A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND VISUAL ABSTRACTION OF THE PICTORIAL IN THE AENEID, I-VI by RAYFORD WESLEY SHAW submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject HISTORY OF ART at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROF EA MARE JOINT PROMOTER: DR SGI DAMBE JUNE 2000 Title: A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND VISUAL ABSTRACTION OF THE PICTORIAL IN THE AENEID, I-VI Summary: The pictorial elements of the first six books of the Aeneid can be evidenced through an examination of its structural components. With commentaries on such literary devices as parallels and antipodes, interwoven themes, cyclic patterns, and strategic placement of words in the text, three genres of painting are treated individually in Chapter 1 to illustrate the poet's consistency of design and to prove him a craftsman of the visual arts. In the first division, "Cinematic progression," attention is directed to the language which conveys movement and frequentative action, with special emphasis placed on specific passages whose verbal components possess sculptural or third-dimensional traits and contribute to the "spiral" and "circle" motifs, the appropriate visual agents for animation. Depiction of mythological subjects comprises the second division entitled "Cameos and snapshots." Three selections, dubbed monstra, are explicated with such cross references as to illustrate the poet's use of epithets which he distributes passim to elicit verbal echoes of other passages. The final division, "The Vergilian landscape," addresses two major themes, antithetical in nature, the martial and the pastoral. Their sequential juxtaposition in the text renders a marked contrast in mood which is manifested pictorially in the transition from darkness to light. A panoramic chiaroscuro emerges which is the tapestry against which Aeneas makes his sojourn through the Underworld. It is the perfect backdrop to accompany the overriding theme of "things hidden," res latentes, which encompasses a greater part of the epic and becomes the culminant motif of the paintings which comprise the visual presentation. Chapter 2 functions as a catalogue raisonne for art inspired by the Aeneid from early antiquity up to the present day. Such examples of artistic expression provide a continuum with which to appropriate Horace's maxim, ut pictura poesis, in their evaluation. The verbal exegeses in Chapter 1 have been programmed to comport with the thematic content of the visual presentation in Chapter 3, a critique exemplifying the transposition of the verbal to the pictorial. With these canvases I have attempted to render a new perspective of Vergil's epic in the genre of abstract expressionism. List of key terms: Aeneid cycles; Apollonio (di Giovanni); Cameos and snapshots; Cinematic progression; Claude (Lorrain); Cyclops; Fama; Flight from Troy; History painters; Laocoon; Perino (del Vaga); Poussin (Nicolas); Symbolic imagery; Turner (JMW); Vergilian landscape; Vrancx (Sebastiaen); Wooden horse. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE i LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 An analytical study of pictorial 8 genres in the Aeneid NOTES CHAPTER 2 A survey of the tradition of art 146 inspired by the Aeneid NOTES CHAPTER 3 Res latentes: visual abstractions 268 TEXTUAL SOURCES AND COMMENTARIES CONCLUSION 283 NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY 296 ILLUSTRATIONS i PREFACE The liberal arts are not contained by specific boundaries, and with this assertion the artist is free to extract material from other idioms and reap inspirations from literary antecedents outside his immediate domain. Consequently, literature and music have long spurred the interpretive process from which I have derived the mass of my creative productivity. Such is the basis for this research in Vergil's poetic style and the visual images emerging from his verses. Specific excerpts have been selected for their pictorial content to provide the vehicle for their visual presentations which manifest themselves in the form of abstract expressionism. The thematic and compositional structure of the paintings reflects the explications of the text, and the commentaries accompanying these works further substantiate the thesis on which this interdisciplinary project is founded. Since similar classical themes have been treated by traditional artists, composers of opera, and literary figures after Vergil, an intermediary chapter presenting ii a survey of the plastic arts inspired by the Aeneid spans the verbal exegeses of Chapter 1 and my concrete presentation of visual abstractions in Chapter 3. The purpose for this format is to provide a continuum for the tradition of art stemming from the themes of Vergil's epic with examples ranging from early antiquity up to the present day. It is an attempt to shed light on