Re: Battle of Anghiari question

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Ross Caldwell wrote: 02 Jun 2022, 09:34
The temptation to relate Andrea del Castagno's pitture infamanti of the Albizzi traitors to the Hanged Man of the trumps (and thus the whole trump sequence to the triumph at Anghiari) is well-nigh irresistible. This was an extravagant gesture, and they would have been "headline news." They made Andrea's career, gave him his nickname. They would have brought shame paintings to the forefront of everybody's mind in July 1440.

But the chronology just seems too tight, in principle, and I'm resisting.
But, if I'm not resisting, an interesting interpretation of part of the sequence comes to mind.

The triumphal chariot is for the triumphant general, perhaps Micheletto Attendolo. The Wheel of Fortune shows the change of fortune for Visconti, who is shown next, as a rich old man with an hourglass, to symbolize that time is running out for him. The Traitor is an Albizzi (standing for all of those painted in real), who is holding moneybags, because they took money from Visconti. Death for all is the hope. And then to hell, the Devil, putting their enemies there in Dantean fashion.

I have always wondered why the Vecchio is shown so obviously rich (and he walks with a stick, as Visconti was said to do). If he were a symbol for Visconti, artists soon conflated it with the newly designed allegory of Time in the Petrarchan Trionfi iconography.

Re: Battle of Anghiari question

15
Ross Caldwell wrote: 03 Jun 2022, 10:25
Ross Caldwell wrote: 02 Jun 2022, 09:34
The temptation to relate Andrea del Castagno's pitture infamanti of the Albizzi traitors to the Hanged Man of the trumps ...
But, if I'm not resisting, an interesting interpretation of part of the sequence comes to mind.

The triumphal chariot is for the triumphant general, perhaps Micheletto Attendolo. The Wheel of Fortune shows the change of fortune for Visconti, who is shown next, as a rich old man with an hourglass, to symbolize that time is running out for him. The Traitor is an Albizzi (standing for all of those painted in real), who is holding moneybags, because they took money from Visconti. Death for all is the hope. And then to hell, the Devil, putting their enemies there in Dantean fashion.
It seems if there was another St. John's-type procession that would have been mentioned; all we have in the records is that the dome was lit up, the Castagno series of 10 hanged men with tituli (painted how fast after the events?), and the awards given to the commissioners Neri Capponi and Bernadetto de'Medici, which I assume happened in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, where the swearing in of generals happened.

If there was a procession it would have been very un-Republican to feature an outsider general and I get the distinct impression Orsini and Attendolo were of lower interest as outsiders. In fact a surviving poem from the town herald mentions the "men of Sforza" - clearly a nod to Attendolo's more famous cousin who went by that name. F. Sforza, I believe, was looked upon as the architect of the victory of the overall campaign, even though his fighting for the "Holy League" was to the east, closer to league member Venice. Even the banners of the Anghiari-related cassoni feature the quince/pomegranate, not the personal device of Attendolo's couchant unicorn, visible in the famous Uccello painting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battl ... lo_016.jpg

The triumphal carro of St. John's was the palio - the expensive length of cloth given to the winner of the horse race. That could have easily been outfitted with the banners of the Church and Florence, and of course an allegorial female as we find on the CY (so a virtuous and chaste female "Florence", perhaps holding the same jousting shield but with the fleur-di-lys on it).

And don't forget the only other cultural production expressively linked to the battle was Leonardo Dati's Trophaeum Anglorium, that was focused on Cardinal Trevisan's role (St. Peter and Paul appearing the sky, etc.), but that poem was arguably written after Florence bought the Casentino/San Sepolcro (the papal fief previously in the hands of the Malatesta, just beyond Anghiari), as a conciliatory gesture to the Pope (Florence was claiming it before financial arrangements were made), who had since left Florence in a huff. The messy details of that transaction here (don't be mislead by the article title): Gow, Andrew, and Gordon Griffiths. “Pope Eugenius IV and Jewish Money-Lending in Florence: The Case of Salomone Di Bonaventura during the Chancellorship of Leonardo Bruni.” Renaissance Quarterly 47, no. 2 (1994): 282–329. https://doi.org/10.2307/2862915.

