1. To those who have lived virtuously, but knew not Christ.2. To Lust.3. To Gluttony.4. To Avarice and Extravagance.5. To Anger andSorrow.6. To Heresy.7. To Violence and Fraud.
1. To those who have lived virtuously, but knew not Christ.
2. To Lust.
3. To Gluttony.
4. To Avarice and Extravagance.
5. To Anger andSorrow.
6. To Heresy.
7. To Violence and Fraud.
This seventh circle is divided into two parts; of which the first, reserved for those who have been guilty of Violence, is again divided into three, apportioned severally to those who have committed, or desired to commit, violence against their neighbors, against themselves, or against God.
The lowest hell, reserved for the punishment of Fraud, is itself divided into ten circles, wherein are severally punished the sins of,—
1. Betraying women.2. Flattery.3. Simony.4. False prophecy.5. Peculation.6. Hypocrisy.7. Theft.8. False counsel.9. Schism and Imposture.10. Treachery to those who repose entire trust in the traitor.
1. Betraying women.
2. Flattery.
3. Simony.
4. False prophecy.
5. Peculation.
6. Hypocrisy.
7. Theft.
8. False counsel.
9. Schism and Imposture.
10. Treachery to those who repose entire trust in the traitor.
§LIX.There is, perhaps, nothing more notable in this most interesting system than the profound truth couched under the attachment of so terrible a penalty to sadness or sorrow. It is true that Idleness does not elsewhere appear in the scheme, and is evidently intended to be included in the guilt of sadnessby the word “accidioso;†but the main meaning of the poet is to mark the duty of rejoicing in God, according both to St. Paul’s command, and Isaiah’s promise, “Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness.â€147I do not know words that might with more benefit be borne with us, and set in our hearts momentarily against the minor regrets and rebelliousnesses of life, than these simple ones:
“Tristi fummoNel aer dolce, che del sol s’allegra,Or ci attristiam, nella belletta negra.â€â€œWe once were sad,In the sweet air, made gladsome by the sun,Now in these murky settlings are we sad.â€148Cary.
“Tristi fummo
Nel aer dolce, che del sol s’allegra,
Or ci attristiam, nella belletta negra.â€
“We once were sad,
In the sweet air, made gladsome by the sun,
Now in these murky settlings are we sad.â€148
Cary.
The virtue usually opposed to this vice of sullenness is Alacritas, uniting the sense of activity and cheerfulness. Spenser has cheerfulness simply, in his description, never enough to be loved or praised, of the virtues of Womanhood; first feminineness or womanhood in specialty; then,—
“Next to her sate goodly Shamefastnesse,Ne ever durst, her eyes from ground upreare,Ne ever once did looke up from her desse,149As if some blame of evill she did feareThat in her cheekes made roses oft appeare:And her against sweet Cherefulnesse was placed,Whose eyes, like twinkling stars in evening cleare,Were deckt with smyles that all sad humours chaced.“And next to her sate sober Modestie,Holding her hand upon her gentle hart;And her against, sate comely Curtesie,That unto every person knew her part;And her before was seated overthwartSoft Silence, and submisse Obedience,Both linckt together never to dispart.â€
“Next to her sate goodly Shamefastnesse,
Ne ever durst, her eyes from ground upreare,
Ne ever once did looke up from her desse,149
As if some blame of evill she did feare
That in her cheekes made roses oft appeare:
And her against sweet Cherefulnesse was placed,
Whose eyes, like twinkling stars in evening cleare,
Were deckt with smyles that all sad humours chaced.
“And next to her sate sober Modestie,
Holding her hand upon her gentle hart;
And her against, sate comely Curtesie,
That unto every person knew her part;
And her before was seated overthwart
Soft Silence, and submisse Obedience,
Both linckt together never to dispart.â€
§LX.Another notable point in Dante’s system is the intensity of uttermost punishment given to treason, the peculiar sin of Italy, and that to which, at this day, she attributes her own misery with her own lips. An Italian, questioned as to the causes of the failure of the campaign of 1848, always makes one answer, “We were betrayed;†and the most melancholy feature of the present state of Italy is principally this, that she does not see that, of all causes to which failure might be attributed, this is at once the most disgraceful, and the most hopeless. In fact, Dante seems to me to have written almost prophetically, for the instruction of modern Italy, and chiefly so in the sixth canto of the “Purgatorio.â€
§LXI.Hitherto we have been considering the system of the “Inferno†only. That of the “Purgatorio†is much simpler, it being divided into seven districts, in which the souls are severally purified from the sins of Pride, Envy, Wrath, Indifference, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust; the poet thus implying in opposition, and describing in various instances, the seven virtues of Humility, Kindness,150Patience, Zeal, Poverty, Abstinence, and Chastity, as adjuncts of the Christian character, in which it may occasionally fail, while the essential group of the three theological and four cardinal virtues are represented as in direct attendance on the chariot of the Deity; and all the sins of Christians are in the seventeenth canto traced to the deficiency or aberration of Affection.
§LXII.The system of Spenser is unfinished, and exceedingly complicated, the same vices and virtues occurring under different forms in different places, in order to show their different relations to each other. I shall not therefore give any general sketch of it, but only refer to the particular personification ofeach virtue in order to compare it with that of the Ducal Palace.151The peculiar superiority of his system is in its exquisite setting forth of Chastity under the figure of Britomart; not monkish chastity, but that of the purest Love. In completeness of personification no one can approach him; not even in Dante do I remember anything quite so great as the description of the Captain of the Lusts of the Flesh:
“As pale and wan as ashes was his looke;His body lean and meagre as a rake;And skin all withered like a dryed rooke;Thereto as cold and drery as a snake;That seemed to tremble evermore, and quake:All in a canvas thin he was bedight,And girded with a belt of twisted brake:Upon his head he wore an helmet light,Made of a dead man’s skull.â€
“As pale and wan as ashes was his looke;
His body lean and meagre as a rake;
And skin all withered like a dryed rooke;
Thereto as cold and drery as a snake;
That seemed to tremble evermore, and quake:
All in a canvas thin he was bedight,
And girded with a belt of twisted brake:
Upon his head he wore an helmet light,
Made of a dead man’s skull.â€
He rides upon a tiger, and in his hand is a bow, bent;
“And many arrows under his right side,Headed with flint, and fethers bloody dide.â€
“And many arrows under his right side,
Headed with flint, and fethers bloody dide.â€
The horror and the truth of this are beyond everything that I know, out of the pages of Inspiration. Note the heading of the arrows with flint, because sharper and more subtle in the edge than steel, and because steel might consume away with rust, but flint not; and consider in the whole description how the wasting away of body and soul together, and thecoldnessof the heart, which unholy fire has consumed into ashes, and the loss of all power, and the kindling of all terrible impatience, and the implanting of thorny and inextricable griefs, are set forth by the various images, the belt of brake, the tiger steed, and thelighthelmet, girding the head with death.
