The Prophet Armed: Machiavelli, Savonarola, and Rosso Fiorentino's Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro Author(s): Vivien

Gaston Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 51 (1988), pp. 220-225 Published by: The Warburg Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/751278 . Accessed: 28/06/2013 01:46
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220

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

elsewhere-in the Life of Perino-described the Stanza della Segnatura in similarly straightforward terms.73 Bellori's explanation of the transposition of the mathematician into the Evangelist74 is more subtle than Freart's suggestion of crass ignorance on the part of Ghisi, but it does not really that the seventeenth-century recognize conception of the reproductive engraving did not exist in the 1520s. Agostino Veneziano did not conceive his engraving of 'St Luke and the Evangelists' (P1. 34a) primarily as a reproductive image; it was simply that in the course of time his print, and others like it, came to be viewed with this assumption, and as a result used for purposes which would have surprised the engraver.
JEREMY WOOD OXFORD POLYTECHNIC

Marcantonio's version. Thus, although it presents itself as a sophisticated example of late sixteenth-century reproductive engraving, Matham's print still retains important elements of interpretative licence. In his Apollo and Marsyas (P1. 30a) Sanuto was, as we have seen, quite explicit about the freedom he was taking, joining together two different and inscribing the images borrowing-deliberately forcing the person to consider the picture the 'reading' combination and its derivation. This process is altogether different from the kind of ubiquitous artistic borrowing of gestures and poses that artists indulged in, and usually tried to disguise. We can here recall Coxie's dismay that the publication of a on print should expose the dependence of his Death the Raphael of Virgin altarpiece (P1. 33b). For Frbart engraving was essentially a mechanical art, to be judged by the standards of its accuracy. He praises the informational value of prints and laments that they were not known in the past, for if the had by Philostratus paintings described been engraved in antiquity they would no doubt have spoken more eloquently than his words.70 Nevertheless he clearly disin his Preface between the tinguishes 'curieuses' prints by Marcantonio which he prefers and which provide his first three examples for discussion, and the School of which he judges less Athens engraving not only because it is iconovaluable, graphically confusing, but because it is by a 'less excellent hand than the preceding ones'.71 Frrart and Bellori provided a challenge to the authority of Vasari's interpretation of the School of Athens which was widely accepted. It was repeated, for example by Jonathan Richardson, who in 1722 wrote: 'I cannot pass by an instance of Vasari's Carelessness, and Luxuriant manner of Writing'.72 But the points which they established were gradually lost again in the course of time, even though Vasari himself had
70 Freart, pp. 106-7. 71 'La gravfire n'en est pas de si bonne main que celle des precedentes': Freart, from the close of the unpaginated preface. 72 Richardson[s] (as in n. 37), p. 220 (from the account of the Parnassus); for the School of Athens, see pp. 209-10.
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 51, 1988

See above, n. 50. 73 See above, n. 45.

THE

PROPHET

ARMED

MACHIAVELLI, SAVONAROLA, AND ROSSO FIORENTINO'S MOSES

DEFENDING THE DAUGHTERS

OF JETHRO*

THE SINGULARITY of Rosso Fiorentino's I Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro in the Uffizi, dated c. 1523 (P1. 29a), is undisputed. Little attention, however, has been given to its violent interpretation of a rarely depicted incident from Exodus.1
* I wish to thank Lorenzo Polizzotto, Margaret F. Manion, Margaret Plant, Charles Dempsey and W. Kent for their generous advice and encouragement. 1 The iconography of Rosso's painting has been discussed by J. Peluso ('Rosso Fiorentino's Mosesdefending theDaughtersofJethroand its Pendant: their Roman Provenance and Allegorical Symbolism', Mitteilungendes KunsthistorischenInstitutes in Florenz, xx, 1976, pp. 87-106), who finds its sources in the reaction of artists to the contrasting patronage of Popes Adrian VI and Clement VII; and G. Smith ('Moses and the Daughtersof Jethroby Rosso Fiorentino', Pantheon, xxxv, 1977, pp. 198-204), who believes the painting is influenced by

