On BeautifulWomen, Parmigianino,Petrarchismo, and the VernacularStyle ElizabethCropper Among PietroTesta's notes on painting,which were unsys- Finallyon this side of the sheet Testa shows the back of tematicallycollected after his deathin 1650, is one foliodedi- the neck, which mustbe rosyand white and not too deeply catedto "Particolariperfetioni che fannola donnabellissima" furrowedby the line of the spine. (Figs. 1 and 2).1 It is devoted, as the heading indicates, The diagrammaticnature of the marginalsketches makes it to the artist'sdefinitions of thosefeatures that render a woman quiteclear that they werenot intendedto be perfectacademic mostbeautiful. The notes areunusually clear and precise, and models,nor were they drawnfrom life. They werebrief aids in the marginnext to the writtendescription of eachparticular to Testa'sunderstanding, to help him visualizethe contents featureTesta drew a smallillustrative sketch. The rectoof the of the noteshe wastaking-notes thatwere not hisown formu- sheet (Fig. 1) is concernedwith qualitiesof the head and lationof the idealfemale beauty, but that he madeas he read shoulders.Testa required that the hairbe long, fine, blonde, Agnolo Firenzuola'sDialogo delle bellezze delle donne.2 This and knottedsimply. For the browhe madea diagramof two book, completedin 1542, a centurybefore Testa readit, it- squares,representing its correctwide proportions.In the left self drawsupon the visionsof manyearlier writers, and it is squarehe showshow the browshould curve in an arctowards probablythe most completeexposition of the beautyof the the top. The eyebrowsare to be dark,and they too should ideal woman among the multitude of sixteenth-century curve in perfectarches that tapergently towardsthe ends. treatmentsof the theme, beingconcerned not only with her Beautifuleyes are largeand prominent,oval in shape, and perfectfeatures, but also with her colors, proportions,and blue or dark chestnut in color. The ear is soft and rosy, such elusivequalities as her vaghezza,leggiadria, and grazia.3 while the cheeks are gleamingwhite and vermilion,softly The two-partdialogue was elegantlydedicated to the noble curving.The mouthshould be on the smallside, neithertoo and beautifulwomen of Pratoin 1541. angularnor too flat, and here Testa is referringto the angle Love, beauty, and style lay very much at the heart of of the meeting of the lips, which he illustratesin profile Agnolo Firenzuola'sexistence. He had withdrawnto the in an extradiagram. When the mouthopens, only five or six peacefulquiet of Pratoto recoverfrom a diseasethat seems of the upperteeth shouldbe revealed.The teeth are to be to have been causedby his own amorousexcesses, but his even and gleamingwhite, joined to the gumsby a reddish literarycareer had alreadybeen firmlyestablished at the court band, and Testadrew six of these regularteeth grimacingin of Clement VII, by whose authorityhe was freed from his the marginto the left. The chin, whichhe showsin profile, monasticvows in 1526.4In the introductionto his mostfamous shouldnot be pointedbut round,tinged with vermilionand work, the translationor, moreaccurately, transformation of with a little depressionin the middle.The neck, for which The GoldenAss of Apuleius,Firenzuola traced the close re- Testa gives both a plan and an elevation, must be round, lationsbetween his ancestorsand the Medicifamily, culminat- slender,and pure, gleamingwhite; at its base there should ing in Clement'sappointment of Agnolo'sfather Bastiano as be a small snowy hollow, and as the neck bends little chancellorto the magistratesof Alessandro,first Duke of the circlesshould form around it that mustbe veryslightly tinged Florentinerepublic.5 Firenzuola shared the passionof many with red. The shouldersshould be squarish,but softly so. of his contemporariesfor linkingpolitical commitment to the ' The notes are now preservedin the StidtischenKunstsammlungen in (witha summaryof the description).The bibliographyof Renaissanceworks Diisseldorf;for a discussionof theircharacter and provenance, see E. Cropper, devotedto idealbeauty in a womanis verylong, especiallyas it is so closely "BoundTheory and Blind Practice:Pietro Testa's Notes on Paintingand bound up with the literatureof courtlylove and discussionsof the re- the Liceodella Pittura,"Journal of the Warburgand CourtauldInstitutes, lationshipbetween love and beauty.For a good introductionto the litera- xxIv, 1971, 262-292. The sheet of notes discussedhere appearsin the tureof beautyin the Renaissance,see J. Houdoy,La beaute des femmes dans la boundvolume as fols. 6r and 6v. litte&atureet dans l'art du XIIeau XVIesiecle, Paris, 1876; G. Zonta,Trattati 2 del sulla T. F. ItalianSocial Customs This two-partdialogue, subtitled Celso, was edited and first published