§LXIII.Perhaps the most interesting series of the Virtues expressed in Italian art are those above mentioned of SimonMemmi in the Spanish chapel at Florence, of Ambrogio di Lorenzo in the Palazzo Publico of Pisa, of Orcagna in Or San Michele at Florence, of Giotto at Padua and Assisi, in mosaic on the central cupola of St. Mark’s, and in sculpture on the pillars of the Ducal Palace. The first two series are carefully described by Lord Lindsay; both are too complicated for comparison with the more simple series of the Ducal Palace; the other four of course agree in giving first the cardinal and evangelical virtues; their variations in the statement of the rest will be best understood by putting them in a parallel arrangement.
§LXIV.It is curious, that in none of these lists do we find eitherHonestyorIndustryranked as a virtue, except in the Venetian one, where the latter is implied in Alacritas, and opposed not only by “Accidia†or sloth, but by a whole series of eight sculptures on another capital, illustrative, as I believe, of the temptations to idleness; while various other capitals, as we shall see presently, are devoted to the representation of theactive trades. Industry, in Northern art and Northern morality, assumes a very principal place. I have seen in French manuscripts the virtues reduced to these seven, Charity, Chastity, Patience, Abstinence, Humility, Liberality, and Industry: and I doubt whether, if we were but to add Honesty (or Truth), a wiser or shorter list could be made out.
§LXV.We will now take the pillars of the Ducal Palace in their order. It has already been mentioned (Vol. I.Chap. I.§XLVI.) that there are, in all, thirty-six great pillars supporting the lower story; and that these are to be counted from right to left, because then the more ancient of them come first: and that, thus arranged, the first, which is not a shaft, but a pilaster, will be the support of the Vine angle; the eighteenth will be the great shaft of the Fig-tree angle; and the thirty-sixth, that of the Judgment angle.
§LXVI.All their capitals, except that of the first, are octagonal, and are decorated by sixteen leaves, differently enriched in every capital, but arranged in the same way; eight of them rising to the angles, and there forming volutes; the eight others set between them, on the sides, rising half-way up the bell of the capital; there nodding forward, and showing above them, rising out of their luxuriance, the groups or single figures which we have to examine.153In some instances, the intermediate or lower leaves are reduced to eight sprays of foliage; and the capital is left dependent for its effect on the bold position of the figures. In referring to the figures on the octagonal capitals, I shall call the outer side, fronting either the Sea or the Piazzetta, the first side; and so count round from left to right; the fourth side being thus, of course, the innermost. As, however, the first five arches were walled up after the great fire, only three sides of their capitals are left visible, which we may describe as the front and the eastern and western sides of each.
§LXVII.First Capital: i.e. of the pilaster at the Vine angle.
In front, towards the Sea. A child holding a bird before him, with its wings expanded, covering his breast.
On its eastern side. Children’s heads among leaves.
On its western side. A child carrying in one hand a comb; in the other, a pair of scissors.
It appears curious, that this, the principal pilaster of the façade, should have been decorated only by these graceful grotesques, for I can hardly suppose them anything more. There may be meaning in them, but I will not venture to conjecture any, except the very plain and practical meaning conveyed by the last figure to all Venetian children, which it would be well if they would act upon. For the rest, I have seen the comb introduced in grotesque work as early as the thirteenth century, but generally for the purpose of ridiculing too great care in dressing the hair, which assuredly is not its purpose here. The children’s heads are very sweet and full of life, but the eyes sharp and small.
§LXVIII.Second Capital. Only three sides of the original work are left unburied by the mass of added wall. Each side has a bird, one web-footed, with a fish, one clawed, with a serpent, which opens its jaws, and darts its tongue at the bird’s breast; the third pluming itself, with a feather between the mandibles of its bill. It is by far the most beautiful of the three capitals decorated with birds.
Third Capital. Also has three sides only left. They have three heads, large, and very ill cut; one female, and crowned.
Fourth Capital. Has three children. The eastern one is defaced: the one in front holds a small bird, whose plumage is beautifully indicated, in its right hand; and with its left holds up half a walnut, showing the nut inside: the third holds a fresh fig, cut through, showing the seeds.
The hair of all the three children is differently worked: the first has luxuriant flowing hair, and a double chin; the second, light flowing hair falling in pointed locks on the forehead; the third, crisp curling hair, deep cut with drill holes.
This capital has been copied on the Renaissance side of the palace, only with such changes in the ideal of the children as the workman thought expedient and natural. It is highly interesting to compare the child of the fourteenth with the child of the fifteenth century. The early heads are full of youthful life, playful, humane, affectionate, beaming with sensation and vivacity, but with much manliness and firmness, also, not a little cunning, and some cruelty perhaps, beneath all; the features small and hard, and the eyes keen. There is the making of rough and great men in them. But the children of the fifteenth century are dull smooth-faced dunces, without a single meaning line in the fatness of their stolid cheeks; and, although, in the vulgar sense, as handsome as the other children are ugly, capable of becoming nothing but perfumed coxcombs.
Fifth Capital. Still three sides only left, bearing three half-length statues of kings; this is the first capital which bears any inscription. In front, a king with a sword in his right hand points to a handkerchief embroidered and fringed, with a head on it, carved on the cavetto of the abacus. His name is written above, “TITUS VESPASIAN IMPERATOR†(contracted.
On eastern side, “TRAJANUS IMPERATOR.†Crowned, a sword in right hand, and sceptre in left.
On western, “(OCT)AVIANUS AUGUSTUS IMPERATOR.†The “OCT†is broken away. He bears a globe in his right hand, with “MUNDUS PACIS†upon it; a sceptre in his left, which I think has terminated in a human figure. He has a flowing beard, and a singularly high crown; the face is much injured, but has once been very noble in expression.
Sixth Capital. Has large male and female heads, very coarsely cut, hard, and bad.
§LXIX.Seventh Capital. This is the first of the series which is complete; the first open arch of the lower arcade being between it and the sixth. It begins the representation of the Virtues.
First side. Largitas, or Liberality: always distinguished from the higher Charity. A male figure, with his lap full of money, which he pours out of his hand. The coins are plain, circular, and smooth; there is no attempt to mark device upon them. The inscription above is, “LARGITAS ME ONORAT.â€
In the copy of this design on the twenty-fifth capital, instead of showering out the gold from his open hand, the figure holds it in a plate or salver, introduced for the sake of disguising the direct imitation. The changes thus made in the Renaissance pillars are always injuries.
This virtue is the proper opponent of Avarice; though it does not occur in the systems of Orcagna or Giotto, being included in Charity. It was a leading virtue with Aristotle and the other ancients.
