Giovanni Guerra and the Illustrations to Ripa’s Iconologia

GIOVANNI GUERRA AND THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO RIPA'S ICONOLOGIA

Stefano Pierguidi

In his introduction to the 1630 edition of Ripa's Iconologia the Paduan publisher Donato Pasquari attributed 'a large part' of the illustrations to the Cavaliere

d'Arpino ('La terza volta usci fuora assai ampliata con Figure in gran parte disegnate dal Cavalier Giuseppe d'Arpino celebre Pittore, stampata in Roma nel 1603'). This statement has long been regarded as justification for the traditional attribution of the designs for the 1603 engravings to Giuseppe Cesari.' The attribution was mentioned by Emile Male' and Erna Mandowsky,3 and Gerlind Werner suggested some further points connecting the Cavaliere d'Arpino to the engravings, although these are far from conclusive.4 Still, she supposed that Cesari must have had some artistic collaborators, since stylistic considerations rule him out as the author of all the engravings.'

In fact there is good evidence that Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618) worked on the illustrations for the second Roman edition of Ripa's book: namely six drawings by this artist sold at auction in Milan in 1975.6 These have the titles: Serviti, Ardir magnanimo e generoso, 'Persuntione', Avaritia, Inganno and Merito. Only two, the second (Fig. 38) and the third (Fig. 39), were reproduced in the sale catalogue and can therefore be compared with the relevant figures in the Iconologia, to which they are obvious

counterparts.7 Under the heading Ardir magnanimo e generoso Ripa describes (Fig. 40):

I The full title of the Introduction is: 'Lo Stampatore /A Lettori/Dell'Origine, et Progresso/dell'Iconologia'. In it Pasquardi gives a detailed report of the editorial history of Ripa's book. Following the Roman editio princeps of 1593, the second edition, unchanged, was published in Milan in 1602. The first illustrated edition was published in Rome in 1603. The edition of Siena 1613 is the first to contain the additions by Giovanni Zaratino Castellini. The 1611, 1618 and 1625 editions were all printed in Padua by Tozzi; see La Piu che Novissima Icono- logia del Cavalier Ripa, Padua 1630.

2 Male notes that, among the engravings of 1603, 'quelques-unes sont du Cavalier d'Arpin', but does not cite his source for this statement: see his L'Art religieux apres le concile de Trente, Paris 1932, p. 387 n. 1.

3 E. Mandowsky, Ricerche intorno all'Iconologia de Cesare Ripa, Florence 1939 [first published in La Bibliofilia, xli, 1939], p. 8 n. 13, correctly identifies Pasquardi as Male's source. She ascribes the illustrations in part to the Cavaliere d'Arpino; later (p. 66), however, talking of him having designed 'la maggior parte' of the illustrations to the 1603 Iconologia.

4 Although two important projects by the Cavaliere d'Arpino (the funeral of Alessandro Farnese and the interior decoration of the palace of Montecavallo) are mentioned by Ripa in the Iconologia, it is difficult to

ascertain whether the personifications to which he refers (Continenza militare and Confermatione) were devised by Cesari himself. A drawing by the Cavaliere d'Arpino in the Uffizi dated c. 1593-4 and representing Felicita can be compared to the figure illustrated in the Iconologia of 1603, though it is not identical. But, as Werner emphasised, the first edition of Ripa's manual was probably available when the drawing was made. Moreover, both the 1603 illustration and the Uffizi drawing have a common source, in an ancient Roman coin. See G. Werner, Ripa's Iconologia: Quellen, Methode, Ziele, Utrecht 1977, p. 64.

5 Ibid., p. 69. 6 Asta di disegni dal XVI al XIX secolo, Finarte Milano,

21-2 Apr. 1975, p. 13 nos 30a-f; 30b and 30c are reproduced in pl. X. The Milan archive of Finarte has no reproductions of the other four drawings. The present location of the six sheets is unknown.

7 For Ripa's description of Ardir magnanimo e generoso see Iconologia, 1603, p. 24. The illustration is on p. 25. Guerra's drawing supposedly entitled Persuntione is to be compared with the Persecutione described on p. 392 and illustrated on p. 393. The compiler of the auction catalogue, who noted blank spaces in the inscription, seems to have reconstructed the figure's title wrongly.

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GUERRA AND RIPA 159

Figs 38, 39-- Giovanni Guerra, 'Ardir magnanimo e generoso' (left) and 'Persuntione' (right), drawings. Sold at auction 1975 (Finarte Milano)

Figs 40, 41 Ardir magnanimo e generoso (left) and Persecutione (right), engravings from Ripa, Iconologia, Rome 1603

STEFANO PIERGUIDI

a young man of sturdy build and proud regard, with armour on his right arm with which, in a determined pose, he tears out the tongue of a huge lion, which he holds down with his knees. The rest of his body will be unarmed, and mostly uncovered.

(Un giovine di statura robusta, et fiera [sic] in viso, havera il destro braccio armato col quale cacci per forza con gagliarda attitudine la lingua ad un gran leone, che gli stia sotto le ginocchia. II restante del corpo sara disarmato, et in molte parti ignudo.)

That Guerra should have shown the left, rather than the right arm in armour con- firms that this is in fact a preparatory design for the woodcut, made with the process of reversal in mind. Ripa's Persecutione (Fig. 41) is

a woman clothed in the colour of verdigris, along with the colour of rust; she has wings on her shoulders, and in her left [hand] she holds a bow, being in the in the act of taking aim; and she will have a crocodile at her feet.

(Donna vestita del color del verderame, accompagnato col color della ruggine, alle spalle porti l'ali, et nella sinistra tenghi un'arco, stando in atto di voler colpire, et havera a piedi un Cocodrillo.)

In Guerra's drawing, the female figure holds the bow in her right hand, surely for the same reason as above.8 The four other drawings sold in 1975 refer to figures which were illustrated in 1603 and so they too were presumably for the woodcuts. Guerra was probably the author of some other preparatory drawings for the 1603 edition: his

graphic style is elsewhere evident. In the case of Collerico per ilfuoco and of Furore, for instance, the position of the legs and the slender proportions recall a drawing at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.9

It is not surprising that Guerra should have supplied material for Ripa's book. He may not have matched Nicolo Circignani or Giovan Battista da Novara in the extent of his activity as a fresco painter, but he excelled in the role of inventor. Born in 1544 in Modena, Guerra probably came to Rome in 1562."' Before 1583, when he frescoed three friezes in the Palazzetto Cenci, there is no documentary evidence of his work." The cycle in the Palazzetto Cenci was a small one and the patron was not

very prestigious; it is the only piece of painting that can be securely attributed to the artist (who lived to the age of seventy-four). Nevertheless, three years later, in 1586, he was given an important commission in the Vatican Palace: the decoration of the staircase that connects the Sistine Chapel to St Peter's-in fact the first fresco project to be initiated under Sixtus V. From the beginning of the following year Guerra worked closely with Cesare Nebbia, and the two painters were in charge of the most

important decorative schemes of Sixtus's reign.'2 Nebbia, together with Girolamo

8 In the drawing, the end of her sash is raised on the left-hand side: this is the only detail that has been omitted in the final woodcut.

9 C. Stefani, 'Giovanni Guerra inventor e l'Iconologia', Roma di Sisto V. Le arti e la cultura, ed. M. L. Madonna, Rome 1993, p. 24, fig. 28. The two allegorical figures are on pp. 75 and 176 of the 1603 Iconologia. The relevant illustrations in this edition are of higher quality than those in the later editions in which they become increasingly rough. The relative elegance of these can be ascribed to Guerra's Emilian apprenticeship; see C. Strinati, 'Un'ipotesi sulla formazione di Giovanni Guerra', Lelio Orsi e la cultura del suo tempo (atti del convegno internazionale, Reggio Emilia and Novellara 1988), ed.J. Bentini, Bologna 1990, pp. 151-8. 10 This information is contained in the vita written by

F. Forciroli between 1618 (when Guerra died) and 1620

(when Forciroli himself died): Antiqua et recentia illustrium virorum Mutinensium Monumenta, MS [late 17th century] at Modena, Biblioteca Forni, cc. 188-9, published by E. Cecchi Gattolin and F. M. Pozzi, La chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli detta del Paradiso in Modena, Modena 1978, p. 65.

l M. Bevilacqua, 'Palazzetto Cenci a Roma: un'aggiunta per Martino Longhi il vecchio e un contributo per Giovanni Guerra pittore', Bollettino d'Arte, lxx, 1985, pp. 134-87. The attribution to Guerra in a frieze in the Villa Medici, which certainly predates the cycle in the Palaz- zetto Cenci, has no documentary basis. See S. Pierguidi, 'Giovanni Guerra e le "Storie di Ester": da villa Medici ai disegni di Genova', Paragone, xlviii, 1997, pp. 85-105.

