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Botticelli's 'Primavera': che volea s'intendesse

Author(s): Paul HolbertonSource: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 45 (1982), pp. 202-210Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750976 .

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202 NOTES AND DOCUMENTSSymposiumommentary, and angels can legiti-mately influence our souls.33 It is no heresy(since Aquinas himself, Ficino's 'leader in the-ology', did so) to believe that the spheres aremoved by Intelligencesas secondarycauses andto admit the possibility that the Intelligencesormovers are so united with their spheres as toconstitute their souls.34 The same degree ofpersonality which the planets had long pos-sessed, especially in the star-crossed Renais-sance, Ficino would want to extend to these

other heavenly bodies.3sThe minorquestion asto whether it is orthodox for the fixed stars tohave their own angels,36as Ficino affirmsthatthey do, seems not to be insoluble ifone keepsinmind that the main point for Ficino is not thenames of the heavenly bodies, but their name-ability, their personal nature. In this way, Fici-no's style embodies his vision; his apparentpolytheism expresseshis animism.CAROLV. KASKECORNELL UNIVERSITY

33D. P. Walker, Spiritualand DemonicMagic romFicinotoCampanella,ondon 1958,repr.Notre Dame, Indiana 1975,PP.45 ff.34Ficino calls Aquinas, 'dux noster in theologia,' in Opera,p. 558. He cites the SummaontraGentiles,i, 70, in supportofthe notion that the stars have souls in PlatonicTheology,v.adfin.; Marcel, p. 163, n. 7. According to Thomas Litt,OCSO, Aquinas believed firmlythat the spheresaremovedby spirits; he saw little differencefor theology whether ornot the movers are so united with their spheres as toconstitute their souls, Lescorpscilestesdans 'univers e SaintThomas 'Aquin,Philosophes Medievaux, vi, Louvain 1963,pp. I08--09.

3s This is the interpretation put on the twelve gods of thezodiac in the Sala dei Mesi by both F. Saxl, 'Il Rina-scimento dell' Antichita', in RepertoriumfiTrunstwissenschaft,XLIII, I922, pp. 227-36, andJean Seznec, TheSurvival f thePaganGods, ransl. BarbaraSessions, New York 1953,P. 76and p. 77, fig. 25. The phrase 'mastersof the months'forthegods of the zodiac is not in Manilius, as Seznec claims,p. 74;but Diodorus, 11.30, calls them 'xup'oug,' and Warburg'Monatsregenten,' Gesammeltechriften,i,pl. LX,no. 10o7.36 Boll traces the twelve angelic Watchers of the EgyptianZodiac in the Gnostic Pistis Sophia, ch. 126 (ed. CarlSchmidt, Leipzig 1905, p. 207) to the Hellenistic twelvetutelary gods of the Zodiac, F. Boll, C. Bezold, and W.Gundel, SternglaubendSterndeutung,th edn, Stuttgart 1966,pp. I90-9I.

BOTTICELLI'S 'PRIMA VERA':CHE VOLEA S'INTENDESSE*HERE IS a passage in Alberti's Della Pittura,IIn, liv, that has not been exploited in theunderstanding of Botticelli's so-called 'Prima-vera' n the Uffizil (Pl. 29a). Having narrated,after Lucian, the Calumny of Apelles, Albertisays that he would like to see painted thosethree sisters to whom Hesiod gave the names ofEgle, Eufronesis and Talia - he means theThree Graces. He then describes them - as

taking each other by the hand, smiling, and inloose, diaphanous drapery.He explains that bythis should be understood liberality, becauseone gives, the next takes, the third returns thekindness, and these stages are necessaryto anycomplete liberality. This amounts to a fourfoldanalysis of the content of a picture - who thefigures are; what are their attributes;what arethey doing; what is meant to be understood byit. It offers a convenient model in the interpreta-tion of a work that correspondswell with Alber-ti's notion of an istoria.2 t also so happens thatthe Graces appear in Botticelli's picture, and itis virtually certain that the text fromSeneca,DeBeneficiis,, iii, from which Alberti borrowed allthe material in his example was again used forthe 'Primavera'.3*My thanks are due in particular to Elizabeth McGrathand Charles Hope. This article never could have beenwithout f Bernice Rothwell.1Cf. A. Warburg,Die Geburt erVenus, 893, reprintedinGesammeltechriften, erlin-Leipzig 1932, in which the 'Pri-mavera' is discussed pp. 26-44, 312-2I; E. H. Gombrich,'Botticelli's Mythologies' (this Journal, viii, 1945, pp. 7-60)reprinted with a preface noting intervening comment inSymbolic Images, Oxford 1972, pp. 31-81, 201-i9; EdgarWind, Pagan Mysteries n the Renaissance,London 1958,revised 1968, especially pp. 113-27 in the latter edition;C.Dempsey, this Journal, xxxI, 1968, pp. 251-73. Hence-forward, 'Warburg','Gombrich', 'Wind', 'Dempsey'.

2 It seems a better model than that offered by ErwinPanofsky, Studies n Iconology,New York 1939, reprinted1972, PP. 3-17. It also eases the methodologicaldifficultiesraised by Gombrich (pp. 55-62).3 Cited, after Janitschek, by Warburg. It is virtuallycertain because ancient texts in which Mercury accompa-nies the Graces are so rare. The only other obvious one isHorace, Carmina,, xxx, quoted at the end of this article.Journal f theWarburgnd Courtauldnstitutes, olume 45, 1982

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BOTTICELLI'S "PRIMAVERA' 203In what has been generally accepted as theearliest survivingreference to it, an inventoryof1499,4 Botticelli's painting is described merelyas a picture with nine figures, both male andfemale, hanging in the chamberbeside Lorenzodi Pierfrancesco de' Medici's ground-floorroom in his sharedpalazzo(since destroyed) inthe Via Larga. In contrast, the compiler of theinventory made sure to itemize the other pic-tures in the room (including Botticelli's Uffizi'Pallas and the Centaur',Pl. 29b), and indeedalmost all the others he recorded,by their sub-ject matter (the 'Pallas' as 'Camilla and asatyr'). This is not to imply that the 'Primavera'was unusual in its format,s or even, in thatformat,unique in its kind of subject,6but it maybe significant that the inventory-takerwas notable, like Vasari, to conclude instantly that thepicture portrayed an action going on aroundVenus.7 Action is probably not the right word:the picture resembles a sacraconversazione,ike,

for instance, Filippo Lippi's altarpiecefrom thechapel added by the Medici to S. Croce, now inthe Uffizi, a row of ancillary (if energetic)figures round a central chief one, raised a littleabove them. Venus is probably not the rightidentification, for the lady is not dressed asVenus, and nothing else about her seemsdesigned to recall Venus, except Cupid, but ifCupid were her identifyingattributeone wouldexpect him to be beside her, in communicationwith her. Instead he flies above,just as he does,shooting his arrows at his victims below, innumerous representationsof him active as thepower of love in his own right.8All the other figureswere, I believe, correctlynamed, in accordance with their attributes, byWarburg. There is no question about Mercury;the Graces are three, and dance, and accordwith Alberti's description mentioned above,among others;Flora wears a dress all of flowersand is about to distribute those in her lap. Onthe right, a nymph is assailed by a wind, andbecause 'vernasefflat ab ore rosas' she blowsspring rosesfrom her mouth, a unique attribute- she must be the Chloris of Ovid's Fasti, v,193 if, and the wind is thereforeZephyr. Theselast two figures are recondite, and suggest theprobability that someone of wider readingthaneither Botticelli or the Medici family wasinvolved. Other things being equal, the advisoris most likely to have been Politian, since he isdirectly and exclusively linked with Botticelli's'Mars and Venus'n the National Gallery, Lon-don.9The figures on the right have earned thepicture its name: they enact the onset of spring.Next to them, the figure in the middle is vir-tually characterless: her garments are neitherclassical norcontemporary,but extramundane,like those of a Virgin Mary. Her face is not aportraitbut generic. Her gestures,however, arethose of greeting- one hand raised uprightonthe wrist,10the other lifting her robe in a curt-sey. Since she looks straight out of the picture,the object of her greeting is presumably theonlooker,who mustjust have come upon her.Spring, and meeting with a woman - this isa situation more than a little common in

Partially published byJohn Shearman,'The Collectionsof the Younger Branch of the Medici', BurlingtonMagazine,cxvii, no. 862, January 1975, pp. 12-27; and by WebsterSmith, 'On the Original Location of the "Primavera"',aArtBulletin, LVII, March 1975, PP. 31-39. Shearman alsopublished relevant passages from a second version of theinventory, in which 'Chamilo' appears more correctly as'Chamilla', and the picture of nine figures as one of eight:Cupid is presumably the ninth.- The 'Primavera's 203 X 314 cm. The three panels of TheBattle of San Romano by Uccello are 182 x 319; 182 x 322;I8o x 316 cm. Panels about two metres high, with figureson the same scale as those of the 'Primavera', ere hardlyunusual, even if the 'Primavera's comparatively a littlewide.6A panel i53 x 241 cm in the National Gallery, Mel-bourne, with a dating of about 1465-70 and an associationwith Antonio Vivarini (in this Ursula Hoff, Catalogue fEuropeanPaintings beforeI8oo, Melbourne 1967, p. 138acquiesces) shows, like the 'Primavera',everal figures in agarden, although they are cut off (more likely, cut down) atthe waist. Other panels of a similar size, showing a Trojancycle, were also published by EdwardS. King, 'The Legendof Paris and Helen',journaloftheWalters rtGallery,n, 1939,pp. 55-79. See Paul Watson, TheGardenfLoven TuscanArtoftheEarlyRenaissance,hiladelphia 1979, pp. 122 ft.Since the 'Primavera's not unique, there is no need to

resortto the notion that it 'imitated'a tapestry.Althoughitsstrewn 'millefiori' round may recall tapestries, the coin-cidence may be adequatelyexplainedby the subjectmatter.The setting equally recalls frescoes, such as those in theCasa Borromeo,Milan. In composition, the 'Primavera's nomore 'tapestry-like'than Pollaiuolo's print of FightingMen.7 Vasari, Le Opere, d. Milanesi, reprintedFlorence 1973,III,p. 312, described the 'Primavera'fterthe Birthof Venuss'e cosi un' altra Venere, che le Grazie la fioriscono, dino-tando la primavera'. He must have written his accountsome time after he had seen the two picturesat Castello, andconflated them. There is no reason now to pair them. TheBirthis presumably a classical illustration, like Botticelli'sCalumnyfApelles.

8 Watson, GardenfLove,gives severalexamples: pls I, i18,20o, 43, 73, 88, 90. See furtherbelow, note 34.9 See V.Juren, '"Pan Terrificus"de Politien', Bibliothequed'Humanismeet Renaissance,XXXIII,1971, pp. 641-45.10 See M. Baxandall, Paintingand Experiencen Fifteenth-Centurytaly,Oxford 1972, pp. 67-70 in the 1974edition.


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204 NOTES AND DOCUMENTSEuropean poetry. Consider Petrarch, Rime, iii:Era il giorno ch' al sol si scoloraroper la pieta del suo fattorei rai;quando i' fui preso, e non me ne guardai,che be' vostr' occhi, Donna, mi legaro.Tempo non mi pareada dar riparocontr' a' colpi d'Amor;per6 m'andaisecur, senza sospetto;onde i miei guainel commune dolor s'incominciaro.Trovommi Amor del tutto disarmato,et aperta la via per gli occhi al core,che di lagrimeson fatti uscio e varco.Per6, al mio parer, non li fu onoreferir me da saetta in quello stato,a voi armata non mostrarpur l'arco.11Behind the happenstance that Petrarch fell inlove on 6 April 1327 (Rime, ccxi) lies the factthat it was spring. Frequently in Petrarch'scanzoniere pring quickens love,12 and generallyspeaking hundreds, it must be thousands, oftexts confirm the association that springtime isthe only pretty ring-time, sweet lovers love thespring. The next instance in Petrarch is Rime, ix:

Quando '1pianeta che distingue l'oread albergarcol Tauro si ritornacade vert% a l'infiammate cornache veste il mondo di novel colore;e non pur quel che s'aprea noi di fore,le rive e i colli di fiorettiadorna,ma dentro, dove giAmai non s'aggiorna,gravido fa di se il terrestroumore,onde tal fruttoe simile si colga;cosi costei, ch' e tra le donne un sole,in me, movendo de' begli occhi i rai,cria d'amor pensieri,atti e parole:

ma come ch'ella gli governa 0 volga,primaveraper me pur non e mai.EBoccaccio, Filocolo, II, xxvi, says explicitly thatin winter 'l'amoroso caldo per o10 piacevoletempo era nel core rattiepidito e ristretto', butwith spring 'incominciarono a ritornare l'usateforze all'amorose fiamme'.14

Spring in Petrarch's sonnet first quoted is akind of prelude, a cue. It even more obviouslysets the scene in this way in Politian's Stanceperla Giostra, i, xxiv-xxvi.s15 Giuliano de' Medicihas just delivered himself of some verses dis-paraging love, and Cupid has determined tohave his revenge, ending:Or veggian se '1meschin ch' Amor riprendeda due begli occhi se stesso or difende.Stanza xxv interludes like music, leading onexpectation:Zefirogin, di be' fiorettiadorno,avea de' monti tolta ogni pruina;avea fatto al suo nido gia ritornola stanca rondinellaperegrina;risonava la selva intorno intornosoavemente all' aura mattutina,e la ingegnosa pecchia al primoalboregiva predando ora uno or altro fiore.And in rides Giuliano, amaturus:L'ardito lulio, al giornoancoraacerbo . . .16

11 The edition used is La Letteraturataliana,vi, ed. F.Neri et al., Milan-Naples 1951. 'It was the day when, insympathy for his maker,the raysof the sun dimmed;when Iwas taken, and I did not look out forit, when your beautifuleyes, Lady, bound me. It did not seem to me a time forprotecting myself against the attacks of love; and so I wentout without thought, untroubled; hence my woes beganamidst the general grief.Love foundme quite unarmed,andthe path open to my heart through my eyes, which havebeen made passage and outlet for tears. And so, in myopinion, it did him no credit to strikeme with an arrowinthat state, and not even to show his bow to you, in armour'.12 Cf. Rime,c, lines io-I I:e la nova stagion che d'anno in annomi rinfresca n quel di l'antiche piaghe;and many other instances. There is an amplified imitationof Rime, iii by Tito Vespasiano Strozzi, Eroticon, , ii, inwhich the palio at Ferrara serves instead of the Passion toevoke the season:Candida lux aderat maiis vicina calendis...Tempore quo Zephyrusviridantesevocat herbas...Hic dum sollicito spectaremlumine cursusante mea arcitenens constitit ora puer...and this poem is fairlyrun-of-the-mill.

13 'When the planet that marks the hours comes back tolodge with the Bull, power falls from his inflamed horns tovest the world in new colour; and not only decks withflowers what opens up around us, the banks and the slopes,but inside, where it never has been day, it impregnatestheearthy liquid; it is from here that this and similar crops areculled. In the same way she, who is a sun amongwomen, bycasting raysfrom her beautiful eyes, causes in me thoughts,movements and words of love; but she rules and turns themin such a way that it never is springfor me.'14 The edition used is OpereMinorin Volgare,d. M. Marti,Milan 1970.1s Politian's Stanzewere first adduced by Warburg. Theedition used is Stanze Orfeo Rime,ed. B. Maier, Novara1968.The passages that are relevant are not those from theexcursuson the Realm of Venus, but those of the narrative;Warburg's assumption, following Vasari, that the 'Prima-vera'representsthe Realm of Venus has probablybeen themajor obstacle to its decipherment. But see also p. 2o9below.

16 'Now let us see if the wretch who reproves love saveshimself now from two beautifuleyes.Already Zephyr, decked with beautiful flowers, hadtaken away from the mountains all frost;the tired wander-ing swallow had already returned to her nest; the woodechoed all around balmily to the morning breeze; and thecrafty bee was up at first light despoiling now one and nowanother flower.Hotspur Giuliano, while day was still sharp.. .


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BOTTICELLI'S 'PRIMA VERA' 205Spring, or more particularly spring flowers,also appear simply as the habitual accompani-ment of the Lady, or as a figure of her beauty,virtually then an emanation. A clear statement,amongst innumerable examples of the associ-

ation, is Petrarch, Rime, clxv:Come '1candido pie per l'erba frescai dolci passi onestamente move,vertu ch' intorno i fioriapre e rinnovede le tenere piante sue par ch' esca . . .17In Politian's Stance,when Giuliano has been ledastray by a vision of a stag sent by Cupid, hecomes upon a 'ninfa' in 'un fiorito e verde prato'(i, xxxvii) and at i, xliii-xlvii, she is described:Candida e ella, e candida la veste,ma pur di rose e fiordipinta e d'erba;lo inanellato crin dall' aurea testascende in la fronteumilmente superba.

Rideli a torno tutta la foresta,e quanto pu6 sue cure disacerba;nell' atto regalmentee mansueta,e pur col ciglio le tempeste acqueta.Folgoron gli occhi d'un dolce sereno,ove sue face tien Cupido ascose;l'aier d'intornosi fa tutto amenoovunque gira le luce amorose.Di celeste letizia il volto ha pieno,dolce dipinto di ligustri e rose;ogni aura tace al suo parlardivino,e canta ogni augelletto in suo latino.Con lei sen va Onestate umile e pianache d'ogni chiuso cor volge la chiave;con lei va Gentilezza in vista umana,e da lei impara il dolce andar soave.Non pu6 mirarliil viso alma villana,se pria di suo fallirdoglia non have;tanti coriAmor piglia, fere o ancide,quanto ella o dolce parlao dolce ride.Sembra Talia se in man prende la cetra,sembra Minerva se in man prende l'asta;se l'arco ha in mano, al fiancola faretra,giurarpotrai che sia Diana casta.Ira dal volto suo trista s'arretra,e poco, avanti a lei, Superbia basta;ogni dolce virtu 1'e n compagnia,Biltai a mostra a dito e Leggiadria.Ell' era assisa sovra la verdura,allegra, e ghirlandettaavea contestadi quanti fiorcreassi mai natura,de' quai tutta dipinta era sua vesta.E come prima al gioven puose cura,alquanto paurosaalz6 la testa;

poi colla bianca man ripresoil lembo,levossi in pie con di fiorpieno un grembo.1sNot only flowers, but abstract qualities suchas Onestate, Gentilezza, Leggiadria, accom-pany her. So, too, the left-hand figures in Bot-

ticelli's 'Primavera'can be read as attributes, asemanations. The Graces, the traditional com-panions of Venus, embody feminine virtues, or,more specifically, after Alberti or rather Seneca,represent the Lady's liberality.19 Mercury,

17 'As her white foot urges its sweet pace throughthe freshgrass decorously, power that opens and revives the flowersaround her seems to exude fromher tender soles . . . '

is 'White she is, and white her dress, but coloured withroses and flowers and grass; her curling hair from hergolden head falls on to a browproudin modesty.The wholeforest about her smiles at her, and almost takesthe edge offhis hurt; in gesture she is impressively mild, and yet withher glance she settles storms.Her eyes, wherein Cupid has his torches lurking, flashwith soft serenity. The air around her, wherever she turnsher captivating glance, becomes balmy. Her face, gentlyflushed with lavender and roses,is fullof heavenly oy; everybreeze hushes at her holy word, and everylittle birdsings inher linguaranca.With her travels Integrity, modest and quiet, who turnsthe key of every locked heart; with her comes Nobility inhuman form, and learns from her a graceful carriage. Nobase soul can look her in the face, without first repentingofits sin; Love seizes, strikes or slays hearts as often as shesweetly speaksor sweetly laughs.She seems a Thalia if she takesa lyrein hand, she seems aMinerva if she holds a spear; if she has a bow in her handand a quiver at her side you could swear her to be chasteDiana. Anger retreats downcast from her face, and Prideamounts to little, confrontedwith her;every lovely qualityaccompanies her, Beauty points her out with a finger, sodoes Grace.

She was sitting on the grass, happily, and had woven agarland of all the flowers of nature'smaking,with which allher dress was spangled. And as soon as she tookstock of theyouth, she raised her head a little timidly; then taking herhemwithherwhitehand, hestooduprightwithher apfullof flowers.19Seneca, De Beneficiis,, iii, 9, also says that the Gracesaccompany Venus. Cf. Dempsey, and again in thisJournal,xxxIV, 1971, pp. 326-30. Wind made the image of theGraces hevehicleof hisideas,referringo severalmedalswith varying legends. But it would be misleading to becategorical about which moral and physical virtues theyrepresentin the 'Primavera',r for that matter in the pictureof the subject recorded in the 1499 inventory in LorenzodiPierfrancesco'sground-floorroom to which the 'Primavera'was next door. It seems natural to concludethat the personsinvolved in the creation of the 'Primavera'new Alberti'sDella Pittura, ince they follow so many of its precepts, butunnatural to expect that the interpretationof the pictureshould be limited by the sources Alberti happens to use,especially since at the very minimum two more texts irrele-vant to Alberti are needed to explain its composition. So,too, Mercuryappearsas Mercury,not as an emblemencap-sulating an exegesis.That the 'Primavera' as nine (or eight) figures is not aninstance of its dependence on Alberti, who is often read (iin,xl) as if he thought nine figures the optimum in a painting.In fact he felt nine to be the maximum, and no better thaneight or seven or any smaller number. He says, anyway,nine or ten.


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206 NOTES AND DOCUMENTSagain after Seneca, represents her intellect andher sweet tongue: Seneca, after describing theGraces, adds (De Beneficiis, I, iii, 7): 'Ergo etMercurius una stat, non quia beneficia ratiocommendat vel oratio, sed quia pictori itavisum est' [And Mercury also stands with themfor this reason, not because sense or eloquencefoster/adorn kindness, but because so it seemedgood to the painter]. Ovid, in the same book ofthe Fasti used as a source for Chloris, says ofMercury (v, 668): 'quo didicit culte linguafavente loqui': 'under whose auspices languagelearnt decorously to speak'. Eloquence is one ofthe traditional qualities of Mercury, and thefirst quotation adduced by Politian in his com-mentary on Mercury in Statius, Silvae, ii, i, 189is: 'quod ipse est deus prudentiae' [since he ishimself the god of wisdom].20Correspondingly, the Lady is described incountless texts of the dolcestil nuovoas endowedwith ratio and oratio - Petrarch calls Laura(Rime, xxxvii) 'torre d' alto intelletto'; in thesestine of the sonnet last quoted (Rime, clxv) itfollows inevitably:E co l'andar e col soave sguardos'accordanle dolcissime parolee l'atto mansueto, umile e tardo.21Similarly, in the five stanzas of Politian justquoted, just as the ninfa is twice said to beclothed in flowers, so she is twice said to speakbeautifully, and her attitudes in general showforth her decorousness. The phrase 'paroleaccorte' - prescient words - occurs inPetrarch, Rime, cix, and, should this not con-vince, recurs in the highly Petrarchan poetry ofLorenzo il Magnifico.22Politian, in his commentary on Statius, Silvae,I1, i, 189, continues by quoting from Horace'sCarmina and from Virgil, Aeneid,IV, 239-46, theclassic passage for Mercury.23 He explains:

'Mercury is the god of eloquence and the go-between (interpres)of the gods'. He quotes Mar-tial, vii, lxxiv, 1-2:Cyllenes caelique decus, facundeminister,aurea cui tortovirgadracone viret.He quotes much else besides, most ofit concern-ing the symbolism of the caduceus, and endswith Suidas: . .. 'And his straight wand is atoken of his upright speech'.24 He does not,however, cite the passage, also from Statius, notthe Silvae, but the Thebaid,1,3' o- 11, which mayat last explain what Mercury is doing with thecaduceus:

Nec mora, sublimis raptim per inane volatuscarpit et ingenti designat nubila gyro.He scribes the clouds with a circle.25

Although the figures have their names andattributes and are intelligible, in order to under-stand fully what they are doing one has to know

20 IstitutoNazionaledi Studi sul Rinascimento, tudi eTestiv, ed. L. C. Martinelli, lorenceI978,pp.417ff.21 'Andwithhercarriage ndher ovelyglancegoherverysweetwordsandhergentle,humbleandgravebehaviour.'22For nstance,n SonnetsLXXXIInd LXXXIIInd n Selved'AmoreI, i8, in OpereVolgari,d.J. Ross and E. Hutton,Edinburgh 912. (The sonnetsaresometimesnumbereddifferently).nSonnetLXXXIIe callsupon heLady:Mostramil lietoriso,ovegiafernoLe Graziealorsede,e '1desioquetiUn piosembiante, naparolaaccorta...All thepointsmadehitherto boutspringcouldalsohavebeen illustratedromLorenzo'spoetry.Cf Sonnets i, v,LXXXVIII, CXVII etc.23Cited, for instance, by Boccaccio, Genealogia eorum,i,vii. In a lengthy passage about Mercury he has recoursefirst to Horace and Virgil, Aeneid,Iv. Then to Statius,Thebaid,, 305, 'obnubitquecomaset temperatastragalero'.

24 'iRP3oXov E7vT6 lvy Q06V XovTof6Q00ok6you2sThepassage uns nfull(303f):ParetAtlantiades ictisgenitoris tindesummapedumpropere lantaribusnligatalis,obnubitque omasettemperat stragalero.Tumdextrae irgamnseruit,quapelleredulcesautsuadereterum omnos,quanigra ubireTartara texsanguis nimare dsueverat mbras.Desiluit, enuique xceptusnhorruit ura.Necmora, ublimis aptimper nanevolatuscarpit t ingentidesignatnubilagyro.As seen romn. 23 above, hepassagewascitedbyBoccac-cio,so isnot all-that bscure; olitian'snterestnStatius sanyway well known. Cf. also Thebaid, , 55 ff. and vii, 5 if.,which again describe Mercury in flight, while VII,35 if.,gives a clue to the precise meaning of'designat nubilagyro':Atque ilium (sc. Cyllenium) Arctoae labentemcardineportaetempestas aeternaeplagae praetentaquecaeloagmina nimborumprimiqueAquilonis hiatusin diversaferunt...He cuts a swathe or furrow as he travels round the earth.

Politian, in his commentary on Silvae, ii, i, 189, quotesMacrobius:Macrobiusquae de Mercuriodicunturadsolem refert,unde administrum existimari inter superos etinferos,quoniam "inferiorehemisphaerio,idest hiemalibussignis, cursum suum peragit" et "partem Zodiacae ambitaestivam" 'I thinkthe verb designaren its general significancefits theway in which Mercuryholds his rod in Botticelli's picture:he appears to guide it with his index finger in a delicatemotion, one that might well be circular. It is not of coursewith a huge ('ingenti') circularmotion, but then the cloudsare tiny: this is not a naturalistic representation but thesymbol or diagram of a faculty. What is to be indicated isthat he travels among the clouds. The reason why thefaculty has been devolved on to his caduceus must lie inVirgil's description of Mercury in Aeneid, v (adduced toBotticelli's picture by Warburgand Wind, and to Statius,Silvae,nii, , 189by Politian), particularlythe lines (245-46):illa (sc. virga) fretusagit ventos et turbida tranatnubila...


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BOTTICELLI'S 'PRIMAVERA' 207the meaning of the whole. One has to grasp thedrift of the body of poetry of which the 'Prima-vera' is a painted member. It shares in theconventions of courtly love: Mercury, forinstance, prudent, gracious, honest go-between, plays a role in Botticelli's picture inconception not very distant from that of Biala-coil (Bel Accueil) in Guillaume de Lorris'sRoman de la Rose.26 Some fundamental condi-tions of courtly love as it took form in Italy in thepoetry of the dolce stil nuovo can be illustratedfrom what has already been quoted. AsPetrarch, Rime, iii, complains, love is notrequited - Cupid does not show his bow to her,and his eyes are a passage for tears. As Rime, ix,well enough explains, she is in control, and doesnot permit his passion outlet. It burns neverthe-less, to such an extentch' i' non curo altro ben ne bramo altr' escaas it is put in Rime, clxv. So it is again withGiuliano in Politian's Stance, in which thenymph, Simonetta Vespucci, is already mar-ried, and in which Giuliano's passion for her isnot inflicted on him for its own sake, but inorder that, by overcoming every other feeling, itmay make him worthy, honourable and glori-ous.An intimation of Giuliano's destiny hasalready appeared in the lines quoted above (i,xlv,5):Non pu6 mirarliil viso alma villana'No ignoble soul can look her in the face'. Thetheme had been treated very obviously in Boc-caccio's Comedia elleNinfeFiorentine.Ameto, apeasant, stumbles on a group of nymphs by astream. His initial fears of a fate like Actaeon'shaving been assuaged, he converses with themand is gradually taught about love. As a result,'brievemente, d'animale bruto, uomo divenutoessere li pare' (xlvi); earlier (xvi) he had sung:E tu.. .Amore...... il qual m'hai trattodella vita selvaggia e dallo erroreistato rozzo infino allora e matto.At the climax a heavenly Venus descends, andcan now be perceived by the indoctrinatedAmeto. So in Guinizelli and Dante 'the ladybecome angel serves the man as a means andguide to God'.27

In Politian's Stanzethe process of sublimationis adulterated by the martial element, the Gios-tra. Book niinevertheless provides a clear anduseful allegory of its dynamic. The excursuson the Realm of Love concluded, Politiandescribes the effect of an army of cupids (thereferent of 'lor' in line 5) on the youth ofFlorence who shortly will be jousting (ii, xix):E come quando il sol li Pesce accende,tutta la terra e di suo virtu pregna,che poscia a primavera fuor si estende,mostrando al cel verde e fiorita insegna;cosi ne' petti ove lor foco scendes'abbarbica un disio che dentro regna,un disio sol d'eterna gloria e fama,che le 'nfiammate menti a virtu chiama.As for Giuliano, he is visited by a dream. In it hesees Love bound by his Lady, who wears thearmour of Pallas; Giuliano recoils in fear andhorror at it, but Love exhorts him (ii, xxxi):Alza gli occhi, alza, lulio, a quella fiammache come un sol col suo splendort'adombra:quivi e colei che l'alte mente infiamma,e che de' petti ogni vilta disgombra . . . :29'colei' is in fact Gloria (ii, xxxii):Cosi dicea Cupido, e gia la Gloriascendea git folgorando ardente vampo.. .30Giuliano then rushes forward, seizes the arm-our from his lady, and puts it on himself. Onwaking, he recalls his dream, and so invokesLove (ii, xliv-xlvi):E s'io son, dolce Amor, s'io son pur degnoessere il tuo campion contro a costei,contro a costei da cui con forza e 'ngegno,se ver mi dice il sonno, avinto sei,fa si del tuo furor mio pensier pregnoche spirto di pieta nel cor li crei:mie virtu per se stessa ha l'ale corte,perche troppo e '1valor di costei forte.

Troppo forte e, signor, lo suo valoreche, come vedi, el tuo poter non cura;e tu pur suoli al cor gentile, Amore,riparar come augello alla verdura.

26 See C. S. Lewis, The Allegoryof Love, Oxford 1936,reprinted 1979, p. 122.27See Azzurra B. Givens, La Dottrinad'Amore elBoccaccio,Messina-Florence 1968, who summarizes Andrea Capella-nus and amatory philosophy in Italy before Boccaccio inher first chapter.

28 'And as when the sun lights up the Fish the whole earthis fecund with its power, and thereupon opens itself out inspring, showing to heaven a greenand flowerybanner;so inthe hearts where their fire descends there stings a desirewhich rules inside, a desire only foreternalglory and fame,which calls their inflamedspirits to mettle'.29 'Raise your eyes, raise them, Giuliano, to that flamewhich like a sun frights you with its splendour:here is theone who incites high minds, and strips baseness fromhearts30'Thus spoke Cupid, and alreadyGlory was descending,flashing a blazing glow.'


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208 NOTES AND DOCUMENTSMa se mi presti el tuo santo furore,leverai me sovra la tua natura;e faraicome suol marmorearota,che lei non taglia e pure il ferroarruota.31Con voi men vengo, Amor, Minerva e Gloria...These three figures, to interpret somewhatcrudely, stand for sexual passion, chastity andprowess; sexual passion imprisoned in chastity(the armour borrowed from the Lady) achievesprowess. Stanza ii, xliv, explains something ofthe psychology of the sublimation, purificationor refinement - a perpetual state of fervourmaintained by the interaction of two opposites,his sexual passion and her chastity. This isdifferent from the flat dichotomy of 'celestial'and 'natural' Venus envisaged by many Neo-platonic iconographers.32

In the poetry so far quoted spring hasappeared not only as an attribute of the Donna;it has also symbolized her lover's passion.33 SoBotticelli's picture can be read not merely as astatic list of the Lady's qualities; it alsoexpresses the progress of the lover's love

- thelover is the spectator, whom the Lady greets.34The picture breaks around her into two halves:on the right, to use Politian's words, 'Ma se miprestiel tuo santo furore';on the left, its apodo-sis, 'leverai me sovra la tua natura'. Surely thisis why it was chosen to represent spring in thisof all ways, as an impulse to rape; and surelythis is why Mercury points upwards throughthe clouds he crosses when he travels from earthto heaven.35 In this way the figures' activity,which is, so to speak, the direction or purpose oftheir attributes, demonstrates the meaning -sublimation. Mercury travels to heaven on thewind of Zephyr.36Sublimation is a modern word; in contem-porary terms the picture expresses the attain-ment - and the lady's embodiment - of gen-tilezza. In Boccaccio there is progress not onlyfrom beast to man but also from peasant tosomething nobler. In Politian's Stanze, even inthe passages quoted (1, xlv, 5; n, xxxi, 4; n, xlv,3) the antithesis gentile-vileor villanois insistent.In the context of the Stance martial glory, andthe body of ideas that go with a tourney, areinterwoven with gentilezza, and so, in Casti-glione, the courtier is still first and foremost amilitary man; but like 'gentle' gentilealso invol-ves softer qualities, those of Venus as well as

31 'And if I am, sweet Love, if Iam reallyworthyto be yourchampion against this lady, against this lady by whom withmight and craft, if my dream speaks true,you were bound,implant my mind so with your madness that it causes in hera spirit of compassion: my mettle in itself has short wings,since much too strongis her worth.Much too strong,my lord, is herworth,which, asyou see,takes no account of your sway; even so, Love, you like totake refugein a gentle heart, like a birdin bushes.But ifyougrant me your holy madness, you will lift me above yourown nature; and you will do as a whetstone does, whichitself does not cut and yet sharpensthe iron.With you will I travel, Love, Minerva and Glory...32 In Studies nIconology,, 'The Neoplatonic Movement inFlorenceand North Italy', Erwin Panofskydisregardedthedolcestil nuovo.But it is evident that Ficino was in partclassicizing ideas alreadywell-worn, and a pity that Panof-sky was not alerted by a 16th-century 'recrudescenceofPetrarchism within the frameworkof the Platonizing phil-osophy' which he shuffles away into note 68. The paradoxthat Ficino's 'scanty following'amounted to 'a tremendousinfluence, both directlyand indirectly,on artists,poets, andwhat might be called "poetical thinkers"from Michelan-gelo to Giordano Bruno, Tasso, Spenser, Donne and evenShaftesbury' (pp. 145-46) is explained and abolished; theromance of 'one kindly, delicate, little scholar' (p. 130)evaporates.Wind is less transparent.But there is no need to read histriadic transformationprinciple into the 'Primavera'r intoanything else. This sentence from the prefaceto the secondedition of Pagan Mysteries find typical: 'As before, thefootnotes can be ignored by readers more interested in thetext than its foundation'. The footnotes do not supportWind's assertions;his method, which is pernicious,is argu-ment fromsignificantdetail, or reading 'a calculated effect'into 'an oddity of style' (p. i16). Often he shows intuition,often he assembles interesting material, but there is nocontrol.Both Wind and Panofsky point out that Ficino had nointerest in art. By contrast Politian's descriptions of thereliefsin the palace in the Realm of Love in the Stanzemakeinteresting art criticism. Warburg'sproposition that Poli-tian provided the programme for the 'Primavera's surelycorrect.

33See Petrarch, Rime,xx;Politian, Stanze,i, xix.34Evidently, althoughthe picturewas hung high up, abovea lettuccio,ccording to the inventoryof 1499,and althoughCupid's head and arms are turned well against thepicture-plane, he is not intended to confront the spectatorillusionistically andpiercehim with his arrow.He draws hisbow nevertheless and is about to shoot: he signals thecapacity of the Donna to induce love, and is an attribute orquality like the other figures.' The notion of Mercuryflying throughcloud and circlingthe globe (see note 25 above) fits nicely with visualizationsof the lover'sjourney to heaven. Cf., forexample,Lorenzo ilMagnifico, Sonnet cxvi:Per lunga, erta, aspravia, nell' ombre involto,scorgendoAmor lo mio cieco pensiero,mossi i pie per incognito sentiero,avendo il desio gid verso il ciel volto.Per mille errorial fin con sudor moltoall' orizzonte del nostroemisperopervenni, indi in eccelso e piii alteroloco, di terragia levato e tolto...36 Virgil, Aeneid, Iv, 223: Jupiter addresses Mercury:vade age, nate, voca Zephyroset laberepennis...Wind, pp. I21-25, is worth reading on this point.


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BOTTICELLI'S 'PRIMAVERA' 209Mars. A gentleman learns grace after falling inlove, by which his savagery is tamed.37It can now be seen that the 'Primavera' haresits theme with some other Medici commissionsand indeed has a place in a widespread tra-dition. Although they have been understoodhitherto imprecisely and in Neoplatonic terms,it has long been recognized that 'Pallas and theCentaur' Pl. 29b), which hung in the same roomas the 'Primavera', and Donatello's bronzeDavid, from which the stance of Botticelli's Mer-cury is derived, represented the subjection ofbase passions to a superior force.38 With theseDonatello's Judith, also a Medici commission, 39should be joined. It is also evident that otherpictures, such as a painting by Paolo Schiavo inYale University Art Gallery,40 reflect similar

conventions of courtly love. A cassone in theMuseo Stibbert in Florence41 bears the inscrip-tion:Sensa honesta'e perduta la bellessaE sensa amor non fu mai gentilessa.

'Pallas and the Centaur',recte Camilla and the Cen-taur,42 seems to be a classicized version of thelady taming the unicorn or the wild man.43And now that we have come so far, it ispossible to accommodate Warburg's thesis,that the 'Primavera' represents Venus in theGarden of Love. In Boccaccio's Teseida, whenArcita and Palemone catch sight for the firsttime of Emilia,44 Arcita exclaims:Vener e qui discesa veramente;and Palemone replies:Per certo questa e Citerea.Of course any beautiful woman can be assumedto be Venus; even more so if she is accompaniedby the Graces. It is worth recalling Politian'slines, Stancei, xlvi, quoted above,Sembra Talia se in man prende la cetra, etc.Even though the Lady is not marked as Venus,the setting of the 'Primavera' is the Garden of

37 This is almost explicit in Politian, Stanze, , x, describingGiulianojust before he begins his verses disparaginglove:Facea sovente pe' boschi soggiornoinculto sempree rigido in aspetto...38 Ronald Lightbown, SandroBotticelli, , London 1978, p.78, had alreadypointedout the derivationfrom Donatello'sDavid. It is first recorded next door in the cortileof thepresent Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in 1469 (H. W. Janson,TheSculpture f Donatello,Princeton 1963, p. 77); for a latedating see Francis Ames-Lewis, 'Art History or Stilkritik',Art History, II, no. 2, June 1979, pp. 139-55. Mercury'shelmet, though copied, like his wings, from Donatello'sstatue, must correspondto the 'galerum'of Statius, Thebaid,1, 305 (see note 25 above) or to the 'tegumenque capillis' ofOvid, Metamorphoses,,672. His sword is the sword withwhich he decapitated Argus, Metamorphoses,, 717-18:nec mora, falcato nutantem vulnerat ensequa collo est confinecaput.Decapitation, I hazard, symbolizes the conquest of thepassions. Perhaps the first instance is the Mithras relief onthe base of the Tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal, whereother motifs, such as unicorns,also allude to the Cardinal'schastity (see F. Hartt, G. Corti, C. Kennedy, TheChapel fthe Cardinal f Portugaln SanMiniato,Florence, hiladelphia1964, pp. 121 ff). Decapitation recurs in Donatello's Davidand hisJudith,and is hinted at in Botticelli's 'Pallas', n theway she holds the centaurby the hair of the head as severedheads areheld, and asJudith held Holofernes(Judith, 3,7).Outside Florence, the figure opposite Diana guarding theGarden of the Liberal Arts in the picture in the Louvrepainted by Costa for Isabella d'Este again holds a halberd,with which he has removed the head of the dragon at hisheel.39The statue is first heard of in 1495, in the garden of theMedici Palace (Janson, op. cit. p. 198). The puttibeneathcomment on the drunkenness of Holofernes (Judith, 2, 20,and 13, 2), and presumably the lost base of the Davidpointed up the meaning similarly.4oThe subjectof Watson, GardenfLove,op. cit. n. 6 above.Although he adducesJacopo da Montepulciano'sFimerodia,in which, 'when the heroine chooses Diana, Eritonio per-ceives the flames of a new love kindling themselves withinhis breast' (p. 119), Watson does not quite realize thesignificance of the final episode in Schiavo's continuousrepresentation, in which the lover reclines in melancholy.He is still in love- but Watson readsthe pictureas a denialof love: 'Virtue lies on one side, love on the other' (p. 120).

41xCited by Watson, op. cit., p. 101.42Camilla brings up the rear in Virgil, Aeneid,vii, 11.803-17, and occupies much of Aeneid,xi. As Shearman,'Younger Branch' (see note 4 above), pp. i8-19, supposedwith unnecessary uncertainty, she appears in Botticelli'spicture as a subduer of carnal appetites; admittedly this isnot her role in the Aeneid,but she is a warrior virginparticularly beloved of Diana: and this is why she appearsin the Triumph of Chastity in Petrarch's Trionfias anAmazon (11.70-71):Camilla e l'altre andar use in battagliacon la sinistra sola intera mamma.As for her juxtaposition with a centaur, horses are veryfrequently mentioned in Aeneid,xi, not only because thereare cavalry battles but also (11. 492-97), in lines of morethan usual beauty, as an image of freedom and youthfulenergy; this is just before Camilla appears. Subsequently(11.699 ff.) Camilla on foot is tricked by, but then kills, amounted Ligurian. In the picture she bears a halberd, theweapon of the foot-soldieragainst the horseman.The compilerof the inventorypublished by Shearmaninfact describes her antagonist as a satyr; Botticelli himselfmakes a similar confusion, in the panel at the base of thethrone in the Calumny f Apelles,where Apelles's Family ofCentaurs after Lucian is shown: the centaur suckles littlesatyrs.43For the lady and the unicorn, see, for an introduction,MargaretB. Freeman, TheUnicorn apestriesftheMetropoli-tanMuseum,New York 1976;orJiirgen W. Einhorn,Spirita-lis Unicornis,Munich 1976. For the lady and the wild man,see Timothy Husband, TheWildMan,New York I980.44 Teseida,II,xiiiff. This comes of course after a descriptionof spring, mIII,ff.


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210 NOTES AND DOCUMENTSLove, and that is the reason for the oranges onthe trees.45For the 'Primavera's undoubtedlyjoyful. Itdoes not representthe tears of love. As Politiansays, Stance, xliii (quoted above):Ridelia torno utta aforesta, tc.It corresponds to such outbursts as Petrarch,Rime, xxii:Gentilmiadonna, ' veggionel moverde'vostr'occhiundolce umechemi mostraavia ch' al cielconduce;e per ungocostume,dentro adovesolconAmor eggio,quasivisibilmenteil cortraluce.Questae lavistach' a benfarm'inducee chemiscorgealglorioso ine;questa oladalvulgom'allontana.Negi. mai inguaumanacontarporiaquelcheledue divine

luci sentirmifanno,e quando 1verno pargeepruinee quandopoiringiovenisce'anno,qualeraal tempodel mioprimoaffanno.46

So it is more than possiblethat Mercury sintended o gesture gaudenti irga',as Statiushad put it in Silvae, ii, i, 189, and on whichPolitian's gloss begins: 'Per Mercurium fingun-tur revocari ab inferis animae, "quod ipse estdeus prudentiae", ut ait Servius in 6`' [Souls arepictured as being recalled from the lowerregions through Mercury, 'because he is himselfthe god of wisdom', as Servius says in his com-mentary on Aeneid,vi].And it will now be seen that the 'Primavera'fits very well, mutatismutandis,into the contextreconstructed by Gombrich.47 His thesis thatthe picture had an educative force is supported.It could have been a kind of invocation, likeHorace's Carmina, i, xxx, which Warburgadduced:O Venus, reginaCnidi Paphique,spernedilectam Cypronet vocantisture te multo Glyceraedecoramtransferin aedem.Fervidus tecum puer et solutisGratiae zonis properentquenymphaeet parumcomis sine te luventasMercuriusque.

I hope that the penultimate line can now beread with richer meaning: 'too little courtlywithout you'.PAUL HOLBERTON

4 Oranges are prominent in the Florentine print of the'Children of Venus' (A. M. Hind, EarlyItalianEngraving,London 1938, pls 122, 123); they often grow in LoveGardens. See also F. Ames-Lewis, 'Early MediceanDevices', this Journal, XLII,1979, pp. 128 and 140.46 'My gentle lady, I see in the movement of your eyes asweet light that shows me the way to heaven;and as it longhas done, inside, where I sit alone with Love, almostvisiblyit shines through my heart. This is the vision that urgesmeto do well, and that guides me to the glorious goal; thisalone distances me fromthe crowd.Human language couldnever describe what your two holy eyes make me feel, bothwhen winter scatters his frosts, and when the year thenrenewsitself, such as it was at the time of my firstpang. . .'.

47 Ficino's letter to Lorenzodi Pierfrancescopublished byGombrich gives a gloss for Mercuryjust like the one fromwhich this article depends; but see note 33 (end) above. Ihave avoided criticizing other interpretations, since itwould not have helped to establish this one.


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PhotoAlinari'Primavera'.lorence, Uffizi (p. 202) b-Botticel(pp.203, 2

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