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Committee Chair signature: Sex, Chastity, and Political Power in Medieval and Early Renaissance Representations of the Ermine

A thesis submitted to the

Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

in the Department of Art History of the School of Art of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning

by Morgan B. Cobb B.A., Centre College, Danville, KY, 2007

Committee Chair: Dr. Diane Mankin

Abstract

Since the early Roman Empire, the , a small carnivorous mammal indigenous to Europe, has been an element of Western oral, literary and visual tradition.

Classical writers were fascinated with the weasel, and recorded its behaviors in a way that lent the animal supernatural qualities, which were acknowledged throughout the

Middle Ages and through the early Renaissance. As a result, the image of one weasel in particular, the ermine, was associated with two specific virtues: female chastity and male honor. This iconography was adopted by rulers who illustrated it in illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, paintings and sculpture. This thesis will examine how these rulers used ermine iconography as part of their fabricated identity to construct a political reality that would appeal to the morality of their subjects, who would then submit the monarchy’s absolute control.

- ii - Acknowledgements

I have been blessed to have around me nurturing and supportive family and friends, who have been encouraging throughout this entire endeavor. My deepest appreciation goes to my wonderful parents to whom I forever owe my love. They have blessed me with the opportunity to further my education and grow as a young, but eager, scholar.

Fortunately, I have been surrounded by distinguished intellectuals who have been as fabulous instructors and mentors to me. My dearest thanks to my undergraduate advisor and role model, Dr. William R. Levin from Centre College, for providing me with a solid foundation in the history of art, and to my graduate advisor, mentor, and friend, Dr. Diane Mankin, for all of her help and energy. I would also like to thank Dr.Teresa Pac and Dr. Kristi Nelson for the constructive criticism they offered while serving on my committee.

Finally, I owe thanks to the best roommate I have ever had, my pet ferret Maximus, for providing countless hours of entertainment and companionship during this writing process, which he ultimately inspired.

- iii -

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction 4

Chapter One: An Image Rooted in Legend and Lore 7

Chapter Two: Chastity, Nationalism, and the Ermine in 17

Chapter Three: Petrarch’s Laura and the Ermine Banner 28

Chapter Four: The and the Transmission of an Image 37

Chapter Five: The Duplicity of Ermine Imagery in 46

Conclusion 63

Illustrations 65

Appendix 85

Bibliography 88

Index of Illustrations

Figure 1a: Gaston Phoebus, Livre de la Chasse MS M.1044 fol. 82r, 1387-1392, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Figure 1b: Gaston Phoebus, Livre de la Chasse MS. 616 fol. 92, 1387-1392, Bibliotheque Nationale, .

Figure 2: Cat and Weasel Fight Snakes, Choir Stall detail from the Poitiers Cathedral, 1235-1257, Poitier, .

Figure 3: Parisian, Philistine Plague of Mice, Old Testament Miniatures, MS M.638 fol. 21v, 1250, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Figure 4: Conception and Birth of the Weasel, Queen Mary Psalter, Royal MS 2 B. vii, fol. 112v., 1310-1320, British Royal Library, London.

Figure 5: (1457-1521), “ with St. Anne, St. Ursula and St. Helen,” miniature, Grande Heures of Anne of Brittany, c. 1503-1508. Ms lat 9474 f. 3v. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.

Figure 6: English, “St. Ursula,” miniature, Heller Hours, 1440-1460, MS UCB 150 f. 258v. Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA.

Figure 7: Master of Guillebert de Metz, “Martyrdom of St. Ursula,” , Flanders, 1425-1450, MS Lewis EM 005:19, p. 456, no. V.19, 20. Free Library of Philidelphia, Philidelphia, PA.

Figure 8: Signet seal of John IV with banderole “A ma vie,” 1385-1387, wax, 14mm, Bibliotheques Municipales, , MS. 1686 no. 1, May 30 1381.

Figure 9: Shield of Anne of Brittany, sometime before 1491.

Figure 10a: Jean Perreal (c. 1450-1460-c. 1530), “Coat of Arms of Anne of Brittany,”

Figure 10b: Opening Folio of Pierre Choque’s Account of Anne of Brittany’s Funeral, with Dedication to Louise de Savoie. MS. 5094, fol. 1∨. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Figure 11: Gold Reliquary of Anne of Brittany’s Heart, 1514, gold metalwork, Dobree Museum, Nantes, France.

Figure 12: Luca Signorelli (1440/50-1523), The Triumph of Chastity: Love Disarmed and Bound, 1509, Fresco on canvas, 125.7 x 133.4 cm, National Gallery, London.

- 2 - Figure 13: The Trimph of Death over Chastity Flemish, 1507-1510, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Figure 14: Three Fates Triumphing over Chastity Flemish, early 1500s, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Figure 15: Nicolas Leclerc and Jean de Priest, Medals of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, 1499, Bronze, 114.5mm, Coin Archives, LLC, http://coinarchives.com. Accessed 5/9/09.

Figure 16a: Vittore Carpaccio, Young Knight in a Landscape, 1510, oil on canvas, 218.5 x 152.2 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Figure 16b: Detail, ermine with cartellino, Vittore Carpaccio, Young Knight in a Landscape, 1510, oil on canvas, 218.5 x 152.2 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Figure 17a: Vittore Carpaccio. Life of St. Jerome: Vision of St. Augustine. 1502-04. Canvas. 141 x 211 cm. Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice, Italy.

Figure 17b: Detail, dog. Vittore Carpaccio. Life of St. Jerome: Vision of St. Augustine. 1502-04. Canvas. 141 x 211 cm. Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice, Italy.

Figure 18: Paolo Giovio, Device of Ferdinand I of , Dialogo dell’Imprese, 1555.

Figure 19: Guido Mazzoni, Bust of Alfonso II of Naples, , bronze, Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples.

Figure 20: Joos van Wassenhove, Double Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro and hisson, Guidobaldo, 1475, Oil on panel, 134.5 x 75.5 cm, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino.

Figure 21a: Gubbio Studiolo, completed in 1476, Ducal Palace of Urbino.

Figure 21b: Detail, ermine, Gubbio Studiolo, completed in 1476, Ducal Palace of Urbino.

Figure 22a: , Lady with an Ermine, 1489, Oil on Canvas, Czartoryski Collection, Cracow.

Figure 22b: Leonardo da Vinci, The Ermine as a Symbol of Purity, 1494, Diameter 9.1 cm, Pen and ink. Private Collection, London

Figure 23: Andrea Alciati, Bonis auspicus incipiendum,1552, Published in Henry Green, Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems. (New York: Burt Franklin, 1872), 14.

- 3 - INTRODUCTION

All members of the Mustelidae family can be referred to as a weasel. Ferrets,

, minks, polecats, and ermine are all species of . These small mammals are

long, slender burrowing carnivores that were domesticated in the Mediterranean region

about 2,500 years ago for hunting and rodent control.

There is a long literary and artistic tradition of the close relationship between

weasels and humans throughout history. The poet Aesop (620-560 B.C.) cast the weasel

as a cunning, artful character in his fables.1 Natural histories written by both Aristotle,2 and later Pliny,3 also affirm that even in ancient times, weasels lived among humans and contributed to their household and lifestyle. They were used to eradicate disease-carrying rodents and venomous snakes and to help hunters trap rabbits; thus, they were considered beneficial creatures.

This close connection between weasels and humans has existed since their domestication. However, the nature of the weasel-human relationship has evolved to accommodate the ever-changing societies in which it exists. Weasels are now understood as signals of deceit or betrayal. For example, in the book UnSpun, Kathleen Jamieson describes the function of “weasel words”: “Weasel words suck the meaning out of a phrase or sentence, the way that weasels supposedly suck the contents out of an egg, leaving only a hollow shell.”4 Thus, the true meaning of the message conveyed by

‘weasel words’ is masked by vague language. Likewise, weasels of the recent past have been portrayed in magazines and album artwork as vicious, as in the 1970 Mothers of

1 In Aesop’s fables, “The Mice and the Weasels” and “The Bat and the Weasels,” the weasel is a hunter of vermin and pests. 2 Aristotle, Historia Animalium VI, 37. The weasel is a brave fighter and hunter of snakes. 3 Pliny, Natural History XXIX. The weasel is portrayed as a good means of domestic pest control. 4 Kathleen H. Jamieson, UnSpun (New York: Random House, 2007), 49.

- 4 - Invention album cover, “Weasels Ripped My Flesh.” Frank Zappa selected the design

based on a men’s magazine published in 1956 that showed a man outnumbered and

attacked by violent weasels (see appendix).5

Scholars have neglected to explore how this notion of the weasel came to be.

Scholars of Renaissance briefly mention its associations with virtue, but fail to elaborate

on how this association developed. To date, no comprehensive study of this particular

animal’s imagery has been completed. Thus, an examination of the depictions of weasels

and their relationship with humans in historical context sheds light on the changes in this

relationship, and gives insight into the human condition, way of life, and the human

perception of the self.

My analysis of literature, folklore, artwork, and heraldry will center on the ermine

species of weasels. Using a combination of social, literary, iconographical, and semiotic

approaches, I will examine how these animals became an element of Christian legend, a

crucial component in the iconography of the during the late medieval

period, and, as a result of the manipulation of their image by Italian royals, a symbol of

deceit.

In the first chapter I will discuss how the weasel was recorded in Classical myth

by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder and the poet Ovid. These mythologies were

shaped into Christian legend by Isadore of Seville, Guilleme le Clerc, and Latini

Brunetto, who identified the weasel with the Immaculate Conception, and the popular

bestiary of Fiore di Virtu identified the weasel with courage and integrity.

5 Frank Zappa commissioned Neon Park (born Martin Muller, 1940-1993) to create this artwork for the Mothers of Invention album based on the cover of the September 1956 issue of Man’s Life. Zappa supposedly showed the magazine cover to Neon Park and said, “This is it. What can you do that’s worse than this?” The violence portrayed was considered offensively graphic at the time.

- 5 - In the second chapter I will discuss the portrayal of the weasel in the legends surrounding the establishment of Brittany. I will explore the ermine as a symbol of

Breton nationalism, and trace its use in Brittany from the through the

beginning of the Renaissance.

The third chapter will concern the inclusion of the weasel in the poetry of

Francesco Petrarch, and the effects of the renewed interest and visualization of scenes

from Petrarch’s Triumphs on the developments and transmission of ermine iconography.

I will examine visual representations of the ermine stimulated and made popular by

Petrarch’s poetry.

In chapter four, I will examine the role of the French conquest of Italy in the

cultural exchange that transported weasel iconography from the French kings to the

Italian . In my final chapter, I will evaluate how these dukes used the weasel to

convey the male virtue of honor, in order to understand how this animal developed

negative connotations.

- 6 - Chapter I: An Image Rooted in Legend and Lore

Prior to the fifteenth century, the weasel lived in and around domestic

environments, and as a result, established its reputation within European culture based on

its natural behaviors, preferences, and interactions with humans. Evidence of its inclusion

in myth and legend goes as far back as Ovid (43 B.C.E. – 17 C.E.) and Pliny the Elder

(23-79 C.E.), whose accounts were recontextualized by writers and storytellers during the

spread of Christianity after the fall of the Roman empire. These perceptions and uses of

the weasel among others evident in literature and folklore from the beginning of the Early

Christian period (30 C.E.) through the medieval period will be examined in this chapter.

I will argue that Christian legend appropriated notions of the weasel from Greco-Roman

culture and, through illuminated manuscripts, largely shaped the opinion of the animal at

the time. This notion of the weasel continued and led to how it was then visually represented during the Renaissance.

Originally the weasel was tamed 2,500 years ago because of its usefulness in killing and controlling vermin. In addition, Pliny the Elder mentions another use: the

Romans had ferrets hunt rabbits for them.6 Frequently, rabbit meat provided sustenance

for Roman soldiers, who made a sport of ferreting. They kept their ferrets on leashes

until it was time to hunt. Then, at the opening of a rabbit’s hole, the soldier took his

ferret off the leash so the creature could chase rabbits from their burrows; the Romans

6 James McKay, Complete Guide to Ferrets (Shrewsbury, England: Swan Hill Press, 1995), 15.

- 7 - then caught hunter and hunted in nets as they emerged from a hole.7 Thus, ferrets helped

feed the Roman armies as they marched north on their military campaign across Europe.8

Throughout the Roman Empire and even after its dissolution, people of all social

classes within Europe were familiar with ferrets and their usefulness for hunting and pest

control. The animals lived among humans and were common to all. This companionship

created by hunting with ferrets, and the earlier common interaction with weasels in and

around the home had generated a significant amount of folklore and literature in which

the weasel played an integral part. This corpus of literature, spanning from the late

Roman empire to the late Medieval period, is based on both the weasels’ positive

contributions and misunderstood natural behaviors. The curiosity generated by the

mysterious activities of these beneficial animals led chroniclers to associate it with the

acts of a courageous do-gooder.

The classical misconceptions of Pliny the Elder were continued in the medieval

belief that weasels could cure their own ills, creating a supernatural image of the weasel.

People of the Middle Ages believed that the weasel knew how to cure and protect itself

from snake venom, by ingesting common rue, which at the time was considered to be a

miracle herb.9 Pliny wrote "If a weasel is injured in a fight with mice while hunting

them, it cures itself with the herb rue."10 Similarly, in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey,

the brave hero Odysseus also used rue for protection from Circe’s evil spells.11

7 This method was used through the middle ages and is illuminated in Gaston Phoebus’ Book of the Hunt (figure 1a and figure 1b). 8 Erika Matulich, “Ferret Domesticity: A Primer,” in Ferrets USA 5 (2000): 31-33. 9 Werner Telesko, The Wisdom of Nature and Symbolism of Plants and Animals in the Middle Ages (New York: Prestel, 2001), 36. 10 Pliny Natural History VIII, 41. 11 Homer, Odeyssey, trans. William Cullen Bryant (Boston, MA: Houghton & Mifflin, 1921), 151. Rue was referred to as moly.

- 8 - Pliny also discusses his understanding of the medicinal use of the animal to

remedy human illness. For instance, it was believed that the gall of the weasel was an

antidote for the deadly bite of an asp, and the liquid from a weasel’s genitals, ingested

with goose semen, would ease the pains of childbirth. 12 Therefore, the medieval observer was led to believe the animal had the capacity to heal painful and life-threatening physical conditions, and may have associated it with the legend of Odysseus. In the context of these myths and accounts, the weasel could have been viewed as having supernatural, heroic qualities.

These qualities were embraced during the Middle Ages and embodied as the

Christian knight, or crusader. The crusader was held in highest esteem for his fearlessness, piety, devotion, and adherence to a strict code of honor. When battle was involved in preserving this honor, combat was considered virtuous. Also a strong connection existed between bravery and spirituality. Battling with courage in the name of the Lord was a praiseworthy Christian deed. In Medieval Christian Europe, biblical teachings placed emphasis on this type of relentless courage. In the Book of

Deuteronomy, it is written that “… the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." (Deu. 20:4). While the help and support of God is promoted, fearing one’s opponent is discouraged: “Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you." (Deu. 3:22). Even in the face of death, valiant knights of the crusades were expected to maintain their honor by fighting to their death. The crusader Godfrey of Bouillon (c. 1060-1100) died at the pinnacle of his military career: the siege of Jerusalem. Death in battle was not uncommon, as between

12 Ibid., XXIX, 16.

- 9 - 35-40% of crusaders died in battle.13 Thus, courage, even in the face of an intimidating

opponent greater in power and strength, was considered a virtue necessary for the

Christian knight.

Embodying this virtue, the bold and fearless weasel earned a reputation for

attacking larger and more dangerous animals.14 Like a fearless soldier in the army of

God, the courage of the weasel was recognized and his skill in combat was considered valiant. The weasel was the only animal known to successfully kill the basilisk, a deadly snake said by Pliny to be “fatal to man by only looking upon him.”15 St. Augustine wrote

that just as the Devil is the king of wicked spirits, the basilisk is the king of serpents, and

in accordance with Psalm 91 the Church had the power to crush the basilisk, or the Devil,

with its foot.16 Since the weasel was identified by Pliny as the only natural enemy of the

basilisk and impervious to the snake’s venom, the victorious weasel’s defeat of the serpent is analogous to the triumph of good over evil. In Christian doctrine, the snake

represents the devil, evil, and sin. The story of Satan’s fall from grace in Revelation

employs this symbolism: “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent

called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth,

and his angels with him.” (Rev. 12:9). Since Pliny’s observations initiated the myth that

weasels were impervious to the bite of the basilisk, weasels were seen as killers of

13 Piers D. Mitchell, Medicine in the Crusades. (Oxford: Cambridge University Press, 2004) 144. This statistic only includes those fighting who would have been considered socially significant enough at the time to record. Countless others, of lower social classes, died in battle that were not recorded. 14 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XXIX, 16, trans. John Bostock, (London: Fleet Street, 1855). Pliny recognizes the weasel to be an aggressive enemy to serpents. 15 Pliny, Natural History, XXIX, 19. 16 Richard Taylor, How to Read a Church, A Guide to Symbols and Images in Churches and Cathedrals (Mahwah, NJ: Hidden Spring, 2003), 183-184.

- 10 - dangerous snakes, which were symbolic of Satan and evil. This led to the association of

weasels with the forces of good.17

Weasels also hunted another “evil” of the Middle Ages – the rodent, which was

associated with destruction, plague and pestilence.18 Vermin were assumed to have been sent by Satan (instigante sathana, per maleficium diabolicum).19 The massive and

continuing infestations of vermin became so severe during the Middle Ages that people

turned to God and their governing bodies to secure divine and earthly assistance in

eradicating harmful pests (figure 3).20 Ecclesiastical courts instituted Theirprocesse, or

judicial proceedings against rats, mice and other pests to prevent them from devouring

crops and to expel them from orchards by means of exorcism and excommunication.21

Nevertheless, weasels were still regarded as the most effective means for pest control.22

So, as weasels preyed upon snakes and rodents, they were considered to be conquerors of evil beings. This courage and bravery in battle was respected during the Middle Ages as a component of chivalry, which along with Christianity was the core of the medieval system of values.

Another type of battle for a greater good involved the attainment and maintenance of chastity. Virginity was typically a female virtue, but in the case of monastic orders, men of the cloth were expected to take a vow of chastity. To masculinize this virtue, they adopted a language of battle and war to describe their struggles with temptation and

17 In a choir stall at Poitiers Cathedral, the weasel is depicted fighting snakes alongside the cat (figure 2). 18 There is a reference to the destructive behaviors of rats and their involvement in a plague: “Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and pay honor to Israel's god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land.” (1 Samuel 6:5). 19 E.P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals. (London: William Heinmann, 1906), 2. 20 Karl H. Dannenfeldt, “The Control of Vertebrate Pests in Renaissance Agriculture,” Agricultural History 56, no. 3 (1982) 555. 21 Evans, 2. 22 Conradadus Heresbachius, Foure Bookes, 156v. in Dannenfelt, 1982.

- 11 - lust.23 Gerald of Wales warned: “Be watchful therefore, my brothers, and beware

because the attacks of temptation press more strongly on priests, monks, hermits, and

those dedicated to the service of Christ than other men.”24 Flesh was viewed as the

enemy, and their weaponry consisted of abstinence and devotion conveyed through the

study of scripture and prayer. In framing a typically female virtue in a way that

compliments their sexuality, men presented a single virtue as two-fold: a monk

conceived of his vow of chastity as both a preservation of his body as God’s holy temple,

and a as courageous battle against lust in the name of Christianity.

Like these members of monastic orders, the weasel was associated with both

bravery in combat, abstinence, and purity. These associations with chastity developed from an abundant variety of folklore associated with the animal’s reproduction that

reinforced the medieval belief in the supernatural character of the weasel, that was born

from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Ovid shares the legend of Hercules’ birth. Ovid

writes that Hercules’ mother, Alcamena, was punished by the goddess for accepting

the attention of Jove. Jealous of pregnant Alcamena, Juno bribes the goddess of birth,

Ilithya, to block the delivery of baby Hercules. Ilithya sat outside of Alcamena’s room

with her legs and fingers crossed to prevent the birth. Because of this, Alcamena was

having a terribly difficult delivery, and she suffered in labor for seven days and nights.

Her servant Galanthis saw Ilithya outside of Alcamena’s room, and told her to

congratulate Alcamena on her new son. Shocked that the woman had delivered the baby

23 Jacqueline Murray, “Masculinizing Religious Life: Sexual Prowess, the Battle of Chastity and Monastic Identity,” in Holiness and Masculinity in the Middle Ages. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005) 36. 24 Ibid.

- 12 - while she had been preventing it, Ilithya stood up and uncrossed her fingers and legs,

causing Alcamena to give birth to Hercules.

They say Galanthis laughed at the duped goddess. As she laughed, the heaven- born one, in her anger, caught her by the hair, and dragged her down, and as she tried to lift her body from the ground, she arched her over, and changed her arms into forelegs. Her old energy remained, and the hair on her back did not lose her hair’s previous colour: but her former shape was changed to that of a weasel. And because her lying mouth helped in childbirth, she gives birth through her mouth, and frequents my house, as before.25

Thus, the story of Galanthis’ trickery explains the belief that weasels give birth orally. In actuality, female weasels give birth in burrows underground, and carry their young, or kits, in their mouths. They transport their young frequently, changing burrows to protect them from predators that might recognize a pattern in their behavior and decide to prey on their kits.26 The notion that they gave birth through their mouth was used to

explain this behavior, and it became widespread. This concept continued to be revisited

in art and literature for several centuries.

For instance, in the seventh century, Isadore of Seville expressed her skepticism

of the weasel’s ability to conceive through its mouth. Regardless of her opinion, she

acknowledges the prevalence of this idea in her book Etymologies.27 A scene of this

Immaculate Conception is found en grisaille in the margins of the Queen Mary Psalter

(1310-1320) at the British Library (figure 4). Within the landscape, there are two separate

stages of reproduction illustrated side by side. The first stage, conception, is depicted on

the left. There are two weasels facing one another, each extending its neck toward the

25 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IX translated by Horace Gregory (New York: Signet Classic, 2001), 273- 323. 26 McKay, 67. 27 Isadore of Seville, Etymologies, Book XII translated by Priscilla Troop, (Charlotte, VA: Medieval MS, 2005), 3:3.

- 13 - other to touch lips. The birth of their offspring is illustrated on the right, as the smaller

newborn weasel emerges from the ear of its mother.

Likewise, the thirteenth-century Norman cleric Guillaume le Clerc describes in

his bestiary of 1210-1211 the similar idea of the weasel’s immaculate conception that

was illustrated in Etymologies.28 His notion of the weasel’s childbirth parallels, and was perhaps inspired by, the account given by Isadore of Seville. He recorded:

About the weasel is a great marvel, For she brings forth by the ear And by the mouth receives The seed whereby she conceives. From the male when he comes to her, She takes the seed by the mouth, And within her belly feeds it And by the ear it issues forth. This dumb little beast Carries its young and shifts Oft-times from place to place, And holds no place in fee. Serpents and mice it hates, It drives them away where it knows them to be.

This account of the weasel acknowledges both the animal’s ability to fight snakes and rodents and the commonplace immaculate conception story as well as accurately describing some of the weasel’s natural behaviors.

Similarly, the Italian scholar and philosopher Latini Brunetto (1220-1294) compiled a collection of summaries of encyclopedic knowledge from his era. In his entry on the weasel, he mentions a process of childbirth similar to that illustrated in Isadore of

Seville’s Etymologies and described by Guillaume le Clerc:

“Et sachiez que beletes sont de .ij. manieres: une qui habite es maisons, et une autre champestre; mais chascune concoit par l'oreille et enfant par la bouche,

28 Guilleme le Clerc, The Bestiary of Guilleme le Clerc George Claridge Druce, trans. (London: Ashford, Kent, 1936), 69. He compiled this bestiary as a tool for teaching morals through the stories of animals.

- 14 - selonc ce que aucunes gens tesmoignent; mais li plusor dient que ce est une chose fausse. Mais, comment que il soit, sovent remue ses filz d'un leu en autre, porce que nus ne s'en apercoive; et se ele les trueve mors, maintes gens dient que ele les fait resusciter.”29

[Note that there are two kinds of weasels: One that lives in homes, and another in the countryside; but each of them conceive through the ear and birth children by the mouth, as some say; but most people say it is false. Whatever the case, they move their young around from one place to another so no one can see them; and if they find them dead, many people say that she will resurrect them.]

While Brunetto acknowledges the skepticism of some concerning the validity of the tale, he also mentions the common belief that a female ferret could breathe life back into her dead young. This folkloric theme of revival recalls the resurrection of Christ, once again creating a parallel between the medieval understanding of the weasel and

Christian mythology, and affirming the connection between the weasel and Christian legend that was popular during Brunetto’s lifetime.

By the late medieval period, a tradition of recording both the real and imagined attributes and behaviors of animals in a way that illuminated a particular element of

Christian morality had developed. Bestiaries included specific accounts and descriptions of animals and their behaviors, but the legends that developed from these accounts incorporated even more detail. For instance, the Fiore di Virtu speaks of not a weasel, but an ermine specifically. Its anonymous author does not tie this weasel to immaculate conception by repeating the same story told by Seville, le Clerc and Brunetto, but more explicitly connects the ermine with the virtue preserved by immaculate conception, that of purity, by explaining the ermine’s virtue through an account that was, at that time, less frequently recycled:

29 Latini Brunetto, Li Livres dou tresor. Gallica Consultation. http://gallica2.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k29286n.image.f270.tableDesMatieres. Accessed November 16, 2008.

- 15 - When it rains, it never leaves its burrow, to avoid fouling cleanliness. It never lies in a damp place, but always in a dry one. When the hunters want to catch one, they surround its burrow with mud, and when it comes out they close the mouth of the burrow to prevent its going back; and when it sees the hunters, it bolts; and when it comes to the mud, it lets itself be caught rather than soil itself, so pure a creature is it.30

This tale emphasizes the ermine’s purity as it describes how the animal would chose

death in order to preserve its fine fur. Just as the myths recorded by previous

scribes portrayed the weasel as preserving its virginal purity by means of non-sexual

conception, the account given in Fiore di Virtue presents another form of this allegory

highlighting the courage required to choose the preservation of one’s dignity over death.

The references to the weasel in Fiore di Virtu and in the texts of Latini Brunetto,

Guilleme le Clerc, and Isadore of Seville confirm that the notions of this animal,

originally conceived by Pliny and Ovid, had been adopted during the Middle Ages and

reframed in the Christian context of Medieval European culture. These recontextualized

accounts of the belief that the weasel both conceived immaculately and had a

supernatural ability to conquer evil forces associated the weasel with chastity and honor.

These reframed mythologies were recorded and copied in manuscripts that, because of

their portability and abundance, were transported throughout Europe by pious Christians

traveling on pilgrimages and gallant knights going to fight in the crusades. Thus, through

the transcription and transmission of these manuscripts, legends associating the weasel

with the virtues of virginal purity and courageous honor spread throughout the continent.

30 H. Ochenkowski and William Wright, “The Quartercentenary of Leonardo da Vinci,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 34, no. 194 (May 1919): 191.

- 16 - Chapter II: Chastity, Nationalism, and the Ermine in Brittany

As medieval myths about the weasel were forming from the accounts and stories

left by ancient Roman historians and spread by the crusaders, legends regarding one weasel in particular, the ermine, developed around the founding of the duchy of Brittany.

By examining these medieval and early modern legends about the ermine in Brittany, along with the Breton leaders who adopted this weasel as part of their personal imagery,

this chapter traces the origins of ermine symbolism from the founding to the fall of

Brittany. I will explore how it became associated with this duchy and was eventually transmitted to France, and I will argue that those who employed ermine imagery manipulated its meaning.

Brittany’s first association with the weasel springs from fictitious legends propagated by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1100-1155) and later Hermann Joseph (1150-

1241). These legends are similar, and based upon events that date to the end of the fourth

century.31 Geoffrey of Monmouth describes how the Roman general Maximian:32

Fitted out an exceeding mighty fleet and assembled every single armed warrior in Britain and…went first into the kingdom of that now is called Brittany, and made war upon the Gaulish folk that did [inhabit] therein.33

After his defeat of the , Maximian sought the aid of his cousin, the pagan warrior

Conan Meriadoc.34 Legend holds that as Conan marched through Brittany with his army,

an ermine took shelter under his shield and never left his side. Believing it to be a good

omen of his victory, he selected the ermine as his symbol and with it the motto that

31 Circa 380 C.E., but codified in the 12th century C.E. 32 Magnus Maximus (ca. 355-388), erroneously called ‘Maximian’ by Geoffrey of Monmouth, served under Theodosius I who, after Maximus appointed himself Emperor of Britain, declared him a usurper and ordered his execution. 33 Nora K. Chadwick, Early Brittany (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1969), 163. 34 David Hughes, The British Chronicles (Westminster: Heritage Books, 2007),128-129.

- 17 - encapsulated the legend about the ermine’s character, Malo mori quam foedari (“Death

before dishonor”). 35

In return for Conan’s support, Maximian promised that he would make Conan

king of Brittany,36 and would help him populate his new territory with people from

Britain. Archaeological evidence exists to support a mass increase in the population of

Brittany that compliments the legend that describes Maximian’s fulfillment of his

promise to Conan.37 Versions of the ecclesiastical myth of St. Ursula, written by

Geoffrey of Monmouth and Hermann Joseph, explain Ursula’s martyrdom as related to

this immigration. According to this version of the legend, her father, Dionotus, King of

Cornwall, betrothed Ursula, known for being pious and virginal, to Conan.38 She and

11,000 virgins were sent by King Dionotus on a ship to repopulate Brittany. The voyage

went off course, and they were massacred by a group of Huns before they reached their

destination.39 Though Ursula was never able to become queen of Brittany, she is,

nevertheless, connected with Conan’s establishment of Brittany, and with the legend of

Conan and the ermine. Likewise, the legend of her virgin martyrdom en route to Brittany

connected her pure, chaste character to Brittany itself and to its symbol, the ermine.

Thus, one of Ursula’s attributes is a cloak trimmed with ermine fur, which she is depicted

35 Louisa Stuart Costello, Specimens of the Early Poetry of France from the Time of the Troubadours and Trouveres to the Reign of Henri Quatre (London: William Pickering, 1835), 176. The motto he associated with the ermine, malo mori quam foedari translates to “death before dishonor.” 36 The territory that would become Brittany was a region of Gaul known as Armorica before the siege of Conan. 37 Chadwick, 3, 30. 38 Ursula’s fictional martyrdom was told a number of ways, and the accounts of Joseph and Monmouth only reflects one version of this tale that would have been modified through oral tradition. I chose this version because it pertains specifically to the duchy of Brittany, the focus of my study. 39 Ibid., 165. This legend resulted in Ursula’s depiction with the ship, symbolic of her perilous voyage (figure 6 and figure 7).

- 18 - wearing in numerous paintings and manuscripts (figure 5 and figure 6). 40 After years of modification through oral transmission, these legends and the symbolism overlapped and commingled, thus closely associating St. Ursula’s purity with the ermine.

For centuries, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s fictional tales about Conan and Ursula were taken largely as fact, which had an extensive influence on the identity and independence of Brittany.41 By identifying the ermine with the legend of the founding of

Brittany, its people adopted the weasel as a symbol of their land’s sovereignty. More

than two centuries after Geoffrey of Monmouth recorded these the legends, John IV

(ca. 1345-1399) secured a victory for Brittany at Auray, winning Breton independence from France. Perhaps to pay homage to the first Breton duke, Conan Meriadoc, John VI revived the ermine as an icon for his duchy.

The duchy of Brittany had been under French Capetian overloadship since 1212.

In 1341, the rebelled, beginning a series of battles now known as the Breton War of Succession (1341-1364). In 1364, the leader of the Bretons John IV learned that his rival for the throne, the French duke Charles of (1341-1364), was preparing to attack him. He responded to this information by besieging and defeating Charles at what is known as the Battle of Auray.42 To honor and remember those who fought and fell at

Auray, John founded the Order of the Ermine in 1381. He may have chosen the ermine to

represent his order based on the legend that circulated in copies of Fiore di Virtu and the

story of Conan Meriadoc. It described the ermine sacrificing its life to preserve its

40 James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. (Oxford: Westview Press, 1974), 317. Ursula appears in an ermine-trimmed cloak in “The Book of Hours of Anne of Brittany.” See Butler, 152. 41 Chadwick, 165. “In the eighth century the Counts of Rohan based it on their claim that the peoples of were the descendants of Conan Meriadoc, and that the Counts of Rohan could claim independence of the Frankish kings on the ground of having been founded at an earlier date than other Breton provinces, and before the Frankish conquest of Gaul.” 42 Michael Jones, Ducal Brittany 1364-1399. (London: Oxford, 1970.), xvi.

- 19 - untainted virtue: An ermine was being chased by a hunter and his dogs when it arrived at

a filthy bog. With nowhere to go, the ermine was forced to either escape from the dogs

through the mud or forfeit its life. The ermine chose death in lieu of soiling its beautiful

white fur. 43 Thus, he selected the ermine because of its legendary ties to the region, and

its symbolic association with purity and virtue.

John IV won his duchy on St. Michael’s feast day, and therefore deemed Michael

as the of the Order of the Ermine.44 The Order of the Ermine was unique in

that it knighted not only those from high birth, but also those who demonstrated

deserving virtue. So, to become a member one need only be a knight with dignified

character.45 Uniquely, Brittany’s Order of the Ermine recognized favored ladies, and awarded the collars of the order to the most virtuous females, known as chevaleresses.46

John likely used the Order of the Ermine to secure the support of his magnates, thereby

unifying his duchy.47

John IV used the image of the ermine as symbol of the order, as his personal

emblem, and as the symbol of his duchy. as it tied them to his duchy. This is evident in

his use of the ermine’s image on one of his signets. As the most important of all the seals

he used to validate official documents, the signets of John IV were the most personal

(figure 8). He wore them on his person, and used them to authorize payments by his

financial officers and secure classified political documents.48 Thus, the ermine on such a signature item belonging to the duke reinforced John’s close association with this type of

43 Michael C. E. Jones, “Jean IV,” in Medieval France: An Encyclopedia William W. Kibler and Grover A. Zinn. eds. (New York: Routledge, 1995), 486. 44 Michael Jones, The Creation of Brittany (London: Hambledon Press, 1988),161. 45 Maurice Hugh Keen, Chivalry (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), 196-197. 46 Hugh E.L. Collins, The Order of the Garter, 1348-1461 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000), 272 n. 142. 47 Jones, Ducal Brittany 1364-1399, 140 n.1. 48 Jones, The Creation of Brittany,169-170.

- 20 - weasel as an emblem for his high-minded values and his chivalric order, and it served

him as well as a means of political propaganda by using it for official governmental business.

The weasel was also of value for propaganda purposes in 1365, when John IV sought to to revive Brittany’s “ducal prestige” and repair the destruction resulting from the civil war49 by constructing the castle of Ermine. The castle became the primary

residence for the Dukes of Brittany, and once stood on the Place des Lices in Vannes.50

None of the original structure survives, but contemporary accounts describe the chateau as a major architectural achievement of its time. According to the medieval French historian Jean Froissart (1337-1405), the lavishly furnished new castle was used to lure and imprison an unsuspecting guest of John IV,51 Oliver de Clisson, the constable of

France, along with Clisson’s brother-in-law, the Lord of Laval.52

After John IV discovered that Constable Clisson was involved in a treasonous plot

against him, John secretly planned the constable’s capture by inviting all of the noble

men in his duchy, including Clisson and Laval, to a celebration.53 After the meal, the

Duke persuaded his guests to tour the castle of Ermine. On this tour, John said to

Clisson:

Sir Oliver, I know no man on this side of the sea who knoweth more in building than ye do. Wherefore I pray you mount the stairs and behold the building of the tower. If it be well, I am content; and if anything be amiss, it shall be reformed to your device.54

49 Ibid., 36-37. 50 Katherine S. Maquoid, Through Brittany. South Brittany (London: Oxford University Press, 1877), 78. Now in its place is the School of Law. 51Jones, Ducal Brittany 1364-1399, 128. John imprisioned Clisson in Ermine castle in 1387. 52 Jean Froissart, The Chronicles of Jean Froissart., John Bourchier Berners, trans. (New York: Macmillan, 1895), 362. 53 Ibid. 54 Ibid.

- 21 - When Clisson suggested John accompany him up to the tower, John declined. So,

Clisson and several of John’s noble men ventured up to the tower. Upon reaching the top, John’s men captured Clisson, as their lord had ordered them. The Lord of Laval, who escaped, desperately begged the Duke to spare his brother’s life:

Refrain your evil will and moderate your courage and regard to reason; for if ye put him to death there was never prince so dishonoured as ye shall be…Sir, will you lose yourself for the death of one man? Sir, turn your imagination; for this thought is nothing worth, but dishonourable…55

These words reached the Duke, and as they appealed to his honor, he agreed to accept a ransom for Clisson in lieu of capital punishment.56

While it was recognized that John’s capture of Clisson was deceitful, his mercy in sparing Clisson’s life was the deed that lent John IV his virtuous reputation to posterity, and confirmed him as someone who lived up to the motto he adopted from the dukes of

Brittany, Malo mori quam foedari. When the Lord of Laval reminded John of the repercussions of executing Clisson, it was the possibility of losing his honor that prompted his leniency.

Mysteriously, the Order of the Ermine is rarely mentioned in historical chronicles after John IV until 1450 when Francis, the last Duke of Brittany, reinstituted the Order of the Ermine in memory of his grandfather John IV. Twenty-five knights swore allegiance to the duke by wearing the collar of the order. The ermine-shaped pendant was engraved with the motto, A Ma Vie (“To my life”).57 With the union of Brittany and the French monarchy through the marriage of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII, the order lost many

55 Ibid., 363-364. 56 Ibid., 364. 57 Helen J. Sanborn, Anne of Brittany (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1917), 165. According to legend, this motto was first taken by Duke John IV to show he had conquered Brittany and he would do anything – even forfeit his life – to defend it. Her adoption of this motto is a clear expression of the pride she has in her duchy.

- 22 - of its knights. While the order shrank in number as a result of their union, Anne kept the

image of the ermine alive as a symbol of Brittany and as a reflection of her own virtue,

and took her ermine symbol to France.

Anne of Brittany

Although Brittany’s Order of the Ermine seems to have disappeared around the

end of the fifteenth-century with the death of John IV, the ermine had already become a

codified symbol of Brittany. Appropriately, one of the most beloved and celebrated

female monarchs in French history, the last Breton duchess Anne (1477-1514), illustrated

her nationalism and pride by adopting the emblem of her duchy as part of her own

iconography. Twice Anne reigned as both Queen of France and Duchess of Brittany,58 and the sovereignty of Brittany, represented by the ermine, was a large part of her royal image.

Few images illustrate her employment of the ermine device, but accounts describing Anne’s multiple and varied use of the symbol have survived. At her coronation ceremony, Anne’s secretary, Andre de la Vigne, recorded the presence of “an image on a golden cloth memorializing the Crucifixion, decorated with lilies and crowned ermines…which were also crowned and intertwined with cordeliere sashes.”59

The association of the ermine with the cordeliere confirms the ermine as a symbol of

chastity. La cordeliere60 was the motif she selected to symbolize her Order of La

Cordeliere. She founded this order to prepare young women to live virtuously by

58 Anne was first wed to Charles VIII, who then died haphazardly by knocking his head onto a door frame. Once widowed, she married Louis XII. 59 Cynthia J. Brown, “Books in Performance: The Parisian Entry (1504) and Funeral (1514) of Anne of Brittany,” Yale French Studies no. 110 (2006): 80. 60 “The cord,” which references that worn in monastic orders which were knotted three times, each knot representing the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.

- 23 - teaching them how to interact appropriately with male courtiers in order to protect them

from love affairs that may spoil them before they find suitable husbands.61 To further

emphasize the importance of chastity to these young women, she chose the cord of the monastic robe. Pairing the cord and the ermine further emphasized the significance Anne placed on purity.

Anne surrounded herself with images of the ermine as representative of wholesome morality, and as reminders of her Breton self-rule. The ermine fur pattern was replicated in her heraldry (figure 9), which consisted of a white shield of twelve stylized ermine tails.62 In her apartments, she kept a little carved ermine wearing a gold

collar bearing the phrase, A ma vie, the motto which also accompanied the white ermine

standing beneath the shield in her coat of arms (figure 10). This same device was

embroidered on her bed coverings and carved into the chapel at .63 Both the

image of the ermine and the fur of the animal itself played a significant role in the

Queen’s fashion. For instance, Anne wore ermine-trimmed robes as she entered in

1494.64 The prevalence of ermine imagery associated with Anne of Brittany expressed

both her Breton patriotism and her desire to project an image of chastity. These noble

qualities along with her desirable sovereignty made her a perfect prospect for a royal

marriage with the King of France, Charles VIII.

King Charles focused his energy on creating a union with Brittany. He diligently persuaded Anne of Brittany to accept his marriage proposal, despite Anne’s tenacious

61 Butler, 153-154. 62 Michael Maclagan, The Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe (New York: Clarkson and Potter, Inc. 1981), Table 67. 63 Butler, 156; Elizabeth B. O’Reilly, How France Built Her Cathedrals (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1921), 373. This is where Anne married Louis XII. 64 Sanborn, 87-88.

- 24 - desire to maintain Breton independence. Eventually she agreed, under very specific

conditions to ensure that Brittany maintained its autonomy.65 She insisted on being

responsible for governing and protecting the liberties of the Bretons, and she demanded

that the couple’s second son would be the heir to Brittany. Only under these

circumstances were Anne and Charles united in matrimony in 1491.66 Through their

union, Brittany now had a political association with France again.

Unfortunately, the young king died childless at the age of twenty-eight leaving

Anne a widow.67 Louis XII, Duke of Orleans, was the closest heir but was already

married. However, Alexander VI bargained with Louis and, in exchange for favors

on behalf of his illegitimate son Cesare Borgia, agreed to annul Louis’ first marriage to

Jeanne of Valois, so that Louis could marry Anne of Brittany and succeed to the throne.68

On January 7, 1499, Louis XII married Anne of Brittany, who reigned as his Queen until her life ended in 1514.69

Upon her death, Louis XII ordered commemorations of her life that lasted more

than five weeks.70 Her trusted herald and king-at-arms, Pierre Choque, was responsible

for planning her funerary rites, and was commissioned by the king to record the

observances in writing.71 This lavish celebration of Anne’s life lasted five weeks, and

incorporated the Duchess’ iconography. After she was embalmed and her heart removed

for burial in Brittany, her body was dressed in a gold bodice and a purple velvet robe

65 Garrison, 108; Her marriage agreements to Charles VIII and Louis XII were very similar. For her agreement with Louis XII, see R.J. Knecht, The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France 1483-1610, 2nd Ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 48. 66 Ibid., 37. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid., 38. 69 Knecht, 48. 70 Brown, 76. 71 Ibid.; Butler, 180.

- 25 - trimmed with ermine.72 Clad in her finest royal couture, Anne’s body was presented in a room encircled with banners depicting her ermine emblem, among other devices and mottos that she used throughout her reign.73

While her body was displayed for official mourning, a reliquary, composed of three nested boxes of different materials, was being fashioned to contain the Duchess’ heart. The innermost box containing Anne’s heart was a leaden box on which a figure of an ermine had been carved. This was placed within an iron and lead covered box.

Finally, a heart-shaped gold engraved covering provided the outermost protection (figure

11). It was decorated with a crown and nine fleur-de-lis and engraved with two written inscriptions, one on each side of the reliquary. One of them read:

In this little vessel Of fine gold, pure and valuable, Reposes a most noble heart That once belonged to a lady of this world. Anne was her name, Of France twice Queen, Duchess of the Bretons, Royal and Sovereign.

On the other side, another inscription reads:

This heart was so very noble That from earth to heaven Its virtue and liberality Increased more and more, But God has taken her. Her best portion Is this earthly part. In great grief we dwell.74

72 Butler, 181. 73 She was displayed from January 13-February 3. See Butler, 182. 74 Butler, 186.

- 26 - These verses glorify Anne’s noble heart, which was protected and represented by the

ermine depicted on the innermost vessel. Thus, the legacy and fond memories of the

pure-hearted Queen were symbolically attached to the ermine. Her subjects would have

recognized this weasel as a manifestation of Anne’s moral honesty, piety, and virtue.75

As the representation of the ermine changed hands in Brittany, the user, who had

a specific purpose for employing the ermine iconography, manipulated the meaning

through the association of the ermine image with symbolic events. The story of Conan’s founding of Brittany and the legend of St. Ursula tied the ermine icon to Breton

patriotism and the feminine ideals of virginity and a spotless character. Centuries later,

John IV revived the icon to commemorate his military achievements and to symbolize his

chivalric order and duchy, further associating the notions of victory and honor with the

animal while maintaining the ermine as a symbol of Brittany. Finally, Anne of Brittany

adopted the ermine as a symbol of her sovereignty and character. It was sometimes

represented in conjunction with the motif of her cordeliere order, which strengthened the

ermine’s associations with chastity. However, because she had no male heirs and Breton

independence dissolved after her death, the ermine as a symbol of Brittany’s autonomy

only evoked nostalgia for the past. Thus, by the time the iconography of the ermine

reached Italy from Brittany, it was no longer a symbol of . Instead,

the ermine functioned as an image representing two gender-specific virtues: chivalric

honor as a masculine virtue, and purity and modesty as feminine virtues.

75 Pauline Matarasso, Queen’s Mate, Three Women of Power in France on the Eve of the Renaissance (Burlington: Ashgate, 2001), 174-175.

- 27 - Chapter III: Petrarch’s Laura and the Ermine Banner

Expressed by the image of the ermine, the virtue of purity was frequently

celebrated in the verses of the Italian poet, scholar, and humanist Francesco Petrarcha

(July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), known in English as Petrarch. Within Petrarch’s poetic imagery, the ermine in particular is an important symbolic element associated with purity

and virtue in his philosophical explorations of the nature of being human. Across

Europe, the fame and renown of Petrarch’s vivid poetry inspired a wealth of visual representations of scenes from his works. His numerous descriptions of the emblem of his virginal heroine Laura, a green banner bearing the image of a white ermine, perpetuated the notion that this animal symbolized feminine purity. In this chapter, I will argue that Petrarch’s scholarly endeavors contributed to his intimate familiarity with ancient and medieval texts, which introduced him to the association of the ermine with the virtue of chastity. His employment of this symbolism in his poem

Triumphus Mortis spread and perpetuated the ermine iconography throughout Europe.

Born in Florence, Italy, Petrarch lived most of his life as a wanderer through

various towns located in northern Italy and southern France.76 As the son of a Catholic

lawyer, his family was devout and honorable but without noble status. He sought to live

a good Christian life, and this ideal is expressed throughout his work, which is characterized by the famous line that concludes the opening sonnet of the Canzoniere,

“whatever is pleasing in this world is but a brief dream.”77

Petrarch was provided with a private tutor and received what was considered to be a quality education, which included the study of Latin. It was recorded that Petrarch was

76 Henry Hollway-Calthrop, Petrarch (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1907), 7. 77 Stephen Minta, Petrarch and Petrarchanism, The English and French Traditions (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980), 3.

- 28 - reading the long, complex rhetoric of Cicero when his peers were still reading short

Aesop fables.78 His faith and desire to understand spirituality must have in some way

motivated him to study ancient and biblical texts as well. He was known to read classical, biblical, patristic, medieval and early humanist poetry and prose in Latin.79 He accepted

the ideals he found written by ancient Greek and Roman authors for his own time,

assuming that they provided the key to understanding the concerns of his age.80 Petrarch

was intimately familiar with Ovid, whom he included in his poem, The Triumph of Love

(III, 25), among the great poets held captive by Love.81 Furthermore, he would have

been familiar with numerous manuscripts and likely read about the weasel in

Christianized myths, as in that of Isador of Seville.

Regardless of his fervor for literature that was identified at an early age, Petrarch

did not immediately pursue a career in writing. To respect the wishes of his father,

Petrarch received a legal education; however, his passion for literature outlived his father.

When his father passed away, Petrarch ceased his practice of law and devoted his time

and energy to writing poetry.82

His decision to become a poet by profession was not in vain. Petrarch’s artful

writing ability was far from overlooked. In 1341, after the success of his first sizable

work, Africa, he became the first poet laureate on the Italian peninsula since antiquity,

78 Ibid., 18. 79 Peter Hainsworth, Petrarch the Poet (New York: Routledge, 1988), 80. 80 Carol E. Quillen, Rereading the Renaissance: Petrarch, Augustine, and the Language of Humanism (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998), 4. 81 Wilmon Brewer, Ovid in European Culture (Cornhill Publishing Co., 1959), 24. 82 Ibid., 27.

- 29 - and earned celebrity status throughout Europe.83 His love of the ancients and newfound

fame allowed him to advance his humanist philosophy.84

Two of Petrarch’s most popular works were Il Canzoniere (The Song Book) and I

Trionfi (The Triumphs).85 Petrarch’s Il Canzoniere is a collection of 366 love poems, most of which are written in sonnet form. Both Il Canzoniere and I Trionfi are written in the vernacular Italian of his age, and share a common theme carried throughout the poems – Petrarch’s consuming and unending desire for a woman he calls Laura. He tells us at the beginning of Il Canzoniere about the moment he first laid eyes on the object of his affection at morning services during Holy Week, April 6, 1327, in the Church of Saint

Clare in Avignon. From then on, Petrarch devotes himself whole-heartedly to Laura until her death, thirty-one years later.86

In his other popular text, Il Trionfi, Petrarch discusses the stages of the moral

development of humanity, communicated through allegorical narrative with Laura as the

virtuous lead actor. Petrarch constructs a linear progression, beginning with human Love and ending with Divinity. Chastity, he writes, conquers lustful human Love, which he

identifies as the continuing conflict between pleasure and pain. For Petrarch, Love is

paradoxical because it cannot bring delight without also involving sorrow. Chastity,

which eliminates the conflicting desires Petrarch loathes, is defeated by Death.

Typically, it is within the visual depictions of the “Triumph of Chastity” or the “Triumph

of Death” that the ermine is incorporated. Petrarch subscribed to the idea that mortality is

83 J.H. Plumb, The Italian Renaissance (New York: American Heritage, 1961), 164. 84 Humanism was an intellectual movement that called for scholars to revisit classical texts written in Greek and Latin, and incorporate these texts into the study of grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry, and history. The aesthetic of this philosophy held that physical beauty represented inner virtue and character, which he believed was necessary for salvation. 85 Il Canzoniere is also known as Rime Sparse, or in English Scattered Rhymes. 86 Gordon Braden, Petrarchan Love and the Continental Renaissance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 14-15.

- 30 - inevitable, and human virtue is eliminated when life ends.87 Tales of honor and human

goodness can be propagated by Fame, which triumphs over Death. Fame is then defeated

by Time, which slowly dissolves even the most righteous human legacies. Finally,

Petrarch claims that Time is squashed by the Divine; which transcends earthly reality and

is far greater than humankind. At the end of I Trionfi, Petrarch celebrates the beautiful

and desirable Laura as a true, generous mediator between the human and the divine.88

This allegory was set in a complex iconographical framework that included the ermine.

The association between the weasel and Petrarch’s Laura was further immortalized by

artists who celebrated the Petrarchan tradition.

Beginning in the late fourteenth century and increasing throughout the fifteenth

and sixteenth centuries, enthusiasm for Petrarchism surged. An early expression comes

from Geoffrey Chaucer in the Prologue of the Clerk’s Tale when he begins:

I wol yow telle a tale which that I Lerned at Padowe of a worthy clerk, As preved by his wordes and his werk. He is now deed and nayled in his cheste, I prey to God so yeve his soule reste! Fraunceys Petrak, the lauriat poete, Highte this clerk, whos rethorike sweete Enlumyned al Ytaille of poetrie…

This is but one example of the plethora of ways in which Petrarch was referenced,

praised, and admired through literature and the arts.

E. H. Wilkins defines this cultural movement as “productive activity in literature,

art, or music under the expression or admiration for him [Petrarch], and the study of his

87 He undoubtedly would have embraced the philosophy expressed in the motto of John IV, malo mori quam foedari because of his high moral standards, as in the accounts of John’s mercy in not executing his enemy. 88 Stephen Minta, Petrarch and Petrarchanism, The English and French Traditions (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980), 142.

- 31 - works and of their influence.”89 Wilkins identifies it as “beginning in his lifetime and

ending about 1600.”90 The Renaissance specialist Annalise Conneloy emphasizes the

abundance and accessibility of Petrarchan manuscripts throughout Europe. “The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries produced eighty-five manuscripts of the Triumphs alone and seventy-nine of the Triumphs and Canzoniere together.”91 By the middle of

the sixteenth century, the imagery from the Triumphs was well established as part of not

only literary culture, but also visual and ceremonial traditions, such as those of Elizabeth

I of England (1533-1603).92 The popularity of the poems contributed to civic and

religious celebrations, as well as to the system of symbols that gave these celebrations

specific meanings. Petrarchan symbols were universally recognized and understood

across the continent.93 In the 1490s, the visual interpretations of the Triumphs was widespread, appearing in tapestries, paintings, manuscript illuminations, ceramics, and frescos.94

Perhaps the most frequently referenced and illustrated scenes from the Triumphs

involve the praise of Laura for her virginity and virtue. In his poem Triumphus Mortis

(The Triumph of Death), Petrarch describes the return of his beautiful, chaste Laura from

a battle, victorious over Love. Upon her arrival, her troops marched with a victory

banner that Petrarch describes as:

The banner of their victory displayed An ermine white upon a field of green,

89 E.H. Wilkins, “A General Survey of Renaissance Petrarchism,” Studies in the Life and Works of Petrarch (Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1955), 280. 90 Ibid., 281. 91 Annalise Connolly and Lisa Hopkins, Eds., Goddesses and queens, the Iconography of Elizabeth I (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), 84. 92 Roy Strong, The Cult of Elizabeth. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977), 116. 93 Ibid. 94 Ibid., 86.

- 32 - Wearing a chain of topaz and of gold.95

Beautiful and pious in all ways, Laura, represented by the ermine banner, was confronted by Death. When facing her inevitable fate, she remained brave and pious, and exuded courage as a result of her faith in God. Petrarch describes the departure of her

soul from her body:

Her soul, contented, went its way in peace, Like to a light that is both clear and sweet And slowly loses its own nutriment, Keeping its dearness to the very end. Not pale, but whiter than the whitest snow Quietly falling on a gentle hill, She seemed to be aweary and at rest.96

The descriptive vocabulary used in this passage is not only an appropriate account

of Laura’s virtue, but also an artful use of similes and metaphors that create connections

to the symbol of the ermine. A “light that is both clear and sweet,” and the color of her soul, which is “whiter than the whitest snow,” could both be said of the ermine’s coat.

Likewise, the ermine was also known to preserve “its dearness to the very end,” as it was known in legend to choose death over defilement. These associations with purity are likely the reason Petrarch selected the ermine as a symbol for his beloved Laura.

His detailed literary portrayal of this green, white, and gold banner containing the ermine helped artists easily translate the image from written to visual language, as is evident in The Triumph of Chastity: Love Disarmed and Bound, painted by Luca

Signorelli (1440/50-1523) in 1509 (figure 12). The narrative begins in the left background, which contains a group of men and women led by Chastity, capturing Love.

