Annals of Botany 97: 165–176, 2006 doi:10.1093/aob/mcj025, available online at www.aob.oxfordjournals.org

The Cucurbit Images (1515–1518) of the Villa Farnesina, Rome

JULES JANICK1,* and HARRY S. PARIS 2 1Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, 625 Agriculture Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2010, USA and 2Department of Vegetable Crops and Plant Genetics, Agricultural Research Organization, Newe Ya’ar Research Center, PO Box 1021, Ramat Yishay 30-095, Israel

Received: 8 August 2005 Returned for revision: 28 September 2005 Accepted: 19 October 2005 Published electronically: 28 November 2005

 Background The gorgeous frescoes organized by the master Renaissance painter Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520) and illustrating the heavenly adventures of Cupid and Psyche were painted between 1515 and 1518 to decorate the Roman villa (now known as the Villa Farnesina) of the wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi (1466–1520). Surrounding these paintings are festoons of fruits, vegetables and flowers painted by Giovanni Martini da Udine (1487–1564), which include over 170 species of plants. A deconstruction and collation of the cucurbit images in the festoons makes it possible to evaluate the genetic diversity of cucurbits in Renaissance Italy 500 years ago.  Findings The festoons contain six species of Old World cucurbits, Citrullus lanatus (watermelon), Cucumis melo (melon), Cucumis sativus (cucumber), Ecballium elaterium (squirting cucumber), Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd) and Momordica balsamina (balsam apple), and two or three species of New World cucurbits, Cucurbita maxima, C. pepo and, perhaps, C. moschata (pumpkin, squash, gourd). The images of C. maxima are the first illustrations of this species in Europe.

Key words: Citrullus lanatus, Cucumis melo, Cucumis sativus, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita pepo, Ecballium elaterium, Lagenaria siceraria, Momordica balsamina, Cucurbitaceae, Agostino Chigi, Giovanni Martini da Udine.

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL the pagan traditions associated with Priapus, the god of CONTEXT fertility, orchards and vineyards (Morel, 1985). This is clearly evidenced by an erotic conceit whereby a gourd The sumptuous festoons painted by Giovanni Martini da impregnates a fig. However, the symbolic meanings of Udine (1487–1564) in the Villa Farnesina contain a treasure the images of the festoons are not the subject of this of horticultural information consisting of thousands of paper, rather the images in the festoons will be considered images of fruits, vegetables and ornamentals from over as a source of historical horticultural information. Remark- 170 species (Caneva, 1992a,b; Cherubini, 1992). These ably, these festoons contain the first images of Zea mays,a images are a part of the decorations made for Agostino New World species (Caneva, 1992a; Janick and Caneva, Chigi, a wealthy Sienese banker, for his new home built 2005). They contain significant information concerning the on the west bank of the River Tiber in Rome in 1505, and dispersal of plants from the New World into Europe, as well decorated between 1515 and 1518 (Gerlini, 2000). The as information on the genetic diversity of horticultural crops festoons are part of the frescoes in the Loggia of Cupid in the high Renaissance. and Psyche designed by Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520) An analysis of the festoons suggests that the images rep- and executed by his famous assistants including Giulio resent portraits of real fruits, complete with defects and Romano and Giovanni Martini da Udine (Fig. 1). The diseases. Most of the species have multiple images and villa is open to the public and a complete photographic their variation represents a mirror on intraspecific genetic study of the building and decorations has been recently diversity. An analysis of the images of maize (Janick and published by Frommel (2003) as La Villa Farnesina a Caneva, 2005) suggests that in some cases prototypes were Roma. An identification of the plants in the festoons has copied, and while some artistic license was used, by and been made by Giulia Caneva (1992b) in her book, Il Mondo large the portraits can be considered true representations of di Cerere nella Loggia di Psiche. flowers and fruits, probably grown in the surrounding gar- The extraordinary horticultural portraits were highly dens (now gone) of the Villa known as the viridarium,a praised by Georgio Vasari in 1550 who described them repository of rare plants. The images in the festoons of the as ‘painted with such art that they completely resemble Villa Farnesina inspired the painting of similar images in the living detached fruit.’ They have been considered the the Vatican (now known as Raphael’s Logge) from 1517 to prototype of Western still life painting (Natures Mortes) 1519, and there are other 16th century decorations such as and Giovanni da Udine can be considered a precursor to at the Villa Medici in Rome and the Ville d’Este in Tivoli Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Janick, 2004a). The that show many festoons rich with horticultural subject flower, fruit and vegetable images represent the voluptu- matter. ousness and fertility of nature. Rather than being associated Our objective is to focus on images of fruits of the Cucur- with the symbolic trappings of Christianity they are closer to bitaceae in the festoons of the loggia of Cupid and Psyche in * For correspondence. E-mail [email protected] the Villa Farnesina. These include watermelon, melon, The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected] 166 Janick and Paris — Cucurbit Images of the Villa Farnesina

F IG. 1. Loggia of Cupid and Psyche in the Villa Farnesina, Rome. cucumber, squirting cucumber, bottle gourd and balsam placed without association to fruits taken from the same apple native to the Old World as well as pumpkin and plant or species. gourd of the New World. We will attempt to do four things: (1) determine the correct species of the images; (2) describe Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai variation within each species; (3) compare the images with (watermelon) (Fig. 2) former or contemporary artistic images; and (4) speculate on what information can be deduced from these images There are five images of watermelons in the concerning cucurbit origin and dispersal. festoons. Images A–D are similar, portraying what are now called ‘icebox’ (approx. 4 kg) watermelons. They are round and medium green with narrow darker stripes. These stripes appear to be two types: faint and narrow THE IMAGES (A and B) or more distinct and narrow (C and D). The The images of cucurbit fruits have been collated photo- two fruits in each type are so similar that they may be graphically from the festoons and associated with our illustrations of the same fruit or perhaps fruits from a attribution of species. We will indicate when these differ single plant. Each of these fruits is painted with a halo or from the attributions of Caneva (1992b). The fruits have crown of grapes, which is common to all of the larger been oriented, in general, with the stylar (distal) end on the cucurbits depicted in the festoons. Image E is difficult to bottom and the relative size of the images in the festoons assess because the fruit is partially covered by a white has been retained. Unlike the depictions of cucurbits fungus; it was identified as C. melo inodorus by Caneva found in Renaissance botanical herbals, very few, if any, (1992b). This appears to us to be a watermelon because of leaves of Cucurbitaceae appear next to the fruits depicted the colour pattern of medium green with narrow darker in the festoons. It would appear that the painters had stripes. fruits and flowers brought in from the associat