DOCSLIB.ORG

The Goddess Re-Described: Louise Labé's “Diana” and Its Intertexts

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Goddess Re-Described: Louise Labé's “Diana” and Its Intertexts Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 2013, vol. 8 The Goddess Re-described: Louise Labé’s “Diana” and its Intertexts Deborah Lesko Baker he austere figure of Diana, classical goddess of chastity and the hunt, Tfirst immortalized by Ovid’s poetic imagination and later transposed onto the conflictive dynamics of Petrarchan love, plays a central role in the Renaissance lyric whether her presence is explicitly or implicitly invoked. As Françoise Charpentier pointed out in her contribution to a 2002 volume devoted to the myth of the goddess in sixteenth-century France, Diana’s particular importance in the vibrant literary culture of Lyon between 1540 and 1560 was facilitated by the city’s active printing com- munity, its sixteenth-century humanist revival of texts of Latin antiquity, and its geographically proximate access to apposite Italian editions, most notably Boccaccio’s Genealogy of the Gods (first published in 1474) and the first printed edition of the Canzoniere (1470).1 Charpentier goes on to highlight the fundamental struggle between the ideological imperatives of the goddess of chastity and the god of love, Amour or Cupid — both armed hunters in their own right — in three Lyonnais texts that variously engage Diana as a focal point of their amatory itinerary: Maurice Scève’s first French imitation of Petrarch’s Canzoniere, the 1544 Délie, Pernette du Guillet’s elegy 2 in her 1545 Rymes, and Louise Labé’s sonnet 19 in 1 Françoise Charpentier, “Diane Lyonnaise,” in Le mythe de Diane en France au XVI siècle, ed. Jean-Raymond Fanlo and Marie-Dominique LeGrand (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002), 25–26. To Boccaccio’s publication date that she specifically mentions, I have added the date of the Canzoniere’s first printed edition. 149 150 EMWJ 2013, vol. 8 Deborah Lesko Baker her Oeuvres complètes.2 Among these texts, the goddess’s role is far more imposing in the love sequences of Labé’s male predecessors Petrarch and Scève and in the famous elegy of her female contemporary, all of whom specifically exploit the renowned telling of the story of Diana and Actaeon in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and all of whom have received extensive critical attention to their recasting of this myth.3 My essay, in contrast, will engage the problems of identification, reversal, vision, voice, and transgression at the heart of the Diana-Actaeon myth to develop a comprehensive new reading of Labé’s sonnet 19, one highlighting its implications for a new understanding of the appropria- tion by women writers of the Petrarchan lyric tradition. Given its sole direct naming of Diana in the author’s corpus, the sonnet has remained something of a conundrum, attracting considerably less detailed critical attention than others in her sonnet sequence, both because of its osten- sibly detached tone and the enigmatic relationship it poses between the female narrator and the goddess.4 Based on a three-part structure that first 2 Charpentier summarizes succinctly the conflictive values embodied by the two deities: “Ce sont les thèmes antagonistes de la chasteté et du désir amoureux que vont exploiter les poètes autour du motif de Diane” (“It is the antagonistic themes of chastity and erotic desire that the poets will exploit in respect to the Diana motif ”; my transla- tion). Ibid., 29. 3 As Leonard Barkan points out in his groundbreaking “Diana and Actaeon: The Myth as Synthesis,” English Literary Renaissance 10:3 (1980): 317–359, although Ovid’s account is neither the first nor necessarily the most representative of the classical versions of the story, “it is the version that signals the entrance of the myth on the main stage of cultural history” (318–19), and, by extension, to Renaissance poetics. In addition to his detailed reading of the Ovidian narrative here and in The Gods Made Flesh (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), Barkin also engages its appropriation by Petrarch and Scève in his critical trajectory (“Diana and Actaeon,” 335–38; 341). The Diana-Actaeon myth in general has received extensive critical attention recently in France, not only in por- tions of the Le mythe de Diane en France au XVIe siècle referenced above, but in Hélène Cassanova-Robin’s Diane et Actéon: Eclats d’un mythe à la Renaissance et à l’âge baroque (Paris: Champion, 2003). 4 The possible relationship of Labé’s poem to Ovid’s Diana-Actaeon myth is discussed only tangentially in the following three articles: Kirk Read, “Poolside Transformations: Diana and Actaeon Revisited by French Renaissance Women Lyricists,” in Renaissance Women Writers: French Texts/American Contexts, ed. Anne Larsen and Louise Labé’s “Diana” 151 analyzes the chronological unfolding of the sonnet, then examines selected invocations of Diana in Ovid, Petrarch, Scève, and Du Guillet, and finally places these intertexts in dialogue with Labé’s poem, I will argue that son- net 19’s ingenious re-staging of the Diana-Actaeon myth exposes a critical struggle between the respective positions of the female narrator and the authoritative goddess. This struggle reveals a suggestive coherence between Labe’s unique reference to Diana and her ambivalent dialogue with social norms and with the conventional positioning of women in male lyric prac- tice.5 I begin here by quoting the sonnet in its entirety: Diane estant en l’espesseur d’un bois, Apres avoir mainte beste assenee, Prenoit le frais, de Nynfes couronnee. J’allois resvant comme fay maintefois, Sans y penser: quand j’ouy une vois, Qui m’apela, disant, Nynfe estonnee, Que ne t’es tu vers Diane tournee? Et me voyant sans arc et sans carquois, Qu’as-tu trouvé, o compagne, en ta voye, Qui de ton arc et flesches ait fait proye? Colette Winn (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994), 44–52; Carla Freccero, “Ovidian Subjectivities in Early Modern Lyric: Identification and Desire in Petrarch and Louise Labé,” in Ovid and the Renaissance Body, ed. Goran Stanivukovic (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), 30–33; Edith Benkov, “The Pantheon Revisited: Myth and Metaphor in Louise Labé,” Classical and Modern Literature 5.1 (Fall 1984): 28–29. Other commentaries on Labé’s sonnet 19 that do not engage the Diana-Actaeon myth include Charpentier, “Diane Lyonnaise,” 35–37; Gillian Jondorf, “Petrarchan Variations in Pernette du Guillet and Louise Labé,” The Modern Language Review 71.4 (Oct. 1976): 771–72; Daniel Martin, Signe(s) d’Amante: L’agencement des Evvres de Louïse Labé Lionnoize (Paris: Champion, 1999), 290–96; Jerry Nash, “Louise Labé and Learned Levity,” Romance Notes 21.2 (1980): 227–33; and Karen Wiley, “Louise Labé’s Deceptive Petrarchism,” Modern Language Studies 11.3 (Fall, 1981): 51–60. 5 I wish to express my appreciation for the vibrant feedback I received from audi- ences at the 2012 Renaissance Society of America Conference, as well as at Harvard and Northwestern Universities where I presented preliminary versions of portions of this article. 152 EMWJ 2013, vol. 8 Deborah Lesko Baker Je m’animay, respons je, à un passant, Et lui getay en vain toutes mes flesches Et l’arc apres: mais lui les ramassant Et les tirant me fit cent et cent bresches.6 (Diana, standing in the thicket of a wood, Having struck down many beasts of prey, Was breathing in the cool air, surrounded by Nymphs. I was wandering idly, as I often do, Lost in my thoughts: when I heard a voice That called out to me, saying, dazed Nymph, Why have you not turned to Diana? And seeing me without bow and without quiver, What did you encounter, oh friend, on your path, That has seized your bow and arrows? I replied: I attacked a man passing by, And shot all my arrows at him in vain And then my bow: but he, gathering them up And shooting them back pierced me through hundreds of times. [My translation]) Coming directly — and curiously — just after the impassioned call for reciprocated physical and spiritual love in the anthology favorite, “Baise m’encor, rebaise moy, et baise” (“Kiss Me Again”), Labé’s sonnet 19 sud- denly transports the female narrator to an isolated natural and mythologi- cal setting. In the opening three lines, the narrator first pictures Diana in a moment of calm in her typical landscape, taking some air in the dark, sheltered thicket of a wood (“l’espesseur d’un bois”) following a victori- ous day at the hunt, with many animals struck down, the verb “assenee” 6 All quotations from Labé’s works are taken from Louise Labé: Complete Poetry and Prose, edited with prose translations and critical introductions by Deborah Lesko Baker and poetry