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MACHIAVELLI, SAVONAROLA AND ROSSO

Apart from those in earlier manuscript cycles,2 the only surviving previous example is Botticelli's fresco of the early 1480s in the Sistine Chapel. Here the defence of the daughters is merely one episode in a continuous narrative and in this respect closely follows the Biblical text (Exodus 15-17, IX. 19). Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flocks. And the shepherds came and drove them away:but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. The daughters tell their father how 'An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock'. In both text and fresco the emphasis is on the gentle care shown by Moses in watering the sheep, whereas Rosso focuses exclusively on the conflict, creating a whirlpool of violent action. Moses is at its centre, Herculean in his aggressive strength, heroic nudity and distinctly 'leonine' face and hair. 3

221

Graham Smith drew attention to the works of Philo Judaeus as a source for the painting,4 but did not discuss Philo's interpretation of the actual defence ofJethro's daughters in De vita Mosis... Moses, who was not far off, seeing what had happened, quickly ran up and, standing nearby, said: 'Stop this injustice. You think you can take advantage of the loneliness of this place. Are you not ashamed to let your arms and elbows live an idle life? You are masses of long hair and lumps of flesh, not men. The girls are working like youths, and shirk none of their duties, while you young men go daintily like girls ... In me at least it [the heavenly eye of justice] has appointed a champion whom you did not expect, for I fight to succour these injured maidens, allied to a mighty arm which the rapacious may not see, but you shall feel its invisible power to wound if you
do not change your ways ... '5

relationship between the two is maintained byJ. Peluso and E. Carroll (The Drawings of RossoFiorentino,II, New York 1976, p. 479) on the grounds of their striking stylistic similarities and because Vasari mentions them consecutively. Smith (p. 203) draws only an iconographical comparison. Yet obvious difficulties in proving that they are pendants are present in Vasari's identification of a different patron for each, and even of a different destination for each commission: the Mosesfor France and the Rebecca and Eliezer for England; G. Vasari, Le Vite,ed. G. Milanesi, v, Florence 1906, p. 159. That the early provenance for both is uncertain adds to the problem of relating them. Little attention has been given to the patron of the Rebecca,Giovanni Cavalcanti, on whom there is some documentation, although mostly of a mercantile nature. Margaret Mitchell describes him as 'a wealthy Florentine merchant who did business with both Henry VIII and Pope Leo' ('Works of Art from Rome for Henry VIII. A study of Anglo-Papal Relations as Reflected in Papal Gifts to the English King', this Journal, xxxiv, 1971, pp. 186-7). 2 See Smith (as in n. 1), pp. 198, 200 and figs 2-7, 9-10. * On the suitability of leonine physiognomy for Hercules, see P. Meller, 'Physiognomical Theory in Renaissance Heroic Portraits', in Renaissanceand Mannerism(Acts of the Twentieth International Congress of Art), II, Princeton 1963, p. 59. The fundamental source of Rosso's bounding figure of Moses is the antique

For Philo the role of Moses is no longer but chastisement. As in just deliverance, the painting, Moses is a 'champion' employing his superior strength to punish with righteous anger. Yet Girolamo Savonarola presents a reading of the incident which corresponds even more closely with the aggressive demonstration of power in Rosso's painting. To Moses was the 'greatest of Savonarola, the revival of works of Philo Judaeus. It is generally assumed that the Moses had a pendant painting, Rebecca prophets',6 representing not only spiritual but also political virtue. He believed that the and Eliezer at the Well, now lost but known through a Florentines were 'latter day Israelites'7 who copy in the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo in Pisa and through drawings based on it by Salviati and Vasari.The would be led out of their tribulations by a