§LXX.Second side. Constancy; not very characteristic. An armed man with a sword in his hand, inscribed, “CONSTANTIA SUM, NIL TIMENS.â€
This virtue is one of the forms of fortitude, and Giotto therefore sets as the vice opponent to Fortitude, “Inconstantia,†represented as a woman in loose drapery, falling from a rolling globe. The vision seen in the interpreter’s house in the Pilgrim’s Progress, of the man with a very bold countenance, who says to him who has the writer’s ink-horn by his side, “Set down my name,†is the best personification of the Venetian “Constantia†of which I am aware in literature. It would be well for us all to consider whether we have yet given the order to the man with the ink-horn, “Set down my name.â€
§LXXI.Third side. Discord; holding up her finger, but needing the inscription above to assure us of her meaning, “DISCORDIA SUM, DISCORDANS.†In the Renaissance copy she is a meek and nun-like person with a veil.
She is the Atë of Spenser; “mother of debate,†thus described in the fourth book:
“Her face most fowle and filthy was to see,With squinted eyes contrarie wayes intended;And loathly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee,That nought but gall and venim comprehended,And wicked wordes that God and man offended:Her lying tongue was in two parts divided,And both the parts did speake, and both contended;And as her tongue, so was her hart discided,That never thoght one thing, but doubly stil was guided.â€
“Her face most fowle and filthy was to see,
With squinted eyes contrarie wayes intended;
And loathly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee,
That nought but gall and venim comprehended,
And wicked wordes that God and man offended:
Her lying tongue was in two parts divided,
And both the parts did speake, and both contended;
And as her tongue, so was her hart discided,
That never thoght one thing, but doubly stil was guided.â€
Note the fine old meaning of “discided,†cut in two; it is a great pity we have lost this powerful expression. We might keep “determined†for the other sense of the word.
§LXXII.Fourth side.Patience. A female figure, very expressive and lovely, in a hood, with her right hand on her breast, the left extended, inscribed “PATIENTIA MANET MECUM.â€
She is one of the principal virtues in all the Christian systems: a masculine virtue in Spenser, and beautifully placed as thePhysicianin the House of Holinesse. The opponent vice, Impatience, is one of the hags who attend the Captain of the Lusts of the Flesh; the other being Impotence. In like manner, in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,†the opposite of Patience is Passion; but Spenser’s thought is farther carried. His two hags, Impatience and Impotence, as attendant upon the evil spirit of Passion, embrace all the phenomena of human conduct, down even to the smallest matters, according to the adage, “More haste, worse speed.â€
§LXXIII.Fifth side.Despair. A female figure thrusting a dagger into her throat, and tearing her long hair, which flows down among the leaves of the capital below her knees. One of the finest figures of the series; inscribed “DESPERACIO MÔS(mortis?)CRUDELIS.†In the Renaissance copy she is totally devoid of expression, and appears, instead of tearing her hair, to be dividing it into long curls on each side.
This vice is the proper opposite of Hope. By Giotto she is represented as a woman hanging herself, a fiend coming for her soul. Spenser’s vision of Despair is well known, it being indeed currently reported that this part of the Faerie Queen was the first which drew to it the attention of Sir Philip Sidney.
§LXXIV.Sixth side.Obedience: with her arms folded;meek, but rude and commonplace, looking at a little dog standing on its hind legs and begging, with a collar round its neck. Inscribed “OBEDIENTI* *;†the rest of the sentence is much defaced, but looks likeI suppose the note of contraction above the final A has disappeared and that the inscription was “Obedientiam domino exhibeo.â€
This virtue is, of course, a principal one in the monkish systems; represented by Giotto at Assisi as “an angel robed in black, placing the finger of his left hand on his mouth, and passing the yoke over the head of a Franciscan monk kneeling at his feet.â€154
Obedience holds a less principal place in Spenser. We have seen her above associated with the other peculiar virtues of womanhood.
§LXXV.Seventh side.Infidelity. A man in a turban, with a small image in his hand, or the image of a child. Of the inscription nothing but “INFIDELITATE* * *†and some fragmentary letters, “ILI, CERO,†remain.
By Giotto Infidelity is most nobly symbolized as a woman helmeted, the helmet having a broad rim which keeps the light from her eyes. She is covered with heavy drapery, stands infirmly as if about to fall, isbound by a cord round her neck to an imagewhich she carries in her hand, and has flames bursting forth at her feet.
In Spenser, Infidelity is the Saracen knight Sans Foy,—
“Full large of limbe and every jointHe was, and cared not for God or man a point.â€
“Full large of limbe and every joint
He was, and cared not for God or man a point.â€
For the part which he sustains in the contest with Godly Fear, or the Red-cross knight, seeAppendix 2, Vol. III.
§ LXXVI.Eighth side. Modesty; bearing a pitcher. (In the Renaissance copy, a vase like a coffee-pot.) Inscribed “MODESTIA
I do not find this virtue in any of the Italian series, except that of Venice. In Spenser she is of course one of thoseattendant on Womanhood, but occurs as one of the tenants of the Heart of Man, thus portrayed in the second book:
“Straunge was her tyre, and all her garment blew,Close rownd about her tuckt with many a plight:Upon her fist the bird which shonneth vew..........And ever and anone with rosy redThe bashfull blood her snowy cheekes did dye,That her became, as polisht yvoryWhich cunning craftesman hand hath overlaydWith fayre vermilion or pure castory.â€
“Straunge was her tyre, and all her garment blew,
Close rownd about her tuckt with many a plight:
Upon her fist the bird which shonneth vew.
.........
And ever and anone with rosy red
The bashfull blood her snowy cheekes did dye,
That her became, as polisht yvory
Which cunning craftesman hand hath overlayd
With fayre vermilion or pure castory.â€
§LXXVII.Eighth Capital.It has no inscriptions, and its subjects are not, by themselves, intelligible; but they appear to be typical of the degradation of human instincts.
First side.A caricature of Arion on his dolphin; he wears a cap ending in a long proboscis-like horn, and plays a violin with a curious twitch of the bow and wag of the head, very graphically expressed, but still without anything approaching to the power of Northern grotesque. His dolphin has a goodly row of teeth, and the waves beat over his back.
Second side.A human figure, with curly hair and the legs of a bear; the paws laid, with great sculptural skill, upon the foliage. It plays a violin, shaped like a guitar, with a bent double-stringed bow.
Third side.A figure with a serpent’s tail and a monstrous head, founded on a Negro type, hollow-cheeked, large-lipped, and wearing a cap made of a serpent’s skin, holding a fir-cone in its hand.
Fourth side.A monstrous figure, terminating below in a tortoise. It is devouring a gourd, which it grasps greedily with both hands; it wears a cap ending in a hoofed leg.
Fifth side.A centaur wearing a crested helmet, and holding a curved sword.
Sixth side.A knight, riding a headless horse, and wearing chain armor, with a triangular shield flung behind his back, and a two-edged sword.
Seventh side.A figure like that on the fifth, wearing around helmet, and with the legs and tail of a horse. He bears a long mace with a top like a fir-cone.
Eighth side.A figure with curly hair, and an acorn in its hand, ending below in a fish.