12 M. Bevilacqua, 'L'organizzazione dei cantieri pittorici sistini: note sul rapporto tra botteghe e committenza', Roma di Sisto V (as in n. 9), pp. 40-1.

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Muziano, had painted the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche in the Vatican during the pontificate of Gregory XIII (the decoration was completed in 1580).13 Thereafter Guerra did not take much part in the execution of frescoes, but, as Baglione notes, he invented the subjects of the stories that were to be painted ('Giovanni inventava li

soggetti delle storie che dipinger si deveano').14 Forciroli, the artist's first biographer, observes that he was rather well regarded for his 'invention, drawing and manner of ornamentation', but not much appreciated as a colourist ('valso assai nell'invenzione, et nel Disegno, et nella maniera d'ornare ma poco nel colorire').'5 A small book of

drawings illustrating the story of Judith in the Avery Library in New York is intro- duced as 'sketches invented and drawn by the learned painter Giovanni Guerra of Modena on the book of Judith as an example of how to compose important biblical stories, an ingenious and poetic piece of work' ('schizzi fatti de inventione et mano di Giovanni Guerra Modonese pittore erudito sopra il libro de Judit per dar saggio del modo di comporre historie massime della scrittura sacra, opera ingegnosa e

poetica').'6 Guerra's intellectual aspirations are only too evident in the dedication (to Cardinal Montalto) that he included on his engraving of the Paradiso terrestre mistico; this talked of his 'having given expression to an idea of mine of the form and situation of the terrestrial Paradise' ('Havendo io ... espresso un mio pensiero sopra la forma e il sito del Paradiso Terrestre...'). It is worth noting that in devising this work Guerra collaborated with a poet who composed the verse framing the image.17 He similarly had poetic help for the series of drawings accompanying the story of Esther in the Biblioteca Universitaria in Genoa.'8 For the little publication of Varii Emblemi hiero-

gliphici he signed himself 'Pittore et Invent.'; the prints were executed by Natale Bonifacio.'9 Moreover, the fact that Guerra is the author of more than 800 drawings- a considerable number, especially in comparison with his (slight) painting production -indicates that he was more interested in making designs than in carrying them out. Given his liking for personifications, and their marked originality, it might seem reasonable to infer that he played a part in devising as well as designing the illustrations to the 1603 Iconologia. He could even have been supposed to have influenced

Ripa's choices or have advised him on the engravings he was about to do. But in order to establish the nature of the relationship between Guerra and Ripa, we need to look more closely at the artist's allegorical inventions.

The ten allegorical figures frescoed in the second and third rooms of the Palazzetto Cenci in 1583 testify to Guerra's iconographic expertise at this period.2" Some of them

13 Many preparatory drawings by Nebbia for this project are extant; see A. Pinelli, 'Sopra la terra, il cielo Geografia, storia e teologia: il programma iconografico della volta', La Galleria delle carte geografiche, ed. L. Gambi and A. Pinelli, Modena 1994, i, pp. 136-9. The artist also executed the frescoes of the Cappella della Visitazione in the Basilica of Loreto after drawings by Muziano: see J. Gere and P. Pouncey, Italian Drawings in the Depart- ment of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: Artists Working in Rome c. 1550 to c. 1640, London 1983, p. 132. Other preparatory drawings by Nebbia exist for the vaults of the Sale dei Foconi in the Vatican; see R. Eitel Porter, 'Cesare Nebbia at the Vatican. The "Sale dei Foconi"', Apollo, cxxxxii, 1995, pp. 14-24. It is evident that Nebbia was in the habit of outlining ideas to be developed by other painters or, again, of translating the projects of fellow artists into fresco, in accordance with a mode of procedure in vogue at this particular period, during the reign of Sixtus V; see R. Eitel Porter,

'Artistic Co-operation in Late Sixteenth-Century Rome: the Sistine Chapel in S. Maria Maggiore and the Scala Santa', Burlington Magazine, cxxxix, 1997, pp. 452-62. 14 Giovanni Baglione, Le vite de'pittori, scultori et architetti

dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII in fino a' tempi di papa Urbano VIII nel 1642, Rome 1642, p. 159. 15 Forciroli (as in n. 10). 16 This annotation is apparently an old one, although

later than the book itself, and provides an indication of the prestige Guerra enjoyed as an inventor; see E. Parma Armani, 'La storia di Ester in un libro di schizzi di Giovanni Guerra', Bollettino Ligustico per la storia e la cultura regionale, xxv, 1973, p. 86. 17 Stefani (as in n. 9), pp. 19, 31. 18 Pierguidi (as in n. 11), pp. 88-93. 19 Bonifacio signed only one plate but was probably re-

sponsible for all the engravings; Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 32. 20 In the second room there are four large allegorical

figures which have no identifying inscriptions. In the

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STEFANO PIERGUIDI

Fig. 42-Giovanni Guerra, drawing with Sicurta and Confidentia for Domenico Fontana, Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano... (Rome 1590)

are interestingly unlike anything in the Iconologia, printed ten years later. Praecursio, for instance, probably taken from a figure painted in the vault of the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, holds in her right hand a sun, with a cone of smoke coming out of it, and a half moon with a flame in her left hand. Approbatio is completely original: a female figure touching a little carafe with a small stick, flanked by two vases: a sound one containing lilies and a cracked one with a snake emerging from it. Neither

allegorical figure appears in Ripa's book. In the second room one personification is

especially noteworthy for its abundance of symbolic features: open book and twigs in her left hand, while her right hand cups an ear in an attitude suggestive of listening; left foot wearing a sandal, right foot only a sock. A sort of belt is tied around the

figure's waist and she also has a band around her forehead.21 The originality and

complexity of these still rather baffling figures indicate Guerra's desire to present himself as an erudite artist.

A number of works attributable to Guerra and datable to 1589/90 contain more

easily recognisable personifications; some of them were indeed included in the 1593

Iconologia. It is, however, important to note the differences (even minor ones) as well as similarities. In this respect the preparatory drawing in the Uffizi (Fig. 42) for folio

third the six figures have labels. Bevilacqua gave a hypothetical interpretation of the unlabelled ones: see his 'Palazzetto Cenci' (as in n. 11), pp. 170, 175, 161. 21 Ibid., pp. 170, 175, figs 28, 40, 44. The figure in the

Galleria delle Carte Geografiche which is similar to Praecursio has been identified as Chiesa di Cristo. It does not have any cone of smoke over the sun: see Gambi and Pinelli (as in n. 13), i, p. 429, no. 607, and ii, p. 467, fig. 607. Sustantia, by contrast, corresponds to the figure in Ripa's treatise: see Bevilacqua, 'Palazzetto Cenci' (as

in n. 11), p. 175, fig. 43; Iconologia, 1593, p. 267. Bevilacqua suggested a comparison between Guerra's personification and a figure in the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, which, however, should rather be identified as Ruth: see Gambi and Pinelli, i, p. 440, no. 633, and ii, p. 484, fig. 633. For the cycle in the vault of the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, incorrectly called Virtu cristiane, see M. Schutte, Die Galleria delle Carte Geografiche im Vati- kan, Hildesheim 1993; and especially Pinelli, 'Sopra la terra' (as in n. 13), pp. 143-8 (under relevant entries).

