A Perplexing Panel in the Jacquemart-André Collection in ParisAuthor(s): Penelope DawsonSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar., 1948), p. 67Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3047158 .

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NOTES

A PERPLEXING PANEL IN THE

JACQUEMART-ANDRP COLLEC- TION IN PARIS

PENELOPE DAWSON

An enigmatic little panel in the Jacquemart-Andre collec- tion in Paris has, in spite of its great charm, remained in rela- tive obscurity. It is painted on linen attached to wood and is described in the museum's catalogue as a Rape of Europa and there attributed to the atelier of the fifteenth-century Sienese painter, Giovanni di Paolo (Fig. i).1

The previous lack of interest in this little painting is diffi- cult to understand since the subject matter was but rarely treated artistically in the fifteenth century in spite of that

period's preoccupation with its classical past. As a matter of fact there seems to be but one other Quattrocento painting of the Rape of Europa: that of Francesco di Giorgio in the Louvre, which, although distinctly fifteenth century in feeling, pene- trates the spirit of the subject much more successfully than does the painter of the Jacquemart-Andr6 panel (Fig. 3). The sub- dued tonality and mood of the latter, its extraordinary purity of feeling, is at complete variance with the classical legend, the story of which was well known in fifteenth-century Italy through Poliziano's poem, La Giostra.2 So illusive, yet so per- vading, is this feeling of purity that it denies the panel's present title. In fact the whole quiet, subdued, and unreal mood of the painting suggests some other literary source. That the virginal figure riding her allegorical charger is not Europa but Pasiphae - a mediaevel Pasiphae, however, who is as unrelated spirit- ually to her classical prototype (Fig. 4) as she is to Europa - seems at least more plausible.

The word Pasiphae originally meant "light for all" and the name was anciently given to a lunar divinity. The union of the bull and the cow symbolically expressed the light relation be- tween the sun and the moon and was a favorite subject in Etrus- can reliefs and Roman sarcophagi.8 Returning to the Jacque- mart-Andre painting (Fig. I), a small crescent moon and a tiny sun can be seen in the water through which the bull is moving - the moon to the left of his tail, the sun to the right of his forelegs - leaving little doubt that the artist, by placing these attributes there, designated the figure as Pasiphae.

The classical story of Pasiphae, however, no more explains the transfigured girl, devoid of any sensuality, than does the Europa legend. But this transformation was not original on the part of the artist of the Jacquemart-Andr6 painting for it had already taken place during the Middle Ages when the light element in the original allegory had been carried further, and the love of Pasiphae identified with that of the soul's love of God. This purified version of the mythological story is quite beautifully portrayed in a manuscript in the British Museum which con-

tains the poetical works of Christine de Pisan (Fig. 2).4 The illustrations are believed by Henry Martin to be the work of a certain Anastaise, a woman, mentioned by the author in Chapter XLI of Part I of her Cite' des Dames.5

In conclusion, it would seem that only by accepting the painter of the Paris panel as primarily representing the medi- aeval interpretation of the story of Pasiphae, can the otherwise enigmatic character of the painting, its extraordinary purity of feeling, its aura of chasteness, be satisfactorily explained.

FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT

i. "Enlivement d'Europe &cole siennoise, atelier di Giovanni di Paolo. Panneau transpose sur toile H et L.Om 42. Acq. Capponi, Fl, 1884." Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Catalogue itineraire, 6th ed. rev., ed. J. E. Bulloz, Paris, 1921, p. 148.

2. See Stanzas io5-io6. That Poliziano enjoyed a reputation outside his own Florence is evinced by the fact that his Orfeo, the first secular drama in the vernacular, was presented at the Gonzagas' court in Mantua in 1471 or 1472. (Bettinelli gives the latter datei Del Lungo prefers the former.)

3. See the famous "P" sarcophagus in the Louvre, Paris.

4. Christine was born in Venice about 1363 and died in France about 1431.

5. This work was dedicated to Queen Isabeau de BaviHre and was written sometime after 1408 and before 1413. See Henry Martin, La Miniature franpaise du A13 au 15' siecle, Paris and Brussels, 1923, pp. 72-76.

ON DtRER'S KNIGHT, DEATH, AND DE VIL

HENRY ROX

In analyzing Diirer's engraving Knight, Death, and Devil (Fig. i) emphasis has been laid by many scholars upon the particular style of the knight's horse. It has been pointed out that during Diirer's visit to Venice he must have had ample opportunity to study the bronze horse of Verrocchio's Colleoni statue. With regard to the horses' gait, however, observers generally are agreed that the influence of Leonardo must have been decisive. Wilfflin says, e.g., "There is only one horse of this stance in Italy at that time, the most modern of all, Leonardo's model for the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza."' Such statement sounds persuasive. The best-known horses of the Renaissance (the painted or the modeled ones) which are still in existence all show a different, i.e. an ambling, pace.2

Though it is still uncertain whether Dilrer went to Milan before I499,3 at which time Leonardo's model of the Sforza horse had not yet been destroyed, it cannot be doubted that, as Panofsky says, he "must have gained access to Leonardo's inventions either in the original or at least in direct copies."4

i. Heinrich Wlffllin, Die Kunst Albrecht Diirer's, Munich, Bruck- mann, 192o, p. 2oi.

2. Those by Uccello, Castagno, Donatello, and Verrocchioi also the antique bronze horses of S. Marco in Venice. There are, however, exam- ples in Rome which tend to deflate WS6flin's statement. We find the same stance as in Leonardo's model for the Sforza statue in the magnificent marble relief showing Roberto Malatesta on horseback (now in the Louvre, formerly in St. Peter's, Rome) which Valentiner discussed re- cently with piercing analysis. Valentiner points also to another earlier tomb in Rome, that of Antonio Rido by Dalmata, in the Church of S. Francesca Romana (see W. R. Valentiner, "Italian Renaissance Sculp- ture: The Tomb of Roberto Malatesta," Art in America, xxxv, 1947, pp. 300-312).

3. Oskar Hagen, "Diirer und Bramantino. Ein Beitrag zum Problem der ersten italienischen Reise," Kunstchronik, N.F. XXVI, 1914/15, pp. 267-272, discusses a sojourn of Diirer in Milan in 1495, as does Hans Rupprich, Willibald Pirkheimer und die erste Reise Diirer's nach Italien, Vienna, Schroll, 1930. He suggests the possibility of a personal contact of Diirer with Leonardo.

4. Erwin Panofsky, Albrecht Diirer, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1943, p. 90.

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FIG. I. Paris, Jacquemart-Andr6 Museum: Sienese School, So-called Rape of Europa

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FIG. 4. Rome, Vatican. Sala delle Nozze Aldobrandine: Wall Painting, Pasiphae

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