Antiquity, a Source of Power and Prestige: the Competition for Antiquities in Early Modern Europe

Chapter 1 Antiquity, a Source of Power and Prestige: the Competition for Antiquities in Early Modern Europe

Throughout the ages, great age of family, city or state was considered a mat- ter of honour. Age determined order and appearance. Those who were older than others deserved not only more respect but also actual precedence in cer- emonial events and public appearances, and indeed privileges by which one could distinguish oneself from others.19 In the Late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern era (1400–1700), an ever-increasing significance was attached to descent in Europe. This also happened to be the time in which Humanism arose and historical and philological means became available to establish or reinforce connections with periods of the distant past. In Early Modern political culture, people were fascinated by the notion of ‘antiquity’ and ‘antiquities’ (antiquitas, antiquitates). While political and territorial relations were constantly—and often drastically—in flux between 1400 and 1700, those in power preferred to present themselves through a past that went as far back in time as possible. Novelty was not considered something of which boast, although great dedication and impressive panache was applied to the conquering of new territories, the founding of new dynasties and states (such as the Republic of the Seven Provinces), the rebuilding of cities, or in 1492 even the discovery of a new continent. It was considered much more important to place the new in the historical frame of antiquity, antiquitas. The Spaniard Alfonso V of Aragon, having carved out a new empire for himself in southern Italy in 1442, presented himself as the resumption of the government of Augustus, emperor of Rome. His enemy, Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417–68),20 the ruler of the city of Rimini, claimed the same, remarkably.21 Both vied for the legacy of Augustus Caesar. Alfonso’s court historians asserted that he was the universal winner of the civil wars, adorned with the victor’s laurel wreath, and that he had founded a new general peace and ushered in a new golden age (just as Virgil had claimed of Augustus). The sculptor Mino da Fiesole (1430/1–84) portrayed Alfonso as a Roman emperor clad in a toga (Fig. 4). Sigismondo Malatesta’s court poet Basinio Basini claimed that his patron, and no-one else, was the man who would guarantee the peace of the Occident (Hesperia), particularly by warding off the foreign foe, the Spaniard Alfonso of Aragon.22 Malatesta was also portrayed by his court artists, e.g.

Agostino di Duccio (1418–1481)23 who in the years 1449–1459 worked in Rimini, in the manner of the Roman emperors, as a victor, wearing a laurel wreath as a token of comprehensive victory (Fig. 5). As this example indicates, the physical struggle for power was continued on the ideological battlefield with the same vigour. In this respect, a true competition arose for antiquity and old age.24 The principle was: the more antiquity, the better; the older, the better. The great age of a family, city, state or people was regarded as a measure of honour, dignity, prestige, respect, precedence and power. It is important in this respect that seniority entailed not only more respect but also greater entitlement to positions of power, territorial and other possessions, special rights and privileges, and so could eventually even lead to considerable political and economic benefits. The use of such ancestors, and the importance of the history of a country or dynasty as an argument to wield in contemporary political ambitions, is also evident in the Burgundian dukes of the 15th century. As a cadet branch of the French royal family, they had been given the Duchy of Burgundy in the 14th century, which at that time constituted the region around Dyon. Gradually, they had extended their territory to the east and north. From 1430 onwards, Duke Philip the Good additionally became lord of most of the provinces of the Low Countries, under various titles (Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, Count of Flanders, Count of Holland, etc.). His son Charles the Bold wanted to make this patchwork stretching from Dyon to the North Sea into a unified new kingdom, to restore the old ‘Middle Kingdom’ of the time of the grandsons