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28 of Domenico Fontana's illustrated account of the installation of the Vatican obelisk (Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano et delle Fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V. Libro Primo) published at Rome in 1590, proves particularly interesting.22 At the top are two allegorical figures that were not included in the plate itself: Sicurta on the left and Confidentia on the right. The first is leaning on a column to her right; the second holds out a boat in both hands. In the Iconologia of 1593, Sicurta rests her right hand on a lance, and her left on a column ('s'appoggia ad un'Asta con la destra mano, e con la sinistra ad una colonna'). Confidentia is a 'woman with dishevelled hair, who holds up a ship with both hands ... she is depicted with the ship, which is a symbol of confidence' ('Donna con li capelli sparsi; con ambedue le mani sostenti una Nave... si dipinge con la Nave, che e segno di confidenza').23 As far as Sicurta is concerned, there is no need to invoke the Iconologia of three years later since a similar personification features in the vault of the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (c. 1580): a woman

holding a pole with her right hand and leaning with her elbow on a column. That

figure is therefore closer to Ripa's than the one in the drawing by Guerra.24 Confidentia provides a more interesting case, as Guerra had already invented an allegorical figure to illustrate this concept; in the Palazzetto Cenci Confidentia is represented as a woman

pouring water from a vase, and holding a twig in her right hand while the other one is used for blessing. The two personifications of this concept are thus completely different, perhaps because they were destined for distinct contexts: in the Roman fresco Confidentia relates to an Old Testament cycle,25 while in the Uffizi drawing, she

evidently combines with Sicurta to represent the reliability which characterises the erection of the Vatican obelisk under the direction of Fontana. A precedent for the Florentine drawing is provided in a painting by Bartolomeo Neroni (called 'Il Riccio') in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, datable to c. 1530. It shows a woman with loose hair (a detail specified by Ripa but not represented by Guerra) who holds a boat with both her hands. An inscription on the painting's frame identifies the figure as Confidentia.2" It thus seems reasonable to suppose that Ripa and Guerra drew on the same tradition, dating back to the first half of the Cinquecento. A boat weathering a storm is a literary and iconographic topos, generally indicating hope and constancy, as in the emblems of Alciati.2 The plate on folio 24 of Fontana's

22 G. Dillon, 'Un altro disegno di Giovanni Guerra per Domenico Fontana', Dal disegno all'opera compiuta (atti del convegno internazionale, Torgiano 1987), ed. M. di Giampaolo, Perugia 1992, pp. 123-6. 23 Iconologia, 1593, pp. 45, 254. Ripa gives four possi-

bilities for figures of Sicurta: it is the first one, which is closest to Guerra's personification, even if the stick is missing. In the 1603 edition neither allegorical concept was illustrated. 24 The personification in the Galleria delle Carte Geo-

grafiche is not given a scroll but its identification cannot be doubted; see Gambi and Pinelli (as in n. 13), i, p. 473, no. 714, and ii, p. 545, fig. 714. The 'melancholy' attitude of the figure is captured in the illustration in the 1611 Iconologia, p. 481, which is rather interesting as the text did not mention this characteristic. 25 This is one of the figures on the east wall of the third

room. Bevilacqua, 'Palazzetto Cenci' (as in n. 11), p. 175, writes: 'La benedizione e l'acqua sono in stretta connes- sione con l'idea di Grazia Divina. Questa Confidentia posta fra le due raffigurazioni concernenti il passaggio del Mar Rosso, episodio che ha sempre avuto un significato di allusione e prefigurazione del Battesimo di Cristo...

rappresenta dunque una chiara allusione al sacramento del Battesimo, che tramite l'acqua della grazia lava le macchie del peccato originale'. 26 The painting was attributed to Domenico Beccafumi

until 1940, when Pope-Hennessy proposed an attribution to Neroni and dated it c. 1528-30. He also suggested a common source for Ripa and for the Sienese painter: the emblems invented by members of the Accademia degli Intronati, founded in 1525, which had Ripa among its associates. See J. Pope-Hennessy, 'Beccafumi in the Victoria and Albert Museum', Burlington Magazine, lxxvi, 1940, pp. 115-16. The attribution to il Riccio has been supported by G. Briganti and E. Baccheschi, L'opera com- pleta del Beccafumi, Milan 1977, p. 111, no. 200. 27 M. A. De Angelis, Gli emblemi di Andrea Alciato nella

edizione Steyner del 1531, Salerno 1984, pp. 160-4, no. 35, Spes Proxima. In a fresco by Cambiaso (c. 1585) in the choir or the church of the Escorial Speranza is shown not only with the traditional anchor, but with a ship in her left hand (L. Magnani, Luca Cambiaso da Genova all'Escorial, Genova 1995, p. 267). The ship obviously has the same meaning for both of the closely related concepts of Confidence and Hope.

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Della Trasportazione is based, like all the others, upon a drawing by Guerra.28 At the

top left is a female figure whose identification is not difficult even if she does not hold a scroll (Fig. 43). She has the same attitude and the same attributes-a dove, a

globe and a snake biting the apple-as the Gratia frescoed by Guerra in the third room of Palazzetto Cenci (Fig. 44). In the Iconologia, however, Gratia Divina has a dove, an olive branch, a book and a cup.2t Guerra thus twice produced a version of this

personification, probably taken from the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche,3"' that Ripa did not include in his treatise.

Almost contemporary with Della Trasportatione was the fresco frieze made under Guerra's supervision in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo alle Terme di Villa Montalto. Mario Bevilacqua has identified the allegorical figures (today divided between the Palazzo Ricci and the Gendel Collection in Rome) on the basis of a nineteenth-century description of the villa."' In his view comparison of these frescoes with those in the Palazzetto Cenci demonstrates that the design as well as the execution of the personifications is to be ascribed to Guerra.3" Among them is a Gratia, which corresponds exactly to the one in the Palazzetto Cenci and to that illustrated on folio 24 of Della

Trasportatione. There are also some figures that accord only partially with the specifications in the Iconologia of 1593: Ripa's Mansuetudo, for instance, has an olive crown in addition to her lamb. As for Gratitudo, the fresco in the Gendel Collection has Ripa's stork, but the Iconologia adds the attribute of a stalk of lupin or broad bean.33 This

28 The preparatory drawings for the work by Fontana were first attributed to Guerra in 1973 by Parma Armani (as in n. 16, p. 92). The attribution was reaffirmed by the same scholar in Libri di immagini, disegni ed incisioni di Giovanni Guerra (Modena 1540-Roma 1618), exhib. cat., ed. E. Cecchi Gattolin and E. Parma Armani, Modena 1978, pp. 88-9. In the same year A. Carugo attributed the drawings to the architect himself on the strength of a passage by Fontana that reads: 'Raccogliero dunque tutta l'arte posta nella trasportatione et erettione di questa Guglia rappresentando in disegno agli occhi de lettori' (fol. 3"). I believe, however, that the words 'rappresentando in disegno' refer to the engravings as a whole, and not specifically to the preparatory drawings; see Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano et delle Fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V, Libro Primo, ed. A. Carugo, Milan 1978, p. LVIII. Fontana could consider himself the author because he provided the subject-matter and the detailed specifications, but this need not mean that he himself executed the preparatory drawings. Apart from the drawing in the Uffizi, two engravings by Guerra also suggest that this artist was the author of all the projects. The first is the Consacrazione della Croce sull'obelisco vaticano, for which there is a preparatory drawing in the British Museum: see Gere and Pouncey (as in n. 13), p. 111, no. 189, pl. 180. This should be compared to Fontana's plate on fol. 35. The second is a print showing the position of the winches during the raising of the obelisk. It is signed by the partners Bonifacio and Guerra, and the illustration on fol. 15 of Della Traspor- tatione derives from it: see Carugo, op. cit., pl. III. The only difference between these two engravings is the coat of arms of Sixtus V which, in Fontana's illustration, is substituted by a personification of Concordia. Another pointer to Guerra as the author of the preparatory drawings is that Natale Bonifacio, who made the plates, often worked with Guerra and was his favourite engraver. The

pair collaborated on the small book printed in 1589, entitled Varii emblemi hieroglifici (on this see Stefani, as in n. 9, p. 32). Recently support has been given to the attribution of the preparatory drawings of Della Trasportazione to Guerra by M. Bevilacqua in Roma di Sisto V (as in n. 9), p. 156. For the other engravings related to the erection of the Vatican obelisk see Cecchi Gattolin and Parma Armani, pp. 85-7. 29 Bevilacqua, 'Palazzetto Cenci' (as in n. 11), p. 175. 3M Gambi and Pinelli (as in n. 13), i, p. 426, no. 598, ii,

p. 459, fig. 598. 31 This large building, the official residence of the

Peretti family, was completely destroyed at the end of the last century. Only 15 allegorical figures survive, of the 20 that composed the frieze in the Sala Grande: 13 are now in the Palazzo Ricci Sacchetti on the via Giulia and two in the Gendel Collection. The latter still bear their identifying inscriptions; for all the others we must refer to the detailed description that V. Massimo made in 1836: see M. Bevilacqua, 'La decorazione della Sala Grande del palazzo alle Terme di Villa Montalto', Sisto V, i, Roma e il Lazio (Atti del convegno, Roma 1989), ed. M. Fagiolo and M. L. Madonna, Rome 1993, pp. 724-6. The personifications of the frieze are reproduced in Roma di Sisto V (as in n. 9), pls XX-XXIII. 32 Bevilacqua (as in n. 28), p. 156. 33 Bevilacqua also identifies the Voluntas Dei in the