the evolutionary process of the artists' interpretations and their productivity which have continued to flourish for subsequent generations. I wish to extend sincere gratitude, in particular, to my colleagues in the Department of Foreign Languages, Drs Eliza Ghil, Victor Santi, John Perret, George Wolf, and Beatriz Varela. Their encouragement during the nascent stage of my undertaking emboldened my efforts to continue. To Debra Berthelot and Ernest Mackey, my indebtedness for guiding me through this "dot-corn" world of technology and for increasing my recently acquired skill at that machina fatalis, the computer. To Professor Estelle Mare and Dr Sira Darnbe, my deep appreciation for their continued support in my research and their shared confidence in my academic and creative iii worthiness. Finally, I owe to my friend, Elson Cody, my most heartfelt thanks for the "blood and sweat" he expended in the laborious construction of those massive panels and without whose generous contribution the execution of the visual portion of the project would have been physically and financially impossible. iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig 1 Berlin, Veldeke-Handschrift, fol 53v: Fur den gefallenen Pallas wird eine Bahre gezimmert, Eneas Klagt um Pallas (For the fallen Pallas a bier is made, Aeneas mourns for Pallas) . (Source: Diemer 1992:27.) Fig 2 Berlin, Veldeke-Handschrift, fol 59v: Die Amazonen-Konigin Camilla dringt bis Montalbane vor (The Amazons' queen Camilla penetrates to Montalbane) . (Source: Diemer 1992:27.) Fig 3 Apollonio di Giovanni, Aeneid I. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery. University Purchase from James Jackson Jarves. (Photo: Yale University Art Gallery) (Source: Baskins 1998:52-53.) Fig 4 Apollonio di Giovanni, Aeneid II. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery. University Purchase from James Jackson Jarves. (Photo: Yale University Art Gallery) (Source: Baskins 1998:52-53.) Fig 5 Apollonio di Giovanni, Aeneid I. Hannover: Niedersachsische Landesgalerie (Photo: Niedersachsische Landesgalerie) (Source: Baskins 1998:54-55.) Fig 6 Apollonio di Giovanni, Aeneid II. Hannover: Niedersachsische Landesgalerie (Photo: Niedersachsische Landesgalerie) (Source: Baskins 1998:54-55.) Fig 7 Apollonio di Giovanni, Death of Camilla and wedding of Aeneas and Lavinia. Ecouen: Musee de la Renaissance. (Photo: Alinari/Art Resource, NY) (Source: Baskins 1998:80-81.) v Fig 8 Marcantonio Raimondi, Quos Ego. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Photo: Metropolitan Museum) (Source: Davidson 1990:40.) Fig 9 Perino del Vaga, Neptune calming the tempest. Paris, Louvre (Photo: Documentation photographique de la Reunion des Musees Nationaux) (Source: Davidson 1990:37.) Fig 10 Giulio Bonasone, Neptune calming the tempest. engraving. (Source: Davidson 1990:37.) Fig 11 Perino del Vaga, Banquet of Dido and Aeneas. Hamburg, Kunsthalle. (Photo: Kleinhempel, Hanburg) (Source: Davidson 1990:42.) Fig 12 Perino del Vaga, Banquet of Dido and Aeneas. Chatsworth, Devonshire Collection, reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees. (Photo: Courtauld Institute of Art) (Source: Davidson 1990:42.) Fig 13 After Perino del Vaga, Banquet of Dido and Aeneas. tapestry. Vienna, Osterreichisches Museum fur Angewandte Kunst. (Source: Davidson 1990:41.) Fig 14 Attributed to Cornelis de Ronde, Banquet of Dido and Aeneas. tapestry. Madrid, Palacio de las Cortes. (Photo: Patrimonio Nacional) (Source: Davidson 1990:41.) Fig 15 Attributed to Cornelis de Ronde, Jupiter sends Mercury to rebuke Aeneas. tapestry. Madrid, Palacio Real. (Photo: Patrimonio Nacional) (Source: Davidson 1990:47.) vi Fig 16 Sebastiaen Vrancx, The Sow at the place Rome is to be founded. Aeneid VIII, 81 ff. Paris, Art Market. (Source: Ruby 1990:56.) Fig 17 Sebastiaen Vrancx, Plundering of a village. Leningrad, The Hermitage. (Source: Ruby 1990:57.) Fig 18 Sebastiaen Vrancx, Euryalus and Nisus (?), Aeneid IX, 314 ff. Paris, Art Market. (Source: Ruby 1990:58.) Fig 19 Sebastiaen Vrancx, Battle scene. Paris, Institut Neerlandais, Fondation Custodia, Frits' Lugt Collection. (Source: Ruby 1990:59.) Fig 20 Sebastiaen Vrancx, The Feast of Dido, Aeneid I, 695 ff. New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery. (Source: Ruby 1990:60.) Fig 21 Sebastiaen Vrancx, In the Underworld, Aeneid VI, 548 ff. Paris, Art Market. (Source: Ruby 1990:62.) Fig 22 Sebastiaen Vrancx, Euryalus' mother consoled, Aeneid IX, 473 ff. New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library. (Source: Ruby 1990:67.) Fig 23 Sebastiaen Vrancx, Vulcan forging Aeneas' arms, Aeneid VIII, 416 ff. Paris, Art Market. (Source: Ruby 1990:64.) Fig 24 Sebastiaen Vrancx, Quos Ego, Aeneid I, 124 ff. Amsterdam, Private Collection. (Source: Ruby 1990:68.) Fig 25 The Trojan horse. Cycladic vase (c 670 BC). Archaeological Museum, Myconos. (Source: