Picturing Carnal Temptation and Sin in Italian Post-Tridentine Imagery
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Minna Hamrin Picturing Carnal Temptation and Sin in Italian Post-Tridentine Imagery | 2018 and Sin in Italian Post-Tridentine Temptation Minna Hamrin Carnal | Picturing Imagery Images of male saints defending their chastity Minna Hamrin against transgressive women were increasingly produced in post-Tridentine Italy – a period when Catholic dogma, through Church reform, emp- Picturing Carnal Temptation and Sin hasised the superiority of the virginal state and the danger of carnal desire. The images show the in Italian Post-Tridentine Imagery female gender as an immediate danger to the patriarchal order, eager to corrupt innocent, pious men by inducing them to engage in the sin of fornication. In this thesis, temptation scenes from the lives of various male saints are studied. The material consists of paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures, all produced in Italy during the ‘long seventeenth century’. 9 789517 659130 Åbo Akademi University Press | ISBN 978-951-765-913-0 Minna Hamrin (born1983) - Masters degree in Art history, 2009, Åbo Akademi University Cover image: Giacomo Franco, St Francis’ Exemplary Chastity (detail), 1593. Orig. photo: Istituto Storico Cappuccini, Museo Francescano, Rome Åbo Akademi University Press Tavastgatan 13, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 215 4793 E-mail: [email protected] Sales and distribution: Åbo Akademi University Library Domkyrkogatan 2–4, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 -215 4190 E-mail: [email protected] PICTURING CARNAL TEMPTATION AND SIN IN ITALIAN POST-TRIDENTINE IMAGERY Picturing Carnal Temptation and Sin in Italian Post-Tridentine Imagery Minna Hamrin Åbo Akademis förlag | Åbo Akademi University Press CIP Cataloguing in Publication Hamrin, Minna. Picturing carnal temptation and sin in Italian post-Tridentine imagery / Minna Hamrin. - Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2018. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765-913-0 ISBN 978-951-765-913-0 ISBN 978-951-765-914-7 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 11 1.1. Purpose and Scope 13 1.2 Visual and Textual Sources 16 1.3 Research Tradition, Theoretical Framework and Methodological Approach 19 1.3.1 Is Carnal Temptation Always Heteronormative? 27 1.3.2 Where are the Tempted Women? 30 1.4 Earlier Research 35 1.5 Thesis Outline 39 2 VIRGINITY, SIN AND MISOGYNY IN POST-TRIDENTINE ITALY 42 2.1 Sinful Sexuality 42 2.2 Art and the Council of Trent 46 2.3 Illicit Images and Transgressive Women in Early Modern Thought and Visual Culture 48 2.3.1 Hercules at the Crossroads, the Choice Between Virtue and Vice 53 2.3.2 Transgressive Women in Early Modern Imagery 56 3 CARNAL TEMPTATION IN AN ASCETIC CONTEXT 66 3.1 Carnal Temptation in Early Monastic Literature 66 3.2 Early Temptation Iconography Inspired by the Vita dei Santi Padri 68 3.3 Tempted Bodies in Thorns 73 3.3.1 St Benedict in Thorns 74 3.3.1.1 The Motif 75 3.3.2 St Francis of Assisi in Thorns 81 3.3.2.1 The Motif and its Textual Sources 82 3.3 St Jerome’s Dancing Temptations in the Desert 91 3.3.1 Domenichino’s The Temptation of St Jerome in Sant’Onofrio, Rome 91 3.3.2 The Temptations of Saint Jerome in Modena 97 3.4 Temptation as the Means of Purification 102 4 THE TEMPTATIONS OF ST ANTHONY 104 4.1 The Introduction of the Antonite Temptation Theme in the Italian Pictorial Tradition and its Written Iconographic Sources 104 4.1.1 St Anthony, the Desert Fathers and the Temptation in the Desert 106 4.1.2 Medieval and Renaissance Examples of The Temptations of St Anthony 107 4.2 The Temptation Episode in Antonio Tempesta’s Vita S.Antonio Abbatis 111 4.3 The Combined Temptation – Paolo Veronese’s The Temptations of St Anthony 116 4.4 The Temptations of St Anthony by Jacopo Tintoretto 125 4.4.1 The Legacy of Tintoretto’s Temptation Scene 130 4.5 The Temptations of St Anthony in a Private Setting 134 5 FENDING OFF LASCIVIOUS PROSTITUTES 141 5.1 St Eligius and the Demon Courtesan 141 5.2 Prostitution – a Necessary Evil 144 5.3 St Thomas Aquinas and the Prostitute 145 5.4 The Dangers of Prostitutes and Prostitution in Seventeenth-Century Moral Images 149 5.5 The Many Temptations of St Philip Neri 152 6 DEPICTING EXEMPLARY CHASTITY – THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI 159 6.1 Francis’ Encounter with the Prostitute – a New Motif 161 6.2 Iconographic Text Sources 163 6.3 The Introduction of the Franciscan Temptation Theme in the Graphic Arts 166 6.4 Murals 172 6.4.1 The Temptation in Bari Pictured in Southern Italy 173 6.4.2 Murals in Central and Northern Italy 177 6.4.3 Picturing Lascivious Women in a Monastic Context 179 6.5 The ‘Virtuous’ Sensuality in the Franciscan Temptation Episode 182 6.6 Simon Vouet’s The Temptations of St Francis in San Lorenzo in Lucina 187 6.7 The Temptation Chapel in Sacro Monte d’Orta 192 6.8 Alcoran Franciscanus – St Francis in Protestant Satire 196 6.9 Male Potency Under Check 198 7 ST BENEDICT OF NURSIA AND THE LASCIVIOUS WOMEN 201 7.1 Benedictine Temptation Iconography Inspired by Dialogues II 201 7.2 The Life of St Benedict in the Wall Decorations of the Octagonal Cloister in San Michele in Bosco. 