Palazzo Ricci with the one in the Iconologia. But Ripa's Volonta is blind and has winged feet, in contrast with the figure in the Palazzo Ricci; furthermore the gesture of the latter seems to express a refusal rathar than the 'act of grasping everything'. Finally, the very concept behind the figure of Voluntas Dei is not applicable to Volonta in Ripa, which refers only to human will; see Bevilacqua, 'La decorazione' (as in n. 31), pp. 724-5; Iconologia, 1593, pp. 114, 161, 297. Gratitudo with the stork and without the lupins or broad beans (thus identical to Guerra's)

cycle includes an unusual Iustificatio, perhaps unique in the iconography of the late Cinquecento: a woman eating some pages of writing representing the sins that are thus forgiven. There is a strong resemblance to the Benignitas in the Palazzetto Cenci, whose attributes are a baby in its cradle and a book with a page crossed out, probably

Fig. 43-Gratia, from Domenico Fontana, Della

Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano..., Rome 1590

Fig. 44-Giovanni Guerra, Gratia, fresco. Rome, Palazzetto Cenci

Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Rome

another allusion to the remission of sins. This example demonstrates how Guerra himself was able to develop and adapt his inventions (without any influence from

Ripa) to suit the context.34

Although a careful examination of Guerra's works would exclude a direct partner- ship between Guerra and Ripa before 1589/90, the existence of more than three hundred undated drawings of allegorical subjects (mostly in the Louvre and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris), have led some scholars to posit such a collaboration. Catherine Monbeig Goguel was the first to do so, when she brought them to notice

also features in the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche: see Gambi and Pinelli (as in n. 13), i, p. 438, no. 629, and ii, p. 483, fig. 629. 34 Benignitas is similar to the personification of the same

name in the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (which, however, does not have the book with the crossed-out page) but very different from that in the Iconologia, which is characterised by a blue-starred dress, a breast spouting milk for 'various animals' and an altar with a fire on it; see Bevilacqua, 'Palazzetto Cenci' (as in n. 11), p. 175, fig. 45; Gambi and Pinelli (as in n. 13), i, p. 466, no. 692,

and ii, p. 529, fig. 692; Iconologia, 1593, p. 35. Bevilacqua takes the remission of sins to be a sign of God's benig- nity which allows the re-establishment of original purity symbolised by the child. A figure very like Benignitas in the Palazzetto Cenci is Baldassarre Croce's Clementia from the fresco cycle in the Villa Sforza (now Palazzo Barbe- rini): she is crossing out the pages in an open book. The cycle, earlier dated to 1592, is now placed c. 1585, thus just after Guerra's in the Palazzetto Cenci. See L. Mochi Onori, in Roma di Sisto V (as in n. 9), pp. 327-9.

GUERRA AND RIPA 165

in 1974; ever since, these drawings have been studied in relation to the Iconologia."3 Monbeig Goguel noted that 'Ripa does not give an account of all his motifs and Guerra seems to outstrip Giovanni Campana [i.e. Ripa] in his own field'.36 In 1978 she suggested that the drawings had been intended as a sort of repertory and not to illustrate a particular book. Once again, the Iconologia was put forward as the main

point of reference for the drawings, even if Monbeig Goguel made it clear that they could not be derived from a single source. She saw Ripa and Guerra as sharing a cultural attitude, an aim to develop the type and range of allegorical figures.37 Recently she has made the general proposal that Guerra's drawings were certainly intended to illustrate an iconographic compendium.38 A direct and straightforward connection with the Iconologia has been posited by Chiara Stefani, who thus suggested 1593 as a terminus ante quem for the French drawings. In her view, the collaboration of the artist with Ripa was so close that it must remain uncertain which of the two should be styled inventor. -

However, not all the drawings presented by Stefani are in fact linked to the treatise and, crucially, there is nothing to exclude the possibility that they could have been executed after 1593, when the treatise was well known. In addition, the two Paris albums are in some respects iconographically distinct, and could have been executed at different times. The subjects of the drawings contained in the Masson album in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts are mythological rather than allegorical: many of them

represent pagan divinities, isolated or in their chariots, or zodiac signs. The Imagini de i dei de gli Antichi of Vincenzo Cartari, first published in 1556, might have been the

principal source. The attributes of Terra in the Imagini, for example, are a turreted crown, a sceptre and a chariot drawn by lions; and a very similar figure appears in one of Guerra's drawings.4" Cartari was plainly dependent on Boccaccio's Genealogia deorum gentilium; Guerra could well have made use of the same source, available in Italian since 1547, especially given that another of his drawings, as Monbeig Goguel has noted, is based on Boccaccio's account of Fama.4' The drawing numbered 18 in the Masson Collection is, according to Stefani, an illustration of Carro dell'acqua from the 1603 edition of the Iconologia. Ripa describes an old man holding a trident in his

right hand while standing in a wheeled sea shell drawn by two whales or sea horses.4'

35 C. Monbeig Goguel, 'Giovanni Guerra da Modena, disegnatore e illustratore della fine del Rinascimento', Arte Illustrata, vii, 1974, pp. 169, 177-8 nn. 25-8. She noted that the 148 drawings at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts (Coll. Masson) in Paris had been attributed to Guerra independently by Konrad Oberhuber and Philip Pouncey (on the mounts of the drawings). Previ- ously, these works, listed under the name of Domenico Campagnola, were attributed to Cesare Nebbia by Rodolfo Pallucchini. The 184 at the Louvre, Department des arts graphiques (Coll. Edmond de Rothschild) and the 12 at the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Orleans were related to those in the Masson Collection by Pouncey. Cf. Monbeig Goguel in Libri di immagini (as in n. 28), p. 67. 36 Ibid., p. 169. When she wrote this, Mandowsky's

theory that the real name of Cesare Ripa was Giovanni Campani (not Campana) was still generally accepted. It was definitively refuted by Chiara Stefani, who produced documentary evidence mentioning Ripa by name; see C. Stefani, 'Cesare Ripa: New Biographical Evidence', this Journal, liii, 1990, p. 309 n. 23.

37 C. Monbeig Goguel, in Libri di immagini (as in n. 28), pp. 67-8.

38 C. Monbeig Goguel, 'Il disegno italiano nel Cinque- cento', La pittura in Italia. II Cinquecento, ii, Milan 1988, p. 610. 39 Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 25. 40 '...Come anco si raccoglie dal Boccaccio, quando

scrive della progenie de i Dei, e dice, che ella ha in capo una corona fatta a torri... Ha lo scettro in mano... Ha poi un carro da quattro ruote ... e lo tirano i Lioni'. Vincenzo Cartari, Le imagini de i dei de gli Antichi, Venice 1571, pp. 204-5. Ripa, by contrast, describes Terra as holding a sceptre in her right hand and a key in her left: see Iconologia, 1603, p. 58. Guerra's drawing, numbered 89 at the bottom, is reproduced in Libri di immagini (as in n. 28), pl. XXVI. 41 Monbeig Goguel (as in n. 37), p. 68. 42 'Un vecchio con la barba, et i capelli del colore

dell'acqua marina, et un panno indosso del medesimo colore, nella destra mano tiene un Tridente et sta detta figura sopra d'una conca marina con le rote tirata da doi balene, overo da due cavalli marini in mezzo al mare, ove si vedono diversi pesci'. Iconologia, 1603, pp. 57-8; see Stefani (as in n. 9), pp. 24-5, fig. 30.


