studies to illustrate his text, he also published widely on mathematics in works such as Summa de arithmetica and De viribus quantitatis. G. M. Biggiogero, “Luca Pacioli e la sua ‘Divina proportione, ’” Rendiconti dell’Istituto lombardo di scienze e lettere, 94 (1960), 3–30.
20 Carlo Maccagni, “Augusto Marioni, Luca Pacioli e Leonardo,” in Hostinato rigore: Leonardiana in memoria di Augusto Marinoni, ed. Pietro C. Marani (Milan: Electa, 2000), 55–60. See also Alba Ceccarelli Pellegrino, “Sacre Scritture, Divine Proportioni e Honnêteté nell’Architecture di Philibert de L’Orme,” in Il sacro nel Rinascimento: atti del XII convegno internationale. Chianciano-Pienza. 17–20 Luglio, 2002, ed. Luisa Rotondi Secchi Tarugi (Florence: F. Cesati, 2002), 181–207. For more on the Divina Proportione of Pacioli and its connection to Ficino, see Albert van der Schoot, De ontstelling van Pythagoras: Over de geschiedenis van de goddelijke proportie (Kok Agora: Kampen, 1998), 95–98, 113–15, 338–39.
21 Pacioli utilized much of Euclid’s work, including the theorem a: b=b: (a+b).
22 Albrecht Dürer, Die Unterweisung der Messung mit dem Zirkel und Richtscheit, ed. Alvin E. Jaeggli and Christine Papesch (Dietikon-Zuerich: J. Stocker-Schmid, 1966).
23 Jan Białostocki, Dürer and his Critics 1500–1971: Chapters in the History of Ideas Including a Collection of Texts (Baden-Baden: V. Koerner, 1986), 28.
24 Enrico Giusti, Luca Pacioli e la matematica del Rinascimento (Florence: Giunti, 1994), 16.
25 Katherine Crawford Luber, Albrecht Dürer and the Venetian Renaissance (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 106–07.
26 Panofsky, “The History of the Theory of Human Proportions,” 56.
27 Giulia Bartrum, ed., Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 172.
28 Albrecht Dürer, “Discourse on Aesthetics,” quoted in Albrecht Dürer: Documentary Biography, transl. Jeffery Ashcroft (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017), 878.
29 Ibid., 875.
30 Ibid.
31 Koerner, The Moment of Self-Portraiture in Renaissance Germany, 154. For the changing nature of approach in Dürer’s figures throughout his oeuvre see Ludwig Justi, Konstruierte Figuren und Koepfe unter den Werken Albrecht Dürers (Leipzig: K. W. Hiersemann, 1902).
32 This can be found at the outset of the Fourth Book.
33 Bartrum, ed., Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy, 172.
34 Dürer, Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion, Third Book.
35 Dürer, Vier Bücher, 2: 30v. All translations are my own, unless otherwise specified.
36 Ibid., 3: 70r.
37 Ibid., 84r.
38 Ibid.
39 Albrecht Dürer, “Drafts for the Introduction to the Book on Human Proportion (Planned in 1512–1513),” 176f; cited in Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, Literary Sources of Art History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947), 279.
40 The so-called “particle” (Trümlein) used by Dürer was equal to less than a millimeter, which, Panofsky argues, went beyond artistic usefulness ( “The History of the Theory of Proportions,” 103–04).
41 Gallucci, “Dedication,” Della simmetria, 2v.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid., 3v.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, [n.p.].
47 Chapter 45 is repeated twice in the numerical sequence that lists only up to Chapter 57.
48 Giulio Camillo, L idea del theatro (Venice: Agostino Bindoni, 1550), 47–62, https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_R59T2RFRhjkC/page/n10/mode/2up. For commentary, see Frances Yates, The Art of Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), 129–59; Giulio Camillo, L idea del theatro, ed. Lina Bolzoni (Milan: Adelphi, 2015).
49 The version in Venice was able to accommodate two people at a time (Yates, Art of Memory, 155–56).
50 Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Idea del tempio della pittura (Milan: Paolo Gottardo Pontio 1590, https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_YC59KugXgdQC/page/n4/mode/2up; repr. ed. Robert Klein, Florence: Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, 1974), chapters 9 and 26. See also Panofsky, Idea, 95–99.
51 Yates, Art of Memory.
52 Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 124–35, quoting from Lomazzo, Idea del tempio, chapter 26.
53 Lomazzo, Idea del tempio, 372.
54 Germana Ernst, “Gallucci, Giovanni Paolo,” Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 56 vols (Rome: Instituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 1925–present), LI (1998), 327–65, 366–74.
55 See Filippo Bareggi, Il mestiere di scrivere. Lavoro intellettuale e mercato librario a Venezia nel Cinquecento (Rome: Bulzoni, 1988); P. Trovato, Con ogni diligenza corretto. La stampa e le revisionieditoriali dei testi letterari italiani (1470–1570) (Bologna: il Mulino, 1991); and Paolo Cherchi, Polimatia di riuso: mezzo secolo di plagio (Rome: Bulzoni, 1998).