§LXXVIII.Ninth Capital.First side.Faith. She has her left hand on her breast, and the cross on her right. Inscribed “FIDES OPTIMA IN DEO.†The Faith of Giotto holds the cross in her right hand; in her left, a scroll with the Apostles’ Creed. She treads upon cabalistic books, and has a key suspended to her waist. Spenser’s Faith (Fidelia) is still more spiritual and noble:
“She was araied all in lilly white,And in her right hand bore a cup of gold,With wine and water fild up to the hight,In which a serpent did himselfe enfold,That horrour made to all that did behold;But she no whitt did chaunge her constant mood:And in her other hand she fast did holdA booke, that was both signd and seald with blood;Wherein darke things were writt, hard to be understood.â€
“She was araied all in lilly white,
And in her right hand bore a cup of gold,
With wine and water fild up to the hight,
In which a serpent did himselfe enfold,
That horrour made to all that did behold;
But she no whitt did chaunge her constant mood:
And in her other hand she fast did hold
A booke, that was both signd and seald with blood;
Wherein darke things were writt, hard to be understood.â€
§LXXIX.Second side.Fortitude. A long-bearded man [Samson?] tearing open a lion’s jaw. The inscription is illegible, and the somewhat vulgar personification appears to belong rather to Courage than Fortitude. On the Renaissance copy it is inscribed “FORTITUDO SUM VIRILIS.†The Latin word has, perhaps, been received by the sculptor as merely signifying “Strength,†the rest of the perfect idea of this virtue having been given in “Constantia†previously. But both these Venetian symbols together do not at all approach the idea of Fortitude as given generally by Giotto and the Pisan sculptors; clothed with a lion’s skin, knotted about her neck, and falling to her feet in deep folds; drawing back her right hand, with the sword pointed towards her enemy; and slightly retired behind her immovable shield, which, with Giotto, is square, and rested on the ground like a tower, covering her up to above her shoulders; bearing on it a lion, and with broken heads of javelins deeply infixed.
Among the Greeks, this is, of course, one of the principalvirtues; apt, however, in their ordinary conception of it to degenerate into mere manliness or courage.
§LXXX.Third side.Temperance; bearing a pitcher of water and a cup. Inscription, illegible here, and on the Renaissance copy nearly so, “TEMPERANTIA SUM†(INOM’ Ls)? only left. In this somewhat vulgar and most frequent conception of this virtue (afterwards continually repeated, as by Sir Joshua in his window at New College) temperance is confused with mere abstinence, the opposite of Gula, or gluttony; whereas the Greek Temperance, a truly cardinal virtue, is the moderator ofallthe passions, and so represented by Giotto, who has placed a bridle upon her lips, and a sword in her hand, the hilt of which she is binding to the scabbard. In his system, she is opposed among the vices, not by Gula or Gluttony, but by Ira, Anger. So also the Temperance of Spenser, or Sir Guyon, but with mingling of much sternness:
“A goodly knight, all armd in harnesse meete,That from his head no place appeared to his feete,His carriage was full comely and upright;His countenance demure and temperate;But yett so sterne and terrible in sight,That cheard his friendes, and did his foes amate.â€
“A goodly knight, all armd in harnesse meete,
That from his head no place appeared to his feete,
His carriage was full comely and upright;
His countenance demure and temperate;
But yett so sterne and terrible in sight,
That cheard his friendes, and did his foes amate.â€
The Temperance of the Greeks,σωφÏοσÏνη, involves the idea of Prudence, and is a most noble virtue, yet properly marked by Plato as inferior to sacred enthusiasm, though necessary for its government. He opposes it, under the name “Mortal Temperance†or “the Temperance which is of men,†to divine madness,μανία, or inspiration; but he most justly and nobly expresses the general idea of it under the termὓβÏις, which, in the “Phædrus,†is divided into various intemperances with respect to various objects, and set forth under the image of a black, vicious, diseased and furious horse, yoked by the side of Prudence or Wisdom (set forth under the figure of a white horse with a crested and noble head, like that which we have among the Elgin Marbles) to the chariot of the Soul. The system of Aristotle, as above stated, is throughout a mere complicated blunder, supported by sophistry,the laboriously developed mistake of Temperance for the essence of the virtues which it guides. Temperance in the mediæval systems is generally opposed by Anger, or by Folly, or Gluttony: but her proper opposite is Spenser’s Acrasia, the principal enemy of Sir Guyon, at whose gates we find the subordinate vice “Excesse,†as the introduction to Intemperance; a graceful and feminine image, necessary to illustrate the more dangerous forms of subtle intemperance, as opposed to the brutal “Gluttony†in the first book. She presses grapes into a cup, because of the words of St. Paul, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;†but always delicately,
“Into her cup she scruzd with daintie breachOf her fine fingers, without fowle empeach,That so faire winepresse made the wine more sweet.â€
“Into her cup she scruzd with daintie breach
Of her fine fingers, without fowle empeach,
That so faire winepresse made the wine more sweet.â€
The reader will, I trust, pardon these frequent extracts from Spenser, for it is nearly as necessary to point out the profound divinity and philosophy of our great English poet, as the beauty of the Ducal Palace.
§LXXXI.Fourth side.Humility; with a veil upon her head, carrying a lamp in her lap. Inscribed in the copy, “HUMILITAS HABITAT IN ME.â€
This virtue is of course a peculiarly Christian one, hardly recognized in the Pagan systems, though carefully impressed upon the Greeks in early life in a manner which at this day it would be well if we were to imitate, and, together with an almost feminine modesty, giving an exquisite grace to the conduct and bearing of the well-educated Greek youth. It is, of course, one of the leading virtues in all the monkish systems, but I have not any notes of the manner of its representation.
§LXXXII.Fifth side.Charity. A woman with her lap full of loaves (?), giving one to a child, who stretches his arm out for it across a broad gap in the leafage of the capital.
Again very far inferior to the Giottesque rendering of this virtue. In the Arena Chapel she is distinguished from all the other virtues by having a circular glory round her head, and a cross of fire; she is crowned with flowers, presents with herright hand a vase of corn and fruit, and with her left receives treasure from Christ, who appears above her, to provide her with the means of continual offices of beneficence, while she tramples under foot the treasures of the earth.
The peculiar beauty of most of the Italian conceptions of Charity, is in the subjection of mere munificence to the glowing of her love, always represented by flames; here in the form of a cross round her head; in Oreagna’s shrine at Florence, issuing from a censer in her hand; and, with Dante, inflaming her whole form, so that, in a furnace of clear fire, she could not have been discerned.
Spenser represents her as a mother surrounded by happy children, an idea afterwards grievously hackneyed and vulgarized by English painters and sculptors.
§LXXXIII.Sixth side.Justice. Crowned, and with sword. Inscribed in the copy, “REX SUM JUSTICIE.â€
This idea was afterwards much amplified and adorned in the only good capital of the Renaissance series, under the Judgment angle. Giotto has also given his whole strength to the painting of this virtue, representing her as enthroned under a noble Gothic canopy, holding scales, not by the beam, but one in each hand; a beautiful idea, showing that the equality of the scales of Justice is not owing to natural laws, but to her own immediate weighing the opposed causes in her own hands. In one scale is an executioner beheading a criminal; in the other an angel crowning a man who seems (in Selvatico’s plate) to have been working at a desk or table.