image of a man overcoming a bull which was also used for depictions of the exploits of Hercules, as analysed by Fritz Saxl (A Heritage of Images, eds H. Honour and J. 1970, pp. 17-21). For the Fleming, Harmondsworth identification of Herculean strength with Christian virtue see M. Simon, Hercule et le Christianisme, Paris 1955; C. Eisler, 'The Athlete of Virtue: The Iconography of Asceticism', in De artibus opuscula XL. Essays in Honor ofErwin Panofsky, ed. M. Meiss, New York 1961, pp. 82-97; and L. D. Ettlinger, 'Hercules Florentinus', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, xvi, 1972, pp. 119-42. 4 Smith (as in n. 1), p. 202. For evidence of the revival of Philo Judaeus in 15th-century Rome, Smith has drawn on L. D. Ettlinger, The Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo, Oxford 1965, pp. 116-17. See also E. 'Mention of Philo in Printed Books of Goodenough, the Fifteenth Century', The Politics ofPhiloJudaeus, New Haven 1938, p. 308. 5 Philo, Moses, I, trs. F. H. Colson in Philo, Works, Loeb Classical Library, vi, London 1935, p. 305. 6 G. Savonarola, Prediche sopra Ezechiele, Rome 1955, i, Predica xx, p. 254: 'Moyses, massimo de' profeti'. 7 D. Weinstein, Savonarola and Florence, Princeton 1970, p. 183.

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222

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

violent chastisement in the story in a way which closely with Rosso's compares In the early sixteenth century this politicized vision of Moses took on a new theoretical strength in the works of Niccol6 In his youth he had been Machiavelli.3 present at Savonarola's sermon on Exodus and had even recorded his reaction in a letter to Ricciardo Becchi of 9 March 1498: Because, fearing greatly for himself and believing that the new Signoria would not be hesitant about harming him ... he began with great terrors ... showing that his followers were the best of men and his adversaries the most wicked The next morning, again still explaining Exodus and coming to that passage where it is said that Moses killed an Egyptian, he said that the Egyptian stood for wicked men, and Moses for the preacher who killed them by revealing their vices, and he said: 'O Egyptian! I am going to give you a stab'. And then he turned the leaves of your books, O priests, and made such a mess of you that a dog would have turned away from this was obviously you. Then he added-and where he was heading-that he wanted to give the Egyptian another wound and a big one; and he said that God had told him that a man in Florence was trying to make himself a tyrant ... and that his attempt to drive out the Frate ... came to nothing else than that he wanted to make himself a tyrant ...14
12 For Savonarola's posthumous influence as a focus for Republican sympathies see Schnitzer (as in n. 8), II, pp. 463-503; Weinstein (as in n. 7), pp. 317-73; F. Politics and History Gilbert, Machiavelliand Guicciardini: in 16th CenturyFlorence,Princeton 1965, pp. 144-50; and the forthcoming book by L. Polizzotto on the Piagnoni, 1494-1545. It is pertinent that Panofsky interpreted an early drawing by Rosso as incorporating The Savonarolan sympathies: 'Mors Vitae Testimonium. positive Aspect of Death in Renaissance and Baroque zur Iconography', in Studien Toskanischen Kunst. Festschrift fiir Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich, eds W. Lotz Munich 1964, pp. 232-6. and L. M611er, 13 For Savonarola's influence on Machiavelli's republicanism see C. Clough, Machiavelli Researches, Naples 1967, pp. 14 and 44. 14 ... perch6 dubitando egli forte di sb, et credendo che la nuova Signoria fussi al nuocergli inconsiderata, con spaventi grandi ... mostrando essere .. cominci6 e'sua seguaci, et gli adversari scelleratissimi oltimi et L altra mattina poi exponendo pure lo Exodo .. venendo a quella parte, dove dice che Moyses amaz6 uno Egiptio, dixe che lo Egiptio erono gli huomini captivi, et Moyses il predicatore che gli amazava, scoprendo e' vitii loro; et dixe: O Egiptio, io ti vo' dare una coltellata; et qui cominci6 a squadernare e' libri vostri, o preti, e tractarvi in modo che non n'harebbono mangiato e' cani; dipoi soggiunse, et qui lui