Filling the right far background is a procession headed by Chastity and her prisoner Eros

95 Petrarch, Triumphus Mortis. 96 Ibid.

- 33 - aboard a horse-drawn cart. Central to the foreground, Eros, the god of love, is bound by

Laura in the final scene. The chaste heroines from antiquity, Lucretia and Penelope, and

several other women assist her in disarming Eros by breaking his bow and plucking the

feathers from his wings. To the right, the celebrated Roman generals, Caesar and Scipio

Africanus, coolly observe the captured god of love. Prominently displayed on a pole

above Eros and the central virgins flies the green banner bearing the solid white ermine

described by Petrarch that announces the arrival of Laura as Chastity.

While Signorelli’s allegorical painting includes characters from myth and ancient

history, the procession of Chastity was often an isolated theme that included only Laura

enthroned on a horse drawn carriage central to the composition, followed and surrounded by her female attendants. A variation of this theme can be seen in the Victoria and Albert

Museum’s Flemish tapestry, The Triumph of Death Over Chastity, 1507-1510 (figure 13),

depicts Laura and her retinue in triumphal procession approaching defeat by Death. In

the left background, a figure resembling the Virgin Mary stabs Laura in the breast with

the spiked pole bearing the ermine banner billowing above, conveying that even Laura’s chastity and virtue is subject to death at the hands of the holy. 97

A very different approach in depicting Chastity is found in another Flemish tapestry dated to the early 1500s from the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Three Fates

Triumphing Over Chastity (figure 14). The scene shows Chastity, as she lies defeated on the ground with the three Fates (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) standing on top of her.

97 Thus, the illustration of this popular scene changed from the late to the early 1500s as shown by the placement of the ermine banner. In 1488, the ermine is found in the foreground as a prominent symbol on the banner leading the procession. However, in the first decade of the 1500s, as exhibited by Signorelli’s painting and the Flemish tapestry of The Triumph of Death Over Chastity from the Victoria and Albert museum, the ermine banner recedes into the background. Whether the banner is in the foreground or background speaks to the message of the image. When Laura and Chastity are ascendant, her banner is prominent; when she is about to lose, her banner is symbolically put to the back.

- 34 - The Fates spin, measure, and cut the thread of Life; their acts represent the Triumph of

Death. On the ground below Chastity are white lilies on a long stalk lying parallel to

Chastity, and a tiny ermine is trapped after being chased from its burrow by a lizard and confronted by a toad. Just as Chastity experiences her last living moments on Earth, so does the ermine, as she is cornered by the animals representing evil and pestilence. Like

Chastity, the white lily remains unsullied and the ermine prefers death to soiling or corruption.

In this instance, the artists’ placement of the ermine’s place within the composition reflects a change in ideas as a result of Petrarchanism. No longer is the ermine an inanimate graphic on a banner. Instead, it is shown as a living creature in the foreground landscape confronting a threatening situation that it might face in its natural environment. In this rendering, the ermine is still most certainly associated with Laura as

Chastity and retains its meaning as a symbol of her virtue, but no longer is it just an extension of her image. Instead, the ermine now exists independently as if her companion in danger and defeat.

These are but a small sample of the myriad visual representations of Petrarch’s chaste Laura in which the ermine is also included. While each image is different from the next, they have in common the repetitive association of the white weasel with

Petrarch’s heroine. The employment of this symbolism was inspired by Petrarch’s knowledge of Classical and earlier medieval legends that exposed him to the notion that the ermine was connected with virginal purity. This connection resulted in the transference of Laura’s defining attribute, her chastity, to the ermine, just as the legend of

Ursula and the 11,000 virgins associated virginal purity with the ermine of Brittany.

- 35 - Thus, the visualization of Petrarch’s I Trionfi, based on ancient myth and legend, reinforced the meaning of the image of the ermine that was engineered in the duchy of

Brittany. The abundant illustrations of Laura’s ermine were distributed throughout

Europe, allowing the ermine to exist independently of Petrarchan context and outside of

Brittany as a stand-alone symbol of purity.

- 36 - Chapter IV: French Conquest of the Italian States and the

Transmission of an Image

While Petrarchism captured and transmitted the idea that the ermine represented

the female virtue of chastity from antiquity and Brittany to Italy, the interactions resulting

from political unions and conflicts between France and Italy also facilitated the transfer

of ermine symbolism through other visual communication modes and cultural resources from Northern to Southern Europe. One such venue for this transfer was the noble marriage. Often, marriages were arranged between those of high birth and social prestige to acquire resources, form alliances, and reconcile political differences. One such marriage took place in 1368, when Duke Lionel of England (1338-1368) married

Violante Visconti of Milan (1353-1386). The Visconti family possessed a tremendous amount of wealth and organized an elaborate wedding celebration, lasting months on end, as an outward display of their luxury and prosperity, power, and importance. 98 Their

guest list was equally impressive, as it listed the names of three of the fourteenth-

century’s finest writers: Geoffrey Chaucer of England, Jean Froissart of France, and

Francesco Petrarch of the Italian peninsula.

While these three intellectuals attended the Visconti wedding festivities, no solid

evidence exists of any substantial relationships between them. However, Froissart, the historian for the founder of the Order of the Ermine John IV’s battles, joined the poet

Petrarch, who incorporated the ermine as a symbol for Laura’s chastity, in the same wedding party. Regardless of whether these two actually had direct communication, this coincidence is a testament to the mobility and movement of people throughout fourteenth

98 Orville Prescott, Lords of Italy: Portraits from the Middle Ages (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 297.

- 37 - and fifteenth century Europe, which would have facilitated visual cross-cultural

exchanges. These exchanges would only become more frequent when power-hungry

authoritarian rulers chose to settle political differences through combat and conflict rather

than through diplomacy-building matrimony. Thus, images of the weasel, already known

well to Froissart and Petrarch, spread from the North to the South during the French conquest of Italy.

The first husband of Anne of Brittany (Chapter 2), Charles VIII, initiated wars that spanned several decades. These wars were responsible for one of the most visible cultural exchanges of early modern Europe. The Italian wars demonstrated the French interest in Italy, the resulting close contact between France and the Italian city-states, and

the vulnerability of these small regional city-state government. The Italian rulers chose to

implement manipulative visual language to help their cause in combating a much larger

and more formidable foe.

The political shape of Renaissance Italy took the form of five princely courts:

Naples, Urbino, Milan, , and Mantua. Each court was comprised of a prince and

his group of privileged insiders, including his consort, household, courtiers, and officials.

Princes maintained power and control over their courts, as they defined and assigned

roles to members. These members, as well as foreign guests and diplomats, were the elite

audience for which art was intended.99

While the sometimes harmonious and sometimes not so pleasant exchanges

between these Italian city-states are reflected in their shared artistic traditions, the Italian

courts also frequently communicated with foreign courts, especially those of France,

99 Alison Cole, Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts (New : Prentice Hall, 1995), 9.

- 38 - Germany, Spain, and Burgundy.100 Often, these connections were intended to facilitate

opportunities for Italian nobles to improve their social status. They enhanced their

international standing by hosting foreign dignitaries with fabulous hospitality and

indulging them with lavish entertainment. Likewise, Italian royals often married into high-ranking foreign families, using these unions to create beneficial political, economic, and social alliances; therefore, they held family in the highest regard. 101 These

intercontinental relationships also facilitated cultural transmission. However, these

exchanges did not always take place under the friendliest circumstances. Perhaps the most invasive and penetrating communication between France and Italy occurred during the French conquests of Milan (1494-1498) and Naples (1499-1504).

The Romanticized Debauchery of Charles VIII (ruled 1470-1498)

Motivated by a number of factors, Charles VIII instigated the first of many French

invasions of Italy in 1494.102 For one, as a young prince he was an avid reader who had a

great love for courtly literature,103 including legends and heroic tales about the conquests and crusades of knights, which may have idealized his notions of warfare.104 Prohibited

by his father from learning Latin, he instead mastered Italian.105 Charles’ early exposure

100 Ibid., 11. 101 Ibid. 102 His invasion was ironically encouraged by many Italian nobles. Ludovico Sforza and Pope Innocent VIII favored the French invasion into Italy. Sforza sought French assistance in securing his duchy, which he ruled in place of his nephew, and Pope Innocent VIII was an enemy of the house of Aragon. See Janine Garrison, A History of Sixteenth-Century France, 1483-1598. Richard Rex, trans. (New York: St. Marlins Press, 1995), 11-112. 103 Garrison, 105. 104 Ibid. Among the tales of chivalry written for him and given to him by his father, Louis XI were Les trios cages, Grandes Chroniques de France, Le rosier des suerres, and the Livre de la vie du roy Saint Louis. 105 Victor A. Rudowski, The Prince. A Historical Critique (New York: Twain Publishers, 1992) 35.

- 39 - to Italian language and literature, as well as to the romanticized tales of war, fed his

desire to have his own piece of Italy.

Charles’ immediate motivation was his distant claim to Naples through his paternal grandmother, Marie of .106 However, this earthly objective was disguised

as a crusade.107 His subjects and the Church would have viewed this as a far more acceptable reason to go to war because Charles envisioned southern Italy to be the sovereign departure point for his armies of crusaders that he imagined would one day conquer the Holy Land.108 His ambassador Robert Gaguin explained the righteous

purpose for this Christian mission when he announced, “The king is taking up arms to

repossess his kingdom of Naples in order to use it as a base for a crusade in Greece. He

will use his troops to overthrow the Ottoman Empire.”109 Proclaiming his mission to be

divine, Charles led 18,000 cavalry and 22,000 infantry across the Alps, where he and his

army took control of northern Italy with little opposition.110 The French military evoked

fear in the Italian people, who capitulated their towns without a fight. The size and

armament of the French army seemed larger-than-life to the Italians, who compared the

invasion of the French armies, which they called furia francese, to a violent storm of fire and blood.111 French soldiers and captains acted like barbarians with no regard for human

life or sacred ground. The Italians considered them to be worse than the Moors and the

106 Garrison, 111. Charles of Anjou and , Count of Provence, were invested with the kingdom of Naples by the papacy in 1264. 107 Robert W. Scheller, “Imperial Themes in Art and Literature of the Early Renaissance: The Period of Charles VIII,” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 12, no. 1 (1981-1982): 18. 108 Ibid., 20. 109 Garrison, 112. 110 Rudowski, 35. 111 R. J. Knecht, The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France 1483-1610 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 40.

- 40 - Turks, as they “desecrated churches and turned palaces into pigsties.”112 However, it was not until Charles expelled Alfonso and crowned himself King of Naples in 1495 that he provoked retaliation. The Italian states of Milan, Venice, Mantua, and the papacy detested the pillage and plunder by the French troops, so in 1495 they formed a league aimed at severing Charles’ ties to France and forcing him to flee to France. For several years, the French army battled against the league, weakening but maintaining their hold on Naples. While Charles won a battle in 1498 against the marquis of Mantua, this victory would be his final. Charles’ sojourn in Naples only lasted at total of eighteen months (between 1495-1498), as he died unexpectedly before he could send another expedition to Naples.113

Resentment and Desire: The Italian Conquests

of Louis XII (ruled 1498-1515)

Upon the accession of Louis XII to the French throne, the king immediately began

building up his army to send to Italy. He had inherited a potent force from Charles VIII’s

1494 expedition, and prepared them to take the state that was his “consuming passion”:

Milan.114 He hated Ludovico Sforza for his humiliating defeat of Louis at Novara in

1495, and for usurping what Louis believed was his own rightful title as Duke of

112 Ibid., 45. The debauchery of the French soldiers in Naples included foreign sexual encounters for which they paid a burdening price. Upon their return to France, they brought with them a new and horrific disease: syphilis. While the French called it the ‘Neopolitan sickness,’ the Italians called it the ‘French sickness.’ Less than ten years after it was first documented, it had syphilis had spread throughout Europe. 113 Rudowski, 37. Charles’ enthusiasm for battle might lead one to believe that he died in combat. However, he ended his life haphazardly when he “cracked his head on the lintel while passing under a low doorway.” 114 Frederic J. Baumgartner, Louis XII (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 105, 109.

- 41 - Milan.115 Louis refused to acknowledge Ludovico as the Duke of Milan, and instead

referred to him as Signor Ludovico. 116

Louis’ invasion of the region of Milan began on August 10, 1499. He ordered his

Milanese commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio to lay siege to the fortified town of Rocca

di Arazzo and slaughter the people.117 A few days later, the French repeated this episode

at Annone. When, on August 25, Trivulzio began to batter the walls of Allesandro, the second largest city of the duchy, Sforza began to realize that his resistance was pointless.

Sforza surrendered the citadel of Milan on September 17, and Louis XII added “Duke of

Milan” to his title by staging a triumphal procession through Milan on October 6.118 To reinforce his presence and to honor his new queen, Louis placed the arms of Brittany, adorned with ermine, over the gate of every Italian city he captured.119

For six weeks, Louis stayed in Milan and established his government, appointing

Trivulzio as governor, and gathering a ruling council consisting of eight Italian members

and seven French members. Louis substantially reduced the taxes that Sforza had been

collecting from the Milanese people, and he treated Milan as part of his kingdom rather

than a conquered territory.120

However, after Louis XII departed from his new duchy, the system he put into

place immediately fell apart. Sforza quickly learned of Trivulzio’s inability to maintain

order, and in mid-January of 1500, his army crossed into Milan to take back the duchy.

On February 5, Ludovico Sforza was welcomed back by the Milanese. Furious at this

115 Ibid. 116 Ibid. 117 Ibid., 113. Knecht, 50. 118 Baumgartner, 114. 119 Sanborn, 138. 120Ibid., 115.

- 42 - reversal, Louis responded by gathering mercenaries, taking back the duchy, and holding

Ludovico in captivity where he died in 1508. For twelve years, Louis XII would reign as

King of France and Duke of Milan.121

The ubiquitous influence of Louis XII went beyond merely controlling the duchy

of Milan. Once firmly established there, he turned his attention to the reacquisition of

Naples for France. His claim to the Kingdom of Naples came through his successor,

Charles VIII, but his desire to seize Naples was probably more motivated by the fact that

King Federigo of Naples was openly aiding his nemesis Ludovico Sforza.122 After

numerous attempts, Louis XII failed to capture Naples.

