JOURNAL OF THE WARBURG AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES LXXIII ISSNOO75-439O ISBN978-O-85481-151-9 © 2011, The WarburgInstitute Printedby SarumColourview, Old Sarum,Salisbury, SP4 6BU Subscriptionsmay be placedthrough any bookseller or with the Warburg Institute This content downloaded from 193.62.17.26 on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 09:59:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CONTENTS i THE STARS IN THE LEIDEN ARATEA PICTURE BOOK EllyDekker (with a stardescription in collaborationwith Kristen Lippincott ) 39 PADUA, ITS ARENA AND THE ARENA CHAPEL: A LITURGICAL ENSEMBLE MichaelViktor Schwarz (with an appendixin collaborationwith Michaela Zöschg) 65 TOWER-LIKE TORAH ARKS, THE TOWER OF STRENGTH AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MESSIANIC TEMPLE Ilia Rodov 99 MARY MAGDALEN AND THE BURGUNDIAN QUESTION Susan Haskins 137 THE NUDES IN LIMBO: MICHELANGELO'S DONI TONDO RECONSIDERED ChiaraFranceschini 181 A RELIEF BY PETER DELL (1548) AFTER A DRAWING BY PAUL LAUTEN SACK, AND THE ORIGINS OF THE TERM ' GNADEN STUHL' BertholdKress 195 CREATION, THE TRINITY AND PRISCA THEOLOGIA IN JULIUS CAESAR SCALIGER KuniSakamoto 209 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AS SUSANNA IN CATHOLIC PROPAGANDA JeremyL. Smith 221 ASTROLOGY AND EMPIRE. A DEVICE FOR THE VALOIS KING OF POLAND Ewa Kociszewska 257 BARN OWL PAINTERS IN ST PETER'S IN THE VATICAN, 1604: THREE MOCKING POEMS FOR RONCALLI, VANNI AND PASSIGNANO (AND A NOTE ON THE BREECHES-MAKER) MaddalenaSpagnolo 297 THE PRINCE OF ARABISTS AND HIS MANY ERRORS: THOMAS ERPENIUS'S IMAGE OF JOSEPH SCALIGER AND THE EDITION OF THE PROVERBIA ARABICA (1614) ArnoudVrolijk Notes 327 HABEO CUBICULUM HOLOVITREUM. A NOTE ON THE INTERPRET ATION AND GENEALOGY OF TWO ASTROLOGICAL PASSAGES IN THE ACTA SEBASTIANI MARTYRIS PetrKitzler 335 THREE NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN DIOMEDE CARAFA'S COLLECTION Bianca deDivitiis 355 ERASMUS: PECULIAR WORDS IN THE COLLOQUIES AND HIS CONCEPT OF PROPER LATIN DICTION Ari Wesseling 367 Indexof Manuscripts 369 Informationfor Contributors to theJournal This content downloaded from 193.62.17.26 on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 09:59:13 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BARN-OWL PAINTERS IN ST PETER'S IN THE VATICAN, 1604: THREE MOCKING POEMS FOR RONCALLI, VANNI AND PASSIGNANO (and a note on the breeches-maker)* Maddalena Spagnolo the most prestigious public painting commissions awarded in Rome Amongduring the pontificateof Ippolito Aldobrandino Pope ClementVIII (1592-1605), were those forthe decoration of the six chapels adjacent to the fourpiers in St Peter's in the Vatican, located in the small aisles. A vast amount of surviving material concerning this commission has been published.1 Particular attention has been devoted to the series of six enormous altarpiecesfor the chapels, which were assigned between 1599 and 1604 to CristoforoRoncalli, Francesco Vanni, Domenico Cresti ('il Passignano5),Ludovico Cigoli (the substitutefor Tommaso Laureti who was orig- inally engaged),2 Bernardo Castello and Giovanni Baglione. According to theirfirst biographers, the works of Roncalli, Vanni and Passignano were well received: their paintingswere praised by Giulio Mancini and Giovanni Baglione, who note that the artistswere awarded the titleof Knight of Christ.3Hitherto unpublished contempo- rarysources, however,show thatthe unveilingof the threepaintings was also accom- panied by slatingcriticism. This paper will focus on three anonymous sonnets which * Theresearch for this article was made possible Mancini= GiulioMancini, Considerazioni sulla thanksto a Fellowshipfrom the Warburg Institute pittura,ed. A. Marucchiand L. Salerno,2 vols, anda Fellowshipfrom the Italian Academy, Columbia Rome1956-57; University.I wish to expressmy gratitude toJenny Shearman= J. Shearman, Raphael in Early Modem Boyle,Charles Hope, ElizabethMcGrath and Sources(1483-1602) , 2 vols, New Haven, CT and AlessandroScafi for their stimulating comments. I am London2003; gratefulalso to CroftonBlack, Valeria Cafà, Marco Sickel= L. Sickel,'Künstlerrivalität im Schatten Collareta,Flora Dennis, Marina Innocenti, Giorgio derPeterskuppel. Giuseppe Cesari d'Arpino und Masiand François Quiviger for their help. dasAttentat auf Cristoforo Roncalli', Marburger Jahrbuchfür Kunstwissenschaft , xxvin,2001, pp. Thefollowing abbreviations areused throughout: 159-89; ASC = ArchiviodiStato Capitolino, Rome Tommaseo= N. Tommaseo,Nuovo dizionario della ASR= ArchiviodiStato, Rome linguaitaliana, 4 vols, Turin 1865-79. BAV= BibliotecaApostolica Vaticana, Vatican City i. Themain studies on this commission are H. BL = BritishLibrary, London. Siebenhüner,'Umrisse zur Geschichte der Ausstat- Frequentlyquoted sources: tungvon St Peterin Romvon Paul III bis PaulV Abromson= С. M. Abromson,'Painting