Bessarion's Life 9
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Culture, humanism and intellect: Cardinal Bessarion as patron of the arts Thesis How to cite: Bolick, Laura (2014). Culture, humanism and intellect: Cardinal Bessarion as patron of the arts. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2014 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000eeef Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk UNRESTRIC1ED - Culture, Humanism and Intellect: Cardinal Bessarion as Patron of the Arts Laura Bolick Volume I Text Dissertation Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Open University 13 May 2013 Date.. 01 SU.b~5Sl0v\ ~ q M~ 2Dl3 Date 0d fv.No.xo.; 51'rVVll lollf IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ www.bl.uk PAGE/PAGES EXCLU DED UNDER INSTRUCTION FROM THE UNIVERSITY Culture, Humanism and Intellect: Cardinal Bessarion as Patron of the Arts Abstract To date many scholars seem to have agreed that Cardinal Bessarion was a physical and spiritual exile from Constantinople who sought to preserve his national culture in the alien environment of fifteenth-century Rome. In this thesis I am seeking to re-open the debate about Bessarion's role and aspirations in western Europe as expressed through the mechanism of his cultural projects. I argue that, in his guise as a Roman cardinal, he endeavoured to establish a western identity for himself that furthered his political goals. Though he never rejected his Byzantine roots, the messages he seems to have conveyed through artistic and literary patronage suggest that he was working towards some sort of assimilation into his Italian environment. By examining key projects that the cardinal patronised I identify strong western characteristics in terms of style and message. His major fresco commission for his burial chapel in 55 Apostoli, Rome was executed by Antoniazzo Romano, a local Roman artist, using stylistic and iconographic vocabularies that were current in quattrocento Italy. Bessarion then commissioned an icon from the same artist rather than from a Greek icon painter. In the literary sphere we can also recognise an effort to establish a library in the tradition of his Italian peers. And he even dabbled in the western technological advances in printing, becoming one of the first contemporary authors to have his work printed. This thesis seeks to re-focus a spotlight on Bessarion as an immigrant who was not compelled to leave his native land but who chose to relocate. It is proposed here that the cardinal's cultural projects reflected his efforts to integrate and to succeed in his adopted surroundings. Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements IV Abbreviations VI Introduction 1. Bessarion's Life 9 The Byzantine Career 10 The Council of Florence 15 Italian Scholarship 23 Bessarion and the Curia 34 Conclusion 56 2. The Chapel of S. Eugenia in SS Apostoli, Rome 57 Bessarion and SS Apostoli 58 The Decoration of the Chapel 64 St Michael the Archangel: Iconography 71 The Apse Semi Dome: Iconography of the Angelic Hierarchy 82 The Chapel Project 89 Artist Attribution 93 Conclusion 99 3. Cardinal Bessarion's Icons and Reliquaries 101 The Madonna of the Holy Conception, SS Apostoli 102 S. Maria in Cosmedin 114 Icons for Political and Personal Use 117 Cardinal Bessarion's Reliquary 121 Bessarion and the Philosophy of Icons 129 Conclusion 133 4. Cardinal Bessarion's Library Collection 136 The Act of Donation 137 Marc.Lat.Z.14: The Act of Donation Document 147 The Collection 150 Acquisition 162 Context: Private and Public Book Collections 166 Conclusion 176 5. Manuscript Illumination 178 The Choir Book Commission 179 ii Bessarion and the Italian Tradition in Manuscript Illumination 188 The Decoration of the Greek Books 193 Conclusion 203 6. Bessarion and the Printed Book 205 Bessarion's Collection 207 Sweynheym and Pannartz and the Classical Programme 210 Bessarion's Own Printed Texts: In calumniatorem platonis 217 Printing in the North 220 Conclusion 229 Conclusion 231 Appendix 234 List of Primary Sources 242 Bibliography 244 iii Acknowledgements This study has been assisted in innumerable ways by many institutions and individuals. In the first instance, the Charter Scholarship, provided by the Open University, made the research possible. Thanks to the Francis Haskell Memorial Fund, I spent two fruitful months in Italy at the British School in Rome, where I was fortunate enough to benefit from and participate in the vibrant community at the School. The staff members were exceptionally supportive and helpful and I should make particular mention of Maria Pia Malvezzi who contrived to get me access to all manner of churches and archives in Rome. I would also like to thank the director, Christopher Smith, whose