56 Giuseppe Brunati, Dizionarietto degli uomini illustri della Riviera di Salò (Milan: Pogliani, 1837), 70–72, https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_v93CFmYBx4kC/page/n4/mode/2up
57 Lynn Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols (New York; London: Columbia University Press, 1923–1958), V: 8, 151, 155; VI: 60, 158–60.
58 Camillo Camilli, Imprese illustri di diversi, coi discorsi di Camillo Camilli, et con le figure intagliate in rame di Girolamo Porro Padouano…, 3 vols (Venice: Francesco Ziletti, 1586), II: 72–74, 93–95, https://archive.org/details/impreseillustrid04cami/page/n4/mode/2up
59 Giovanni Ferro, Teatro d’imprese, 2 vols (Venezia: Sarzina, 1623), II: 431; Simone Biralli, Delle imprese scelte, 2 vols (Venezia: Giovanni Battista Ciotti Senese, 1600) I: 2; II: 80.
60 Camilli, Imprese illustri diverse, coi discorsi, I: 72.
61 In this work, the praises of the young poet are accompanied by a warm eulogy of the Republic of Ragusa (modern day Croatia). Enrico Damiani, “Contributi del dr. Petar Kolendič allo studio delle fonti italiane nella letteratura serbo-croata,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 100 (1932), 163; Leonardo Cozzando, Della libraria bresciana (Brescia: Gio. Maria Rizzardi, 1685), 188.
62 Giovan Paolo Gallucci, De formis enthymetatum (Venice: P. Marinelli, 1586).
63 Bongianni Grattarolo, Historia della Riviera di Salò (Brescia: Vinc. Sabbio, 1599), 16, 71.
64 Avicenna published on a wide variety of topics, including astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and poetry. See Avicenna, The Life of Ibn Sina, ed. And transl. William E. Gohlman (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1974); Avicenna, Remarks and Admonitions, ed. S. Dunya and S. Zayid (Cairo: Organisation Générales des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1960); Avicenna, The Canon of Medicine, ed. I. a-Qashsh (Cairo: [n.p.], 1987); Avicenna, “Essay on the Secret of Destiny,” transl. G. Hourani, in Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 227–48; Avicenna, “The Book of Scientific Knowledge,” ed. and transl. P. Morewedge, in The Metaphysics of Avicenna (London: Routledge, 2017), 11–109; Avicenna, The Metaphysics of Healing, transl. Michael Marmura (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 2005); and Avicenna, The Book of Salvation, transl. F. Rahman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952).
65 Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, ed. and transl., Ionnis Hasfurti… de cognoscendis et medendis morbis ex corporum coelestrium positione libri IIII cum argumentis et expositionibus Ioannis Paulli Gallucci Saloensis… quibus accesserunt in eandem sententiam auctores alii… (Venice: ex officinal Damiani Zenarii, 1584).
66 Thorndike, A History of Magic, V: 158.
67 Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Speculum Uranicum in quo vera loca tum octavae sphaerae tum septem plaentarum… ad quodlibet datum tempus ex Prutenicarum ratione colliguntur, una cum regulis fabricandi duodecim coeli domici’ia ex Regiomontano et Alcabitio et dirigendi significatores (Venice: Damiani Zenarii, 1593), https://www.e-rara.ch/zut/doi/10.3931/e-rara-49833
68 Gallucci, Speculum Uranicum…, III: 6.
69 Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Della fabrica et uso di diversi stromenti di Astronomia e Cosmographia (Venice: Ruberto Meietti, 1597).
70 This is especially evident in the creation of the Galleria delle carte geografiche in the Vatican and in the Sala dei brevi. Jacob Hess, “On Some Celestial Maps and Globes of the Sixteenth Century,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 30 (1967), 406–09, https://doi.org/10.2307/750759
71 Pietro Riccardi, Biblioteca matematica italiana, 3 vols (Modena: Società tipografica, 1870–1880), I (1870–1872), part 1, coll. 567–73.
72 Thorndike, History of Magic, V: 8, 151, 155; VI: 60, 158–60.
73 Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Theatrum mundi et temporis… ubi astrologiae principia cernuntur… nunc primum in lucem editum (Venice: J. B. Somascum, 1588), 3: 478; Thorndike, History of Magic, V: 158–59.
74 Gallucci, Theatrum mundi…, 3: 2; 8: 129, 220.
75 Ibid., 3: 2; Thorndike, History of Magic, VI: 159.
76 Miguel Perez translated the work into Spanish, which was published in Granada in 1606, 1612, and again in 1617.
77 Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Coelestium corporum et rerum ab ipsis pendentium accurata explicatio per instrumenta, rotulas et figuras (Venice: J. A. Somaschum, 1605).
78 Thorndike, History of Magic, V: 60; Gallucci, Theatrum mundi…, 2: 10, 15, 38; Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 84–85.
