Minerva, Venus, and Fortune Between Paganism and Christianity in Two Medieval Texts: the Temple of Glas and the Kingis Quair
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Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Lingue e Letterature Europee e Americane Classe LM-37 Tesi di Laurea Minerva, Venus, and Fortune Between Paganism and Christianity in Two Medieval Texts: The Temple of Glas and The Kingis Quair. Relatore Laureando Prof. Alessandra Petrina Lisa Ceccarelli n° matr.1125789 / LMLLA Anno Accademico 2017 / 2018 Table of Contents Illustrations p. 5 Foreword p. 7 Chapter One The Temple of Glas and The Kingis Quair 1.1 About the Two Texts p. 11 1.2 A Brief Overview p. 14 1.3 Literary Sources p. 17 Chapter Two Minerva 2.1 From Pagan Origins to Christian Reading p. 23 2.2 Minerva as Sapienza p. 37 2.3 Minerva in The Kingis Quair and The Temple of Glas p. 51 Chapter Three Venus 3.1 From Pagan Origins to Christian Reading p. 57 3.2 Venus and Mary p. 77 3.3 Venus in The Kingis Quair and The Temple of Glas p. 97 Chapter Four Fortune 4.1 From Pagan Origins to Christian Reading p. 109 4.2 Fortune and her representations p. 124 4.3 Fortune in The Kingis Quair and The Temple of Glas p. 139 Riassunto p. 149 Bibliography p. 157 3 4 Illustrations Figure 1. Andrea Mantegna Ecce Homo, Jaquemart-Andrè Museum, p. 39 Paris, ca. 1500. Figure 2. Jacopo da Valenza, Cristo Salvator Mundi, Accademia di p. 40 Carrara, Bergamo, 1480 (?). Figure 3. Alan LeQuire, Athena Parthenos, Nashville Museum, p. 41 Nashville, 1990. Figure 4. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Good Government, Sala dei p. 42 Nove, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, 1338. Figure 5. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Good Government, detail p. 42 with Peace (on the left). Figure 6. Tintoretto, Minerva Sending Away Mars from Peace and p. 43 Prosperity, Palazzo Vecchio, Firenze, 1577. Figure 7. Andrea Mantegna, Triumph of Virtue, Louvre, Paris, 1502. p. 45 Figure 8. Giorgio Ghisi, Francesco Primaticcio, Plutone Nettuno Minerva p. 47 e Apollo, Civiche Raccolte Grafiche e Fotografiche, Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli, Milano, ca. 1560. Figure 9. Illustration of Sapienza Divina in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, p. 50 1600 ca. Figure 10. Giulio Romano, Minerva che rimprovera Cupido, Palazzo p. 56 Barberini, Roma, 16th century. Figure 11. Richard Cosway, Minerva and Cupid, Metropolitan Museum p. 56 of Art, New York, 1788. Figure 12. Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman copy of the 360 BC., p. 78 Vatican Museum, Rome. Figure 13. Detail of a miniature of Vulcan finding his wife in bed with p. 80 Mars in a manuscript of Jean de Meun’s and Guillaume de Lorris’s Roman de la Rose, Harley 4425, f. 122v, Paris, 1500 ca. Figure 14. Sandro Botticelli, Venus and Mars, National Gallery, London, p. 81 1482-83. Figure 15. Francesco Cossa, Mars Enchained by Venus, Palazzo p. 83 Schifanoia, Ferrara, 1470. Figure 16. The Castle of Love, KBR Ms. 9961-62 Peterborough Psalter, p. 84 Folio 091v, Royal Library of Belgium, Bruxelles, 1300-25 ca. 5 Figure 17. The planet Venus and the Garden of Love, miniature from De p. 86 Sphaera by Leonardo Dati, Latin Manuscript, Folio 9, Estense Library, Modena, 15th Century. Figure 18. Albrecht Dürer, Feast of the Rose Garlands, National Gallery, p. 87 Prague, 1506. Figure 19. Stefan Lochner, Madonna of the Rose Garden, Wallraf- p. 89 Richartz Museum, Cologne, 1440 ca Figure 20. Illustration of Constantia in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, 1600 p. 90 ca. Figure 21. Titian, Penitent Magdalene, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1531 ca. p. 93 Figura 22. Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, p. 94 1480. Figure 123. Beato Angelico, Annunciation, Museo del Prado, Madrid, p. 95 1435. Figure 24. Gustave Courbet, The Origin of the World, Musèe d'Orsay, p. 96 Paris, 1866. Figure 25. Anon: Tyche of Antioch, Roman copy of an original Greek p. 125 bronze of the III century BC by Eutychides, Galleria dei Candelabri, Vatican Museums, Rome. Figure 136.Giovanni Battista Bonacina: Fortune’s Games, Scanned from p. 127 Andrea Vitali, Il Tarocchino di Bologna, between 1631 and 1659. Figure 27. Anon., Statue of Fortune, Vatican Museum, Rome, Roman p. 129 period. Figure 28. Pinturicchio, The Story of Fortuna or the Hill of Virtue, p. 130 Cathedral of Siena, Siena, 1505 ca. Figure 29. Illustration of Fortune in Lydgate’s Temple of Glas, STC/ p. 132 1351:08, Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1529 ca. Figure 30. Anon., Fortune’s Wheel, Cathedral of Siena, Siena, 1372. p. 133 Figure 31. Representation of Fortune’s wheel, detail, Codex Buranus p. 135 (Carmina Burana) Clm 4660; fol. 1r, Bavarian State Library, Munich, 1230 ca. Figure 32. Paolo Veronese, Allegory of Love IV, The Happy Union, p. 138 National Gallery, London, 1575 ca. 6 Foreword I have always found the world of pagan deities particularly interesting and rich, and maybe that is also due to my classical background. Studying more in depth the Middle Ages, I have come to understand more than ever that classical antiquity never died, but that it merely transformed into something new, absorbing new aspects while leaving others behind. I find this extremely fascinating and so I decided to study the evolution of three pagan deities (Venus, Minerva, and Fortuna) from Paganism to Christianity, by focusing on two medieval English texts: Lydgate’s Temple of Glas and The Kingis Quair of James I. I began by studying the background, the common sources, and the themes that link the two poems and, generally, their similarities and differences. This helped me build the foundations for my research. Then, in the following chapters I studied more in depth the three goddesses and the changes they underwent in the passage between Paganism and Christianity making reference to classical works, and to the medieval perception of ancient deities and classical culture. I traced each goddess’s changes through literature and art, and then used all the knowledge accumulated to describe their roles in The Temple of Glas and The Kingis Quair. Roman deities had not been forgotten after the fall of Rome, that is a fact. Works written by Roman authors may have been misinterpreted in the frenzy to read them in a Christian key and part of them may have been lost, but they never stopped circulating. Still in the Fifteenth century, Latin was the language of the learned, the language used to communicate throughout Europe and all writers could at the very least understand it. However, Latin was also the language of the pagan gods and the Church was trying to make it into its own language, but it was not an easy task; Latin words and texts bore the 7 heavy burden of the memory of glorious past times and no effort seemed to be enough to overwrite it. We must keep in mind that it is rare, if not impossible, to completely erase a religion; some vestiges tend to remain either in written works or in folklore. In the case of Roman deities that probably also has to do with that fact that Rome and its glory were still very much present in everyone’s mind as a model to imitate. During the Middle Ages, pagan texts were considered to contain universal truths; classical authors represented the auctoritates and were recognized by everyone (Dante, for example, will have Virgil guiding him). Things became easier when a new notion began to circulate: it was to be believed that no one could ever have written any truth outside God’s permission and so these pagans were to be seen as blessed people who had a glimpse of God’s words before His time. They were not proper Christians, but Christian-like figures that had a prefiguration of the times to come. This vision of things made it easier to reconcile the pagan and the Christian visions so that, with due caution, even priests could approach pagan works without fear of blame or sin. This process of Christianization completely invested the pagan gods; with great care, a Christian meaning was imposed on each goddess, putting them under God’s influence. Another thing to take into consideration is art. Until the Christian art of the Middle Ages, all of it was pagan. All the beautiful temples of the past, the very same temples that everyone still loved and visited, were dedicated to those pagan gods that the Church wanted to erase. The Roman and Greek cultures were everywhere in sight, and no matter how many things were destroyed or declared sinful, they still were to be found in the various cities, houses, and in the memories of the people. They were buried just beneath the surface ready to come out at any time. Christianity could do nothing against them; the 8 only tool to fight such a strong presence was trying to overwrite every single tradition and story. Festivities were replaced, and all that could be useful for the new religion (like the polished Latin prose and poetry of ancient poets) was declared to be nothing more than a preparation for Christianity, and thus rightfully Christian in itself too. We were taught that the gods of Olympus died, but in the medieval struggle between the love for classical antiquity and the Christian faith, the pagan gods survived and, with them, their mythological heritage. I have dedicated one chapter to each goddess, always following the same scheme. The first part of each chapter is dedicated to literature, following the goddesses’ literary evolution from Greece, to Rome, to the medieval times. The second part is dedicated to art, and I used numerous images to show how their representation developed, responding to the cultural changes and creating the iconography that we know today.