translations by Annie Finch, The Other Voice Series (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006). As indicated, I have used my own — more literal — translation of sonnet 19 rather than the elegant presentation of Annie Finch in order to provide clarity in my analysis of Labé’s diction. Louise Labé’s “Diana” 153 invoking the violent force with which she is known to fell her prey. Diana is in the company of her nymphs, who, thanks to the double sense of the participial adjective “couronnée,” both protectively surround the chaste goddess during her moment of repose and offer her a queenly crown for her triumphant chase. Then, in a first instance of Labé’s artful disruption of the anticipated stanza divisions, the narrator herself rather unexpectedly enters the scene in the final line of the first quatrain, wandering in what she describes as both a presently occurring and often repeated reverie (“J’allois resvant comme fay maintefois”).7 As her entrance spills over into the second quatrain up to a pregnant caesura, she depicts that reverie as a state of profound distrac- tion (“Sans y penser”).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Transantiquity
    TransAntiquity TransAntiquity explores transgender practices, in particular cross-dressing, and their literary and figurative representations in antiquity. It offers a ground-breaking study of cross-dressing, both the social practice and its conceptualization, and its interaction with normative prescriptions on gender and sexuality in the ancient Mediterranean world. Special attention is paid to the reactions of the societies of the time, the impact transgender practices had on individuals’ symbolic and social capital, as well as the reactions of institutionalized power and the juridical systems. The variety of subjects and approaches demonstrates just how complex and widespread “transgender dynamics” were in antiquity. Domitilla Campanile (PhD 1992) is Associate Professor of Roman History at the University of Pisa, Italy. Filippo Carlà-Uhink is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter, UK. After studying in Turin and Udine, he worked as a lecturer at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and as Assistant Professor for Cultural History of Antiquity at the University of Mainz, Germany. Margherita Facella is Associate Professor of Greek History at the University of Pisa, Italy. She was Visiting Associate Professor at Northwestern University, USA, and a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Münster, Germany. Routledge monographs in classical studies Menander in Contexts Athens Transformed, 404–262 BC Edited by Alan H. Sommerstein From popular sovereignty to the dominion
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural History of the Lunar and Solar Eclipse in the Early Roman Empire
    Cultural History of the Lunar and Solar Eclipse in the Early Roman Empire Richard C. Carrier The regularity and consistency of human imagination may be first displayed in the beliefs connected with eclipses. It is well known that these phenomena, to us now crucial instances of the exactness of natural laws, are, throughout the lower stages of civilization, the very embodiment of miraculous disaster.1 Fifteen hundred years have not yet passed since Greece numbered and named the stars and yet many nations today only know the heavens by their appearance, and do not yet understand why the moon fails or how it is overshadowed.2 More than fifteen hundred years separates these two remarks. Each reveals a gulf between the learned and unlearned, but for Tylor it is a contrast between today and long ago, or here and far away, while for Seneca it is a contrast between the wise and the vulgar, who live in the same time and place. For the lunar and solar eclipse is a phenomenon where the strongest and clearest divide appears between the educated Roman and the common multitude. In contrast with almost everything else in Roman experience, from earthquakes to disease, eclipses of sun and moon can be understood in their entirety, and explained with mathematical precision, without the aid of advanced technology or modern scientific methods. But to those who lacked the encouragement to employ careful observation and physical explanation, and who lacked the breadth of information available to the literate, the eclipse was the most awesome and dire event in human experience.