new Moses.8 This fusion of politics and theology is especially apparent in his eighth sermon on Exodus, in which he deals specifically with the defence of Jethro's daughters and transforms the Biblical text into far more brutal rhetoric: ... Moses comes and defends the girls. Et defensis puellis, adaquavit oves earum:Moses defends them from the shepherds and gives water to the sheep. Moses deals heavy blows to those shepherds and says:why do you not want these girls to water their sheep?-Here are the blows: you prelate and priest, leave your concubines, young boys and gluttony, give up your ostentation and your dogs. You are those who do not work at all in the Lord's vineyard; you tear up and consume things from this vineyard and in your pride do not even want others to live well ... Oh Moses, you give great blows-leave the girls alone and the souls of Christ and let the sheep drink ... Did I not tell you that you have to fight, with clean weapons. Sometimes there is a need, when the time is right, to give blows and to uncover [the truth?]9 into a Savonarola shapes the encounter violent battle through which he can project his view of the Florentine clergy: the daughters are the good priests and monks who minister to their flock and the bad are the corrupt priests and shepherds canons who lead them astray. Moses defends the daughters by attacking the bad priests with a new vehemence, with 'great blows' (grande mazzate), symbolizing moral accusations that reveal their dissolute way of life. The sermon reflects the widely felt outrage with declining morals in the church, which was often accompanied by apocalyptic visions of a Florence chastised before its spiritual renewal.10 Above all Savonarola in his own defence, virtually preaches identifying himself with Moses. Through Moses he is able to make his attack on the priests who were trying to undermine his influence in Florence and who supported his excommunication by Alexander VI.11 This message of personal outrage leads the aspect of Savonarola to exaggerate
8 See G. Schnitzer, Savonarola, Milan 1931, II, p. 219.

painting.12

9 G. Savonarola, Predichesopral'Esodo,Florence 1955, i, Predica viii, pp. 230-3. in the Later 10 See M. Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy MiddleAges, Oxford 1969, pp. 429-52; Weinstein (as in n. 7), passim; and C. Vasoli, 'Profezie e profeti nella vita religiosa e politica fiorentina', in Magia, Astrologia e Warsaw1974. Religionenel Rinascimento, 11 P. Villari, Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola, London 1889, II, pp. 187-90.

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MACHIAVELLI, SAVONAROLA AND ROSSO

Machiavelli was impressed by both the boldness and the cunning of Savonarola's
attack on his enemies through manipulative The letter shows Machiavelli's rhetoric.15 of issues, in particular early consideration the use of force for political ends, that were in the 1510s his central concerns among

223

when he came to write The Prince and the Discourses on the First Decade of Livy. They
were issues particularly

III, 30, he wrote:

Savonarola highly enlightening.

he found Moses for which and the example relevant of

In Discourses

He who reads the Bible intelligently sees that if Moses was to put his laws and regulations into effect, he was forced to kill countless men who, moved by nothing else but envy, were opposed to his plans ... This necessity was well recognized by Frate Girolamo Savonarola. It was also recognized by Piero Soderini, the Gonfalonier of Florence. The first (namely the Frate) could not overcome envy because he did not have power enough and because he was not well understood by his followers who did have power ... 16 For Machiavelli, Moses the possessed forceful will and capacity for ruthless action essential His belief in the to a leader.