But in Guerra's drawing the sea shell has no wheels, the trident is held in the god's left hand, and a different attribute, perhaps a whip, is held in his right hand. The source seems again to be Cartari, whose description of Neptune perfectly matches the drawing.43 The sheet numbered 110 has been related by Stefani to the description of Contritione in the 1593 Iconologia; but this figure pierces her breast with a sword instead of beating it with her fist, and, most importantly, by contrast with Ripa, has

wings on her head.44 In the same album are some complex allegories, of which two retain - their labels; these have no discernible -

relationship with the Iconologia.45 The only l case in which Guerra seems to use an idea in *r- V:'.-:: ;i Ripa's treatise is that of number 31, Accidia :- ::-

(Fig. 45), which Stefani argues represents a A., l conflation of the two, slightly different, de- :-- scriptions in the editions of 1593 and 1603. I t;, Guerra's personification is nude and in a : melancholic attitude as specified in the 1593

Iconologia; she is also sitting on a tortoise, an attribute of Accidia in the 1603 edition. These . |: features led the scholar to date the draw- . -

ing some time before 1593, when Guerra could have been supposed, as a result of his t :''

relationship with Ripa, to have had a chance I f fe *

to look at the entries which were about to-- i.

be published as well as those that would be Fig. 45-Giovanni Guerra, 'Accidia'.

printed a decade later.46 There is, however, Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, another explanation for the Masson Collec- Collection Masson

tion drawing. In the 1603 Iconologia, Accidia 'holds a snail in her left [hand], or else a tortoise' ('tiene con la sinistra [mano] una lumaca, overo tartaruca'). But Guerra's figure is on the tortoise in the position of the related personification of Pigritia which features in the Pitture by Anton Francesco Doni.47 Presumably Guerra took from Doni the idea of a woman sitting on a tortoise, given that this was not a common attribute for Accidia, who is more frequently associated with the ass or the snail.48 Omitting the bridle mentioned by Doni, the artist gave

43 'E l'hanno messo alle volte gli antichi con il tridente in mano, e dritto in pie in una gran conca marina, la quale a lui sia in vece di carro, tirato da cavalli, che dal mezo indietro erano pesci, come sono descritti da Statio ...Veggonsi anchora due medaglie antiche, l'una di Vespasiano, l'altra di Adriano, nelle quali e la imagine di Nettuno fatta a guisa di huomo, che sta in pie tutto nudo, se non che dal sinistro homero gli pende un panno, et ha nella destra mano una sferza di tre cor- reggie, e tiene il tridente in alto con la sinistra'. Cartari (as in n. 40), pp. 240, 255. Guerra's drawing seems to combine the two descriptions of Cartari. 44 Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 24, fig. 28; Iconologia, 1593,

p. 49. 45 Three of them were published in 1974 by Monbeig

Goguel ('Giovanni Guerra da Modena', as in n. 35, figs 10, 12, 13). Also interesting is no. 85, which includes Cerberus and so probably has a mythological subject. It is reproduced by Cecchi Gattolin and Parma Armani (as

in n. 28), pl. XXVI. The two labelled sheets represent Sfera della Terra and Sfera dell'Aria: see Monbeig Goguel (as in n. 37), p. 67. 46 Stefani (as in n. 9), pp. 23-4, figs 27, 29. 47 'sopra una testuggine a cavalcioni, alla quale ha

messa la briglia per tardarla ancor piu del suo lento et sonnolente passo'. Anton Francesco Doni, Pitture, Padua 1564, p. 7. 48 In Ripa the tortoise is a secondary (and replaceable)

attribute: in 1603 it is an alternative to a snail in one of the versions of the figure that was not illustrated. It can be noted that the version chosen for illustration (p. 3) was Accidia with the 'pesce detto Torpedine'. In another entry Ripa, referring to Valeriano, assigns the ass to Accidia: see Iconologia, 1603, p. 4. In the first illustrated edition of Roberto Bellarmino's Dottrina Christiana (Augsburg 1614), Accidia (p. 96) is an unkempt and un- tidily dressed woman with a snail at her foot and another snail advancing up her side; an ass is behind; see G.

GUERRA AND RIPA 167


the woman an appropriately melancholic attitude. In the Middle Ages, Sloth had been associated with Melanconia, so that Accidia was often represented by men or women who neglect their work or duties, typically holding a hand to their head.49 The idea that Guerra used two different editions of the Iconologia would thus hardly have occurred had it not been that the woman is nude, a feature drawn from the 1593 edition of Ripa's book.7?

It is true that some drawings in the Rothschild album in the Louvre seem closer to the Iconologia than those we have just mentioned, but for these too the possibility of a common source should not be ruled out. Giudizio, for example, could have been drawn from Doni's Pitture,"' while in the case of Sorte, Marcolini's illustration in his Sorti of 1540 is most obviously relevant. There, in fact, the personification holds up a crown with her right hand, while in her left she has a rope; as in Guerra's drawing she lacks the purse which is an additional attribute of Sorte in Ripa's text and in the relevant woodcut of 1603.72 As for Teologia, there is no need to refer to the personification in the Iconologia since Guerra's drawing is one of thirty that depend on the so-called Mantegna Tarocchi. Besides, Guerra's Teologia does not have the wheel which is a very important attribute for Ripa, and the younger of her two faces is look-

ing down, in total contradiction to the specifications in the Iconologia.`3 Among the Rothschild drawings is a Furtuna represented as a winged woman, with a face left blank, who is riding a swan and holds a whip in her right hand and a number of crowns in her left; below there lie a bow, a quiver with arrows and a cuirass."7 This figure bears little relation to any typical Renaissance representation of Fortuna, generally characterised by attributes such as sail, rudder, ship, blindfold and Occasio's forelock which are included in the Iconologia.?'

Palumbo, Speculum Peccatorum. Frammenti di stona nello

specchio delle immagini tra Cinque e Seicento, Naples 1990, p. 161, fig. 68. 49 In a series of paintings of vices in Antwerp, datable

between 1480-90, Accidia is symbolised by a man who is resting instead of praying; see R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy, London 1964, p. 301, where many similar examples are described. In the famous Seven Deadly Sins by Hieronymus Bosch in the Prado, Madrid, Accidia is represented as a cleric visited by Faith in the guise of as a nun, who reminds him of his duties. In Marcolini, Otio is a fat man who holds his head in one hand while leaning his elbow on a pillow near a bed: see Francesco Marcolini, Le Sorti, Venice 1540, p. LVII. A Florentine Quattrocento engraving shows Accidia in the position of Melanconia; see G.J. van der Sman, 'II "Quatriregio": Mitologia e allegoria nel libro illustrato a Firenze intorno al 1500', La Bibliofilia, xci, 1989, p. 257. Even though Ripa made a point in his preface of criti- cising the use of so-called accidenti in personifications he himself produced a description of Accidia in which just such 'accidental' characteristics are present (effectively a mere illustration of a slothful individual): 'Donna a sedere, vestita di color negro, di panni stracciati, et terra ambe le mani alla cintola, et il capo chino, havra appresso un paio di forbici, con un pezzo di panno, et un gomi- tolo di filo gettati per terra' (Iconologia, 1593, p. 3). This account essentially corresponds to the illustration in Vincenzo Ricci, Geroglifici Morali (Naples 1626), in which Accidia holds a hand to her head while books are scat- tered around: see Palumbo (as in n. 48), p. 165, fig. 70. 50 '...mostrando una coscia ignuda, et quasi le parti

meno honeste del corpo': Iconologia, 1593, p. 2.

51 Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 22, figs 17, 19, already emphasised that Ripa's description of Giudizio was taken from Doni. 52 Marcolini (as in n. 49), p. XCI; Iconologia, 1593, p.

260; Stefani (as in n. 9), pp. 22-3, figs 18, 20. 53 Ibid., pp. 25-6, fig. 33. Teologia was illustrated for

the first time in Iconologia, 1611, p. 512: she was correctly shown with a wheel and the younger of her faces look- ing up. In the Tarocchi print the younger face is likewise directed upwards; see A. M. Hind, Early Italian Engrav- ings, i, Florentine Engravings and Anonymous Prints of Other Schools, ix, London 1938, pl. 349. Guerra, however, might have ignored this detail since he was concerned only with making a generally similar version of the figure (or perhaps did not realise that the attitude of the double face had any particular significance). In fact, all the drawings which derive from the Mantegna Tarocchi show variations in the gesture and in the position of the attributes, and are stylistically very different from the originals; see Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 26. 54 Reproduced by Monbeig Goguel (as in n. 35), fig. 15. 55 Fortuna is blindfold, sits on a ball, and has the fore-

lock in Marcolini, 1540 (as in n. 49), p. XXXV. In Cartari she has the classical attributes of cornucopia and rudder. Cf. the figure of Nemesis, who is winged, sits on a wheel, and has a rudder at her side: see Cartari, 1571 (as in n. 40), pp. 459-60, 464. Doni (as in n. 47), p. 13, records that Fortuna has been 'in diversi modi figurata, sopra delfini, palle, ruote, sopra mondi, et girelle, et l'hanno ancora fatta Signora d'Isole'. The letter of 1555 from Remigio Fiorentino to Francesco Salviati which discusses ways to represent Fortuna records nothing comparable to Guerra's figure; see J. Fletcher, 'Francesco Salviati

In the case of Filosofia (Fig. 46), which Stefani justly associated with the personification in the 1603 Iconologia, this again demonstrates how Guerra was simply using the same source as Ripa. In fact, Ripa's Filosofia is a 'noble' woman whose piercing gaze is turned towards the skies; her complexion is wonderfully beautiful; her dress

Fig. 46-Giovanni Guerra, 'Filosofia'. i FIL,o -SYIA Paris, Louvre, Collection Rothschild _ f

.. .:,......^ ,îiiii ^ ^^^^:^^^^ "<*-< - :; ^:-^d : I--: ;^ - . '^rn^t^lâ î^j ^ ^^^^^^^^-':~_ ~ ~~~~~1_~-~~'' i3~ --:, * ::.: I J '

is of a very fine material but is dusky and slightly torn, and it has a Greek P at the bottom and a T further up, with a ladder reaching from the lower to the upper letter. She carries some books in her right hand and a sceptre in her left (Fig. 47)."6 The source, as Ripa himself acknowledges, is Boethius's detailed account at the beginning

and Remigio Fiorentino', Burlington Magazine, cxxi, 1979, pp. 793-5. In the Iconologia of 1593, pp. 93-5, there are seven different sorts of Fortuna with the following attributes: blindfold, cornucopia, olive branch, rudder, celestial globe, wheel, sail, wings. Stefani refers, among other things, to some examples of the more typical iconographic formulations, showing a nude figure which stands on a boat and holds a sail: see C. Stefani, 'Note sull'iconografia della Fortuna alla fine del XVI secolo', Schede umanistiche, ii, 1992, pp. 51-67. On this sort of figure see also A. Warburg, 'Francesco Sassettis letztwil- lige Verfugung', Gesammelte Schriften, Leipzig and Berlin, 1932, pp. 145-51, figs 36-8. To my knowledge, representations of Fortuna riding a bird are very rare, even if Doni produces a Fortuna 'a sedere sopra uno Struzzo il quale habbia ali d'Aquila': see ibid., p. 14. In the 'Annotazioni di Lorenzo Pignoria, al libro delle Immagini del Cartari', appended to the 1647 edition of Cartari's book, there is an illustration of a nude Fortuna in the sea, drawn by a swan and provided with a sail: 'Qui si vedono l'Onde, et la vela, et di pif un Cigno, che porta la Fortuna come su l'ale; uccello di molto prospero augurio': see V. Cartari,

Imagini delli Dei de gl'Antichi, Venice 1647, p. 340. In the Liber Fortunae of Jean Cousin the Younger, of 1568, a collection of drawings devoted to the theme of Fortuna, is an emblem with the motto Fata adversa volant, showing a nude Fortune on an eagle holding some arrows, rods and a whip; see L. Lalanne, Le Livre de Fortune recueil de deux cents dessins inedits deJean Cousin, Paris and London 1883, pl. VII. 56 'Donna in piedi, che mostra nel sembiante d'esser

degna di grand'honore, et riverenza. Con gli occhi rivolti al Cielo con piu nobile, et pif acuta potenza visiva, che non ha il comun corso de gli huomini. I1 color della carnagione e di vago, et sopranaturale colore. Le sue vesti sono di sottilissimo filo, composte con mirabile artifitio, et di color lustro, nondimeno alquanto caligi- noso, e fosco, et squarciate in alcuni luochi. Nell'estrema parte di detto vestimento vi e un P greco, et nella parte superiore vi e un T et tra l'una, e l'altra lettera vi sono certi gradi a modo di scala designati, per i quali dalla pif bassa, et inferiore lettera si ascende alla soprana. Con la destra mano tiene alcuni libri, et nella sinistra havera un Scettro Regale'. Iconologia, 1603, pp. 164-5.

GTUERRA AN\D RIPA 169

STEFANO PIERGUIDI

of De consolatione philosophiae; but as Gerlind Werner has demonstrated,57 he must have used the Italian version of the text by the Milanese canon Anselmo Tanzo, published at Milan in 1520. Ripa, however, no doubt conscious that his book was addressed to artists, omitted one feature of Boethius's Philosophy that would have proved especially difficult to represent, namely her variable height (Boethius saw her as at once tall and small).58 Guerra's drawing, by contrast, attempts to capture this intractable aspect of

Boethius's account. His Filosofia is represented as a double figure: one sitting, the other standing. She turns in such a way that in both positions her right shoulder is lower than her left-apparently so as to suggest her simultaneous shortness and tallness. Moreover, precisely because she is turning, her face is rendered invisible, and this may have been a further strategy to give visual expression to Boethius's

description.59 The clouds sketched above the upper head evidently allude to Filosofia's capacity to pierce the skies; the concept had in fact been represented in just such a way in a sculpture on the facade of the cathedral of Laon.60 But the most telling difference

. - ,fm i, between Guerra's drawing and the personification of Fig. 48-Filosofia, from Ripa,

Iconologia, Siena 1613 the 1603 Iconologia is the letter in the upper part of the cloth: Ripa, following Tanzo's translation, put a Greek pi in the lower part and a tau in the upper

part,6' whereas in De consolatione philosophiae the Greek letters are pi (n) and theta (0). In his commentary in the 1613 Sienese edition of the Iconologia, the scholarly Giovanni Zaratino Castellini complained about this error (Fig. 48).62 Guerra, for his part, represented two symbols which, even if not immediately recognisable, are undoubtely meant to be a Il and a 0. The theta is unequivocal: Ripa's text could not have led him to draw that peculiar inclined '8'.63 The Rothschild album contains two other

57 Werner (as in n. 4), p. 42. 58 '...una donna dritta in piedi: a riguardarla nei

sembianti veramente degna di grande honore e riverenza. Con gli occhi ardenti e con piu nobile e acuta potenza visiva che non ha il comune corso degli uomini. Nel volto havea un si vago e vivido colore di tanto vigore e refulgenza che humana conditione nol potea com- prendere quantunque si vecchia fusse a che da ciascuno saria non di nostra etade ma molto piu antica giudicata. La sua statura non era di certa misura ma variabile. Pero che alcuna fiata in comune forma di si mostrava. Alcune volte parea che con la sommita del capo toccasse il cielo. Et alle volte inalzando il capo il cielo con esso trapassava tal che gli huomini non erano sufficienti a mirarla. Le sue vesti erano di sottilissimo filo composte con mirabile artificio et indissolubile materia... nondimeno alquanto caliginosa e fosca... Nella parte inferiore di ditte veste un P greco et nella superiore un T vi erano intertessuti e scritti. E dalluna allaltra lettera certi gradi o vero scalini a modo di una scala vi erano nel lavoro designati... Detta donna portava nella mano dritta libri et nella sinistra il scettro: cioe la verga reale'. Di Consolatione Philo- sophica volgare opra al tutto dignissima, Milan 1520, p. IX. 59 'Et alcuna fiata (quando voleva levarsi piu alto)

trapassava esso Cielo, di maniera, che coloro, i quali la volevano guardare, non potevano'. This passage is taken

from Della Consolazione della Filosofia. tradotta di lingua latina in volgare Fiorentino da Benedetto Varchi, Florence 1551, Libro Primo, Prosa Prima, pp. 8-9. If we exclude the possibility that Guerra used a book in Latin, it is very likely that this work was his source. 60 In the Laon Philosophia the Greek letters on the cloth,

originally painted, have disappeared but they are still visible in her 'sister' in the cathedral of Sens, whose head, however, is not in the clouds; see E. Male, L'Art religieux du XIII siecle en France, Paris 1919, pp. 113-14. See also A. Bouxin, La Cathedrale de Notre-Dame de Laon, Laon 1902, p. 112. Mandowsky (as in n. 3), p. 113, referring to these sculptures, emphasised the relationship between Ripa's description and that of Boethius but blamed the illustrator for omitting the head among the clouds, for- getting that Ripa himself left this detail out. 61 See n. 58. 62 'Filosofia secondo Boetio con 1'espositione di Gio.