The Final Conquest: Francis I (ruled 1515-1547)

By 1515, any conquests the French had won in Italy were lost. However, the

French desire for the conquest of Italy did not end with Louis XII. His daughter, Claude

of France (1499-1524), had a claim to Milan that was actively pursued by her husband,

Francis I (1494-1547). 123 When Francis I succeeded the throne he was expected to regain control of the once-French territories won by Charles VIII and Louis XII and bring honor back to the French veterans who suffered defeat in the previous Italian wars.124

While Francis was motivated to make another attempt to conquer Italian states, the pursuit of the French claim to Milan and his desire to control Italy was largely unsuccessful in the long-term acquisition of territory. However, in lieu of military success he initiated a flowering in the arts that was unprecedented in France.

121Ibid., 117-118. 122Ibid., 119. 123 Diane Maury Robin, Anne R. Larsen and Carole Levin, Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 80. 124Knecht, 80.

- 43 - The Legacy of the Italian Wars

The Italian wars served as some of the most successful conveyors of culture of

early modern Europe. The French conquests of Naples and Milan led to extended periods

of French occupation in Italy. New governments were established, which forced the

mixing of French and Italians in society and politics. Negotiations and alliance-building demanded frequent communication between French and Italian monarchs.

In no other arenas are these interactions more pronounced than in the arts. Italian courts borrowed many of their common values, such as those involved in courtship, from

French literature. French was still regarded as the aristocratic spoken language,125 and the

French International Gothic style was established as their aristocratic visual language

throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.126 Italian princes even collected French

chivalric romantic texts and coveted membership in the French chivalric orders.127

It was through French imagery that the Italians became familiar with Anne of

Brittany. Not only were her arms of ermine hanging above the city gates of the Italian

towns conquered by Louis XII, but her portrait, depicted in front of the ermine pattern,

was included on medals and coinage (figure 15). During the wars, French soldiers would

have commonly traded these items in exchange for Italian goods. Likewise, there exists

good evidence that the Italians thought favorably of the French queen. Castiglione

described Anne of Brittany as “a very great lady, no less in virtue than in state and

justice, liberality and holiness…to compare her to Kings Charles and Louis, you shall not

125 Cole, 21. 126 Ibid., 22. 127 Ibid, 11.

- 44 - find her inferior.”128 So, the Italians knew of Anne’s character from their encounters with their northern invading neighbors.

Furthermore, the establishment of the Order of the Ermine in Naples was a result of the increased contact between France and Italy. Ferdinand I appropriated the ermine and the order from Brittany to establish himself and his knights as men of honor with pure hearts. As John IV did in the fourteenth century, Ferdinand used the symbolism to represent honor as symbol of his chivalric order, and to secure and promote his political power. Other Italian dukes, who recognized the power and potential political gains that could be attained by projecting an honorable image of their character to their subjects and visiting foreign nobles, mimicked Ferdinand’s adoption of the ermine as part of their own iconography.

128 Caroline P. Murphy, The Pope’s Daughter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 120.

- 45 - Chapter V: The Duplicitous Use of Ermine Imagery in Italy

As a result of the infusion of French imagery into the Italian peninsula during the

wars, the Italian dukes wished to mirror Brittany’s Order of the Ermine and adopted the

Breton weasel iconography to convey them as virtuous and honorable to other nobles,

regardless of whether they were in reality of high moral character or not. The meaning of

the ermine icon as displayed in the Italian courts was informed by the chivalric Order of

the Ermine, which spread to Italy from Brittany through the French invasions of Milan

and Naples. However, with the Italians’ adoption of this imagery, the original meaning

of the ermine as a symbol of honor and chastity was twisted by those who selected it as

their personal icon.

The Deception of Sprezzatura and Carpaccio’s Young Knight

Vittore Carpaccio (c.1460-1526) produced a painting in 1510 that is exemplary of

the iconographic use of the ermine in Italy.129 His full-length portrait Young Knight in a

Landscape (figure 16a) depicts a spirited youth in armor, standing erect with his feet

wide apart and firmly planted on the ground. He holds his chin up as he confidently

looks out of the painting, his head turned slightly to the viewer’s right. His body is

turned in a three-quarter pose toward the left, as he maintains a powerful grip on the

sheath and hilt of his sword. His posture clearly demonstrates the Italian concept called

129 Carpaccio’s Young Knight in a Landscape is ripe with opportunities for iconographical interpretation based on the numerous symbolic devices included in the painting. For the purposes of my argument, I have only considered the inclusion of the ermine. For more on the various interpretations of other iconography within this painting, see R. Goffen, “Carpaccio’s Portrait of a Young Knight: Identity and Meaning,” Arte Veneta. XXXVII (1983): 37-48; M. Levi D’Ancona, “The Garden of the Renaissance, Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting,” Firenze (1977): alle singole voci; F. Hartt, “Carpaccio’s Meditation on the Passion,” Art Bulletin XXII (1940): 22-35; Helmut Nickel, “Carpaccio’s ‘Young Knight in a Landscape’: Christian Champion and Guardian of Liberty,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 18 (1983): 85-96.

- 46 - sprezzatura.130 He stands on a path that winds back to the right into the pastoral

background. In the lower left corner of the painting is a small white ermine among the

foliage in the foreground (figure 16b). Directly behind it there is a cartellino bearing the

inscription Malo mori quam foedari.

Various scholars have attempted to identify the knight based on the inclusion of the ermine and the cartellino. Helen Comstock suggests that the knight was a member of the Order of the Ermine.131 However, Agathe Rona differentiates between the motto of

the order, Decorum,132 and the personal motto of King Ferdinand. She assumes that

Ferdinand’s motto Malo mori quam foedari was adopted exclusively by his family, and proposes that the model for the young knight was Ferdinand II.133 Most recently, Helmet

Nickel associates the ermine with the order founded in northern France, and identifies the

young knight as Roland Ragusa, count of Brittany.134 Although these scholars disagree

on the exact identity of the subject, they accept his association with honor as indicated by

the presence of the ermine.135

The inclusion of the ermine associates the knight portrayed with honor, the very

nature of his sprezzatura is problematic in understanding Italian iconography. This

results from two varying interpretations of the meaning of sprezzatura as described in

Baldassarre Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier, written in 1507. In a translation by

130 Baldessarre Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier: The Singleton Translation Daniel Javitch, Ed. (New York: Norton, 2002), 32. Sprezzatura is most generally known as the possession of a casual coolness, or the appearance of one as having the ability to complete any task with grace and ease. 131 Helen Comstock, “Carpaccio Signature Discovered,” Connoisseur 142 (1958): 64. She addressed the proper Latin translation of the motto, malo mori quam foedari. 132 In the Renaissance, Decorum would have meant acting in a way that was appropriate to the situation. Like the motto of Ferdinand I, Decorum still ties the ermine to notions of acting in a chivalric way and maintaining honor. 133 Agathe Rona, “Zur Identitat von Carpaccios ‘Ritter,’” Pantheon 41, no. 4 (1983): 295-302. 134 Nickel, 94. Along with the ermine, Nickel also considers the cityscape in the background and the design of the young knight’s sword to identify the young knight pictured as Roland of Ragusa. 135 Herbert Friedmann, “Footnotes to the Painted Page: The Iconography of an Altarpiece by Botticini,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 28, no. 1 (Summer 1969): 2.

- 47 - Charles Singleton in 1959, sprezzatura is described as a type of nonchalance. More specifically, sprezzatura is the ability to make difficult tasks appear effortless.

Conversely, Harry Berger described sprezzatura as a disguise of one’s real intentions and desires with the guise of reservation, composure, and imperturbability.136 Thus, the notion of sprezzatura is inherently deceptive, and the inclusion of the ermine in this painting may represent a worthy knight, or, as with Alfonso of Naples to be discussed, the knight may be appropriating the ermine and the Order of the Ermine to mask cowardice and the lack of honor as a deliberate cover-up and image makeover.137 As with so many other symbols of virtue employed by noble families and individuals during the Renaissance, including an animal such as the ermine is propaganda used for a political end. Without a firm identification, and thorough study of the man’s life, one can only speculate. Perhaps a thorough examination of all the symbolic elements in the painting may lead to a firmer identification of the knight and the intention of meaning.

Inventing the New Ermine: The Fictitious Clemency of

Ferdinand I of Naples

King Ferdinand I of Naples (1423-1494) founded the Italian Order of the Ermine in 1463 to remedy the precarious political environment in his Neapolitan court. Italian historian Paolo Giovio (1483-1552) chronicled these conflicts,138 giving an account of

136 Harry Berger Jr., The Absence of Grace (Stanford University Press, 2000). 137 Vittore Carpaccio’s paintings are full of duplicitous meanings and secrets. In his painting Life of St. Jerome: Vision of St. Augustine (figure 17a) , the small white dog (figure 17b) watching St. Augustine transcribe his visions from the floor was initially an ermine, but became a dog in the painting. See Clare Van Cleave, Master Drawings of the Italian Renaissance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 106. 138 Paolo Giovio, Dialogo dell’Imprese. Stephen Orgel, ed. (New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1979), 36-37. Originally published in 1555. For a chronological account of the Italian Wars, see

- 48 - Ferdinand’s establishment of the order, which he paired with an ermine emblem that

Ferdinand adopted as his personal device (figure 18).139 In Giovio’s device for the King

of Naples, the profile view of the ermine is centrally-placed in the oval composition. A

ring of dung on the ground surrounds the animal. Above is a raised crown and a banner bearing the motto of Ferdinand I, MALO MORI QVAM FOEDARI (‘Death before

Dishonor’).140 Giovio’s text that he paired with the emblem exalts the noble deeds and

virtuosity of Ferdinand I by combining the iconic emblem containing a legendary pure

and righteous animal refusing to cross the dung ring with what turns out to be a fictive

story about the King.

In the text, Giovio explained how Ferdinand I, King of Naples, ended the war he

was fighting with John of Lorain, Duke of Calabria in 1463. The King’s brother-in-law,

Marino di Marciano, Duke of Sessa and Prince of Rosiano, had gathered a cabal and

conspired to kill the King so that he would inherit the Neapolitan city-state. When this

plot surfaced and Ferdinand became aware of his brother-in-law’s intentions, as the story

goes, he chose not to execute his brother-in-law for treason, which was a commonplace

punishment for this crime. Instead, he “turned the other cheek,” so to speak, and elected

him as a member of the Order of the Ermine, along with all the other nobles in his

Mary A. Hollings, “The Italian Wars to 1518,” in Europe in the Renaissance and Reformation, 1453-1659 (London: Methuen & Co., 1911): 73-102. For the Italian perceptions on the Italian Wars, see John Rigby Hale, “War and Public Opinion in Renaissance Italy,” in Renaissance War Studies (London & New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1983): 359-388. 139 The connection between the ermine and Ferdinand’s motto was strengthened and perpetuated by emblem books. These books were printed in multiple languages and distributed across the continent. They contained small graphics that were coupled with a phrase or motto. Thus, an emblem can be viewed as the marriage between an illustration and the written word with the purpose of creating a symbol with a specific edifying meaning. Emblem books were widely available and commonplace in the sixteenth century. Considering their prevalence in society as pleasing didactic images, it is not surprising that the ideas presented within the pages of these emblem books quickly became common knowledge, and particular emblems may have often been the inspiration for family iconographical schemas of the age, including emblems that included the weasel. 140 The identity of the artist who designed this image is unknown, but the motto was adapted from John IV of Brittany. See Chapter 2.

- 49 - kingdom.141 His move was a shrewd one considering the strict code of honor followed by

knights and princes of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Any enemies were

now bound to him by oath. However, Giovio’s account of Ferdinand’s dealings with

Marino di Marciano fails to mention Marciano’s real punishment. In lieu of execution,

Ferdinand had Marciano and his five-year-old son imprisoned in the Castelnuovo for

thirty years.142 Thus, by adopting the ermine as his device and establishing his chivalric order, Ferdinand disguises his ruthlessness with the ermine as his façade of spotless virtue with a chivalric order. Instead of showing real mercy, as did John IV, he cruelly imprisoned an innocent child.

Because of the extremely unstable political circumstances under which the order was founded, King Ferdinand I needed to create an order in which the character requirements for invitation were associated with the ermine, long a symbol of integrity and high esteem for upholding a greater good. He chose John IV of Brittany and his story of clemency as his model and established the Order of the Ermine in Naples using a similar framework, ceremonies, and iconography. The Order of the Ermine was unique in that it was not only open to those of the highest levels of nobility, but also those from the lower levels of nobility and gentry, even including illegitimate usurpers, who demonstrated deserving “virtue” through their loyalty to the king..143 Thus, the Order of

the Ermine founded by Ferdinand I of Naples theoretically tied the paramount qualities of

noble knighthood with the image of the ermine, which became the visual ambassador of

these ideals.

141 The Manual of Rank and Nobility (London: Sanders and Otley, 1828), 374-375. 142 J.H. Bentley, Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples (Princeton: 1987), 26. 143 Maurice Hugh Keen, Chivalry (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), 196-197.

- 50 - The Ermine as a Façade of Courage for Alfonso of Naples

As more members were inducted into the order, the familiarity of the ermine

symbol spread. Wearing the ermine pendant of the order was a display of one’s moral

fiber, so noblemen would have enjoyed including the pendant in their portrait for

posterity, as did Alfonso II of Naples, Duke of Calabria (1448-1495). In the 1490s, the

Italian sculptor Guido Mazzoni (c. 1445-1518) cast a life-sized bronze bust portrait of

Alfonso II in which he displays the official collar, cap-pin, and jewel-encrusted gold

ermine-shaped pendant to represent his membership into the Order of the Ermine (figure

19). Ruth Sullivan suggests that Alfonso may have commissioned this portrait, with the inclusion of his full regalia, when he served as king and Head of the Order of the Ermine

in Naples from 1494-1501.144 Through this depiction, Alfonso expressed his passion and

pride in both the Order of the Ermine and the ideals embodied by this symbolic animal.

