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Niccolò Machiavelli in European Thought and Political Imagination

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Niccolò Machiavelli in European Thought and Political Imagination Four THE MODERN WHO BELIEVED THAT HE WAS THE ANCIENT: NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI IN EUROPEAN THOUGHT AND POLITICAL IMAGINATION Leonidas Donskis 1. The Genesis of the Modern Individual A modern identity-concealment-and-revelation game, a sophisticated variety of hide-and-seek, this phenomenon comes into existence together with the emer- gence of individualism. Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and German Renaissance mas- ters start signing their canvases, thus signifying the arrival of the Era of the Individual; yet they play identity games that become part of the picturesque carnival of the language and artistic expression. Instead of signing their given and family names, they drop a hint or leave a mark as if to say that the identi- ¿FDWLRQRIWKHPDVWHULVDQLQHVFDSDEOHSDUWRIWKHLQWHUSUHWDWLRQRIWKHZRUNRI art itself. An identity concealment leaving part of the clue to that identity is a meta- SKRURIWKHPRGHUQLGHQWLW\JDPHWKDWFDOOVIRUDI¿UPDWLRQRIH[LVWHQFH, exist insofar as you identify me as a person; say my name, and bow to me as a Unique Individual on the Face of the Earth. I begin existing as an individual only when you identify me and my artwork, which is my silent autobiogra- phy. The deeply symbolic and allegoric nature of Renaissance and Baroque art invites and incites a viewer, an eyewitness of being, to experience a joy of revelation, deciphering hidden meanings and allusions. Like an allusion or allegory, our identity is just a mask covering the face of being. Like a search for an original and unique means of expression or an authentic artistic lan- guage, which always remains an effort, our moral choices bring us closer or, on the contrary, distance us from others. Grasp of life and understanding of the other is a continuous path to our own moral substance. If we put it aside, our self becomes merely a mask, a game, and a joke for the sake of amuse- ment of merry ladies and gentlemen. Als ich kan (as well as I can) is a recurring motto by, and a clue to iden- WL¿FDWLRQRIWKHDXWKRUWKDWDSSHDUVRQSDLQWLQJVE\-DQYDQ(\FN7KHSRUWUDLW RIWKH$UQRO¿QLFRXSOHDSRZHUIXOSURRIRIWKHPLUDFOHRIWKHIDFHRIWKHLQGL- vidual, contains this motto, which allows us to identify Van Eyck’s existential and aesthetic traces there. We hasten to read two letters, RF (Rembrandt fecit, 50 LEONIDAS DONSKIS WKH/DWLQDEEUHYLDWLRQIRU³5HPEUDQGWH[HFXWHGWKLVZRUNRIDUW´ MXVWWRPDNH sure that we stand before Rembrandt himself, and not his pupils Ferdinand Bol, Aert de Gelder, or Carel Fabritius. Of Rembrandt’s De Nachtwacht (The Night Watch) Oswald Spengler, in Der Untergang des Abendlandes, wrote as frozen history. Therefore, a great work of art, in addition to its ability to remind us of the mystery of being and the individuality of every human face, body, object of reality, thing, or any other trace of being, allows us a point of entry into history. That art can reveal not only concealed identities and frozen history but also untold stories we learn from Raphael’s Portrait of Pope Leo X (1518–1519). We NQRZ WKDW 5DSKDHO 5DIIDHOOR 6DQ]LR ± H[HFXWHG WKLV PDJQL¿FHQW work just a year before his death. More than that, one of the two Cardinals standing behind the Pope, both relatives and cardinal-nephews of Leo X, Luigi de’ Rossi (ca. 1471/74–1519) died shortly after this work saw the light of the day. Another Cardinal, a member of the Medici family just like the Pope him- self, Giulio de’ Medici (1478–1534), later succeeds Leo X as Pope Clement VII. Scholars suggest that that the scene represents Leo X and his cousin Giulio de’ Medici listening to the sentence of 4 July 1517 that condemned the Sienese Car- dinal Alfonso Petrucci (ca. 1490–1517) to death for plotting to kill the Pope. The accusation of Petrucci for his conspiracy and high treason, as well as his execution, appears to have been not a big consolation before the fate of their all, though. Pope Leo X, born Giovanni de’ Medici (1475–1521), passed away two years after Raphael immortalized him in a group portrait with two Cardinals. Last but not least, in spite of the Pope’s power and prestige, it was the beginning of the time of trouble for the Papacy and the Church, as Martin Luther dealt a blow to their standing and international reputation. In addition, Clement VII broke with Henry VIII and England because of his unsanctioned and illegitimate divorce from Katherine of Aragon. What do we have here? A prophetic vision of a great artist? Or a blend of secret, conspiracy and mystery XQLTXHO\FRQFHQWUDWHGLQDJURXSRILQÀXHQWLDOLQGLYLGXDOVSRUWUD\HGE\5DSKDHO" Raphael did not need his great mastery and creative genius to make an in- trigue here. We will always remain indebted to a great master for the mystery of the individuality of a human face – especially when this mystery is sharp- ened by our knowledge that we observe the face of a dying or otherwise passing LQGLYLGXDO7KHVHFUHWEHKLQGWKHVFHQHVLVVXI¿FLHQWWRVWUHQJWKHQWKHP\VWHU\ of the power of Raphael’s masterpiece’s appeal. A blend of secret and mystery, Alfonso Petrucci’s alleged conspiracy creates the initial disposition of power exercised by the Pope and two Cardinals in great solemnity. Like any other power game and part of covert narrative, conspiracy is tailor- made for a work of art. It contains a mystery while offering a secret: something promised to be revealed, yet another segment of covert narrative structure to be kept unexposed. Conspiracy fuels our historical and political imaginations. They had long been, and will continue to be, part of art. Even putting aside the conspiracy theory of society both as a cognitive phenomenon and as an aspect .
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