    [Show full text]
  • The Imperial Cult and the Individual
    THE IMPERIAL CULT AND THE INDIVIDUAL: THE NEGOTIATION OF AUGUSTUS' PRIVATE WORSHIP DURING HIS LIFETIME AT ROME _______________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Department of Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________________________ by CLAIRE McGRAW Dr. Dennis Trout, Dissertation Supervisor MAY 2019 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled THE IMPERIAL CULT AND THE INDIVIDUAL: THE NEGOTIATION OF AUGUSTUS' PRIVATE WORSHIP DURING HIS LIFETIME AT ROME presented by Claire McGraw, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. _______________________________________________ Professor Dennis Trout _______________________________________________ Professor Anatole Mori _______________________________________________ Professor Raymond Marks _______________________________________________ Professor Marcello Mogetta _______________________________________________ Professor Sean Gurd DEDICATION There are many people who deserve to be mentioned here, and I hope I have not forgotten anyone. I must begin with my family, Tom, Michael, Lisa, and Mom. Their love and support throughout this entire process have meant so much to me. I dedicate this project to my Mom especially; I must acknowledge that nearly every good thing I know and good decision I’ve made is because of her. She has (literally and figuratively) pushed me to achieve this dream. Mom has been my rock, my wall to lean upon, every single day. I love you, Mom. Tom, Michael, and Lisa have been the best siblings and sister-in-law. Tom thinks what I do is cool, and that means the world to a little sister.
    [Show full text]
  • Temples and Priests of Sol in the City of Rome
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242330197 Temples and Priests of Sol in the City of Rome Article in Mouseion Journal of the Classical Association of Canada · January 2010 DOI: 10.1353/mou.2010.0073 CITATIONS READS 0 550 1 author: S. E. Hijmans University of Alberta 23 PUBLICATIONS 9 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Available from: S. E. Hijmans Retrieved on: 03 November 2016 Temples and Priests of Sol in the city of Rome Summary It was long thought that Sol Invictus was a Syrian sun-god, and that Aurelian imported his cult into Rome after he had vanquished Zenobia and captured Palmyra. This sun-god, it was postulated, differed fundamentally from the old Roman sun-god Sol Indiges, whose cult had long since disappeared from Rome. Scholars thus tended to postulate a hiatus in the first centuries of imperial rule during which there was little or no cult of the sun in Rome. Recent studies, however, have shown that Aurelian’s Sol Invictus was neither new nor foreign, and that the cult of the sun was maintained in Rome without interruption from the city’s earliest history until the demise of Roman religion(s). This continuity of the Roman cult of Sol sheds a new light on the evidence for priests and temples of Sol in Rome. In this article I offer a review of that evidence and what we can infer from it the Roman cult of the sun. A significant portion of the article is devoted to a temple of Sol in Trastevere, hitherto misidentified.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Rome and the Republic
    FCPS World I SOL Standards: WHI 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d and 6e Early Rome and the Republic (700 B.C.E.-30 B.C.E) You Mean a Pack of Elephants Almost Defeated Rome? Roman Geography Rome was a city located in the center of the Italian Peninsula. Its central location became important for trade and commerce. The seas and the large mountain chain to the north called the Alps offered protection to the Romans and allowed them to develop far away from other powers of the eastern Mediterranean. By the first century B.C.E., Rome’s geography helped it to expand and take control over the entire Mediterranean Sea. Later, Herodotus began to record historical events, trying to keep an accurate record of human events. He was the source of much of the ancient history we know today. The study of history continued with Thucydides who looked at events and noticed that certain themes repeated themselves throughout history. Roman God Jupiter Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/0_ Roman Mythology Jupiter_-_Louvre_MR_254_-_Louvre-Lens_%282%29.JPG The early Romans practiced a polytheistic faith that was largely based upon Greek mythology. Both the Greeks and Romans used stories and myths to explain events in their world. The gods were humanlike, had flaws, and also helped explain life events. Important deities, or gods, included Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Diana, Minerva, and Venus. Like the Greeks, Roman gods became a central focus of art, literature, and architecture. Roman mythology still influences Western Civilization in the form of symbols, words, and other idealized images.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient History, Rome