Beneath her feet is a small predella, representing various persons riding securely in the woods, and others dancing to the sound of music.
Spenser’s Justice, Sir Artegall, is the hero of an entire book, and the betrothed knight of Britomart, or chastity.
§LXXXIV.Seventh side.Prudence. A man with a book and a pair of compasses, wearing the noble cap, hanging down towards the shoulder, and bound in a fillet round the brow, which occurs so frequently during the fourteenth century in Italy in the portraits of men occupied in any civil capacity.
This virtue is, as we have seen, conceived under very different degrees of dignity, from mere worldly prudence up to heavenly wisdom, being opposed sometimes by Stultitia, sometimes by Ignorantia. I do not find, in any of the representations of her, that her truly distinctive character, namely,forethought, is enough insisted upon: Giotto expresses her vigilance and just measurement or estimate of all things by painting her as Janus-headed, and gazing into a convex mirror, with compasses in her right hand; the convex mirror showing her power of looking at many things in small compass. But forethought or anticipation, by which, independently of greater or less natural capacities, one man becomes moreprudentthan another, is never enough considered or symbolized.
The idea of this virtue oscillates, in the Greek systems, between Temperance and Heavenly Wisdom.
§LXXXV.Eighth side.Hope. A figure full of devotional expression, holding up its hands as in prayer, and looking to a hand which is extended towards it out of sunbeams. In the Renaissance copy this hand does not appear.
Of all the virtues, this is the most distinctively Christian (it could not, of course, enter definitely into any Pagan scheme); and above all others, it seems to me thetestingvirtue,—that by the possession of which we may most certainly determine whether we are Christians or not; for many men have charity, that is to say, general kindness of heart, or even a kind of faith, who have not any habitualhopeof, or longing for, heaven. The Hope of Giotto is represented as winged, rising in the air, while an angel holds a crown before her. I do not know if Spenser was the first to introduce our marine virtue, leaning on an anchor, a symbol as inaccurate as it is vulgar: for, in the first place, anchors are not for men, but for ships; and in the second, anchorage is the characteristic not of Hope, but of Faith. Faith is dependent, but Hope is aspirant. Spenser, however, introduces Hope twice,—the first time as the Virtue with the anchor; but afterwards fallacious Hope, far more beautifully, in the Masque of Cupid:
“She always smyld, and in her hand did holdAn holy-water sprinckle, dipt in deowe.â€
“She always smyld, and in her hand did hold
An holy-water sprinckle, dipt in deowe.â€
§LXXXVI. Tenth Capital.First side.Luxury (the opposite of chastity, as above explained). A woman with a jewelled chain across her forehead, smiling as she looks into a mirror, exposing her breast by drawing down her dress with one hand. Inscribed “LUXURIA SUM IMENSA.â€
These subordinate forms of vice are not met with so frequently in art as those of the opposite virtues, but in Spenser we find them all. His Luxury rides upon a goat:
“In a greene gowne he clothed was full faire,Which underneath did hide his filthinesse,And in his hand a burning hart he bare.â€
“In a greene gowne he clothed was full faire,
Which underneath did hide his filthinesse,
And in his hand a burning hart he bare.â€
But, in fact, the proper and comprehensive expression of this vice is the Cupid of the ancients; and there is not any minor circumstance more indicative of theintensedifference between the mediæval and the Renaissance spirit, than the mode in which this god is represented.
I have above said, that all great European art is rooted in the thirteenth century; and it seems to me that there is a kind of central year about which we may consider the energy of the middle ages to be gathered; a kind of focus of time which, by what is to my mind a most touching and impressive Divine appointment, has been marked for us by the greatest writer of the middle ages, in the first words he utters; namely, the year 1300, the “mezzo del cammin†of the life of Dante. Now, therefore, to Giotto, the contemporary of Dante, and who drew Dante’s still existing portrait in this very year, 1300, we may always look for the central mediæval idea in any subject: and observe how he represents Cupid; as one of three, a terrible trinity, his companions being Satan and Death; and he himself “a lean scarecrow, with bow, quiver, and fillet, and feet ending in claws,â€155thrust down into Hell by Penance, from the presence of Purity and Fortitude. Spenser, who has been so often noticed as furnishing the exactly intermediate type of conception between the mediæval and the Renaissance, indeed represents Cupid under the formof a beautiful winged god, and riding on a lion, but still no plaything of the Graces, but full of terror:
“With that the darts which his right hand did straineFull dreadfully he shooke, that all did quake,And clapt on hye his coloured winges twaine,That all his many it afraide did make.â€
“With that the darts which his right hand did straine
Full dreadfully he shooke, that all did quake,
And clapt on hye his coloured winges twaine,
That all his many it afraide did make.â€
Hismany, that is to say, his company; and observe what a company it is. Before him go Fancy, Desire, Doubt, Danger, Fear, Fallacious Hope, Dissemblance, Suspicion, Grief, Fury, Displeasure, Despite, and Cruelty. After him, Reproach, Repentance, Shame,
“Unquiet Care, and fond Unthriftyhead,Lewd Losse of Time, and Sorrow seeming dead,Inconstant Chaunge, and false Disloyalty,Consuming Riotise, and guilty DreadOf heavenly vengeaunce; faint Infirmity,Vile Poverty, and lastly Death with infamy.â€
“Unquiet Care, and fond Unthriftyhead,
Lewd Losse of Time, and Sorrow seeming dead,
Inconstant Chaunge, and false Disloyalty,
Consuming Riotise, and guilty Dread
Of heavenly vengeaunce; faint Infirmity,
Vile Poverty, and lastly Death with infamy.â€
Compare these two pictures of Cupid with the Love-god of the Renaissance, as he is represented to this day, confused with angels, in every faded form of ornament and allegory, in our furniture, our literature, and our minds.
§LXXXVII.Second side.Gluttony. A woman in a turban, with a jewelled cup in her right hand. In her left, the clawed limb of a bird, which she is gnawing. Inscribed “GULA SINE ORDINE SUM.â€
Spenser’s Gluttony is more than usually fine:
“His belly was upblowne with luxury,And eke with fatnesse swollen were his eyne,And like a crane his necke was long and fyne,Wherewith he swallowed up excessive feast,For want whereof poore people oft did pyne.â€
“His belly was upblowne with luxury,
And eke with fatnesse swollen were his eyne,
And like a crane his necke was long and fyne,
Wherewith he swallowed up excessive feast,
For want whereof poore people oft did pyne.â€
He rides upon a swine, and is clad in vine-leaves, with a garland of ivy. Compare the account of Excesse, above, as opposed to Temperance.