Clearly the cassoni (the other features Pisa with Sforza's father present), commissioned by Capponi himself, feature the banners. What is also featured are flanking cities - would that have featured in the landscape of the ur-tarot "World's" landscape? The closest comparable in time, the CY "World", features such cities. Bruni, to say it again, caps off his Memoirs - the concluding addendum to his famous History of Florence - by bragging about the acquisition of the Casentino, never in their hands before. The context here is Rome - Rome specifically allowed triumphs for the acquisition of new lands; an ovatio was for lesser feats (and a controversial subject was whether a triumph was appropriate for the the Flavian dynasty [namely Vespasian and Titus] conquering of Judea in 70 CE since it had already been a province - it did not increase the imperium, a word Bruni uses for Florence). These humanist concerns in following Rome received its fullest expression in Biondi Flavio's (probably claimed descent from the Flavians), some years later in his Roma Triumphans (see, for instance, Muecke, Frances. “‘GENTILES NOSTRI’: ROMAN RELIGION AND ROMAN IDENTITY IN BIONDO FLAVIO’S ‘ROMA TRIUMPHANS.’” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 75 (2012): 93–110. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24395988).

I've argued elsewhere the most common 15th century form of the "World" was a tondo based on the precedent of Prudence's circle-inscribing compass and round mirror, most perfectly seen in the Ferrara Palazzo Minerbi Giotto-esque example with a veduta tondo showing a sprinkling of towns and cities. But the CY - and presumably the Florentine ur-tarot World - deviate with the use of an arch, so that only half of a circle is present; the reason I've already given: its a triumphal arch, a'la Roma, to celebrate the acquisition of territory (and of course why the new deck is called trionfi). CY had no victory to celebrate other than Visconti stealing Sforza away from the Holy League by means of his daughter (and likely vague insinuations of succession, never formalized into a document). At all events I think we can presume the CY followed the Florentine precedent. So back to the cassoni - cities and banners; both present in the CY; arguably Sforza mounted and holding the biscone banner, arriving from Ancona (to the right/south) towards his dowry city of Cremona (left), with the just-lost Ravenna (to Venice) in the background on the Adriatic (no doubt with hopes Sforza would retake it at some point). The veduta is looking east from Milan down the Po valley, towards Cremona and, again, Ravena, with other smaller cities in the Po valley. In reconstructing the Florentine hypothetical "World" we might expect to see banners and mounted genera(s), as in the Dublin cassone, with a view towards the newly acquired Casentino and Sansepolcro. Perhaps Anghiari to the left, as in the cassone, the victors in the middle and a landscape dotted with the bigger towns of the hilly Casentino (Bibbiena, Poppi [previously just tributary], Castel San Niccolò [base of Piccinino], Subbiano and maybe Sansepolcro further to the south, on the far right side of the card). The typical tondo versions of the "World" simply strip this town to a landscape dotted with cities.

The generals with banners (instead of the single general in the CY) is already suggested by the Dublin cassone, reduced to a single general in the CY:
Dublin Anghiari cassone detail.jpg Dublin Anghiari cassone detail.jpg Viewed 2457 times 59.05 KiB
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But the CY also has an allegorical figure over the landscape (Prudence holding an attribute of fama due to the fame of the prudent ruler portrayed below, in my view) not present in any cassone, which are merely trying to be historical. Bruni, for instance, constantly speaks of the prudence of the Florentine people, from his earlier Panegyric to Florence and repeatedly through his History, so presence of such an allegory would be in terms of the Florentine's people, as embodied in the Ten of War, the dieici(of which Bruni was then part of and proudly speaks of in his Memoirs), who selected the generals below and thus brought about the victory. It was the Prudence of Florence that brought about the triumph at Anghiari - that is what the ur-tarot would have meant, IMO.

In fact there is a fairly close precedent of placing an allegorical figure over a Casentino-like landscape in this in terms of that "dal Ponte allegory" - it matters not if actually painted by a different artist merely associated with dal Ponte, the bottom line is this allegory preceded the ur-tarot. The arms are those of the Morelli and must be those of Giovanni di Pagolo Morelli (d. 1444) and made sometime in the late 1430s in connection with his serving as podesta or vicar in the city's peripheral possessions. The year after Anghiari he was made gonfaloniere di Giustizia. Most intriguing is a direct connection to the man to whom we owe the earliest reference to trionfi - Giusti served, among other places, as notary to the Casentino border town of Bibbiena (1432) and then in Anghiari (1437), where he was chancellor to none other than the Florentine vicar Giovanni di Pagolo Morelli. I've suggested elsewhere - viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1005&start=40 - what the "allegory" in question is:
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The leopards appear as a bit of surprise (one would think the feline arms were lions, in accord with the Florentine marzocco), but a leopard famously appears with a wolf and lion before Dante enters the Inferno while in the 'dark woods'. All three animals symbolizing various vices, but Dante surely drew on this biblical passage prophesying the destruction of those who refuse to repent for their iniquities (so the animals were both a vice and the manner of one's comeuppance): "Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions strengthened" (Jeremiah 5:6).