    4rome.qxd 4/14/04 2:33 AM Page 125 Ancient Rome Lesson 11 Rome: Republic to Empire OBJECTIVES Overview This lesson traces the history of Rome from its founding Students will be able to: myths through its kings, the republic, and the end of the republic. First, students hold a discussion on what a dictator • Explain the founding is. Then they read and discuss an article on the beginning of myths of Rome. Rome, the Roman Republic, and its transformation into an • Identify Cincinnatus, empire. Finally, in small groups, students role play members Julius Caesar, Cicero, and of a congressional committee deciding on whether the U.S. Augustus. Constitution should be amended to give the president greater • Describe the government powers in an emergency. of the Roman Republic, the checks on it, and its use of dictators. • Express a reasoned opin- STANDARDS ADDRESSED ion on whether the United States should adopt an California History–Social Science Standard 6.7: Students amendment to grant the analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, president greater powers and social structures during the development of Rome. in an emergency. (1) Identify the location and describe the rise of the Roman Republic, including the importance of such mythi- cal and historical figures as Aeneas, Romulus and Remus, PREPARATION Cincinnatus, Julius Caesar, and Cicero. (2) Describe the government of the Roman Republic and its significance Handout 11A: Timeline of (e.g., written constitution and tripartite government, Ancient Rome—1 per student checks and balances, civic duty). Handout 11B: Map of the (4) Discuss the influence of Julius Caesar and Augustus in Roman Empire—1 per student Rome’s transition from republic to empire.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Mythology in English Renaissance Drama: an Analysis of Romeo and Juliet
    CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA: AN ANALYSIS OF ROMEO AND JULIET Trabado de fin de grado presentado por Gonzalo Carpintero Díez Línea temática: Renaissance literature Prof. Tutor: Francisco Javier Castillo Curso Académico: 2014-2015 Convocatoria: julio 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 0. ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... 5 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 5 2. CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE: A GENERAL VIEW .................................................................................................................. 7 3. MYTHOLOGY AND ROMEO AND JULIET ....................................................................... 9 4. ANALYSIS OF THE MYTHOLOGICAL REFERENCES IN ROMEO AND JULIET ..... 12 4.1. Aurora ............................................................................................................................ 12 4.2. Cupid ............................................................................................................................. 13 4.3. Diana/Cynthia ................................................................................................................ 17 4.4. Venus ............................................................................................................................. 19 4.5. Vesta .............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Curse of Minerva
    1 The Curse of Minerva edited by Peter Cochran The Marbles would have gone in the vertically-lined section beneath the upper part. Built between 447 and 432 BC, the Parthenon symbolises, not Greek civilisation, so much as Athenian political hegemony over the rest of Greece (which the Athenians would have said was the same thing). It is a statement of imperialist triumph. The metopes around its border symbolise (or symbolised) the triumph of Athenian order over barbarian chaos: battles against the Amazons, between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, between the Gods and the Giants, and between the Greeks and the Trojans. Athens in Byron’s day In Byron’s time Athens was technically the fiefdom one of the Black Eunuchs at Constantinople, 1 and neither the town nor its archaeological treasures was much valued by either its Greek inhabitants or its Turkish rulers; though Byron does record in a note to Childe Harold II that as Lord Elgin’s servants lifted yet another marble from the building, a Turkish officer witnessing the depredation wept, and said “enough!”. This observation was made not by Byron, but by his friend Edward Daniel Clarke, and Byron put it into later editions. 2 By the time Lord Elgin and Byron arrived in Greece, the building was in an advanced state of decay. A major disaster had occurred in 1687, when the Venetian general Francesco Morosini besieged the place, and, knowing that the Turks had gunpowder stored in it, 1: See The Giaour , 151, Byron’s note. 2: See CHP II stanzas 11-14, and Byron’s prose notes, for more thoughts about the marbles.
    [Show full text]
  • La Influencia De Bernard Salomon En La Obra De Pierre Reymond: a Propósito De Unas Piezas De La Colección Thyssen Bornemisza
    ARCHIVO ESPAÑOL DE ARTE, LXXI, 282 ABRIL-JUNIO 1998 ISSN: 0004-0428 LA INFLUENCIA DE BERNARD SALOMON EN LA OBRA DE PIERRE REYMOND: A PROPÓSITO DE UNAS PIEZAS DE LA COLECCIÓN THYSSEN BORNEMISZA POR M.^ LUISA MARTÍN ANSON Universidad Autónoma de Madrid The influence of engraving on the compositions and designs of many artistic creations is evident and well known. This article focuses on a series by Bernard Salomon. Salomon can be regarded as one of the most relevant engravers who, trough the editions done by Jean Tounes in Lyon, was to have a strong effect on the work of Li­ moges enamelleres in the sixteeen century. The study is carried out by looking at some pieces by Pierre Reymond now in the Thyssen Bomemisza collection. Sin duda es bien conocido el papel que el grabado jugó durante el Renacimiento en la transmisión de numerosas composiciones entre las distintas manifestaciones artísticas y, en par­ ticular, en el dominio de las artes suntuarias. En los primeros momentos los temas básicamente son religiosos; escenas del Nuevo Testamento, episodios de la vida de la Virgen o de los Santos, etc. y las fuentes de inspiración hay que buscarlas en grabados flamencos, alemanes o borgo- ñones. Poco a poco, al lado de temas sacros comienzan a cobrar cada vez más importancia los profanos, de forma que el artesano participará igualmente de las dos fuentes de modelos. En el ámbito francés, la libertad y la novedad de inspiración introducida desde Italia por los pintores de la Escuela de Fontainebleau pronto se convertira en punto de referencia obligado.
    [Show full text]
  • Roman Images of Diana Bettina Bergmann Mount Holyoke College
    ! "! A Double Triple Play: Roman Images of Diana Bettina Bergmann Mount Holyoke College John Miller’s study of Augustan Apollo inspired me to return to Paul Zanker’s The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (1988), a book that demonstrated the immense potential of an interdisciplinary approach rather than exclusive focus on any one artistic mode. Nearly a quarter of a century later, this session continues to grapple with the challenges of interdisciplinarity and assessment of the Augustan era. Miller’s subtle analysis of poets’ intricate language invites a renewed consideration of the relationships among texts, sites, and images. The operations that he describes -- conflating, juxtaposing, allusion, correspondence, association – can be related directly to the analysis of topography and monuments as well. I also would like to extend his recommendation to “analyze variations in light of one another” and consider visual images of an elusive figure in his book, the divine twin Diana. The goddess appears, often as an afterthought, literally placed in parentheses after a mention of Apollo, until she assumes prominence in Miller’s insightful treatment of the saecular games (Chapter Five). As I will argue, however, in the visual environment of Augustan Rome, she would have been impossible to bracket out. While the goddess, fiercely independent, often appeared alone, in the second half of the first century B.C.E. she became a faithful companion of Apollo. Diva triformis The late republic and early empire saw an explosion of images of the divine sister, who, like Apollo, evolved into a dynamic, shape-shifting deity, slipping from one identity to another: Hecate, Trivia, Luna, Selene, even Juno Lucina.