79 Ernst, “Gallucci, Giovanni Paolo,” 741.
80 Aside from Elias Ashmole’s Theatrum chemicum britannicum of 1652, Father Charles Scribani wrote his Amphitheatrum Honoris in 1605. See Anthony Grafton and William Newman, eds, Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006), 15–16.
81 Yates, Art of Memory, 160–72.
82 Richard Bernheimer, “Theatrum Mundi,” The Art Bulletin, 38.4 (1956), 225–47, at 226, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.1956.11408342
83 Yates, Art of Memory, 321–41.
84 Gallucci, Theatrum Mundi, http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ186392402
85 In the Renaissance, the “memorative art,” which was founded by Cicero and Quintilian in antiquity, allowed the augmentation of man’s natural power of recall by a discipline extending its scope. Bernheimer, “Theatrum Mundi,” 226.
86 Giulio Camillo, “Trattato del’imitatione,” in Opere (Venice: Domenico Farri, 1581), quoted in Bernheimer, “Theatrum Mundi,” 229.
87 David Chambers and Brian Pullan, eds, Venice: A Documentary History 1450–1630 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 366.
88 Johann Gottlob Lunze, Academia Veneta seu della Fama in disquisitionem vocata (Leipzig: [n.p.], 1701), 28–33.
89 Michele Maylender, Storia delle accademie d’Italia, 5 vols (Bologna: Capelli, 1926– 1930), V: 444–46.
90 Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 84.
91 Vincenzo Peroni, Biblioteca bresciana, 3 vols (Brescia: Bettoni 1818–23), II: 91–94.
92 Giovan Paolo Gallucci, I tre libri della perspettiva commune dell’ illustriss (Venice: published by the heirs of G. Varisco, 1593).
93 Giovan Paolo Gallucci, Historia naturale e morale delle Indie (Venice: B. Basa, 1596).
94 1598 edition available at https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ghtaAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT1#v=onepage&q&f=false
95 Lelio Brancaccio, Fucina di Marte: nella quale con mirabile industria e con finissima tempra d’instruzioni militari s’apprestano tutti gli ordini appartenenti à qual si voglia carico essercitabile in guerra (Venice: Giunti, 1641), 327–65 and 366–74, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k51208j.image
96 Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 124v.
97 Ibid., 2v.
98 Paula S. Fichter, Emperor Maximilian II (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 202.
99 “Egli s’acquistò il favore, & liberalità de i Rè, & Prencipi, & in particolare, di Massimilano…” Gallucci, “Life of Albrecht Dürer,” Della simmetria, 4r.
100 Fichter, Emperor Maximilian II, 76, 98.
101 Ibid., 124; Michael Hughes, Early Modern Germany, 1477–1806 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), 64–65.
102 Elisabeth Scheicher, Die Kunst- und Wunder Kammer der Habsburger (Vienna: Molden, 1979), 137–40; Dirk Jacob Jansen, “The Instruments of Patronage: Jacopo Strada at the Court of Maximilian II, A Case Study,” in Kaiser Maximilian II. Kultur und Politik im 16. Jahrhundert, ed. F. Edelmayer and A. Kohler (Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1992), 182–202. Maximilian also brought to his court Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Bartholomäus Spranger. For more on Habsburg patronage, see Karen Jutta MacHardy, War, Religion and Court Patronage in Habsburg Austria (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
103 This was continued by his son Rudolf II, who was a significant patron of the arts as well. Hughes, Early Modern Germany, 65.
104 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, [n.p.].
105 Ibid.
106 Though most famously cited from Horace’s Ars Poetica, the oft-repeated Renaissance axiom “Poema pictura loquens, pictura poema silens” ( “poetry is a speaking picture, painting a silent [mute] poetry”) is first recorded by Plutarch. Plutarch, De gloria Atheniensium, ed. C. J. Thiolier (Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1985), 3.347a.
107 Julius von Schlosser, Lorenzo Ghilberti’s Denkwürdigkeiten (I commentarii), 2 vols (Berlin: Bard, 1912), I: 102.
108 Vitruvius, I dieci libri dell’architettura di Marcus Vitruvio, transl. Daniel Barbaro (Venice: Francesco de’Franceschi Senese & Giovanni Chrieger Alemano Compagni, 1567), 1: 1, quoted in Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, transl. Morgan, 5f.
109 Cecil Grayson, ed., Leon Battista Alberti on Painting and Sculpture: The Latin Texts of “De Pictura” and “De Statua” (London: Phaidon Press, 1972), 95. Pomponio Gaurico’s ideal sculptor (De sculptora, 1504) would be “very instructed in all of the arts and also cultured in literature.” See also Guarico’s debate with sculptors on the necessity of the study of literature as opposed to art in Paola Barocchi, ed., Scritti d’arte del cinquecento, 3 vols (Milan: Riccardo Ricciardi, 1971–1977), II: 130, 1315ff.
