Allegory of love
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| Allegory of love |
|---|
| Agnolo Bronzino , before 1550 |
| oil on wood |
| 146 × 116 cm |
| National Gallery (London) |
Allegory of Love is an allegorical painting by the Italian painter Agnolo Bronzino .
The painting is 146 cm × 116 cm and has been in the National Gallery in London since 1860 .
title
Besides the term allegory of love it bears u. a. the title Venus kisses Cupid ; Venus, Cupid, madness and time ; Truth is revealed through time (La verità svelata dal tempo) or The revelation of opulence (Panofsky).
From the number of its titles alone, it can be concluded that the meaning of the picture is not easy to understand, and it has also been interpreted frequently and in different ways. All interpretations are based on Vasari's description of a picture that Bronzino painted on behalf of Cosimo I de 'Medici . It was sent as a gift to Francis I of France, and Vasari described it from memory in the vite of 1550 and 1568:
- He painted a picture of singular beauty that was sent to King Francis in France. On him was a naked Venus with Cupid, who kissed her, and on the one hand there was pleasure (Piacere), as well as play (Giuoco) and other cupids, and on the other hand the wickedness (woman), jealousy (Gelosia ) and other passions of love.
description
The picture shows an abundance of figures that are grouped tightly around the central pair of Venus and Cupid . Venus, kneeling on a white silk scarf, holds in her left hand the golden apple of the Hesperides , which Paris had given her as a prize for her unique beauty. In her raised right hand she carries an arrow which she has apparently drawn from Cupid's quiver. Cupid huddles against his mother with heated cheeks, caresses her breasts tenderly and kisses her on the mouth. Venus returns the kiss with parted lips and her tongue, the pigeons under Cupid's foot, as symbols of passionate love, underline the erotic charm of the scene.
The figure on the left, with a contorted face tearing his hair as if in despair, was interpreted as an allegory of madness, for Vasari it is jealousy , an interpretation that goes well with the first one.
The boy with the bells on his fetters, who is about to sprinkle roses on the couple, can be considered an allegory of play and pleasure.
The most difficult to interpret is the figure with the pearl diadem, which holds a honeycomb towards the viewer. The head floating in the air in front of the blue curtain, like the anatomically puzzlingly twisted hand, obviously belongs to a bird's body covered with scales, the lion's paws and the snake-like structure that is possibly the lizard-tail of the hybrid creature. Vasari interprets this figure as a woman , d. H. as cunning and hypocritical falsehood. According to Cesare Ripa , the inexhaustible source of learned encodings in art and literature, Fraude is a figure with a bird's body, animal feet and two heads hidden behind masks. Bronzino painted two masks at the monster's feet, perhaps as an indication of such an interpretation.
Over the whole group, two figures with a dramatic gesture spread a large blue cloth; you don't know whether they want to cover the scene or have they just unveiled the actors in order to bring them to the light of truth. The bald old man with a gray beard can be identified by his wings as the god Saturn and thus as an allegory of time. The second figure could be an allegory of truth - the daughter of time - to which one of the picture titles alludes.
Interpretation and art-historical classification
The picture could be interpreted as a derisive commentary on the contradictions of love: love as an ambivalent human experience that brings both joys and sorrows, with which one easily exposes oneself to the deception, slander and deception that can drive the lover mad and which is ephemeral. It appears and disappears through the work of time.
The picture is an example of the play with mythological stories, with learned allegories and riddles that challenge the imagination and educational knowledge of the viewer, popular at the Florentine court and at the other Renaissance courts in France and Italy .
Reception in literature and pop culture
- Cupid's right foot crushes the headline in “ Monty Python's Flying Circus ”.
- In the manga "From Eroica With Love", the picture of art thief Dorian Red, Earl of Gloria, is stolen from the National Gallery.
- A section of the picture serves as the cover for the CD single "Principles of Lust" (1991) from Enigma .
- The meaning of the painting, with which the book's protagonist, an art forger, is obsessed, is discussed in Robertson Davies ' story “What's Bred in the Bone”, the image is the cover of the German translation “Was du ererbt von dein Fätern” (1990 ).
- The painting is a topic of conversation in Iris Murdoch's story "The Nice and the Good" and is used on the cover of the first 1978 edition.
Web links
literature
- Erwin Panofsky : Studies on the Iconology of the Renaissance. [1939]. 2nd Edition. DuMont, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-7701-4012-5 .
- Emil Maurer : Neo = anti-classical? Notes on the formal language in Bronzino's "Allegory of Love". In: Emil Maurer: Mannerism. Figura serpentinata and other ideals of figures. Studies - Essays - Reports. NZZ-Verlag Zürich 2001, ISBN 3-85823-791-4 , pp. 117–125.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Life Of Python. A&E Networks 1999
- ↑ Agnolo Bronzino in pop culture
- ↑ From Eroica with Love, Synopsis, engl.
- ↑ CD cover , accessed on March 16, 2015.
- ↑ Agnolo Bronzino in Pop Culture , accessed March 16, 2015.
- ↑ The Nice and the God, Cover 1978 , accessed March 16, 2015.