warm and generous welcome was much appreciated. In Venice I was given invaluable help by the librarians at the Biblioteca Marciana who patiently endeavoured to meet my many requests over the course of a sunny month in February 2010. Special thanks also go to the staff of the Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena who supplied me with a mountain of literature and access to Bessarion's choir books along with their enthusiasm and interest in my project. Where possible I have tried to acknowledge individual contributions to the text but several people deserve special mention for their assistance above and beyond the call of duty. I learned from and was helped immeasurably by Dr Carol M. Richardson, University of Edinburgh, whose lively enthusiasm and expertise were indispensable guiding forces. More recently, Dr Kim Woods, Open University, has overseen the evolution of this study into a dissertation and has demonstrated great forbearance in the supervision of the writing. In the last year Dr Kathleen Christian, Open University, has also drawn my attention to new angles with her fresh pair of eyes. Thanks are also owed to Professor Ian Campbell who was the first sounding board for the main thesis of this dissertation and whose intellectual energy was an inspiration during my stay in Rome. iv I am also grateful to my examiners, Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou, Open University and Dr Donal Cooper, University of Cambridge for a viva that exceeded all expectations and their encouraging support in the aftermath. v Abbreviations ASR Archivio di Stato Roma ASV Archivio Segreto Vaticano BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana BL British Library PG Patrologia Graeca PL Patrologia Latina vi Introduction Cardinal Bessarion (1402/3-72) was a Greek Orthodox monk who joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1440 in order to accept Pope Eugenius IV's offer of a cardinal's hat in the aftermath of the Council of Florence. He is best known for the library he amassed and donated to the Republic of Venice, where it is housed today, virtually intact, in the Biblioteca Marciana. While it is true to say that there is no shortage of work on Cardinal Bessarion, this thesis presents a controversial reassessment of his cultural projects as the product of his deliberate adoption of western practice and tradition during his Roman career. I do not suggest that he denied his Greek heritage: on the contrary he celebrated it and used it to enrich his new western outlook, but it should be seen as one of the tools to advance his career and status in the West rather than as the definition of his identity. Over the course of this study it has become clear that the conclusions raise as many questions as they answer. This is because the cardinal's engagement with culture - in the form of art and literature - was inextricably entwined with his political, social and intellectual life. While this is not an unusual phenomenon in a patron, in Bessarion's case his role in the arts of the mid fifteenth century could not be understood without a detailed assessment of his papal career, his scholarship and his theology. As existing work on Bessarion tends to be compartmentalized, examining either his arts activities or his identity as a historical figure, I hope that this thesis offers a contribution to our understanding of a complex figure who interacted with his cultural environment in what I argue was a manner typical of a quattrocento Italian ecclesiastical dignitary. 1 This study began as an art-historical examination of Bessarion' s library collection and, as it became clear that his involvement in arts projects extended beyond the collection of decorated books, it developed into an interdisciplinary examination of the cardinal's cultural patronage. The initial exploration of the illumination of Bessarion's books generated a theory, which can be extended to most of his commissions, that he had adopted a western outlook that was expressed through his patronage of the arts. This conclusion departs from the usual interpretation of the cardinal's agenda as the promotion of his Byzantine heritage. The argument of this thesis is that Cardinal Bessarion supported his integration into a western environment by way of the visual and literary cultural projects that he commissioned. It is proposed here that he embraced western cultural values when he moved from Constantinople to Italy with the result that his behaviour demonstrated that he had adopted the cultural values of his new homeland. Whilst it is not suggested that he renounced his Greek background, it will be argued that the profile he cultivated was one of an Italian ecclesiastical dignitary, papal ambassador and humanist intellectual.