§LXXXVIII.Third side.Pride. A knight, with a heavy and stupid face, holding a sword with three edges: his armor covered with ornaments in the form of roses, and with twoears attached to his helmet. The inscription indecipherable, all but “SUPERBIA.â€
Spenser has analyzed this vice with great care. He first represents it as the Pride of life; that is to say, the pride which runs in a deep under current through all the thoughts and acts of men. As such, it is a feminine vice, directly opposed to Holiness, and mistress of a castle called the House of Pryde, and her chariot is driven by Satan, with a team of beasts, ridden by the mortal sins. In the throne chamber of her palace she is thus described:
“So proud she shyned in her princely state,Looking to Heaven, for Earth she did disdayne;And sitting high, for lowly she did hate:Lo, underneath her scornefull feete was layneA dreadfull dragon with an hideous trayne;And in her hand she held a mirrhour bright,Wherein her face she often vewed fayneâ€
“So proud she shyned in her princely state,
Looking to Heaven, for Earth she did disdayne;
And sitting high, for lowly she did hate:
Lo, underneath her scornefull feete was layne
A dreadfull dragon with an hideous trayne;
And in her hand she held a mirrhour bright,
Wherein her face she often vewed fayneâ€
The giant Orgoglio is a baser species of pride, born of the Earth and Eolus; that is to say, of sensual and vain conceits. His foster-father and the keeper of his castle is Ignorance. (Book I. cantoVIII.)
Finally, Disdain is introduced, in other places, as the form of pride which vents itself in insult to others.
§LXXXIX.Fourth side.Anger. A woman tearing her dress open at her breast. Inscription here undecipherable; but in the Renaissance copy it is “IRA CRUDELIS EST IN ME.â€
Giotto represents this vice under the same symbol; but it is the weakest of all the figures in the Arena Chapel. The “Wrath†of Spenser rides upon a lion, brandishing a fire-brand, his garments stained with blood. Rage, or Furor, occurs subordinately in other places. It appears to me very strange that neither Giotto nor Spenser should have given any representation of therestrainedAnger, which is infinitely the most terrible; both of them make him violent.
§XC.Fifth side.Avarice. An old woman with a veil over her forehead, and a bag of money in each hand. A figure very marvellous for power of expression. The throat is allmade up of sinews with skinny channels deep between them, strained as by anxiety, and wasted by famine; the features hunger-bitten, the eyes hollow, the look glaring and intense, yet without the slightest: caricature. Inscribed in the Renaissance copy, “avaritia impletor.â€
Spenser’s Avarice (the vice) is much feebler than this; but the god Mammon and his kingdom have been described by him with his usual power. Note the position of the house of Richesse:
“Betwixt them both was but a little stride,That did the House of Richesse from Hell-mouth divide.â€
“Betwixt them both was but a little stride,
That did the House of Richesse from Hell-mouth divide.â€
It is curious that most moralists confuse avarice with covetousness, although they are vices totally different in their operation on the human heart, and on the frame of society. The love of money, the sin of Judas and Ananias, is indeed the root of all evil in the hardening of the heart; but “covetousness, which is idolatry,†the sin of Ahab, that is, the inordinate desire of some seen or recognized good,—thus destroying peace of mind,—is probably productive of much more misery in heart, and error in conduct, than avarice itself, only covetousness is not so inconsistent with Christianity: for covetousness may partly proceed from vividness of the affections and hopes, as in David, and be consistent with, much charity; not so avarice.
§XCI.Sixth side. Idleness. Accidia. A figure much broken away, having had its arms round two branches of trees.
I do not know why Idleness should be represented as among trees, unless, in the Italy of the fourteenth century, forest country was considered as desert, and therefore the domain of Idleness. Spenser fastens this vice especially upon the clergy,—
“Upon a slouthfull asse he chose to ryde,Arayd in habit blacke, and amis thin,Like to an holy monck, the service to begin.And in his hand his portesse still he bare,That much was worne, but therein little redd.â€
“Upon a slouthfull asse he chose to ryde,
Arayd in habit blacke, and amis thin,
Like to an holy monck, the service to begin.
And in his hand his portesse still he bare,
That much was worne, but therein little redd.â€
And he properly makes him the leader of the train of the vices:
“May seem the wayne was very evil ledd,When such an one had guiding of the wayâ€
“May seem the wayne was very evil ledd,
When such an one had guiding of the wayâ€
Observe that subtle touch of truth in the “wearing†of the portesse, indicating the abuse of books by idle readers, so thoroughly characteristic of unwilling studentship from the schoolboy upwards.
§XCII.Seventh side.Vanity. She is smiling complacently as she looks into a mirror in her lap. Her robe is embroidered with roses, and roses form her crown. Undecipherable.
There is some confusion in the expression of this vice, between pride in the personal appearance and lightness of purpose. The word Vanitas generally, I think, bears, in the mediæval period, the sense given it in Scripture. “Let not him that is deceived trust in Vanity, for Vanity shall be his recompense.†“Vanity of Vanities.†“The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.†It is difficult to find this sin,—which, after Pride, is the most universal, perhaps the most fatal, of all, fretting the whole depth of our humanity into storm “to waft a feather or to drown a fly,â€â€”definitely expressed in art. Even Spenser, I think, has only partially expressed it under the figure of Phædria, more properly Idle Mirth, in the second book. The idea is, however, entirely worked out in the Vanity Fair of the “Pilgrim’s Progress.â€
§XCIII.Eighth side.Envy. One of the noblest pieces of expression in the series. She is pointing malignantly with her finger; a serpent is wreathed about her head like a cap, another forms the girdle of her waist, and a dragon rests in her lap.
Giotto has, however, represented her, with still greater subtlety, as having her fingers terminating in claws, and raising her right hand with an expression partly of impotent regret, partly of involuntary grasping; a serpent, issuing from her mouth, is about to bite her between the eyes; she has long membranous ears, horns on her head, and flames consuming her body. The Envy of Spenser is only inferior to that of Giotto, because the idea of folly and quickness of hearing is not suggested by the size of the ear: in other respects it is even finer, joining the idea of fury, in the wolf on which herides, with that of corruption on his lips, and of discoloration or distortion in the whole mind:
“Malicious Envy rodeUpon a ravenous wolfe, and still did chawBetween his cankred teeth a venemous tode,That all the poison ran about his jaw.All in a kirtle of discolourd sayHe clothed was, ypaynted full of eies,And in his bosome secretly there layAn hatefull snake, the which his taile uptyesIn many folds, and mortall sting implyes.â€
“Malicious Envy rode
Upon a ravenous wolfe, and still did chaw
Between his cankred teeth a venemous tode,
That all the poison ran about his jaw.
All in a kirtle of discolourd say
He clothed was, ypaynted full of eies,
And in his bosome secretly there lay
An hatefull snake, the which his taile uptyes
In many folds, and mortall sting implyes.â€
He has developed the idea in more detail, and still more loathsomely, in the twelfth canto of the fifth book.
§XCIV.Eleventh Capital. Its decoration is composed of eight birds, arranged as shown in Plate V. of the “Seven Lamps,†which, however, was sketched from the Renaissance copy. These birds are all varied in form and action, but not so as to require special description.
§XCV.Twelfth Capital. This has been very interesting, but is grievously defaced, four of its figures being entirely broken away, and the character of two others quite undecipherable. It is fortunate that it has been copied in the thirty-third capital of the Renaissance series, from which we are able to identify the lost figures.
First side.Misery. A man with a wan face, seemingly pleading with a child who has its hands crossed on its breast. There is a buckle at his own breast in the shape of a cloven heart. Inscribed “MISERIA.â€
The intention of this figure is not altogether apparent, as it is by no means treated as a vice; the distress seeming real, and like that of a parent in poverty mourning over his child. Yet it seems placed here as in direct opposition to the virtue of Cheerfulness, which follows next in order; rather, however, I believe, with the intention of illustrating human life, than the character of the vice which, as we have seen, Dante placed in the circle of hell. The word in that case would, I think, have been “Tristitia,†the “unholy Griefe†of Spenser—
“All in sable sorrowfully clad,Downe hanging his dull head with heavy chere:........A pair of pincers in his hand he had,With which he pinched people to the heart.â€
“All in sable sorrowfully clad,
Downe hanging his dull head with heavy chere:
........
A pair of pincers in his hand he had,
With which he pinched people to the heart.â€
He has farther amplified the idea under another figure in the fifth canto of the fourth book:
“His name was Care; a blacksmith by his trade,That neither day nor night from working spared;But to small purpose yron wedges made:Those be unquiet thoughts that carefull minds invade.Rude was his garment, and to rags all rent,Ne better had he, ne for better cared;With blistered hands among the cinders brent.â€
“His name was Care; a blacksmith by his trade,
That neither day nor night from working spared;
But to small purpose yron wedges made:
Those be unquiet thoughts that carefull minds invade.
Rude was his garment, and to rags all rent,
Ne better had he, ne for better cared;
With blistered hands among the cinders brent.â€
It is to be noticed, however, that in the Renaissance copy this figure is stated to be, not Miseria, but “Misericordia.†The contraction is a very moderate one, Misericordia being in old MS. written always as “Mia.†If this reading be right, the figure is placed here rather as the companion, than the opposite, of Cheerfulness; unless, indeed, it is intended to unite the idea of Mercy and Compassion with that of Sacred Sorrow.
§XCVI.Second side.Cheerfulness. A woman with long flowing hair, crowned with roses, playing on a tambourine, and with open lips, as singing. Inscribed “alacritas.â€
We have already met with this virtue among those especially set by Spenser to attend on Womanhood. It is inscribed in the Renaissance copy, “ALACHRITAS CHANIT MECUM.†Note the gutturals of the rich and fully developed Venetian dialect now affecting the Latin, which is free from them in the earlier capitals.
§XCVII.Third side.Destroyed; but, from the copy, we find it has been Stultitia, Folly; and it is there represented simply as a manriding, a sculpture worth the consideration of the English residents who bring their horses to Venice. Giotto gives Stultitia a feather, cap, and club. In early manuscripts he is always eating with one hand, and striking with the other; in later ones he has a cap and bells, or cap crested with a cock’s head, whence the word “coxcomb.â€
§XCVIII.Fourth side.Destroyed, all but a book, which identifies it with the “Celestial Chastity†of the Renaissance copy; there represented as a woman pointing to a book (connecting the convent life with the pursuit of literature?).
Spenser’s Chastity, Britomart, is the most exquisitely wrought of all his characters; but, as before noticed, she is not the Chastity of the convent, but of wedded life.
§XCIX.Fifth side.Only a scroll is left; but, from the copy, we find it has been Honesty or Truth. Inscribed “HONESTATEM DILIGO.†It is very curious, that among all the Christian systems of the virtues which we have examined, we should find this one in Venice only.
The Truth of Spenser, Una, is, after Chastity, the most exquisite character in the “Faerie Queen.â€
§C.Sixth side.Falsehood. An old woman leaning on a crutch; and inscribed in the copy, “FALSITAS IN ME SEMPER EST.†The Fidessa of Spenser, the great enemy of Una, or Truth, is far more subtly conceived, probably not without special reference to the Papal deceits. In her true form she is a loathsome hag, but in her outward aspect,
“A goodly lady, clad in scarlot red,Purfled with gold and pearle;...Her wanton palfrey all was overspredWith tinsell trappings, woven like a wave,Whose bridle rung with golden bels and bosses brave.â€
“A goodly lady, clad in scarlot red,
Purfled with gold and pearle;...
Her wanton palfrey all was overspred
With tinsell trappings, woven like a wave,
Whose bridle rung with golden bels and bosses brave.â€
Dante’s Fraud, Geryon, is the finest personification of all, but the description (Inferno, cantoXVII.) is too long to be quoted.
§CI.Seventh side.Injustice. An armed figure holding a halbert; so also in the copy. The figure used by Giotto with the particular intention of representing unjust government, is represented at the gate of an embattled castle in a forest, between rocks, while various deeds of violence are committed at his feet. Spenser’s “Adicia†is a furious hag, at last transformed into a tiger.
Eighth side.A man with a dagger looking sorrowfully at a child, who turns its back to him. I cannot understand thisfigure. It is inscribed in the copy, “ASTINECIA(Abstinentia?)OPITIMA.â€
§CII.Thirteenth Capital. It has lions’ heads all round, coarsely cut.
Fourteenth Capital.It has various animals, each sitting on its haunches. Three dogs, one a greyhound, one long-haired, one short-haired with bells about its neck; two monkeys, one with fan-shaped hair projecting on each side of its face; a noble boar, with its tusks, hoofs, and bristles sharply cut; and a lion and lioness.
§CIII.Fifteenth Capital.The pillar to which it belongs is thicker than the rest, as well as the one over it in the upper arcade.
The sculpture of this capital is also much coarser, and seems to me later than that of the rest; and it has no inscription, which is embarrassing, as its subjects have had much meaning; but I believe Selvatico is right in supposing it to have been intended for a general illustration of Idleness.
First side.A woman with a distaff; her girdle richly decorated, and fastened by a buckle.
Second side.A youth in a long mantle, with a rose in his hand.
Third side.A woman in a turban stroking a puppy which she holds by the haunches.
Fourth side.A man with a parrot.
Fifth side.A woman in very rich costume, with braided hair, and dress thrown into minute folds, holding a rosary(?) in her left hand, her right on her breast.
Sixth side.A man with a very thoughtful face, laying his hand upon the leaves of the capital.
Seventh side.A crowned lady, with a rose in her hand.
Eighth side.A boy with a ball in his left hand, and his right laid on his breast.