Zarattino Castellini', '...ne 1'estremita della veste vi leggeva un Pi, Greco, ne la sommita un Thita...ne la quale era un Thita, et non un T, come hanno tradotto tutti gli espositori volgari'. Iconologia, Siena 1613, pp. 266-7, 271. 63 In Varchi's translation (as in n. 59) the letters are

correctly the II and the 0.

170

representations of Filosofia,64 which indicates that Guerra was particularly interested in the personification of this concept; it is hardly surprising, then, if he should have arrived independently at Boethius's De consolatione Philosophiae. At any rate Guerra could not have been alerted to Boethius's description by Ripa since the figure in-

spired by the Consolation of Philosophy appeared only in the 1603 edition: too late for the French drawings. Furthermore, it cannot be supposed that the 1603 illustration

of Filosofia was based on a design of Guerra's A Mt;0; ; ." G'X 1TIO^GA invention since it simply conforms to Ripa's

^ : I description, not the original text of Boethius. ;ri~ ;0SI r.il'i;.^ ~ . . . . : VThere are, however, at least three drawings

among those published by Stefani that are t i;i indubitably connected with Ripa's treatise. First

ig :;l 7Si^ of all, Gramatiga (Fig. 49) and Arismeticha, which . ?^ij ':?

! : 7 entirely conform to the 1593 edition.65 In Marti- anus Capella's Marriage of Mercury and Philology, Grammatica has the attributes of a file to pare

i2NErk ::;~ <mistakes from children's tongues, and a little medicine jar to correct pronunciation. She is

/X|<00-i ft ^ ..f ;represented with these in one of the Mantegna Tarocchi (Fig. 50),6 and consequently in one of

. . . . . .the Rothschild drawings, while in an engraving

Fig. 49 Giovanni Guerra, 'Gramatiga'. Paris, Louvre,

Collection Rothschild RMN ?

by Marcantonio Raimondi, Gram- matica holds the jar and at the same time is watering a flower (Fig. 51). This motif belongs to a tradition, extending from Plutarch through t Isidore of Seville, that compares the education of youth to the growth

of a plant. Ripa's GramatFig. 50 Grammatica, Fig. 51-Marcantonio

from the Mantegna Raimondi, Grammatica, has a file and a vase with which she 7'arocchi, engraving engraving sprinkles water on a tender plant ('sparge acqua sopra una tenera pianta'), thus combining Plutarch's notion with one of Martianus's attributes, as Raimondi did, though he chose the medicine jar rather than the file. But Ripa includes another Grammatica that combines the two previous traditions with a third which goes back to Donatus: 'a woman, who in her right hand holds a short Latin text, which says "The word, correct in spelling and form, and pronounced in the

proper way", and in her left hand has a whip; and whose breasts flow copiously with

64 Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 23. 66 Grammatica is included among Le arti e le scienze of the 65 Ibid., figs 31-2; for Ripa see Iconologia, 1593, pp. 18 Tarocchi, a series from which Guerra made some copies;

(Aritmetica), 112 (Grammatica). see Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 25.

GUERIRA ANr\D RIPA) 171

milk' ('Donna, che nella destra mano tiene un breve scritto in lettere Latine, le quali dicono, Vox litterata et articulata debito modo pronunciata; et nella sinistra una Sferza, et dalle Mammelle versera molto latte'). The quotation is from Donatus's Ars Gram- matica; the whip and the lactating breast are equivalents for the file and the watering vase respectively. (The whip performs the same educational function as the file in Martianus, while the milk signifies nurturing, as in Plutarch's watered plant.) This last figure is thus one of Ripa's original inventions, elaborated from various sources and included in the editio princeps of 1593; and this is the personification of Grammar that Guerra represented in the Rothschild drawing. The derivation from Iconologia is here certain, there being no possibility of a common source.67

Similarly, Guerra's Ighanno [Inganno] (Fig. 52) from the Rothschild collection

certainly originated in his consultation of the 1593 Iconologia because he combined two, if not three, of its figures. His drawing freely elaborates on Ripa's specifications (substituting, for example, a real goat for a goatskin),"' and it is worth noting that the woodcut in the Iconologia of 1603 (Fig. 53), based on one of Guerra's projects auctioned at Milan in 1975, illustrates the only personification of Inganno from the 1593 edition that was not utilised for the Rothschild drawing. That figure of Deceit is described by Ripa as a man whose legs end in a pair of snakes' tails; he holds a branch spread with birdlime, with some trapped birds; at his side is a panther."' It may be noted that the detail of the birdlime no longer features in the corresponding description of 1603; ' evidently, then, when Guerra was asked to produce the illustration for the 1603 woodcut of Inganno, he chose the only figure that he had not made use of earlier, and 'updated' it to correspond to the emended text by eliminating the birdlime.

The French drawings, especially those in the Louvre, seem to have been executed after 1593 as they show a great interest in Ripa's work. But even if Guerra took certain ideas from the Iconologia, he certainly turned to plenty of other sources. The two Paris albums cannot be considered as having been done as a possible set of illustrations for the 1603 Iconologia. This is demonstrated by, among other things, the copies of the Doge and the Knight after the series from the Mantegna Tarocchi known as The Conditions and States of Man, which certainly had nothing to do with Ripa. And it should be borne in mind that the Tarocchi copies form part of the Rothschild album -of the two, the one closer in content to the Iconologia. In fact, Guerra is consistently independent in his invention of personifications. He never follows Ripa exactly, and there is nothing to suggest that he was in contact with the author before 1593.

One fundamental problem with the hypothesis of a direct relationship between Guerra and Ripa is the demonstrable lack of interest shown by the author in the illustrations for the 1603 Iconologia. That second Roman edition concludes with a list

67 Iconologia, 1593, p. 112. Granimatica was illustrated for hami, et nella sinistra un mazzo di fiori, dal quale esca the first time in the French version of the Iconologia (Paris una Serpe'. Iconologia, 1593, pp. 133-4. Most probably 1644). There she has the Latin text and is watering a Guerra's drawing represents a woman rather than a man, plant; she therefore has neither of the attributes from as in the first personification (which is not mentioned by Martianus (file and medicine jar); see R. Wittkower, Stefani who therefore takes it for a man). The figure is "'Grammatica": from Martianus Capella to Hogarth', this dressed in an animal skin, has a goat under her right

Journal, ii, 1938-9, pp. 82-4. arm and, apparently, holds a fish and some hooks in her 68 'Donna, con una Maschera di bellissima giovane, et left hand; see Stefani (as in n. 9), p. 23, fig. 22.

riccamente ornata, et sotto si scopra parte del viso di 6" 'Huomo, vestito d'oro; et dal mezzo in gii finiranno vecchia molto difforme...'; 'Huomo, coperto di una le sue gambe in due code di serpente, tenendo in mano

pelle di capra, in modo, che a pena gli si veda il viso. In un bel ramo fiorito, nel quale siano alcune panie con mano tenga una rete, con alcuni Sarghi, pesci di forma alcuni uccelli inviscati; a canto havera una Pantera con simili all'Orata, dentro di essa. Cosi lo scrive 1'Alciato...'; la testa fra le gambe'. Iconologia, 1593, p. 133. 'Huomo, vestito di giallo, nella mano destra tenga molti 70 Iconologia, 1603, p. 288.