However, the invasion of Naples by the armies of Charles VIII evoked terror in the heart of Alfonso, exposing his inability to live up to the philosophy of his order as

expressed by the motto malo mori quam foedari. Although Alfonso had strong

fortifications and large armies, Charles VIII intimidated him and eroded Alfonso’s mental

capacities. His fear overpowered him and he “broke down like a panic-stricken girl.”145

His sleep was interrupted by horrifying night terrors where, “out of the dark there came to visit him the specters of men whom he had slain by treachery, each one seeming to rejoice at the vengeance of which Heaven had made the French King the instrument.”146

144 Ruth W. Sullivan, “Three Ferrarese Panels on the Theme of ‘Death Rather than Dishonour’ and the Neapolitan Connection,” Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte 57, no. 4 (1994): 621. However, Sullivan also notes that Alfonso’s reign was short-lived, and the time that would have been necessary for him to sit for a portrait and see to its completion would have been limited. 145 Arthur H. Norway, Naples Past and Present (London: Methuen & Co., 1901), 71. 146 Ibid.

- 51 - Alfonso’s psychological instability rendered him incapable of leading his duchy. He

abdicated his kingdom to his young son Ferdinand and fled to a monastery in Sicily

where he lived until his death.147 Alfonso’s cowardly, irrational response to the French

invasion was in stark contrast to the ideals he portrayed himself representing through the

symbol of the ermine. Rather than tenaciously leading his country to his death, he

abandoned his responsibility and forfeited his honorable reputation.

The Ermine as a Legitimizer in the Court of Federico da Montefeltro,

Duke of Urbino

A man who tenaciously and effectively kept his honor while using ermine

imagery to his own purposes was the first duke of Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro

(1422-82) who was a knight of the Order of the Ermine. He joined the Order of the

Ermine in 1474, shortly after Ferdinand I founded the order. 148 He was so proud of this

new prestigious designation that he began to identify himself with the ermine, and

significantly placed the weasel’s likeness into the interior of his ducal palace at Gubbio.

This can be seen in both his portrait with his son and on the wooden inlayed walls of his

palace’s studiolo.

The double portrait of Federico and his son, Guidobaldo (figure 20), painted by

the Netherlandish artist Joos van Wassenhove (1410-1480), is not only a state portrait,

but also, as Olga Raggio claims, “a symbol of Federico’s dynastic pride and an

147 Ibid., 72. For more on the events surrounding Alfonso’s flee from Naples, see John M. Najemy, Italy in the Age of the Renaissance (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2004), 221. 148 Helmut Nickel, “Carpaccio’s ‘Young Knight in a Landscape’: Christian Champion and Guardian of Liberty,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 18 (1983): 85.

- 52 - expression of his most profound ambitions and ideals.”149 The picture shows Federico

seated in an armchair in a small, narrow room as he reads from a book. His little son,

wearing a pearl-studded robe and carrying the scepter of command that will one day be

his, leans against his father’s knee and gazes off into the distance. Federico is equipped

with his armor and seems absorbed in a large book, conveying that he maintained a

balance between his intellectual life and his military career. The presence of his son, who stands with discipline and respect, indicates Federico’s dynastic hopes, and his

acknowledgement of his responsibility to pass on his knowledge and values.

Ironically, Federico was not at first the legitimate heir to Urbino. He was the son

of Guidantonio da Montefeltro and a young court lady from Gubbio, Elisabetta degli

Accommanduci.150 Not until Federico usurped the duchy of Urbino from his half-

brother, Oddantonio, in 1444, did Martin V issue a bull of legitimization.151

Perhaps in an effort to conceal his initial illegitimate claims to the throne,

Federico has incorporated visual reminders of his honor and knighthood in the Order of

the Ermine of Ferdinand I. As he sits erect holding the book, the jeweled collar of the

ermine hangs around his neck and drapes down his chest. From the collar hangs a gold

pendant in the shape of an ermine, worn to remind knights in the order of the untainted

qualities that all members must possess. Further, Federico wears a short mantle made of

149 Olga Raggio, “The Liberal Arts Studiolo from the Ducal Palace at Gubbio,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 53, no. 4 (Spring 1996): 8. 150 This is acknowledged in a document that accompanied the papal bull in the State Archive in Florence, but was not made public at the time so the young lady’s name was not tarnished and to keep Guidantonio’s wife Rengarda Malatesta, who was seriously ill, from getting angry and hostile. See Joe Cornish and June Osbourne, Urbino: The Story of a Renaissance City (London: Frances Lincoln, Ltd., 2003), 46. 151 Upon Oddantonio’s birth, Federico was exiled from Urbino. He received an excellent education in the court of Gonzaga and trained as a professional fighter. When he received word that his unpopular half- brother Oddantonio had been hacked to death in a coup d’etat, he returned to Urbino, where he was welcomed and loved, to rule as the Duke. For more on this account, see Cornish and Osbourne, 43-55; Laurie Adams, Italian Renaissance Art (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), 192.

- 53 - ermine fur beneath the ermine-shaped pendant. The design of this accessory reinforces

the presence of the ermine fur, as the black-tipped tails of these otherwise white weasels

have been left to hang from the combined pelts. This is uncommon, as most ermine fur

trim was designed and depicted in paintings to look more like a continuous black-spotted

white fur than as a compilation of multiple pelts. In the portrait, the attention given to the

ermine fur and tails, and the ermine pendant, and representations of his ducal power and

dynastic ambitions, suggest that Federico not only embraced his place within the Order of the Ermine, but also connected the ermine’s image with his duchy, much like Breton rulers had in the fourteenth century.

Similarly, Montefeltro strategically placed the ermine motif in the intarsia

wainscoting of his studiolo in ducal palace at Gubbio (figure 21a). The studiolo was a small room that served as both a study retreat and a space to show visiting dignitaries the imagery that embodied his rule.152 Below a series of portraits of illustrious men, wood paneling 2.68 meters in height stretched around the room. The wainscoting was made of

a series of illusionistic intarsia panels depicting latticed cupboards holding familiar

objects that were special to Federico. Among these were reflections of his humanistic

interests, such as scientific and musical instruments, armor, and books. There were also

panels that contained Federico’s personal devices, alluding to events, virtues, and

aspirations to which he assigned special importance.

152Cole, 78.

- 54 - One of these personal imprese,153 which was symmetrically repeated along the

wood paneling that circled the room, depicted an ermine on a hummock, standing by a

banner with the motto Non mai (figure 21b).154 Again, the ermine functions as a

symbolic reference to Federico’s honor as a knight in the Order of the Ermine. However,

the ermine is presented alongside symbols of his military success, such as his armor and

weaponry, as well as those of his intellectual abilities, represented by the books and

instruments. This multivalent iconography not only signifies, through the incorporation of the ermine, his claim to the most noble virtue of honor, but at the same time helps illustrate the importance Federico da Montefeltro placed on being both learned and

courageous. In Urbino and Gubbio, Federico da Montefeltro utilized the image of a

member of the weasel family as part of his iconography to portray himself as a dignified

scholar and brave warrior. Through the carefully placed ermine picture, he purposefully

made to ermine imagery visible to visiting dignitaries and nobles to project knighthood

and honor. As political power and social status were determined by bloodlines, the

virtuous qualities associated with the ermine were important for Federico to present to

other nobles, as he had come to rule by merit rather than birth. As emphasized in the

qualifications for entry into the Order of the Ermine, demonstrated worthiness was highly

valued, even over inheriting a title outright, perhaps. The ermine iconography was used

153 There exists a debate over what constitutes an impresa and what constitutes an emblem. The discrepancy is found in the relationship of the text to the image. Most Sixteenth-century Italian imprese theorists consider the impresa to be an image that can be freely associated with any words or context to convey its creator’s original concept or feeling. In contrast, the text of an emblem functions to repeat or interpret the image, making the object’s meaning explicit. See Denis Drysdall, “The Emblem According to the Italian Imprese Theorists,” in The Emblem in Renaissance and Baroque Europe: Tradition and Variety. Alison Adams and Anthony J. Harper, Eds. (New York: E.J. Brill, 1992): 22-32. The interpretive freedom lent to the image through the ambiguous motto Non mai qualifies it as an impresa rather than an emblem. Imprese is the plural form for impresa. 154 Nickel, 88. Non mai translates to “never.” This was probably added to the ermine to hint at Federico’s innocence in the assassination of Oddantonio. See Raggio, 28.

- 55 - by Federico to downplay his illegitimacy, and instead, bring attention to his dignified character as Duke of Urbino and knight of the Order of the Ermine.

Duplicity and Da Vinci: an Assessment of the Interpretations of Lady

with an Ermine

The Duke of Urbino was neither the first nor the last to employ the ermine in an

“illegitimate” fashion. The weasel played an important iconographic role for yet another

Italian leader in the late fifteenth-century portrait of Ludovico Sforza’s mistress painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Sometime between 1483 and 1489, the Duke of Milan, Ludovico

Sforza (1452-1508),155 commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his mistress, Cecilia Gallerani (figure 22).156 Born in 1473 as Cecilia was betrothed (pro verba) at the age of ten to Giovanni Stefano Visconti, but this betrothal was dissolved in

1487. Shortly thereafter Cecilia became the mistress of Ludovico Sforza. However, this relationship was a complicating factor in the 1480 betrothal of Ludovico to Beatrice d’Este (1475–1497) of Ferrara.157 The affair between Cecilia and Ludovico delayed the official solemnization of Ludovico’s marriage for an entire year, from 1490-1491. In

155 The dating of this painting is a source of scholarly debate. Ochenkowski and Wright have assigned it to the mid 1480s, while Shell and Sironi have identified it as being produced between 1489 and 1490. See H. Ochenkowski and William Wright, 186-203; and Janice Shell and Grazioso Sironi, “Cecilia Gallerani: Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine,” Artibus et Historiae 13, no. 25 (1992): 47-66. For the purpose of this paper, I accept 1489 as its date of production. 156 Lady with an Ermine, 1489. While both the authorship and the identity of the sitter have been called into question, I find no reason to doubt either. For support of this position, see H. Ochenkowski and William Wright, “The Quartercentenary of Leonardo da Vinci.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 34, no. 194 (May 1919): 186-203; Janice Shell and Grazioso Sironi, “Cecilia Gallerani: Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine.” Artibus et Historiae 13, no. 25 (1992): 47-66; Marek Rostworowski, “Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine,” and Maria Rzepinska, “Some Questions About the Model for the Lady with an Ermine,” in Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Lady with an Ermine: From the Czartoryski Collection, National Museum, Cracow. Jozef Grabski and Janusz Watek, Eds. (Cracow: IRSA, 1991): 19-23, 28-31. 157 Maria Rzepinska, “Some Questions About the Model for the Lady with an Ermine,” in Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Lady with an Ermine: From the Czartoryski Collection, National Museum, Cracow. Edited by Jozef Grabski and Janusz Watek. (Cracow: IRSA, 1991), 28.

- 56 - order to marry Beatrice, Ludovico had to leave Cecilia, who was considered one of the

most beautiful and enchanting women at the court of Milan; it was difficult and painful,

but necessary to his honor and responsibilities as Duke.

When Leonardo Da Vinci was commissioned by the Sforza court to paint the

portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, he broke free from the conventional format of Italian

portraiture and brought his sitter to life through new compositional modes.158

Traditionally titled Lady with an Ermine, the animal pictured here is not actually an ermine, but rather a white ferret. 159 Ferrets were kept in royal courts for pest control, and

also served as hunting companions. Compared to its wild cousin the ermine, a white

ferret that was accustomed to interacting with humans in a domestic environment would

have been a much more complacent sitter for the portrait. (For the purposes of this

discussion, the traditional designation of ermine will still be used.)

Because Cecilia was a mistress and not a bride, Leonardo was not constricted by

the convention of the time of showing the sitter in profile, as was custom in most nuptial

portraits at that time.160 Instead, Leonardo was given some freedom to choose the

posture of his sitter and her weasel. Rather than the sitter facing the same way that her

body is turned, Leonardo infuses the portrait with a sense of motion by painting Cecilia’s

body elegantly turning her gaze over her left shoulder as her body turns slightly to her

158 The painting thereby corresponds to the dynamic style of portraiture that Leonardo was already working towards and which is explicitly formulated in his treatise on painting. 159 While the animal in the painting is intended to be an ermine, it is most likely a ferret. The ferret differs from the ermine only by being slightly larger in size, and to represent the ermine, the artist might have used a tame ferret as a model. See Jozef Grabski and Janusz Watek, Eds., “Introduction,” in Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Lady with an Ermine: From the Czartoryski Collection, National Museum, Cracow (Cracow: IRSA, 1991): 6. 160 As in Leonardo’s profile portrait of Beatrice d’Este, painted in 1490 and presented to her as a gift at her wedding to Ludovico Sforza.

- 57 - right. The ermine mimics this S-curve posture, as its neck is gently stroked by Cecilia.161

It is the presence of the ermine that both characterizes this painting and lends to

Cecilia Gallerani an air of mystery. No documents explain exactly why she was painted

with the animal, but scholars suggest a number of reasons for its incorporation into the

composition. One explanation is that there is a play on names within the painting.162

The Greek word for ermine is galée. The Greek term is believed by some to allude to

Cecilia’s surname, Gallerani, which has a similar pronunciation by Italian speakers.

It is commonly suggested that the ermine functions within the painting as a

symbol of purity and moderation, as is shown in Leonardo’s notebooks (figure 22b).163

Like many of his contemporaries, Leonardo was interested in the study of animals. He collected bestiaries, took notes of his own on animal behavior, folklore, and anatomy, and owned three versions of Aesop’s fables.164 Among other texts he owned were emblem books that explained the significance of animals, such as Il Fiore di Virtu. These texts were influential in Leonardo’s identification of the ermine. Generally, these legends discuss how the ermine abhorred dirt and preserved its purity at all costs. Leonardo makes a specific reference to these qualities of the ermine in his notes, where he writes,

“The ermine because of its moderation eats only once a day, and it allows itself to be captured by the hunters rather than take refuge in a muddy lair, in order not to stain its purity.”165 He also identifies the ermine with purity, subscribing to the Petrarchan

meaning of the ermine symbol, in a pen drawing of an ermine included in his

161 It has been pointed out that Cecilia and the weasel ironically resemble each other. See Lavonne Mueller, “Language as Art and Art as Language,” The English Journal 66, no. 7 (Oct., 1977): 51. 162 James Beck, “The Dream of Leonardo da Vinci,” Artibus et Historiae 14, no. 27 (1993): 191. 163 Edward MacCurdy, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci Vol. II (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1938), 474. 164 Esopo in lingua franciosa, Isopo in versi, and Favole d’Isopo (Madrid Codices, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, II, folios 2 verso-3 recto). 165 MacCurdy 474.