§CIV.Sixteenth Capital.It is decorated with eight large heads, partly intended to be grotesque,156and very coarseand bad, except only that in the sixth side, which is totally different from all the rest, and looks like a portrait. It is thin, thoughtful, and dignified; thoroughly fine in every way. It wears a cap surmounted by two winged lions; and, therefore, I think Selvatico must have inaccurately written the list given in the note, for this head is certainly meant to express the superiority of the Venetian character over that of other nations. Nothing is more remarkable in all early sculpture, than its appreciation of the signs of dignity of character in the features, and the way in which it can exalt the principal figure in any subject by a few touches.
§CV.Seventeenth Capital. This has been so destroyed by the sea wind, which sweeps at this point of the arcade round the angle of the palace, that its inscriptions are no longer legible, and great part of its figures are gone. Selvatico states them as follows: Solomon, the wise; Priscian, the grammarian; Aristotle, the logician; Tully, the orator; Pythagoras, the philosopher; Archimedes, the mechanic; Orpheus, the musician; Ptolemy, the astronomer. The fragments actually remaining are the following:
First side.A figure with two books, in a robe richly decorated with circles of roses. Inscribed “SALOMON (SAP)IENS.â€
Second side.A man with one book, poring over it: he has had a long stick or reed in his hand. Of inscription only the letters “GRAMMATIC†remain.
Third side.“ARISTOTLE:†so inscribed. He has a peaked double beard and a flat cap, from under which his long hair falls down his back.
Fourth side.Destroyed.
Fifth side.Destroyed, all but a board with three (counters?) on it.
Sixth side.A figure with compasses. Inscribed “GEOMET * *â€
Seventh side.Nothing is left but a guitar with its handle wrought into a lion’s head.
Eighth side.Destroyed.
§CVI.We have now arrived at theEighteenth Capital, the most interesting and beautiful of the palace. It represents the planets, and the sun and moon, in those divisions of the zodiac known to astrologers as their “houses;†and perhaps indicates, by the position in which they are placed, the period of the year at which this great corner-stone was laid. The inscriptions above have been in quaint Latin rhyme, but are now decipherable only in fragments, and that with the more difficulty because the rusty iron bar that binds the abacus has broken away, in its expansion, nearly all the upper portions of the stone, and with them the signs of contraction, which are of great importance. I shall give the fragments of them that I could decipher; first as the letters actually stand (putting those of which I am doubtful in brackets, with a note of interrogation), and then as I would read them.
§CVII.It should be premised that, in modern astrology, the houses of the planets are thus arranged:
The Herschel planet being of course unknown to the old astrologers, we have only the other six planetary powers, together with the sun; and Aquarius is assigned to Saturn as his house. I could not find Capricorn at all; but this sign may have been broken away, as the whole capital is grievously defaced. The eighth side of the capital, which the Herschel planet would now have occupied, bears a sculpture of the Creation of Man: it is the most conspicuous side, the one set diagonally across the angle; or the eighth in our usual mode of reading the capitals, from which I shall not depart.
§CVIII.The first side, then, or that towards the Sea, hasAquarius, as the house of Saturn, represented as a seated figure beautifully draped, pouring a stream of water out of an amphora over the leaves of the capital. His inscription is:
“ET SATURNE DOMUS (ECLOCERUNT?) 1s7BRE.â€
§CIX.Second side.Jupiter, in his houses Sagittarius and Pisces, represented throned, with an upper dress disposed in radiating folds about his neck, and hanging down upon his breast, ornamented by small pendent trefoiled studs or bosses. He wears the drooping bonnet and long gloves; but the folds about the neck, shot forth to express the rays of the star, are the most remarkable characteristic of the figure. He raises his sceptre in his left hand over Sagittarius, represented as the centaur Chiron; and holds two thunnies in his right. Something rough, like a third fish, has been broken away below them; the more easily because this part of the group is entirely undercut, and the two fish glitter in the light, relieved on the deep gloom below the leaves. The inscription is:
“INDE JOVI’157DONA PISES SIMUL ATQsCIRONA.â€
Or,
“Inde Jovis donaPisces simul atque Chirona.â€
“Inde Jovis dona
Pisces simul atque Chirona.â€
Domus is, I suppose, to be understood before Jovis: “Then the house of Jupiter gives (or governs?) the fishes and Chiron.â€
§CX.Third side.Mars, in his houses Aries and Scorpio. Represented as a very ugly knight in chain mail, seated sideways on the ram, whose horns are broken away, and having a large scorpion in his left hand, whose tail is broken also, to the infinite injury of the group, for it seems to have curled across to the angle leaf, and formed a bright line of light, like the fish in the hand of Jupiter. The knight carries a shield, on which fire and water are sculptured, and bears a banner upon his lance, with the word “DEFEROSUM,†which puzzled me for some time. It should be read, I believe, “De ferrosum;†which would be goodVenetianLatin for “I am of iron.â€
§CXI.Fourth side.The Sun, in his house Leo. Represented under the figure of Apollo, sitting on the Lion, with rays shooting from his head, and the world in his hand. The inscription:
“TU ES DOMU’ SOLIS (QUO *?) SIGNE LEONI.â€
I believe the first phrase is, “Tunc est Domus solis;†but there is a letter gone after the “quo,†and I have no idea what case of signum “signe†stands for.
§CXII.Fifth side.Venus, in her houses Taurus and Libra. The most beautiful figure of the series. She sits upon the bull, who is deep in the dewlap, and better cut than most of the animals, holding a mirror in her right hand, and the scales in her left. Her breast is very nobly and tenderly indicated under the folds of her drapery, which is exquisitely studied in its fall. What is left of the inscription, runs:
“LIBRA CUM TAURO DOMUS* * *PURIOR AUR*.â€
§CXIII.Sixth side.Mercury, represented as wearing a pendent cap, and holding a book: he is supported by three children in reclining attitudes, representing his houses Gemini and Virgo. But I cannot understand the inscription, though more than usually legible.
“OCCUPAT ERIGONE STIBONS GEMINUQ’ LACONE.â€
§CXIV.Seventh side.The Moon, in her house Cancer. This sculpture, which is turned towards the Piazzetta, is the most picturesque of the series. The moon is represented as a woman in a boat, upon the sea, who raises the crescent in her right hand, and with her left draws a crab out of the waves, up the boat’s side. The moon was, I believe, represented in Egyptian sculptures as in a boat; but I rather think the Venetian was not aware of this, and that he meant to express the peculiar sweetness of the moonlight at Venice, as seen across the lagoons. Whether this was intended by putting the planet in the boat, may be questionable, but assuredly the idea wasmeant to be conveyed by the dress of the figure. For all the draperies of the other figures on this capital, as well as on the rest of the façade, are disposed in severe but full folds, showing little of the forms beneath them; but the moon’s draperyripplesdown to her feet, so as exactly to suggest the trembling of the moonlight on the waves. This beautiful idea is highly characteristic of the thoughtfulness of the early sculptors: five hundred men may be now found who could have cut the drapery, as such, far better, for one who would have disposed its folds with this intention. The inscription is: