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Article
Jacopo Tintoretto’s Female Concert: The Realm of Venus
Author(s)
Liana De Girolami Cheney
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2016.05.006
Affiliation(s)
Università di Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
ABSTRACT
This study aims to visualize Giorgio Vasari’s statement in discussing Jacopo Tintoretto’s Female Concert of 1576-86, now at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (see Figure 1). Two conceits (concetti) are considered in analyzing Tintoretto’s female imagery: (1) a fanciful invention of musica extravaganza; and (2) a Venetian allegory of bellezza. The first part of the essay discusses the provenance of the painting and the second part presents an iconographical interpretation of the imagery. This essay also focuses on the iconography of the painting based on viewing the subject and does not postulate on its iconography based on disappeared paintings or on a speculative decorative cycle on the theme of Hercules. Relying on well-documented research on music in Venice, on Mannerist practices, and on art theories during Tintoretto’s life, some intriguing observations are made about the painting.
KEYWORDS
beauty, music, iconography, alchemy, interpretation, mythology, muses, Neoplatonism, Venus
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References
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Comensoli, V. (1998). Music, The Book of the Courtier, and Othello’s soldiership. In M. Marrapodi (Ed.), The Italian world of English Renaissance drama: Cultural exchange and intertextuality (pp. 89-105) Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses.
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Lee, R. (1967). Ut Pictura Poesis: Humanist theory of painting. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.
Lomazzo, G. P. (1598). Trattato dell’ arte della pittura, scultura et architettura (Treatise on the art of painting, sculpture and architecture). Milan: P. G. Pontio.
Marshal, P. (2006). The magic circle of Rudolf II: Alchemy and astrology in Renaissance Prague. London: Waker and Company.
Melville, A. D. (Ed.). (1990). Ovid the love poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mendelsohn, L. (1982). Paragoni: Benedetto Varchi Due Lezzioni and Cinquecento art theory (Comparisons: Benedetto Varchi’s Two Lessons and sixteenth-century art theory). Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
Miller, C. A. (Ed.). (1968). Practica Musicae by Franchinus Gaffurius (Musical transcriptions of Franchinus Gaffurius). Dallas, TX: American Institute of Musicology.
Moore, T. (1990). The planets within: The astrological psychology of Marsilio Ficino. Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press.
Nichols, T. (1999). Tintoretto: Tradition and identity. London: Reaktion Books.
Pallucchini, R., & Rossi, P. (1982). Jacopo Tintoretto: Le opere sacre e profane (Jacopo Tintoretto: Sacred and profane works). Milan: Electa.
Pendle, K. (Ed.). (1991). Women and music: A history. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Plett, H. F. (2004). Rhetoric and renaissance culture. New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Praz, M. (1967). Mnemosyne: The parallel between literature and the visual arts. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Richte, I. A. (Ed. & Trans.). (1949). Paragone: A conception of the arts by Leonardo da Vinci. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ridolfi, C. (1984). Life of Tintoretto, and his children Domenico and Marietta. (R. Enggass, Trans., 2 Vols.). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Ridolfi, C. (2006). Le Maraviglie dell’Arte (The wonders of art) (2 Vols.). Padua: Elibron.
Rosand, D. (1986/1997). Painting in cinquecento Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Roskill, M. (Trans.). (1968). Dolce’s Dialogo della Pittura (Dolce’s dialogue on painting). New York: New York University Press.
Rotraud, B. R. (1976). Die Kunstkammer Kaiser Rudolfs II. In Prag: Inventar aus den Jahren 1607-1611 (Emperor Rudolph II’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Prague Inventary 1607-1611). Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 72. (N.p: n.p.), XIV (report from 5 March 1612).
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Siscoe, G. (1986). An historical footnote on the origin of “Aurora Borealis”. History of Geophysics, 2, 11-14.
Slim, H. C. (1987). A painting about music at Dresden by Jacopo Tintoretto. Exploration in Renaissance Culture, 13, 1-18.
Slim, H. C. (1988). Tintoretto’s music-making women at Dresden. Imago Musicae, 4, 45-76.
Spencer, J. R. (1957). Ut Rhetorica Pictura: A study in quattrocento theory of painting. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 20, 26-44.
Tervarent, G. de. (1977). Attributs et Symboles dans L’Art Profane (Attributes and symbols in profane art). Geneva: Droz.
Trottein, G. (1993). Les enfants de Venus: Art et Astrologie a la Renaissance (The children of Venus: Art and astrology in the Renaissance). Paris: Lagune.
Vasari, G. (1568). Vita di Jacopo Tintoretto (The life of Jacopo Tintoretto). In R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi (Eds.), Giorgio Vasari Vite de’ più eccellenti Pittori, Scultori e Architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568 (Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects in the editions of 1550 and 1568) (6 Vols.) (pp. 1963-1998). Florence: G.C. Sansoni.
Walker, D. P. (2000). Spiritual and demonic magic: From Ficino to Campanella. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Weddigen, E. (1984). Jacopo Tintoretto und die Musik (Jacopo Tintoretto and music). Artibus et Historiae, 5(10), 67-119.
Young, I. (Ed. & Trans.). (1969). The Practica musicae of Franchinus Garffurius (The musical transcriptions of Franchinus Gaffurius). Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Zecher, C. (2007). Sounding objects: Musical instruments, poetry, and the art in Renaissance France. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Zimmerman, H. (1905). Das Inventar der Prager Schartz–und Kunstkammer vom 6. Dezember 1621 (Prager Schartz’ Inventory and Chamber of Curiosities, December 6, 1621). Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses. N.p: n.p.: XLII, no. 1036.
Andrews, T. (1998). A dictionary of nature myths: Legends of earth, sea and sky. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ausoni, A. (2005). Music in art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Baldauf-Berdes, J. L. (1996). Women musicians of Venice: Musical foundations, 1525-1855. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barocchi, P. (Ed.). (1971-73). Scritti del Cinquecento: L’imitazione, bellezza e grazia, proporzione, misure e giudizio (Sixteenth century writings: Imitation, beauty and grace, proportion, measure and judgment) (2 Vols.). Milan: Giulio Einaudi.
Biedermann, H. (1994). Dictionary of symbolism: Cultural icons and the meanings behind them. New York: Meridian Books.
Blunt, A. (1968). Artistic theory in Italy, 1450-1600. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bober, P. P., & Rubenstein, R. (1986). Renaissance artists and antique sculpture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Borinski, K. (1914-24). Die Antike in Poetik und Kunsttheorie von Ausgang des klassischen Altertums bis auf Goethe und Wilhelm von Humboldt (The antique in poetry and art theories from the classics to Goethe and William von Humboldt) (2 Vols.) Leipzig: K. F. Koehler.
Brink, C. O. (Ed.). (1971). Horace on poetry: The ars poetica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cardanus, H. (1937). Writings on music. C. A. Miller, (Trans. & Ed.). Dallas, TX: American Institute of Musicology.
Chastel, A. (1975). Marsile Ficin et L’Art. Geneva: Droz.
Cheney, L. De G. (1977). Giorgio Vasari’s theory of feminine beauty. In Concepts of beauty in renaissance art (pp. 180-194). London: Scolar/Ashgate Press.
Cheney, L. De G. (1994). Giorgio Vasari’s pictorial musing on the muses: The chamber of Apollo of the Casa Vasari. Studies in Iconography, 15, 135-77.
Cheney, L. De G., Russo, K., & Faxon, A. (2000/2011). Self-portraits by women painters. London: Ashgate and Washington, DC: New Academia Publishers.
Chevalier, J., & Alain, G. (1994). A dictionary of symbols. Oxford: Blackwell.
Comensoli, V. (1998). Music, The Book of the Courtier, and Othello’s soldiership. In M. Marrapodi (Ed.), The Italian world of English Renaissance drama: Cultural exchange and intertextuality (pp. 89-105) Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses.
DaCosta Kaufmann, T. (1978). Remarks on the collections of Rudolf II: The Kunstkammer as a form of representation. Art Journal, 38(1), 22-24.
Dolce’s Dialogo della Pittura (1557).Venice: G. Giolito de’ Ferrari.
Dudik, B. (1867). Die Rudolfinische Kunst–und Rarirätenkammer in Prag (Rudoph’s art and chamber of rarities in Prague). Mitteilungen der K. K. Central Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale, 12, XXXIX, no. 291.
Evans, R. J. W. (1984). Rudolf II and his world: A study in intellectual history, 1576-1612. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fenlon, I. (1994). Music, print and culture in early sixteenth-century Italy (The Panizzi Lectures). London: British Museum.
Ficino, M. (1980). The book of life. (C. Boer, Trans.). Dallas, TX: Spring Publications.
Ficino, M. (1998). The book of life. C. V. Kaske and J. R. Clark, (Eds.). Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.
Ficino, M. (2003). De Amore: Sopra lo amore ovvero Convito di Platone (On Love: On Love discussed in Plato’s symposium). G. Rensi, (Ed.). Milan: SE SRL.
Forshaw, P. J. (2008). Marsilio Ficino and the alchemical art. In S. Clucas, P. J. Forsaw, and V. Rees (Ed.), Laus Platonici Philosophi: Marsilio Ficino and His Influence (pp. 251-271). Leiden: Brill.
Galluzzi, P. (Ed.). (2009). Galileo: Images of the universe from antiquity to the telescope. Florence: Giunti.
Grafton, A. (2000). Leon Battista Alberti: Master builder of the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hagstrum, J. H. (1958). The sister arts: The tradition of literary pictorialism and English poetry from Dryden to Gray. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Hesiod. (1832). Theogony. C. A. Elton, Esq., (Trans. and annotated). London: A. J. Valpy.
Hesiod. (1988). Theogony. M. L. West, (Trans. & Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University.
Hübner, J. (1856/1862/1868). Verzeichnis der Königlichen Gemälde-Gallerie zu Dresden (Directory of the Royal Gallery Collection in Dresden). Dresden: Forschngsstelle Publisher.
Jaeger, W. (1943). Paideia: The ideals of Greek culture (G, Highet, Trans., 3 Vols.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lee, R. (1967). Ut Pictura Poesis: Humanist theory of painting. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.
Lomazzo, G. P. (1598). Trattato dell’ arte della pittura, scultura et architettura (Treatise on the art of painting, sculpture and architecture). Milan: P. G. Pontio.
Marshal, P. (2006). The magic circle of Rudolf II: Alchemy and astrology in Renaissance Prague. London: Waker and Company.
Melville, A. D. (Ed.). (1990). Ovid the love poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mendelsohn, L. (1982). Paragoni: Benedetto Varchi Due Lezzioni and Cinquecento art theory (Comparisons: Benedetto Varchi’s Two Lessons and sixteenth-century art theory). Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
Miller, C. A. (Ed.). (1968). Practica Musicae by Franchinus Gaffurius (Musical transcriptions of Franchinus Gaffurius). Dallas, TX: American Institute of Musicology.
Moore, T. (1990). The planets within: The astrological psychology of Marsilio Ficino. Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press.
Nichols, T. (1999). Tintoretto: Tradition and identity. London: Reaktion Books.
Pallucchini, R., & Rossi, P. (1982). Jacopo Tintoretto: Le opere sacre e profane (Jacopo Tintoretto: Sacred and profane works). Milan: Electa.
Pendle, K. (Ed.). (1991). Women and music: A history. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Plett, H. F. (2004). Rhetoric and renaissance culture. New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Praz, M. (1967). Mnemosyne: The parallel between literature and the visual arts. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Richte, I. A. (Ed. & Trans.). (1949). Paragone: A conception of the arts by Leonardo da Vinci. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ridolfi, C. (1984). Life of Tintoretto, and his children Domenico and Marietta. (R. Enggass, Trans., 2 Vols.). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Ridolfi, C. (2006). Le Maraviglie dell’Arte (The wonders of art) (2 Vols.). Padua: Elibron.
Rosand, D. (1986/1997). Painting in cinquecento Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Roskill, M. (Trans.). (1968). Dolce’s Dialogo della Pittura (Dolce’s dialogue on painting). New York: New York University Press.
Rotraud, B. R. (1976). Die Kunstkammer Kaiser Rudolfs II. In Prag: Inventar aus den Jahren 1607-1611 (Emperor Rudolph II’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Prague Inventary 1607-1611). Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 72. (N.p: n.p.), XIV (report from 5 March 1612).
Sansovino, F. (1581). Venetia città nobilissima (Venice noble city). Venice: Iacopo Sansovino.
Siscoe, G. (1986). An historical footnote on the origin of “Aurora Borealis”. History of Geophysics, 2, 11-14.
Slim, H. C. (1987). A painting about music at Dresden by Jacopo Tintoretto. Exploration in Renaissance Culture, 13, 1-18.
Slim, H. C. (1988). Tintoretto’s music-making women at Dresden. Imago Musicae, 4, 45-76.
Spencer, J. R. (1957). Ut Rhetorica Pictura: A study in quattrocento theory of painting. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 20, 26-44.
Tervarent, G. de. (1977). Attributs et Symboles dans L’Art Profane (Attributes and symbols in profane art). Geneva: Droz.
Trottein, G. (1993). Les enfants de Venus: Art et Astrologie a la Renaissance (The children of Venus: Art and astrology in the Renaissance). Paris: Lagune.
Vasari, G. (1568). Vita di Jacopo Tintoretto (The life of Jacopo Tintoretto). In R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi (Eds.), Giorgio Vasari Vite de’ più eccellenti Pittori, Scultori e Architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568 (Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects in the editions of 1550 and 1568) (6 Vols.) (pp. 1963-1998). Florence: G.C. Sansoni.
Walker, D. P. (2000). Spiritual and demonic magic: From Ficino to Campanella. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Weddigen, E. (1984). Jacopo Tintoretto und die Musik (Jacopo Tintoretto and music). Artibus et Historiae, 5(10), 67-119.
Young, I. (Ed. & Trans.). (1969). The Practica musicae of Franchinus Garffurius (The musical transcriptions of Franchinus Gaffurius). Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Zecher, C. (2007). Sounding objects: Musical instruments, poetry, and the art in Renaissance France. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Zimmerman, H. (1905). Das Inventar der Prager Schartz–und Kunstkammer vom 6. Dezember 1621 (Prager Schartz’ Inventory and Chamber of Curiosities, December 6, 1621). Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses. N.p: n.p.: XLII, no. 1036.