    [Show full text]
  • Il Ratto Di Proserpina
    IL RATTO DI PROSERPINA All'inizio dei tempi, sulla terra splendeva sempre il sole e la natura prosperava. Cerere, dea della terra e della fertilità, faceva sì che gli alberi fiorissero e dessero frutti. Mentre Cerere lavorava, sua figlia Proserpina giocava nei verdi boschi della Sicilia. Plutone, il Dio dei morti, non viveva insieme a tutti gli altri dei sul Monte Olimpo, ma regnava da solo sotto terra, al freddo e al buio. Ogni tanto saliva in superficie per spiare la vita sulla terra e un giorno scorse Proserpina mentre coglieva i fiori sulle rive del lago Pergusa nelle vicinanze di Enna, in Sicilia. Quando la vide se ne innamorò e decise di rapirla. Salì quindi sul suo carro trainato da quattro cavalli neri, si sporse ed afferrò Proserpina, trascinandola con sé nell’Oltretomba. Quando sulla terra scese il tramonto Cerere incominciò a cercare disperatamente la figlia. Elios, il dio Sole, che tutto vede e tutto ascolta, rivelò a Cerere lo svolgimento dei fatti avvenuti e lei, per il dolore, non si curò più della terra: cessò la fertilità dei campi e vennero i tempi della carestia e della morte. Giove mandò i suoi messaggeri ad ammansire l'indignata Cerere, la quale rispose che sarebbe tornata alle cure della terra solo se Proserpina fosse tornata. Giove decise allora d'inviare Mercurio ad avvisare la figlia affinché non toccasse cibo, ma il messaggero arrivò troppo tardi: Proserpina aveva già assaggiato sei dei dodici chicchi di melograno (simbolo d'amore) che Plutone, furbamente, le aveva messo nella mano. La fanciulla scoppiò in lacrime quando venne a conoscenza della legge divina per cui, colui che mangia anche un solo boccone mentre si trova nel regno dei morti, non può più ritornare sulla terra.
    [Show full text]
  • Dossier De Presse
    Jean d’Auton (?) Les Alarmes de Mars sur le voyage de Milan, avec la conqueste et entree d’icelle, Lyon, v. 1500, manuscrit enluminé sur parchemin par le Maître des Alarmes de Mars, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France © Bibliothèque nationale de France En rassemblant près de 300 objets – tableaux, manuscrits enluminés, mobilier, orfèvrerie, émail, majolique, médailles et textile – cette première exposition jamais consacrée à la Renaissance lyonnaise présente le panorama le plus large possible de la production artistique de ce temps à Lyon. Sept grandes sections – Lyon, deuxième œil de France et cœur d’Europe – L’humanisme à Lyon – Figures de Lyon – Influences italiennes – Influences nordiques – Des artistes attirés à Lyon par l’imprimerie – La diffusion des modèles lyonnais en Europe – constituent le parcours de l’exposition, qui se termine par un espace de médiation à l’attention du public scolaire mais accessible également à tous les visiteurs de l’exposition. COMMissaire D’EXPOsiTION Ludmila Virassamynaïken, conservatrice du patrimoine, chargée des peintures et sculptures anciennes, assistée de Federica Carta. Guillaume II Le Roy Le Garbeau de l’épicerie 1519 Gouache et or sur parchemin Lyon, Archives municipales © Gilles Bernasconi / Archives municipales de Lyon 3 LYON, deUXIÈME œil de FraNce ET CœUR D’EUROPE La position géographique exceptionnelle de Lyon, au confluent du Rhône et de la Saône, sur la route entre le Nord et le Sud de l’Europe, mais aussi à proximité des contrées germaniques, en fait le point de convergence de marchands, d’artistes, d’œuvres, d’idées et d’influences issus des quatre points cardinaux. Les quatre foires annuelles, l’implantation de banquiers toscans et allemands, ainsi que d’imprimeurs et artistes étrangers, participent à cette dynamique.
    [Show full text]