110 Grayson, Leon Battista Alberti on Painting and Sculpture, 97.
111 Rensselaer Lee, Ut Pictura Poesis: The Humanistic Theory of Painting (New York: W. W. Norton, 1967). Also see Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, “Horace on Art: Ut Pictura Poesis,” The Classical Journal, 47.5 (1952), 157–62, 201–02.
112 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, [n.p.]; Aristotle, Poetics, transl. Stephen Halliwell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 1: 2.
113 Mark Roskill, Dolce’s “LAretino” and Venetian Art Theory of the Cinquecento (New York: New York University Press, 1968), 11.
114 Roskill, Dolce’s “L’Aretino,” 11, 129.
115 Ibid., 129.
116 See Charles E. Little, “The Italians and Their Schools,” Peabody Journal of Education, 10.4 (1933), 206–44.
117 Apprentice painters came above all from families of painters and artisans in the allied crafts, although the sons of men in unrelated trades became painters as well. Additionally, painting offered a socially and economically respectable alternative for the sons of upper class families which had come down in the world, such as Michelangelo, Titian, and Rubens. Gabriele Bleek-Bryne, “The Education of the Painter in the Workshop,” in Children of Mercury: The Education of Artists in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Jeffrey M. Muller (Providence, RI: Brown University, 1984), 28–39.
118 Pier Paolo Vergerio, De ingenuis moribus ac liberalibus studiis (Venice: [n.p.], 1472).
119 Charles Dempsey, “Some Observations on the Education of Artists in Florence and Bologna in the Later Sixteenth Century,” The Art Bulletin, 62 (1980), 557–69, at 561, https://doi.org/10.2307/3050053
120 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, [n.p.].
121 Ibid.
122 Ibid.
123 Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 125v; Torquato Tasso, The Liberation of Jerusalem, transl. Max Wickert (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 17: 21.
124 Homer, Iliad, transl. Barry Powell (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 3: 13–16.
125 Petrarch, “Canzone 350,” The Complete Canzoniere, transl. A. S. Kline ( [n.p.]: Poetry in Translation, 2001), 487; Homer, Iliad, transl. Powell, 3: 35–37; Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, transl. Guido Waldman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), “Canto 10,” 95–96; 103; Tasso, The Liberation of Jerusalem, transl. Wickert, 4: 29–31.
126 Valeria Finucci, “Introduction: Ariosto, Tasso, and Storytelling,” in Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso, ed. Valeria Finucci (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999), 1–3.
127 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, [n.p.].
128 Gallucci, “Dedication,” Della simmetria, [n.p.].
129 Regina Pörtner, The Counter-Reformation in Central Europe: Styria 1580–1630 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001).
130 A facsimile edition of the Discorso is available at https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BiWvs5txQmAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. The specific impact these publications had on art en fin du siècle has been difficult to determine. Boschloo attempted to connect the writings of Gabriele Paleotti to the reform of painting in the Carracci Academy in the early 1580s, but was only able to present a hypothetical connection between the two parties. A. W. A. Boschloo, Annibale Carracci in Bologna: Visible Reality in Art after the Council of Trent, 2 vols (The Hague: Govt. Pub. Off., 1974). For another example of reformatory decrees on art production, see Carlo Borromeo, “Instructiones fabricate et supellectilis ecclesiasticae,” in Trattati d’arte del cinquecento, fra manierismo e controriforma, ed. Paola Barocchi, Scrittori d’Italia 221, 3 vols (Bari: Laterza, 1961), III: 1–112.
131 “onde quelle pitture che più imitando il vivo e vero, per modo che ingannano gli animali e tal volta gli uomini, come racconta Plinio di Zeusi e di Parasio, tanto più sempre sono state degne di commendazione e maggiormente hanno dilettato i riguardanti.” Barocchi, ed., Trattati d’arte, III: 220.
132 Torquato Tasso, Discorsi del poema eroico, ed. Ettore Mazzali and Francesco Flora (Milan: Ricciardi, 1959; repr. Rome: Biblioteca Italiana, 2004, http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it/testo/bibit000856), 77; quoted in Jonathan Unglaub, Poussin and the Poetics of Painting: Pictorial Narrative and the Legacy of Tasso (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 11–12.
133 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, [n.p.].
134 Giovan Pietro Bellori, Le vite de pittori, scultori e architetti moderni, ed. Evelina Borea and Giovanni Previtali (Turin: Einaudi, 1976), 478; Giovan Pietro Bellori, The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects, transl. Helmut Wohl and Alice Sedgwick Wohl (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 338.
135 Tasso, Discorsi del poema eroico, 71; quoted in Unglaub, Poussin and the Poetics of Painting, 19.
136 Bellori, “L’Idea del pittore, dello scultore e dell’architetto scelta dalle bellezze naturali superior alla Natura,” Le Vite de pittori…, 20.