in Rome (1547-1606)',Festchrift fürHans Sedlmayr, Munich duringthe Papacy of Clement VIII (1592-1605): 1962,pp. 229-320 (289-302); Chappell and Kirwin; A DocumentedStudy', Ph. D thesis,Columbia Abromson. University1976, New York and London 1981; 2. The SicilianTommaso Laureti was originally Baglione= GiovanniBaglione, Le Vitede ' pittori, assignedthe altarpiece but died in Sep. 1602:see scultori,architetti ..., Rome 1642 [ed. J. Hess and Chappelland Kirwin, p. 130;Abromson, pp. 68, 341- H. Röttgen,3 vols, Vatican City 1995, vol. i]; 42,points out the mistake of Baglione (p. 73),who Chappelland Kirwin = M. L. Chappelland C. W. claimedthe altarpiece was assigned to Roncalli after Kirwin,'A PetrineTriumph: The Decorationof Laureti'sdeath. theNavi Piccole in San Pietrounder Clement 3. Mancini,i, pp. 210,237, 240, states that all VIII',Storia dell'arte, xxi, 1974, pp. 119-70. threeartists were awarded the title because of their 257 JOURNALOFTHEWARBURG ANDCOURTAULD INSTITUTES, LXXIII,2010 This content downloaded from 193.62.17.26 on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 10:05:19 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 258 MOCKING SONNETS mock the altarpieces (published here as Appendix I.i-3).They are preservedtogether in BritishLibrary MS King's 323, which contains a miscellanyof late sixteenth-and earlyseventeenth-century verses dedicated to artists.4As both literaryand documen- tary sources, the sonnets are valuable in providinga rare first-handaccount of the public reception of the three altarpieces,together with new informationabout their dates, iconographyand style.5 I. Contextof the mockingsonnets The six altarpieces forthe small aisles were conceived by Clement VIII as elements of a homogeneous pictorial cycle, arranged in a semi-circlearound Peter's tomb and the papal high altar.6Contemplated together,the paintingswere to conveya symbolic meaning- in thisway, the concept was similarto that of the ciborium commissioned by Sixtus IV, which stood overthe high altar.7None of the six altarpiecesis stillin situ; althoughsome were painted on supportsof slate (whichwas consideredmore durable than canvas or panel), theyall deterioratedsoon thereafter,with those by Passignano, - Cigoli, Castello and Baglione being ruined entirely.8The which that survive by Roncalli and Vanni- have been removedbecause of theircondition.9 The importance of the commission, however,was such that each artistproduced several preparatory drawings;and in the earlyseventeenth century, Jacques Callot made printsafter each painting.10 The subjects of the altarpieces are fivemiraculous eventswhich occurred in the life of St Peter, together with his martyrdom: The Death of Sapphira by Roncalli, altarpiecesfor St Peter's.Baglione, pp. iio-ii, 332 7. Forthe ciborium and its Petrine cycle see F. [234],290 [192],connects only Vanni's and Passi- Caglioti,in TheBasilica of St Peter in the Vatican , ed. gnano's knighthoodstotheir altarpieces forSt Peter's, A. Pinelli,Modena 2000, 4 vols,и (Notes),pp. 806- althoughhe reportsthat Roncalli's work was 'ben 17;also Chappell and Kirwin, p. 135.The structure fatto,e diede assai soddisfazione'. In fact, Roncalli's wasdismantled in1594 or slightly earlier. titlewas not awarded in connectionwith this com- 8. On thesupports for the six paintings see M. mission:see Abromson, p. 76 n. 101;W. C. Kirwin, Gallo,'Tavole e quadria oliosu stucco dipinti: Gio- 'TheLife and Drawing Style of Cristofaro Roncalli', vanniBaglione a San Pietro e a S. MariaMaggiore. Paragone, xxix, 1978, no. 335, pp. 18-62 (p. 25 and n. Un contenziosoestimatorio con l'Accademia di San 53).The same can be said for Vanni's knighthood: see Luca nel 1614',in GiovanniBaglione (1566-1644): below,n. 40. pittoree biografo diartisti , ed. S. Macioce,Rome 2002, 4. London,BL MS King's323, fols 204-05 (pub- pp.27-42. lishedbelow as AppxI) . Thethree sonnets, together 9. Roncalli'saltarpiece was removed in the i8th witha fourth(Appx II), arein the same 17th-century century. Atthat time a mosaiccopy of it was (and still handwriting.The codexbelonged to JosephSmith is) heldin St Peter'sin the position once occupied (1682-1770),consul at Venice, who also owned MSS by Passignano'saltarpiece. (The originalplace of King's281 (containing Teofilo Gallacini's Degli errori Roncalli'spainting isnow occupied by a mosaiccopy degliarchitetti ..., of 1625) and King's 155 (containing of Raphael's Transfiguration ; seeAbromson, p. 71.) a dialoguebetween Pasquino and Marforio);see Vanni'spainting was removed inthe 20th century. CatalogueofWestern Manuscripts inthe Old Royal and 10.For the engravings made by Callot during his King'sCollections , ed.Sir G. F.Warner and J. P. Gilson, stayin Rome (1608-11) see Jacques Callot 1592-1635 , 4 vols,London 1921, in, pp. 58-60. exhib.cat. (Nancy 1992), ed. P. Choné, Paris 1992, p. 5. On thepublic interest inthe decoration ofSt