172 STEFANO PIERGUrIDI

of corrigenda made by Ripa relating to the woodcuts. Yet while marking small over-

sights he ignored more serious ones, complaining, for instance, that Abbondanza's

cornucopia is on the ground instead of in her right hand, but not noting that the

wings of Gelosia are missing.71 He did not even correct the mistakes in the illustration of Bellezza, a personification to which he must have been particularly attached, since he treats it as exemplary in his Preface.72 In some cases he even objected to stylistic

Fig. 52-Giovanni Guerra, 'Ighanno'. '

.... Paris, Louvre, Collection Rothschild . . .'

Fig. 53-Inganno from Ripa Ionologia Roe 1603

:~, Fig. 53 Inganno from Ripa, Iconologia, Rome 1603

aspects of the illustrations, as in the case of Ragione di Stato, who 'is not holding the rod properly with which she is knocking down poppies' ('non tiene bene la bacchetta con la quale fa cascare i papaveri'); here all the attributes had been correctly included. The most astonishing case involves Toscana: Ripa noted the absence of the 'various arms' that should be on her left, near the Arno, but did not comment on the omission of the ritual instruments that should have been placed over the altar on the other side (where there is only a patera). Toscana should also have a book in her left hand and a sceptre in her right, but Ripa ignored all these errors.7 The partial and inconsistent nature of the list of mistakes surely testifies to the author's lack of interest for this

aspect of his work, or maybe a dissatisfaction with the illustrations altogether. In fact

Ripa was to write to Tozzi complimenting him on the new woodcuts for the Paduan edition of 1611, in which many of the mistakes of 1603 had been corrected;74 and the

71 Ibid., pp. 1, 182. 72 See E. McGrath, 'Personifying Ideals', review of

G. Werner, 'Ripa's Iconologia', Art History, vi, 1983, p. 366. 73 Iconologia, 1603, p. 252. 74 Some examples: Allegrezza's flowers, missing in the

1603 edition, were added in 1611; Compuntione was

provided with the missing sackcloth and now sheds tears; Oratione was given the missing censer; and the two attributes of Sostanza, ears of corn and grapes, were put in the proper hand (evidently the first figure did not take account of the reversal of printing): Iconologia, 1603, pp. 11, 74, 372, 468; 1611, pp. 12, 83, 396, 495; see McGrath (as in n. 72), p. 366.

GUERRA AND) RIPA 173

STEFANO PIERGUIDI

concepts illustrated there for the first time displayed a high degree of accuracy.75 The obvious conclusion is that Ripa did not supervise the production of the illustrations for the Roman edition of 1603, and was disappointed with the results. It is notable that in the representation of Solstizio estivo the illustrator represented the

wrong zodiacal sign because he referred to the printed text which mistakenly talks of Capricorn: this demonstrates that the artist worked directly from the text without

consulting Ripa.76 Even Guerra, who might have been expected to adhere scrupu- lously to the descriptions, seems to have been guilty of a serious omission: Servitit, which is probably based on one of the drawings sold in Milan in 1975, was evidently not accompanied by the crane holding a stone.77 Nor is the preparatory drawing

for Ardir magnanimo e generoso very faithful to the text. This figure was inspired by the story of

Lysimachus who escaped death in the jaws of a lion by tearing out the beast's tongue. The

(X; 0;1g;: 0tongue thus became a crucial attribute of Ripa's ;i:il:t? personification.78 In the reproductions avail-

able Guerra's drawing is hard to decipher (Fig. 38); at any rate the corresponding woodcut

(Fig. 40) seems to omit the detail of the ripped out tongue (unless it is obscurely represented as detached, inArdir's hand). In 1611, although this was one of the mistakes uncommented by Ripa, we clearly see the youth man tearing out the lion's tongue, a testimony to the care put into the production of this edition (Fig. 54).79

It has been noted that there are few ref-

Fig. 54-Ardir magnanimo e generoso, erences to painters or architects in the Icono- from Ripa, Iconologia, Padua 1611 logia: Ripa does not appear to have had close

relations with contemporary artists and Guerra is unlikely to have been the exception. No

convincing case has been made for Ripa's involvement in a pictorial cycle; the document that calls him 'inventor delle figure che si sono dipinte nella sala nuova di Palazzo', that is in the Sala Clementina of the palace of Sixtus V in the Vatican, should not be taken literally.80 This document of 1598 is a request from Ripa for a knighthood, presented to Pope Clement VIII through Cardinals Montalparo and Cinzio Aldobrandini. It has long been accepted that many personifications included in the important decorative scheme in the Vatican by Giovanni and Cherubino Alberti were taken from the 1593 Iconologia, which was published before work on the frescoes began. Ripa's case could well have been promoted by his being credited a posteriori with the invention of these personifications. Certainly he cannot have devised the figure of Prospettiva, the most interesting personification in the Sala Clementina. This figure was included only in the Iconologia of 1603, in which Ripa commends the

75 Among the personifications under 'A' can be men- 78 '... et dalla gola li trasse per forza la lingua, restando tioned Affanno, Ammaestramento, Arroganza, Assiduita and la fiera subitamente morta... Volendo rappresentare Augurio Buono: see Iconologia, 1611, pp. 8, 19, 29, 32, 38. questa figura a cavallo in qualche mascherata, o in altro, 76 Werner (as in n. 4), p. 61; McGrath (as in n. 72), p. se gli fara la lingua in mano, et il leone morto sopra il

365. Ripa corrected the printing mistake but not the cimiero'. Ibid., p. 24. illustration: see Iconologia, 1603, p. 461. 79 Iconologia, 1611, p. 27. 77 Ibid., p. 450. This is one of the mistakes emended by 80 C. L. C. E. Witcombe, 'Cesare Ripa and the Sala

Ripa in his list of errata in 1603. Clementina', this Journal, Iv, 1992, p. 282.

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Alberti brothers for their mastery of perspective, citing the Vatican paintings.81 In fact the Prospettiva of the Sala Clementina diverges in some respects from Ripa's description: the latter has an additional mirror, inscribed books (with the names of Ptolemy and Vitellio) and a plumb line, but lacks the rays which come from the eye on the

figure's necklace. These rays presumably refer to the contemporary debate, recorded, for example in Daniele Barbaro's Pratica della Perspettiva, about the rays of the visual

pyramid: some thought they emanated from the object, others that they started from the eye.82 This latter view was clearly illustrated in the fresco, and was evidently important to the man who devised the figure; Ripa, however, seems to ignore the matter entirely, which surely rules him out as inventor of Alberti's figure. It is very likely that there was contact between Ripa and whoever was responsible for the pro- gramme of the Sala Clementina, as a result of which several figures from the 1593

Iconologia were included there, and which led Ripa in turn to include Prospettiva in the 1603 edition. Had Ripa invented Alberti's Prospettiva, I am convinced he would have wanted to declare it. And it is important to remember that already for the 1593 edition he had taken quite a number of personifications from a fresco cycle in the Vatican, in the Sala Vecchia degli Svizzeri.83

Given what we know and can deduce of Ripa's interests it seems improbable, then, that he was directly involved in the 1603 illustrations or collaborated with Guerra in devising their form and appearance. On the other hand, after his work for Sixtus V, Guerra's competence in and liking for allegorical figures must have been

widely known: it is therefore quite possible that the publisher of the 1603 edition commissioned him to make designs for prospective illustrations.

ROME

81 Iconologia, 1603, p. 419. 82 K. Hermann-Fiore, 'Giovanni Albertis kunst und

wissenschaft der quadratur. Eine allegorie in der Sala Clementina des Vatikan', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, xxii, 1978, pp. 69-70.

83 S. Brink, 'Fra Egnazio Danti, das programm der Sala Vecchia degli Svizzeri in Vatikan und C. Ripas Iconologia', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, xxvii, 1983, pp. 223-54.

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Giovanni Guerra and the Illustrations to Ripa’s Iconologia

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