137 Avigdor W.G. Posèq, “On Physiognomic Communication in Bernini,” Artibus et Historiae, 27.54 (2006), 161–90, at 161, https://doi.org/10.2307/20067127
138 As with his other references to ancient and modern authors, the specific chapter, page, and line is not indicated, only the specification of which book to review (e.g. Book Two).
139 Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 130r.
140 Ibid., 132v.
141 Ibid.
142 Ibid., 132r.
143 In addition to the Pseudo-Aristotelian Physiognomica of the third BCE, Polemo Rhetor of Laodicea wrote his Physiognomonia in the second century CE, as well as an anonymous Latin handbook entitled de Physiognomonia from the ca. fourth century CE. Elizabeth Evans, “Physiognomics in the Ancient World,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 59.5 (1969), 1–101, https://doi.org/10.2307/1006011
144 Pseudo-Aristotle, Physiognomica, 4: 809a; Aristotle, Minor Works, transl. W. S. Hett (London: William Heinemann, 1936), 107.
145 Pseudo-Aristotle, Physiognomica, 4: 807a–b.
146 Jennifer Montagu, The Expression of the Passions: The Origin and Influence of Charles Le Brun’s Conférence sur l’expression générale et particulière (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 23.
147 Pseudo-Aristotle, Physiognomica, 4: 808b; Aristotle, Minor Works, transl. Hett, 107.
148 Dürer, Vier Bücher, 3: 70r
149 Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 125r.
150 Marsilio Ficino, Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love, transl. Sears Jayne (Dallas, TX: Spring, 1985), 88.
151 Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scultura ed architetta (Milan: Paolo Gottardo Pontio, 1584), 2.2: 3–4, 102–03.
152 Ibid.
153 Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 125v.
154 Ibid., 125v-125r.
155 Barocchi, ed., Trattati d’arte del Cinquecento, I: 136.
156 Francisco de Hollanda, De la pintura antigua por Francisco de Hollanda, versión castellana de Manuel Denis (1563), ed. E. Tormo (Madrid: Ratés, 1921), 70–74.
157 Francesco Bocchi, “Eccellenza della statua del San Griogio di Donatello,” in Trattati d’arte del Cinquecento, ed. Barocchi, 3: 127–94.
158 Giovanni Battista della Porta, Della fisionomia dell’huomo (Venice: Presso C. Tomasini, 1598).
159 Della Porta, Della fisionomia dell’huomo; cited in Posèq, “On Physiognomic Communication in Bernini,” 162.
160 Montagu, Expression of the Passions.
161 Michael Kwakkelstein, “Leonardo’s Grotesque Heads and the Breaking of the Physiognomic Mould,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 54 (1992), 127–36, at 128, https://doi.org/10.2307/751484
162 George Sarton, “Remarks on the Theory of Temperaments,” Isis, 34 (1943), 205–08, https://doi.org/10.1086/347791
163 “… hora quando queste sono in equilibrio, è l’anima perfetta signora delle potenze naturali, e secondo li accidenti si altera, si turba, si ralegra: ma perche nella compositione del corpo li elementary humori per il più sempre, una parte prevale più dell’altra in loro, quindi è che un Volto è di fisonomia naturale mesto, l’altro lieto, l’altro Maestoso, onde si può concludere, che sempre nel Viso una di queste potenze, o naturalmente; o acidentalmente sia da esprimersi. Però nel far la faccia si deve prima pensare a quale di questi affetti soggiaccia, et alla espressione di quello che dimonstra totalmente buttarsi.” Orfeo Boselli, Osservazioni della scoltura antica dai Manoscritti Corsini e Doria e altri scritti, ed. Phoebe Dent Weil (Florence: S.P.E.S., 1978), 23v–24r.
164 Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Scritti sulle arti, ed. Roberto P. Ciardi, 2 vols (Florence: Centro Di, 1973–1974), II: 262–69.
165 Dürer, Vier Bücher, 3: 70r.
166 Ficino, Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love, transl. Jayne, 93.
167 Ibid., 93–94.
168 David E. Hahm, The Origins of Stoic Cosmology (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1977), 138.
169 See Allen G. Debus, The Chemical Philosophy: Paracelsian Science and Medicine (New York: Science History Publications, 1977); Walter Pagel, Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance (Basel: S. Karger, 1958).
170 Hippocrates, On the Nature of Man, transl. W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014), 3–4.
171 Ficino, Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love, transl. Jayne, 94.
172 Alex Wayman, “The Human Body as Microcosm in India, Greek Cosmology, and Sixteenth-Century Europe,” History of Religions, 22.2 (1982), 172–90, at 174, https://doi.org/10.1086/462918
173 Francis MacDonald Conford, Plato’s Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997), 38; see also Richard Broxton Onians, The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954).
174 Elias Ashmole, Theatrum chemicum britannicum, ed. A. G. Debus (New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1967; facsimile of London, 1652, https://archive.org/stream/theatrumchemicum00ashm?ref=ol#page/n6/mode/2up), 446; Newman and Grafton, eds, Secrets of Nature, 16.
175 Lomazzo, Idea del Tempio…, 26: 83–86. The seven pillars of Lomazzo’s “temple of painting” correspond to seven artists (Michelangelo, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Leonardo, Raphael, Mantegna, and Titian) and are related to the seven planets where they derive their celestial influences; Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. and transl. Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 57 (Binghamton, NY: The Renaissance Society of America, 1989), 293–97.
176 “Ma venendo alla temperature dei corpi ella si cava dalla qualità, per le quail tutti i corpi nostri vegono ad essere tra se dissimili, trasferendosi l’una al’altra più e meno…” Lomazzo, Idea del Tempio…, 26: 85.
177 “Ma non possono però essere se non quattro principali maniera di dissimiglianza secondo il numero degli elementi e la forza delle loro qualità, che i mathematici affermano essere come fondamenti di tutte le forme over maniera dei corpi umani.” Ibid.
178 Ibid., 26: 85–86.
179 Wayman, “The Human Body as Microcosm,” 173.
180 Anthony Grafton, Cardano’s Cosmos: The Worlds and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 184.
181 Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. and transl. Kaske and Clark, 297.
182 Wayman, “The Human Body as Microcosm,” 185.
183 Ibid., 179–80.
184 Karen Barzman, “The Florentine Accademia del Disegno: Liberal Education and the Renaissance Artist,” in Academies of Art between Renaissance and Romanticism, ed. A. W. A. Boschloo (S’Gravenhage: SDU Uitgeverij, 1989), 14–30, at 23.
185 Of the last two specific parts of the curriculum, notably the study of inanimate forms and the teaching of architectural principles, Barzman found little record listing specifics. Ibid., 23–25.
186 Girolamo Cardano, Peroratio, Opera, 5: 90–92; Germana Ernst, “Veritatis amor dulcissimus,” in Secrets of Nature, 45–46.
187 Anthony Grafton and Nancy Siraisi, “Between the Election and My Hopes,” in Secrets of Nature, 105–06.
188 Ashmole, Theatrum chemicum britannicum, 450; quoted in Newman and Grafton, eds, Secrets of Nature, 16.
189 Newman and Grafton, eds, Secrets of Nature, 9.
190 The volume itself concluded with brief booklets and astrological indexes by Gallucci. De Cognoscendis, Et Medendis Morbis Ex Corporum Coelestium Positione Libri IIII. Ernst, “Giovanni Paolo Gallucci,” 740–41.
191 This is especially evident in the creation of the Galleria delle carte geografiche in the Vatican and in the Sala dei brevi. Hess, “On Some Celestial Maps and Globes of the Sixteenth Century,” 406–09.
192 Massimiliano Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” in Il volto e gli affetti: fisiognomica ed espressione nelle arti del Rinascimento: atti del convegno di studi, Torino 28–29 novembre 2001, ed. Alessandro Pontremoli (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 2003), 83–102, at 84–85.
193 Ernst, “Giovanni Paolo Gallucci,” 741.
194 Gallucci, Theatrum Mundi…; quoted in Bernheimer, “Theatrum Mundi,” 226.
195 In the Renaissance the “memorative art,” which was founded by Cicero and Quintilian in antiquity, allowed the extension of man’s natural power of recall by a discipline extending its scope. Bernheimer, “Theatrum Mundi,” 226.
196 Camillo, “Trattato del’imitatione,”; quoted in Bernheimer, “Theatrum Mundi,” 229.
197 Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 132v.
198 William Martin Conway, transl., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Owen, 1958), 229–30.
199 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, 2v.
200 Dempsey, “Some Observations on the Education of Artists,” 557–69.
201 Anthony Blunt, “Poussin’s Notes on Painting,” Journal of the Warburg Institute, 1 (1938), 344–51, https://doi.org/10.2307/750002; Bellori, Le vite…, 460–62.
202 Vincente Carducho, Dialogos de la Pintura. Su defense, origen, esencia, definicion, modos y differencias, ed. F. Calvo Serraller (Madrid: Ediciones Turner, 1979), 396–404; Rossi has also suggested that copies were also in the private collections or available to several artists in the seventeenth century. Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 83–84.
203 Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, 2v.
204 Bartrum, ed., Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy, 240; Enrico Castelnuovo, “Dürer scrittore e scienziato,” in Dürer e l’Italia, ed. Kristina Herrmann Fiore (Milan: Electa, 2007), 97–103, at 98.
205 Panofsky, “The History of The Theory of Human Proportions,” 55–107.
206 None of the treatises on human proportions from the period discussed have been translated into English. Treatments are limited to articles. See Jane Andrews Aiken, “Leon Battista Alberti’s System of Human Proportions,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 43 (1980), 68–96, https://doi.org/10.2307/751189; Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 83–84; Rudolf Wittkower, “The Changing Concept of Proportion,” Daedalus, 89.1 (1960), 199–215.
207 Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 83–84.
208 Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy 1450–1600 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).
209 For instance, Giulio Mancini and Francesco Scannelli were physicians by profession, while Giovan Pietro Bellori, perhaps the most significant writer on art of the century, was an academic, librarian, and antiquarian.
210 “Non siamo, evidentemente, in presenza del libro che Dürer avrebbe potuto aggiungere, ma piuttosto di un’interpretazione estrema, radicale, ispirata alla furia tassonomica contemporanea che cerca e rilancia precedenti di forte sintonia.” Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 99.
211 Margaret Davis, “Beyond the ‘Primo Libro’ of Vincenzo Danti’s ‘Trattato delle perfette proporzioni, ’” Mitteilungen des kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 26.1 (1982), 63–84, esp. 68.
212 Ascanio Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, transl. Alice Sedgwick Wohl (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 98–99.
213 Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, transl. Wohl, 98–99.
214 Leonardo da Vinci, On Painting, transl. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1989), 117–43.
215 Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione. Dürer, Vier Bücher.
216 Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo, transl. Wohl, 98–99.
217 “Le misure… è cosa necessaria à sapere; but considerar si dee, che non sempre fa luogo l’osseruarle. Conciosiacosa che spesso si facciamo figure in atto di chinarsi, d’alzarsi, e di volgersi, nelle cui attitudini hora si distndono ed hora si raccolgono le braccie di maniera, che à voler dar gratia alle figure bisogna in qualche parte allungare ed in qualche altra parte ristringere le misure. La qual cosa non si può insegnare; ma bisogna che l’artefice con giudicio del naturale la imprenda.” Raffaello Borghini, Il Riposo (Florence: Giorgio Marescotti, 1584), 150.
218 “Ma dico bene e so, che dico il vero, che l’arte della pittura non piglia i suoi principi, nè ha necessità alcuna di ricorrere alle mattematiche Scienze, ad imparare regole e modi alcuni per l’arte sua, nè anco per poterne ragionare in speculazione; però non è di essa figliuola, ma bensì della Natura e del Disegno.” Scritti d’Arte di Federico Zuccaro, ed. Detlef Heikamp (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1961), 249–50.
219 “perchè oltre gli scorci e forma del corpo sempre sferico, cotali regole non servono ne convengono alle nostre operazioni…” Ibid., 250.
220 “Sicchè il Durero per quella fatica, che non fu poca, credo, che egli a scherzo, a passatempo e per dar trattenimento a quelli intelletti, che stanno più su la contemplazione, che su le operazioni, ciò facesse, e per mostrare, che il Disegno e lo spirito del pittore sa e può tutto ciò, che si presuppone fare.” Ibid., 251.
221 “Dirò bene, che queste regole mattematiche si devono lasciare a quelle scienze e professioni speculative della geometria, astronomia, arimmetica, e simili, che con le prove loro acquietano l’intelletto.” Ibid.
222 “Sicchè il pittore, oltre i primi principi ed ammaestramenti avuti da’ suoi predecessori, oppure dalla Natura stessa, dal giudizio stesso naturale con buona diligenza ed osservazione del bello e buono divento valent’ uomo senz’ altro ajuto o bisogno della mattematica.” Ibid., 250.
223 “Ma conviene, disse egli, che tu ti facci sì familiari queste regole e misure nell’ operare, che tu abbi nelli occhi il compasso e la squadra: e il giudizio e la pratica nelle mani.” Ibid.
224 “Ma noi altri professori del Disegno non abbiamo bisogno d’altre regole, che quelle, che la Natura stessa ne dà, per quella imitare.” Ibid., 251.
225 Giovanni Battista Armenini, On the True Precepts of the Art of Painting, transl. Robert Baldick (New York: Vintage Books, 1977).
226 Vincenzo Danti, “Preface,” Il primo libro del Trattato delle perfette proporzioni (Perugia: Bartelli, 1830), [n.p.]; Danti, Il primo libro, chapter 16.
227 Lomazzo, Trattato dell’arte della pittura, 1: 5–8; 4: 3. Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 97–98.
228 Of those available in the sixteenth century: Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione (1509); Vincenzo Danti, Trattato delle perfette proporzioni (1567); Juan Valverde, Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano (1556) (Italian edition published 1560); Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septum (1543).
229 Concerned with individual aesthetic judgment, Dürer had questioned the usefulness of his studies: “In the rigid postures in which they are drawn up on the foregoing pages,” he says of his numerous, elaborate paradigms, “the figures are of no use whatever.” Erwin Panofsky, Dürers Kunsttheorie: vornehmlich in ihrem Verhältnis zur Kunsttheorie der Italiener (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011), 81 ff.
230 Joseph Leo Koerner, “Albrecht Dürer: A Sixteenth-Century Influenza,” in Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy, ed. Bartrum, 18–38, at 22.
231 Mancini, Considerazioni sulla Pittura, ed. Adriana Marucchi and Luigi Salerno, 2 vols (Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1957), I: 105; quoted in Philip Sohm, The Artist Grows Old: The Aging of Art and Artists in Italy 1500–1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 137.
232 Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori: nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568, ed. Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi, 6 vols (Florence: Sansoni, 1966–1987), II: 31.
233 Sohm has pointed out that there was a spike in publications in the 1560s, and then later in the 1580s and 1590s. Sohm, The Artist Grows Old, 140.
234 Ibid.
235 “come tanti Volcani vanno zoticando e come orbi vanno e tentoni e per sodisfare all’ignorante volgo riempiono di più colori che nel caos originario.” Gallucci, “Preface,” Della simmetria, 7r.
236 “Et questa sono le misure universali, che si usano da i moderni pittori, le quali dicono essi, havere comprobate, si col natuale, si con le statue antiche più scelte. Veddino non dime no come le misure del nostro Durero, sono più esquistite, & più certe, che queste misurando quelle ciascheduna particella, quantunque piccola, & queste solo i membri pricipali, oltre acciò dando quelle misure ad ogni sorte di corpi, che si possa ritrovare fra gli huomini, & queste solo a quelli che costano di nove, & diece teste. Non rincresca dunque alli studiosi l’affatiscarsi nelle misure del Durero, come più certe, & in questi discorsi, c’hanno forza di spiegare le nature de gli huomini, accioche imitado bene la natura come deono, ne portino quel frutto, che menitano le loro fatiche.” Gallucci, Della simmetria, 5: 144v.
237 Barzman, “The Florentine Accademia del Disegno,” 14.
238 Vasari, Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori, ed. Bettarini and Barocchi, I: 168–69.
239 Barzman, “The Florentine Accademia del Disegno,” 15.
240 Carroll William Westfall, “Painting and the Liberal Arts: Alberti’s View,” Journal of the History of Ideas (1967), 487–506, https://doi.org/10.2307/2708607
241 Giovanni Bottari, Raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura scritte da’ più celebri personaggi dei secoli XV, XVI, e XVII, ed. Stefano Ticozzi, 8 vols (Milan: Giovanni Silvestri, 1822–1825), VI: 83.
242 Hence the Academy’s teachings were modeled on the universities, where one would read and comment on authoritative texts, such as Euclid and Vitruvius. Barzman, “The Florentine Accademia del Disegno,” 15.
243 Dürer, Die Unterweisung, ed. Jaeggli and Patesch.
244 Alberti, On Painting, transl. Spencer, 3: 55–60.
245 Karen Barzman, “Perception, Knowledge, and the Theory of Disegno in Sixteenth-Century Florence,” From Stuio to Studiolo: Florentine Draughtsmanship under the First Medici Grand Dukes, ed. Larry J. Feinberg (Oberlin and Seattle: Allen Memorial Art Museum and University of Washington Press, 1991), 37–48, at 41.
246 Although dissections were held only annually in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, the corpse was probably viewed for longer than the medical professionals would have advised in order to have the maximum number of students view it. Barzman, “Perception, Knowledge, and the Theory of Disegno,” 37–48.
247 Ibid., 41.
248 Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 86; Ernst, “Gallucci, Giovanni Paolo,” 740–43.
249 See especially chapter 3 of Lomazzo’s Trattato ( “Delle passioni dell’animo e loro origine e differenza”), and chapter 18 ( “Dell’amicizia et inimicizia de i moti e loro accoppiamenti”). Lomazzo, Trattato dell’arte della pittura, 3: 103, 153; Rossi, “Un metodo per le passioni negli Scritti d’arte del tardo Cinquecento,” 101.
250 Barzman, “Perception, Knowledge, and Theory of Disegno,” 47. Baldinucci noted that the treatise covered these topics in his Notizie: Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie de’professori del disegno, ed. F. Ranalli and Paolo Barocchi, 7 vols (Florence: Eurografica S.p.A, 1974), III: 71.
251 Ciardi discusses Allori’s text and recommendations for artists in: Roberto P. Ciardi, “Le regole del disegno di Alessandro Allori e la nascita del dilettantismo pittorico,” Storia dell’arte, 12 (1971), 267–84; Barzman, “Perception, Knowledge, and Theory of Disegno,” 47.
252 Karl Noehles, La Chiesa dei SS. Luca e Martina nell’opera di Pietro da Cortona (Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 1970), 336–38 Pietro Roccasecca, “Teaching in the Studio,” The Accademia Seminars, ed. Peter Lukehart (New Haven; London: National Gallery of Art, Yale University Press, 2009), 123–60, at 142.
253 In 1515, Dürer published his forty-eight wood engravings of the classical constellations. Roberta J. M. Olson, “… And They Saw Stars: Renaissance Representations of Comets and Pretelescopic Astronomy,” Art Journal, 44.3 (1984), 216–24, at 220, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1984.10792549. Gallucci also connected the work produced by Dürer for Maximilian to astronomy: “Vi sono gli Encomi di Massimiliano, & l’immortali opera dell’historia Astronomica…” (Gallucci, “Life of Albrecht Dürer,” Della simmetria, 4r).
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