- 58 - sketchbooks.166 This allegorical drawing illustrates the traditional belief that an ermine

would rather be killed than dirty its white fur in an attempt to escape. In this case,

Leonardo could have been equating these qualities to Cecilia.

Another reading of Leonardo’s portrait suggests that the ermine is an allusion to

Ludovico Sforza. 167 In 1485, Ludovico was an ally of Ferdinand I against the rebellious barons, and because of his loyalty to Ferdinand, Ludovico was among the first to be inducted into the Order of the Ermine in 1488.168 After joining the order, Ludovico, like

Frederico da Montefeltro, adopted the ermine as one of his emblems. Figuratively then,

the portrait shows Ludovico, symbolized by the ermine, being intimately caressed by his

mistress.169

Alternatively, Krystyna Moczulska examined the significance of the ferret,

ermine, and weasel in ancient literature, applying ancient classical notions of the ermine

directly to Cecilia’s personal circumstances, specifically, her pregnancy.170 Thus, Cecilia

is connected with Ovid’s story of Alcmena and the birth of Hercules.171 Ovid’s story

begins when impregnates Alcmena. Zeus’ wife does everything in her power

to prevent the birth of Alcamena’s son Hercules. Galanthis, the maid who facilitates

Hercules’ birth, is transformed into a weasel for going against the wishes of Hera.

Similarly, Cecilia Gallerani and Ludovico experienced a comparable situation at the end

166 From 1490; A. E. Popham, The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci (London: Jonathan Cape, 1973), 119. 167 For his selfishness, see D. M. Bueno de Mesquita, The Conscience of the Prince (London: Oxford University Press, 1979), 421-441; For his poor judgement, see Cole, 104; Usurping his own nephew and being a schemer in general, see Jerry H. Bentley, Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987), 34, 187-190. 168 Ruth W. Sullivan, “Three Ferrarese Panels on the Theme of ‘Death Rather than Dishonour’ and the Neapolitan Connection,” Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte 57, no. 4 (1994) 620. 169 Ochenkowski and Wright,191. 170 Krystyna Moczulska, “The Most Graceful Gallerani and the most Exquisite Gale in the Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci,” Folia Historiae Artium, I (1995) 77-86. 171 Metamorphoses 9.283–323.

- 59 - of the 1480s when Cecilia was pregnant by her lover Ludovico; however, Ludovico had committed to marry Beatrice d’Este, who, much like Hera, was angered by the thought of her husband-to-be fathering an illegitimate child by another woman. The revival of this tale connected the weasel with childbirth. Likewise, Moczulska argues that during the

Renaissance, the weasel was considered a protector of pregnant women. Therefore, the weasel pictured with Cecilia may have been inserted to allude to the fact that the animal was in the role of Alcamena, indicating that Cecilia was pregnant and the ermine was there to protect the mistress as she carried Ludovico’s child.

Scholars have suggested a wide variety of possible meanings associated with the weasel in Cecilia’s portrait. It has been viewed as a play on the name Gallerani, an indicator of pregnancy, and a symbol of love, purity, and moderation. The fact that there are so many possible readings of weasel symbolism in this portrait might mean that its inclusion could even have been meant to deceive or at least confuse the viewer. Almost a century later, Elizabeth I of England was portrayed alongside a small white ermine in a portrait from 1585 (See Appendix). In the posture of Cecilia, she sits in a three-quarter pose with the ermine resting on her sleeve to remind the viewer of her feminine virtue.

This image is also duplicitous to a certain degree, as it was necessary for Elizabeth to portray a virtuous political image after she authorized the execution of her own cousin,

Mary Queen of Scots.172 By the early 1530’s, the Italian draftsman Andrea Alciati (1492-

1550) had recognized the deceitful nature of those who identify with this increasingly

ambiguous and manipulated sign. In his emblem books,173 he paired the image of the

weasel with text that warns the reader that the weasel has become a symbol of duplicity.

172 Susan Doran, Queen Elizabeth I (New York: NYU Press, 2003), 103. 173 First published in Augsburg in 1531. For this study, I reference the Lyon copy published in 1552, found in Henry Green, Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems. New York: Burt Franklin, 1872.

- 60 -

Alciati’s Ermine Emblem: A Warning of Visual

Misrepresentation

In the ermine emblem of Andrea Alciati, the weasel is shown alone in a three-

quarter pose, centrally-placed within the foreground of the rectangular-shaped composition (figure 23). Architectural elements, such as the vaulted structure in the middle ground and the castle, a symbol of the monarchy, in the background, demonstrate

Alciati’s use of linear perspective to define a realistic-looking space. The weasel in the

foreground rests on the earth beside some rocks and grass.

Above the image is the Latin motto Bonis auspicus incipiendum174. Following

the image is this explanation:

Auspicus res coepta malis, bene cedere nescit. Felici que sunt omine facta, iuuant. Quidquid agis, mustella tibi si occurrat, omitte: Signa male hec sortis bestia prana gerit.

[With bad rulers, it is best to surrender ignorance; The ruler puts an end to the delight of the favorable ones; Wherever you go, if a weasel runs towards you, let it go: A beast of this sort badly engages the spiritual signs.]

174 “Beginning as Good Authority.” The translation of this Renaissance Latin text presents a notable ambiguity. The Latin word auspicius can translate to “omen,” as in a sign of unfavorable circumstances, or “authority,” as in the power to command and rule. This dual meaning presents a challenge to the translator, who uses discretion as to when to apply each meaning. However, in my specific case the interchangeability of “omen” and “authority” has no negative effect on my argument. I could not find an English translation of this for comparison. I give many thanks to Juan Vidal and Emelia Oddo for their consultation on this translation.

- 61 - While the title introduces the image as one representing the beginning of a good

rule, the following text relates the weasel to bad rulers or omens. The weasel can function

in two different ways, depending on the translation of auspicius, which come to the same

conclusion. First, the weasel could be a metaphor for a bad ruler. In this case, the text instructs the reader not to act ignorant of the political circumstances, but to immediately address them by removing the figure of authority from power at the first sign of that leader’s malice. The text ends by warning the reader that bad things will happen if this

‘beast’ of an authority figure is left in power. Alciati prescribes that at the first display of poor leadership, a monarch should be stripped of his authority.

Alternatively, another translation of this text considers the weasel to be an omen for bad things to come. According to this interpretation, when a weasel is encountered, it

should not be ignored or taken lightly. This animal is a warning of malevolence that

should be avoided at all costs. Andrea Alciati may have been aware of the paradox of

Ferdinand’s emblem when he used this emblem of the ermine in 1522. Alciati seems to

address the duplicitous usage of the “virtuous” ermine emblem by Italian nobles; in his

emblem, he creates instead an exemplum of the misuse of power.

Italian rulers recognized the importance of iconography and regalia in generating

power and respect while maintaining absolute control of their provinces. Due to its place

in tradition and lore, the symbolic ideals attached to the ermine were appropriated by

those who often did not live up to the virtuous morality they wished to project. By

adopting things associated with higher goods such as the weasel as their symbol, perhaps

they sought to mask the inconvenient realities of their rule. As all rulers for centuries

have chosen a variety of objects, plants, and animals, Ferdinand I adopted the ermine as

- 62 - his device for propaganda purposes. By the mid 1500s, the familiar and influential image

of the weasel may have been used by too many flawed individuals, ultimately

transforming a once virtuous symbol into a warning of irresponsible and unholy behavior.

Conclusion

This examination of the ways in which the ermine was used and transmitted from northern to Southern Europe serves as a case study for the movement of people through the holy wars and on pilgrimages, the increasing number of literate people, the oppression of female sexuality, and the construction of political reality. In chapter one, I discussed the legends that recorded the weasel in Christian manuscripts that were rooted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. These legends evolved and transformed as they were retold and rerecorded in manuscripts by Isadore of Seville,

Guilleme le Clerc, and Latini Brunetto, among numerous others. These Christianized mythologies perpetuated the ideas of Ovid and Pliny, and identified the weasel with

Immaculate Conception, and the popular bestiary of Fiore di Virtu identified the weasel

with courage and integrity.

The weasel was also a staple component in the legends surrounding the

establishment of Brittany, causing the ermine to become a symbol of Breton nationalism.

As a result, it was adopted by two of Brittany’s most famous rulers: John IV and Anne of

Brittany. Their employment and persistent use of this iconography associated the ermine with two gender-specific virtues: masculine honor and feminine chastity.

The ermine’s inclusion in the poetry of Francesco Petrarch emphasized and advanced the idea of the ermine as a symbol of female purity. In the late 1400s there

- 63 - was renewed interest and visualization of scenes from Petrarch’s Triumphs that facilitated

the development and transmission of ermine iconography throughout Europe.

The transmission of ermine imagery during the Italian wars was examined in

chapter four. The French conquest of Italy facilitated the cultural exchange that

transported weasel iconography from the French kings to the Italian dukes. This continued interaction during the Italian wars resulted in the adoption of the ermine iconography by the Italian nobles. King Ferdinand I of Naples, Duke Alfonso II of

Calabria, and Duke Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino used the ermine to convey virtue.

However, their employment of this imagery resulted in a dramatic change in the meaning

of the ermine’s image, bringing attention to each rulers fabrication of political reality for

the sake of gaining absolute power and control. The animal became associated with the

deceptive, even malicious behavior of these rulers. As expressed by Andrea Alciati in the

mid 1500s, the ermine had become a symbol of duplicity.

- 64 - Images

Figure 1a: Gaston Phoebus, Livre de la Chasse MS M.1044 fol. 82r, 1387- 1392, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Figure 1b: Gaston Phoebus, Livre de la Chasse MS. 616 fol. 92, 1387- 1392, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. 65

Figure 2: Cat and Weasel Fight Snakes, Choir Stall detail from the Poitiers Cathedral, 1235-1257, Poitier, France.

Figure 3: Parisian, Philistine Plague of Mice, Old Testament Miniatures, MS M.638 fol. 21v, 1250, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Figure 4: Conception and Birth of the Weasel, Queen Mary Psalter, Royal MS 2 B. vii, fol. 112v., 1310-1320, British 66Royal Library, London.

Figure 5: Jean Bourdichon (1457-1521), “Anne of Brittany with St. Anne, St. Ursula and St. Helen,” miniature, Grande Heures of Anne of Brittany, c. 1503-1508. Ms lat 9474 f. 3v. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.

67

Figure 6: “Ursula” miniature, Heller Hours, 1440-1460, MS UCB 150 f. 258v. Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA.

68

Figure 7: Master of Guillebert de Metz, “Martyrdom of St. Ursula,” Book of Hours, Flanders, 1425-1450, MS Lewis EM 005:19, p. 456, no. V.19, 20. Free Library of Philidelphia, Philidelphia, PA.

69

Figure 8: Signet seal of John IV with banderole “A ma vie,” 1385-1387, wax, 14mm, Bibliotheques Municipales, Nantes, MS. 1686 no. 1, May 30 1381.

Figure 9: Shield of Anne of Brittany, sometime before 1491.

70

Figure 10a: Jean Perreal (c. 1450-1460-c. 1530), “Coat of Arms of Anne of Brittany.”

Figure 11: Gold Reliquary of Anne of Brittany’s Heart, 1514, gold metalwork, Dobree Museum, Nantes, France.

71

Figure 12: Luca Signorelli (1440/50-1523), The Triumph of Chastity: Love Disarmed and Bound, 1509, Fresco on canvas, 125.7 x 133.4 cm, National Gallery, London.

72

Figure 13: The Trimph of Death over Chastity Flemish, 1507-1510, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

73

Figure 14: Three Fates Triumphing over Chastity Flemish, early 1500s, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

74

Figure 15: Nicolas Leclerc and Jean de Saint Priest, Medals of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, 1499, Bronze, 114.5mm, Coin Archives, LLC, http://coinarchives.com. Accessed 5/9/09.

75

Figure 16a: Vittore Carpaccio, Young Knight in a Landscape, 1510, oil on canvas, 218.5 x 152.2 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

76

Figure 16b: Detail, ermine with cartellino, Vittore Carpaccio, Young Knight in a Landscape, 1510, oil on canvas, 218.5 x 152.2 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

77

Figure 17a: Vittore Carpaccio. Life of St. Jerome: Vision of St. Augustine. 1502-04. Canvas. 141 x 211 cm. Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice, Italy.

Figure 17b: Detail, dog. Vittore Carpaccio. Life of St. Jerome: Vision of St. Augustine. 1502-04. Canvas. 141 x 211 cm. Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice, Italy.

78

Figure 18: Paolo Giovio, Device of Ferdinand I of Naples, Dialogo dell’Imprese, 1555.

Figure 19: Guido Mazzoni, Bust of Alfonso II of Naples, 1490s, bronze, Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples.

79

Figure 20: Joos van Wassenhove, Double Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro and hisson, Guidobaldo, 1475, Oil on panel, 134.5 x 75.5 cm, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino.

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Figure 21a: Gubbio Studiolo, completed in 1476, Ducal Palace of Urbino.

Figure 21b: Detail, ermine, Gubbio Studiolo, completed in 1476, Ducal Palace of Urbino.

81

Figure 22a: Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, 1489, Oil on Canvas, Czartoryski Collection, Cracow.

82

Figure 22b: Leonardo da Vinci, The Ermine as a Symbol of Purity, 1494, Diameter 9.1 cm, Pen and ink. Private Collection, London

83

Figure 23: Andrea Alciati, Bonis auspicus incipiendum,1552, Published in Henry Green, Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems. (New York: Burt Franklin, 1872), 14.

84 Appendix

“Weasels Ripped My Flesh,” Cover illustration, Man’s Life, 1956.

85

Neon Park, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, album cover for The Mothers of Invention, 1970.

86

Nicolas Hilliard, The Ermine Portrait of Elizabeth I, 1585, Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England.

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