voleva capitare, che volea dare all'Egiptio un'altra ferita et grande, et dixe che Dio gli haveva detto, ch'egli era uno in Firenze che cercava di farsi tyranno, ... e che volere cacciare el frate, ... non voleva dire altro se non che volere fare un tyranno ...'. Machiavelli, Lettere, ed. F. Gaeta, Milan 1961, pp. 30, 32-33. Translated by A. Gilbert in The Lettersof Machiavelli,New York 1961, pp. 85-8. 15 For Machiavelli's debt to Savonarola in general see J. H. Whitfield, 'Savonarola and the Purpose of the Prince', The Modern Language Review, XLIV,1949, pp. 44-59; G. Sasso, NiccoloMachiavelli,storia del suo pensiero politico, Naples 1958, pp. 9-18; and D. Weinstein, 'Machiavelli and Savonarola', in Studies on Machiavelli, ed. M. Gilmore, Florence 1972, pp. 251-64. Machiavelli's respect for Savonarola's intellect is evident in Discourses I, 45 where he refers to the Frate's writings as dello animo showing 'la dottrina, la prudenza e la virthi suo': Machiavelli, II Principee Discorsisopra la prima deca di TitoLivio, ed. S. Bertelli, Milan 1960, p. 233. 16 'E chi legge la Bibbia sensatamente Moish vedr essere stato forzato, a volere che le sue leggi e che li suoi ordini andassero innanzi, ad ammazzare infiniti uomini, i quali non mossi da altro che dalla invidia si opponevano a' disegni suoi. Questa necessitA conosceva benissimo frate Girolamo Savonarola; conoscevala ancora Piero Soderini, gonfaloniere di Firenze. L'uno non potette vincerla per non avere autoritA a poterlo fare (che fu il frate) e per non essere inteso bene da coloro che 1o seguitavano, che ne arebbero avuto autorita ...'. Discorsi,iii, 30; II Principee Discorsi(as in n. and Others,trs. 15), p. 468. Machiavelli, The ChiefWorks A. Gilbert, Durham, NC 1965 (hereafter ChiefWorks), I, pp. 496-7.

when they were still new ... 2o

necessity of these qualities grew out of his own experience of the failure of the Florentine Republic'7 and is even more evident in The Prince which, although not published until 1532, was widely circulated in the 1520s.'8 But coming to those who through their own ability and not through Fortune have been transformed into princes, I say that the most admirable are Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus and the like.19 Consideration of the qualities required to introduce and maintain new institutions is the occasion for one of Machiavelli's best known formulations, and again Moses is the first choice as exemplar: ... but when they (the innovators) depend on their own resources and are strong enough to compel, then they are seldom in danger. This is the reason why all armed prophets win, and unarmed ones fall. Because ... the people are by nature variable; to convince them of a thing is easy; to hold them to that conviction is hard. Therefore a prophet must be ready, when they no longer believe, to make them believe by force. Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus could not have gained long-continued observance for their constitutions if they had been unarmed. In our times Fra Girolamo Savonarola was unarmed; hence he was destroyed amid his institutions the 'armed prophet' Significantly, epitomizes the primary quality for which Savonarola and Philo praised Moses: bold action as opposed to 'effeminate' passivity.

1 The Discoursesof Niccolo Machiavelli, trs. L. Walker, introd. C. Clough, London 1950, I, pp. 38-40. 18 Ibid., p. 53. ThePrincehad already been plagiarized and published in a 'mutilated form' by Agostino Nifo in 1523 (loc. cit.). 19 'Ma, per venire a quelli che per propria virtii e non per fortuna sono diventati principi, dico che li piti eccellenti sono Moish,Ciro, Romulo, Teseo e simili', Il (as in n. 16), Principe(as in n. 15), vi, p. 30; ChiefWorks

ma, quando dependono da loro proprii e '... possano forzare, allora che rare volte periclitano. Di qui nacque che tutt'i profeti armati vinsono, e li disarmati ruinorono. Perche ... la natura de' populi facile a persuadere loro una cosa, ma varia; et difficile fermarli in quella persuasione. E per6 conviene essere ordinato in modo, che quando non credono piui, si possa fare credere loro per forza. Moish,Ciro, Teseo e Romulo non arebbono possuto fare osservare loro lungamente le loro constituzioni, se fussino stati disarmati; come ne' nostri tempi intervenne a fra' Girolamo Savonarola; il quale ruin6 ne' sua ordini nuovi ...'. II Principe (as in n. 15), vi, p. 32; ChiefWorks (as in n. 16), pp. 26-7.

25. p. 20

6 6

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224

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

Machiavelli. In a letter of 11 August 1526
the Republican orator Bartolommeo Cavalcanti wrote to Machiavelli asking that his greetings be passed on to Giovanni Bandini and other amici,23 and substantial accounts survive of Francesco's diplomatic A wry letter service with Machiavelli.24 written Tolomei to Antonio by Claudio Allegretti jests about the number of copies of Machiavelli's Discourses existing before its publication: Now you can publish Machiavelli's discourses as you please; the first copy has given birth to others: so stop guarding her so jealously. You can't marry her off as a virgin now: ... Perhaps you will say, where are these others? Francesco Bandini has one. Baccio Cavalcanti has another 25 Bandini's Besides this familial connection, close relationship26 with the wealthy and culof the last tivated Filippo Strozzi, 'defender Florentine gives added reason Republic',27 with to presume Bandini's acquaintance had been responsible Machiavelli. Filippo for Machiavelli's entry into the service of in 152028 and was at his the Medici with in 1527.29 Strozzi's concern deathbed political theory is also of interest; his ideals with those of Machiavelli. being consonant

Machiavelli, however, is more explicit in the way he uses Christian virtue to justify the use of force in Discourses II, 2: Our religion has glorified humble and contemplative men rather than active ones ... This way of living, then, has made the world weak and turned it over as prey to wicked men ... Though it may appear that the world has grown effeminate, and Heaven has laid aside her arms, this without doubt comes chiefly from the worthlessness of men, who have interpreted our religion according to sloth and not according to vigour. For if they would consider that it allows us the betterment and the defence of our country, they would see that it intends that we love and honour her and prepare ourselves to be such that we can defend her.21 in Support for viewing the painting ideals the light of these Machiavellian is provided by consideration of Rosso's Alessandro Giovanni di Pier patron. Antonio Bandini, more commonly known as Giovanni Bandini, was an important dipfor the lomat and military commander Medici before the debacle that led to his imprisonment for life.22 Giovanni Bandini both knew and his brother Francesco

21 'La nostra religione ha glorificato piu gli uomini umili e contemplativi che gli attivi ... Questo modo di vivere adunque pare che abbi renduto il mondo debole, e datolo in preda agli uomini scelerati ... E benche paia che si sia effeminato il mondo e disarmato il Cielo, nasce piii sanza dubbio dalla viltfi degli uomini, che hanno interpretato la nostra religione secondo se considerassono l'ozio e non secondo la virtu. Perch& come la ci permette la esaltazione e la difesa della patria, vedrebbono come la vuole che noi l'amiamo ed onoriamo, e prepariamoci a essere tali che noi la possiamo difendere'. Discorsi, II, 2; II Principe e Discorsi (as in n. 16), p. 331. (as in n. 15), pp. 282-3; ChiefWorks Machiavelli's demand for more manly values was shared by Guicciardini who wrote that Florentines had become 'effeminate and nerveless and inclined to a protected and, considering our resources, a luxurious life Gilbert (as in n. 12), p. 151. .. 22 Accused of sodomy, his real crime was suspected disloyalty to Duke Cosimo de' Medici, an inference occasioned by Bandini's vain attempt to free his close friend, Filippo Strozzi, imprisoned after defeat by Cosimo in the battle of Montemurlo in 1537. R. Cantagalli, Dizionario biograficodegli Italiani, v, Rome 1963, pp. 694-6. Bandini figures in accounts of several Florentine intellectual and artistic circles. Nardi records that in 1527 he met Bandini at the country villa of Carlo Ginori, the patron of Rosso's Marriage of the Virgin of 1522 (I. Nardi, Istorie della cittd di Firenze, Florence 1858, ii, p. 327). Bandini took part in meetings of the Compagnia della Cazzuola (Vasari, as in n. 1, vi, pp. 612-13) and is mentioned by Cellini in his autobiography (B. Cellini, Vita,ed. Francesco Tassi, Florence 1829, I, p. 237).

23 Lettere (as in n. 14), no. 223, p. 485. 24 During the sack of Rome Francesco Bandini and Machiavelli were sent to Civitavecchia to see Andrea Doria, Admiral of the papal fleet, in order to assess plans for rescuing the Pope. Discourses (as in n. 17), I, p. 52. Together they wrote a letter on 22 May 1527 that Clement would reporting back to Guicciardini have to be brought to the coast to escape (Machiavelli, Opere, ed. S. Bertelli, viii, Verona 1980, p. 647). Clough (as in n. 17), p. 95. 26 Anticipating the loyalty demonstrated by Bandini when Strozzi was imprisoned (see n. 22), Busini comments in a letter to Varchi that Filippo depended on Bandini 'come sua lancia' (G. B. Busini, 'Lettere a Varchi', in Opere di Benedetto Varchi, Trieste 1858, i, Letter xi, dated 1549, p. 469). Their intimacy is revealed in Strozzi's letter of 1526 in which he addresses Bandini as 'carissimo compare' and closes with the phrase: 'sono tutto vostro et mi vi raccomando' (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Strozziane, Serie I, filza xcix, 4, fol. 19r). 27 M. Bullard, Filippo Strozzi and the Medici, Cambridge 1980, p. 1. See also S. Craven, Aspects of Patronage in Ph.D., Courtauld Institute of Art, Florence 1494-1514, University of London 1973. 28 R. Devonshire-Jones, Francesco Vettori: Florentine Citizen and Medici Servant, London 1972, p. 147. It was to Lorenzo Strozzi, Filippo's brother, that Machiavelli dedicated his Art of War, published in 1521. 29 Clough (as in n. 17), p. 27.

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XANTO AND PETRARCH

In a letter written while

225

Naples by the Spanish, as hostage for Pope

Clement VII, he writes:
I continually read Livy and the Politics of Aristotle, and from the former I think one can derive the practice, and from the latter the

imprisoned

in

FRANCESCO XANTO AVELLI AND PETRARCH*

theory for man as a good and virile citizen.30 Finally, not only the patron but also the artist may have been acquainted with Machiavelli, as indicated by a neglected portrait attributed to Rosso (P1. 29b).31 The sources here discussed demonstrate the continuity of thought which harnessed athletic imagery to moral concepts. For Philo this simply pertained to the life of the spirit, while for Savonarola the athletic metaphor could be used to bind together religious duty and political action. This bond was fundamental to Savonarola's life, a life which provided Machiavelli with conspicuous evidence to bolster his belief in the need for a more drastic conflation of virility in the concept and virtue, exemplified Rosso's disturbof the armed prophet. transforms the ingly violent contribution heroic image of Moses in the light of this Machiavellian ideal, the obscure incident at Midian now demonstrating political as well as spiritual strength.
VIVIEN GASTON UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

much attention has been paid to the visual sources of the majolica Xanto painter Francesco Avelli.1 Relatively little interest has been shown in the literature that may have his or the inspired paintings inscriptions he used to describe them.2 This is somewhat surprising: Xanto is known to have had literary aspirations3 and many of his inscriptions are lines of poetry. Four inscriptions on works of 1531 and 1532 refer to Ariosto;4
VER THE LAST FEW DECADES

30 Letter to Battista della Palla and Zanobi Buondelmonti dated 30 January 1526, in MS cited in n. 26 above, fols 19r-21v. It is possible that Rosso's depiction of Moses, dated 1523, had a further political significance: to celebrate Giulio de' Medici's election as Pope on 18 November 1523. Bandini was later to fight in the service of Clement and win great favour at the (as in n. 28), p. 160. He papal court: Devonshire-Jones is mentioned in letters written by Vettori for Clement in for peace with the Imperialists in 1526: negotiations in his Nardi (as in n. 22), p. 273. Significantly, exhortatory last chapter of The Prince, Machiavelli calls on the Medici family to make itself the leader of Italy's 'redenzione' and compares its task with that of Moses: 'E se, come io dissi, era necessario volendo vedere la virtii di Moist, che il populo d'Isdrael fussi stiavo in Egitto ... cosi al presente, volendo conoscere la virtu d'uno spirito italiano, era necessario che la Italia si riducessi nel termine che ell'b di presente, e che la fussi piui stiava che li Ebrei ...'; II Principe (as in n. 15), xxvI, p. 102. 31 This painting, are whose present whereabouts to me, was in the 1950's with Agnew's, unknown London, where it was attributed to Rosso. I know it only from a photograph in the Witt Library of the Courtauld Institute, filed under 'Rosso'.
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 51, 1988

* My thanks are due in particular to Timothy Wilson, who first brought this subject to my attention, and without whose continued support this Note would never have been completed. The following abbreviations are used throughout: G. Ballardini, Ballardini: Corpus della Maiolica Italiana, 2 vols, Rome 1933-1938. Giacomotti: J. Giacomotti, Catalogue des majoliques des muskes nationaux, Paris 1974. Petrarch: Petrarch, Canzoniere: Testo critico e introduzione di Gianfranco Contini, Turin 1964. B. Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, Rackham: Victoria and Albert 2 vols, London, Museum, 1940. T. H. Wilson, Ceramic Art of the Italian Wilson: Renaissance, cat. exh., London, British Museum 1987. 1 Joan Prentice von Erdberg, 'Early works by Fra Xanto Avelli da Rovigo in the Walters Art Gallery', Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, xIII, 1950, p. 31; no. 68, p. 270; Marisi Bonomi, 'Fonti Giacomotti, iconografiche delle maioliche di F.X.A.', Commentari, x, 1959, pp. 190-5; A. V. B. Norman, 'Sources of Design on a Maiolica Dish', Apollo, LxxxI, 1965, pp. 460-3; F. Liverani, 'Una maiolica dell'Avelli e le sue fonti iconografiche', Faenza, LxvI, 1980, pp. 297-9; J. Petruzellislibrarie per alcune maiScherer, 'Fonti iconografiche oliche del Castel Sforzesco', Castello Sforzesco, Rassegna di Studi et di Notizie, x, 1982, pp. 373-85. 2 Guy de Tervarent, sur le sujet des majo'Enquate 1950, pp. 1-48; oliques', Kunstmuseets Arsskrift, xxxvII, D. Ballardini Napolitani, 'Ispirazione e fonti letterarie nell'opera di Francesco Xanto Avelli pittore su maiolica in Urbino', La Rinascita, II, 1940, pp. 905-22. 3 Guido Vitaletti, 'Le rime di Francesco Xanto Avelli', Faenza, vi, 1918, pp. 11-15, 41-4. See now F. Cioci, Xanto e il Duca di Urbino, Milan 1987, which appeared after this Note had been written. (i) Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum C10-1953: J. C. Robinson, Catalogue of the Special Exhibition ... at the South Kensington Museum, London 1863, no. 5247; (ii) London, British Museum: Ballardini II, no. 53, figs 50, 252R; and Wilson, no. 222; (iii) London, Victoria and Albert Museum: Rackham, no. 724; and Ballardini II, no. 65, figs 62, 257R. The fourth, dated 1531, is in the

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4"'

b-Attributed to Rosso Fiorentino (present whereabouts unknown)

PhotoAlinari

a-Rosso

Fiorentino,

Moses Defending the Daughters ofJethro (pp. 220-25)

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