after cinquecento donna,Bari, 1913; Crane, of Firenzuola'sdeath L. Scala, in Prosedi M. the SixteenthCentury and TheirInfluence on the Literatureof Europe,New by AgnoloFirenzuola, Florence, e 1548. Referencesbelow are to the editionof B. Bianchi,Le Haven, 1920, 138- 141 (with bibliography);P. Lorenzetti,La bellezza generally opere nei del dellaR. Scuolanormale di AgnoloFirenzuola, Florence, 1848, 1, 239-305. The proseworks were l'amore trattati cinquecento(Estratto degli Annali alsoedited by G. Guasti,Le di Florence,1892; some superioredi Pisa, xxviii), Pisa, 1920;E. Rodocanachi,La femmeitalienne prose AgnoloFirenzuola, 89- H. M. referencesare madeto the introduction.The most recentedition is by A. avant,pendant, et aprisla Renaissance,Paris, 1922, 113; Klein, Seroni, Florence,1971. For a of Das weibliche'Portrait' in derVersdichtung der englischen Renaissance: Analyse AgnoloFirenzuola: Opere, bibliography einer 1969.The medievaltradition is treated Firenzuola'sworks, see A. Seroni,"Bibliografia essenziale delle opere del Firen- literarischenKonvention, Munich, zuola,"Amor di libro,v, 1957, fasc. i, 3-9, and fasc. ii, 97- 103. by R. Renier,II tipoestetico della donna nel medioevo, Ancona, 1885. 3 The importanceof Firenzuola'stext wasbriefly discussed by J. Burckhardt, 4 Firenzuola,I, xv-xviii. The Civilizationof the Renaissancein Italy, New York, 1959, nI, 340-43 5 Dell'asinod'oro, in Firenzuola,In, 5. ON BEAUTIFUL WOMEN 375 40p ?*:'it: vow?? ?:::::-I~:?:~ :~rii;~ til"t -L,:iii?"i"Yt:i ti~-"?'jot- 6' *; t ;At 4?? e? d~dW A) 40 erP';?? un~~"~~ -Fa~~dt~rk0 t~eorlu~~ l OftefldA' ~r12 7 iv P \~E?~: vo). vo e Axcl~~nce r w A~~fLO~bAAA-e 404Ft :::, culce,~;~PR,~ad9 PtC~r1Ab AV* A4V 1 FromPietro Testa, notes on painting.Dilsseldorf, Kunstmuseum, 2 FromPietro Testa, notes on painting.Diisseldorf, Kunstmuseum, BuddeNr. 132, fol. 6r, "Particolariperfetioni che fannola donna BuddeNr. 132, fol. 6v, "Particolariperfetioni che fannola bellissima"(photo: Landesbildstelle Rheinland) donnabellissima" (photo: Landesbildstelle Rheinland) question of language, and he accordinglytranslated the traditionof Petrarchand Boccaccio,was closely connected extravagantLatin of Apuleiusinto Tuscan.The storyis intro- to the interestsof the Florentinecourt of Clement, and ducedas una Toscafavola; Lucius becomes Agnolo, Thessaly to the workof such otherwriters as Bembo,Della Casa,and the Kingdomof Naples, and the PaintedPorch in Athens Caro, all of whom prosperedduring the doomedresurgence the Campoin Siena. In the episodeof Cupidand Psyche, of Medici influence in Rome during the 1520's.7 Pietro Apollo, accordingto Apuleiusan IonianGreek who choseto Bemboplayed an importantpart in Firenzuola'sinitial suc- addressPsyche's father in Latinverse, insteadspeaks to him cess, for Bembointroduced him to Clementand encouraged in Tuscan.6 Firenzuola'sown preoccupationwith literary him to read to the Pope the first day of his Ragionamenti style, and in particularthe classical Tuscan vernacular d'amore,a work deeply indebtedto his study of Petrarch 6 The Asinod'oro, like the dialogueon beautifulwomen, was also published readat the AccademiaRomana dei Vignaiuoli,among the membersof which afterFirenzuola's death by L. Scala,whose first edition in Venicebears a dedi- were Berni, Molza,Mauro, Caro, and della Casa, each one of them con- cation to LorenzoPucci dated 25 May 1549. Guasti,Le prosedi Agnolo cernedwith conventions of stylisticintricacy, whether in satire,eulogy, or the Firenzuola,xv- xviii, datedthe workto ca. 1539, but it seemsmuch likelier descriptionof beauty.Firenzuola trained himself to be a stylistthrough the that it was completedduring Firenzuola's years in Rome and A. Seroni, masteryof modelsthat he could makehis own withoutbeing bound by AgnoloFirenzuola: Opere, accordingly dates the completionof the workto ca. them. In additionto his contemporarytreatment of the GoldenAss, he also 1526.J. Shearman,Mannerism, London, 1967, 38-39, alsosuggests a date wrotea comedy,I Lucidi,which is a personaladaptation of the Menaechmi in the 1520's;his discussionof the workis brief,but placesit in a highly of Plautus,and in the introductionto the Dialogohe stateshis intention significantcontext as far as the implicationsof this paperare concerned. to issuea translationof Horace'sPoetics, but only "quasi in formadi parafrasi." Partof the text is also publishedin Novellieridel cinquecento(Letteratura See Firenzuola,I, xxi and 244. On Firenzuolasee also G. Fattini,Agnolo italiana:storia e testi, xxiv, 1), ed. M. Guglielminetti,Verona, 1972, in Firenzuolae la borghesialetterata del rinascimento,Cortona, 1907; E. whichan earlydate is also advocated(p. 67). Ciafardini,"Agnolo Firenzuola,"Rivistad'ltalia, xv, 2, 1912,3-46, and881- and 7 AlthoughFirenzuola's works