If the leopard keeps a city in line – and the same feline forearms are on the shield - then the animals must symbolize the merits of the family in question in policing the city: Florence, as denoted by the fleur-di-lys, in place of the usual Morelli device at the top. The gender of the two leopards (the left one has a mane) must signify the gender of the two figures floating in the sky above each (like illuminations of deities from Pizan’s Othea). If the left figure with mandolin is male it must be Apollo (often he’s depicted with a mandolin or lute in his competition with Marsyas, but these are usually later in date). ..The winged old man on crutches is obviously Time.
...

So we have Apollo, Time and an unidentified female hovering over the stemma of a distinguished Florentine family committed to honoring its own genetic line and the honor of Florence, like leopards. Who then is the female? I believe Virgil is the key...the most famous passage of all in the 4th Eclogue: the Cumaean Sibyl’s prophecy, interpreted as a foreshadowing of Christ’s birth.

Now is come the last age of the Cumaean prophecy [Siby]:
The great cycle of periods is born anew.
Now returns the Maid, returns the reign of Saturn [iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna]
Now from high heaven a new generation comes down.
Yet do thou at that boy's birth,
In whom the iron race shall begin to cease,
And the golden [age] to arise over all the world,
Holy Lucina, be gracious; now thine own Apollo reigns.


There you have it - Apollo on the upper left, happily reigning while playing music, the Cumaean Sibyl pointing to her book of prophecy in the upper right, and below them in the middle is Time-as-Saturn, returned god of the Golden Age, crowning the mask of the Morelli, whose generations will see to the protection of their own line and that of Florence.

This is an excessively arcane allegory, especially for the 1430s, but the basic meaning is Morelli did his job in controlling a peripheral province he was assigned to (and note the hill towns to the left in the background - the large one as Sansepolcro?), allowing for an imaginary Florentine 'golden age' to unfold'. This parallels the practice of most vicars simply having their stemma carved in stone and attached to the walls of the local podesta's palace or what have you, such as in San Minato, Borgo San Lorenzo, etc. but in this case Morelli sought to commemorate his time of service with a painting. That this was to represent Anghiari in the late 1430s (specifically after Morelli was vicar there in 1437 - and note the hilly landscape typical of Anghiari) makes it even more possible it was used for inspiration in c.1440, especially as it was so unusual and thus attracting attention (and again Morelli was important enough to the be the standard bearer in 1441, dying 3 years later). That Giusti was with Morelli in 1437 and the connected to trionfi in 1440 just tightens the circumstantial evidence (i.e., Giusti knew trionfi were being created in Florence that drew on a painting for a vicar who served under in his hometown of Anghiari, and then provided troops for a battle before that same city of Anghiari...and provided such a deck for a wayward condottiere-prince, Malatesta, that the dieici wanted back in the fold and Giusti had a condotte with for supplying men at arms). The basic format, divinities over a border landscape made safe for Florence, could easily be adapted for the specifics of the Casentino pacified and annexed by Florence, due to its prudent rule, symbolized by the female allegory of Prudence hovering over the landscape, atop a triumphal arch.

Phaeded

Re: Battle of Anghiari question

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I don't imagine it is a depiction of a real procession that took place. It is an idealized triumph, custom-fitted to the needs of the game. Most of the audience who took up the game may not have recognized the original inspiration, and it was quickly forgotten as the game gained in popularity. No need to spell out "Attendolo" or anybody specific, the triumphator symbolizes Florence's triumph, in the guise of a victorious general.

Consider it an artistic response to Florence's victory, not some kind of official comemmoration.

Like John Hawkwood's equestrian "monument" turned out to be a fresco, Borso d'Este never rode on a chariot, accompanied by the four Cardinal Virtues, or under a baldachino, during his triumphs at Modena and Reggio but was depicted as such, and Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza's triumphs are completely idealized.
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Re: Battle of Anghiari question

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Ross Caldwell wrote: 04 Jun 2022, 18:08
Phaeded wrote: 04 Jun 2022, 16:46 the Castagno series of 10 hanged men with tituli (painted how fast after the events?),
It was decided on 6 July, and ordered on 13 July.

The primary source is here, Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi per il comune di Firenze dal MCCCXCIX al MCCCCXXXIII, Volume Terzo [1426-1433] (Florence, 1873), pp. 665-668 -
https://www.google.fr/books/edition/Com ... frontcover
I should have mentioned that episode and source is excerpted as Appendix 4 (not translated, however) in John R. Spence, Andrea del Castagno and His Patrons,1991: 141-147. The description of the dome lit up and Neri Capponi and Bernradetto de Medic's gifts from the Commune after the victory are described on p.19 of the same work.