203 7.2.1 St Benedict in Thorns 206 7.2.2 Ludovico Carracci’s St Benedict and the Dancing Girls 210 7.2.2.1 Sinful Dancing. 215 7.2.2.2 Later Reproductions of the Motif 216 7.2.2.3 Iconographic References 218 7.3 St Benedict, the Ideal Abbot 220 7.4 The Temptation Motif in a Monastic Context 222 8 CONCLUSIONS 224 LITERATURE 233 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 257 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In December 2011 a friend brought me along to a book presentation in Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. It was a new biography of the Devil, and the discussion of the evening circled around the role of the Devil and his demons in contemporary Catholicism. The Devil tempts the religious it was said – it is crucial to resist him! Martin Schongauer’s famous sixteenth-century etching of the tempted St Anthony, hovering in the air and encircled by demons, came to my mind. That evening I left excited, a seed of interest had been planted. I later got an opportunity to meet two renowned exorcists of the Catholic Church. When I asked them to further elaborate on the subject of devilish temptation and possession, I was told that only profoundly religious people were at risk of becoming potential victims. Thus, it seemed as if devilish temptation really was seen as a confirmation of one’s loyalty to God, and a possibility to further prove it. I realised that there must be more saints than St Anthony who had been battling against the Devil and his temptations, and the art historian in me was determined to look further for their temptation scenes in the visual tradition. Thank you, Line, I am ever so grateful that you brought me along and exposed me to what would develop into this wonderful research project that has been my life companion now for years. Many have contributed to the success of this work. I want to thank my supervisor Prof. Lars Berggren, Åbo Akademi University, who has supported my research project throughout the process. He has underlined the importance of studying the material first hand and has encouraged me to do so. It enabled me to undisturbed spend the majority of my six-year-long research period in Italy, something for which I am very thankful. I am also much obliged for all the knowledgeable help and well-needed positive encouragement that my second supervisor, Docent Martin Olin, Head of Research at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, has offered me during the years. His expertise on seventeenth-century imagery has been vital. Docent Kari Kotkavaara, Åbo Akademi University, has through many engaging conversations given me a deeper insight and greater sensitivity towards questions regarding the religious arts and for this I am indebted. The finished version of this work also owes much to the constructive comments and knowledge of the preliminary examiners of my thesis, Prof. Genevieve Warwick, the University of Edinburgh and Prof. Paul Gwynne, the American University of Rome. Docent Marie-Sofie Lundström, Head of Research at the Art History Department, Åbo Akademi University, has, in turn, through her strenuous supervision and administration been of most vital importance for the concluding work on this project. I would also like to thank my other colleagues at the Art history Department: Pia Wolff-Helminen, Heidi Pfäffli, Fred Andersson and Bo Ossian Lindberg, who, together with the members of our research seminars have given valuable criticism and feedback on my work. A special heartfelt thank you goes to my fellow doctoral student and dear friend Sofia Aittomaa, who, regardless of geographical distances, always has been only a phone call away to offer support and understanding whenever work with the thesis has been difficult and uninspiring. For the most part of my work with the thesis, I have been employed by the Art history Department at Åbo Akademi. I have, however, also been fortunate enough to receive generous research and travel grants from several Finnish and Swedish foundations. Konststiftelsen Merita and the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland founded my initial year of research. The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland also supported, along with Waldemar von Frenckells stiftelse and Harry Elvings legat, my Doctoral exchange studies at the Università di Bologna during the academic year 2013/2014.