It’s proved that one of the biggest humanists and the founder of the new Italian drama, Angelo Poliziano influenced the oeuvre of Sandro Botticelli.
It’s proved that one of the biggest humanists and the founder of the new Italian drama, Angelo Poliziano influenced the oeuvre of Sandro Botticelli. It’s known that Jacopo da Sellaio was studying together with Botticelli under Filippo Lippi. Hence, it’s very possible to connect the third panel of the cycle “Orpheus and Eurydice” by da Sellaio with the narration of Poliziano's “The Tale of Orpheus.” Let’s emphasize that the narration was created in 1471, while the first proofs about the Sellaio cycle are dated not earlier than 1475.
Here we are about to put forward the interpretation of the symbolic and visual communication system of the artist, using discovering the potential of the fine fictional narration, descending occasionally onto the level of primary sources (Virgil’s “Georgics” and Ovidius “Metamorphoses”), perhaps, unknown by that time to the author from the working class.
However, except for the scene “Orpheus in hell” (third panel from the Khanenko Museum, Kyiv), there are two more panels of that cycle, the first one (from the Wawel Royal Castle, Krakow, Poland) depicts Orpheus in front of already domesticated animals, and the second (Boijmans Van Beuningen museum, Rotterdam) — shows the scene of shepherd Aristeus chasing the nymph Eurydice. The character of Aristeus, created by Virgil (“Georgics,” IV), afterward appeared in Poliziano, when “she was running away from Aristeus, and, the same moment, when she reached the pond, in heel her bite, without regretting, a snake, that was hidden in the flowers” (here and further on the translation is mine, Oleh Oleniev). The description of Poliziano entirely mimics the scene, depicted on the second panel. Thus, in the left part of the composition the group of shepherds is visible, combined with peacefully grazing sheep and lying dogs, on a lawn. Further, closer to the center, Aristeus is chasing the nymph, to the pond, and the snake, hiding in the flowers, biting Eurydice in the heel. In the right part of the panel, beyond the flow of Styx, two infernal beasts dragging the already dead breathless body of Orpheus's female companion (fragile intimacy of the couple is pointed out, obviously, by the triple presence on the panel of coupling deers).
Numerous coincidences with the dramatic storyline of “The Legend About Orpheus” could be found also in the panel of the cycle. Let’s closely examine now the right panel, the scene called “Orpheus in hell.”
The main protagonist of this part of the overall composition is some centaur, pulling out moaning Eurydice by her hair with astonishing effort. His wild animality and unruly passion for acting could be clarified, reminding, us that “cerastes” (that is, bull-like-horned centaur) in ancient mythology symbolizes an unruly power of passions. Additionally, in many places of his “Tale,” Poliziano gives a climax place depicting passion — overly, killing the love of Orpheus and Eurydice. For instance, in the climax scene of the narration (depicted by Sellaio in the right-hand part of the composition) “Eurydice regretfully sharing with Orpheus, that she was forcibly separated with him: “Alas, by excessive passion we are separated both,” and “Orpheus, following Eurydice, saying this: “Alas! Or fair Eurydice is not with me? Oh, excessively competing sky! Cruel destiny! Oh, our passion, exceedingly unhappy!” Consequently, Orpheus did not follow the teaching of Pluto to “behave cool, to pay attention again won’t disappear ... an award.”
The motif of coupling of unhappy separated lovers is reinforced not just by deers, again by sided the panel from the left and right sides, but also by a palm growing behind the back of cerastes, symbolizing the victory (perhaps, linked with a triumphal liberation his lover by Orpheus in the first act of the play), and a grief cypress — the tree of infernal grief and graveyard sadness, by Ovid (Metamorphosis, X), — behind Orpheus back (along with his permanent viola da brocciu, a “manual” viola).
Should be pinpointed here that the rest of the scenically decorated details of the composition could be linked with the genre of spiritual mystery called “reppresentazione sacre” — the link, supposedly, very obvious in the time of da Sellaio.
Reforming the Italian drama from the perspective of Tuscany “populism,” Angelo Poliziano, the outstanding member of the court academy of Florentine Medici and educator of Lorenzo Magnificent’s son, Pierro, nonetheless, couldn’t completely throw away the canons of “decor simultane,” “simultaneous scenic decoration,” because the narration was ordered to the seventeen years old author by the mighty clerical officer, cardinal Gonzaga, on the anniversary of Duke Sforza’s arrival to Mantua.
As a contemporary for describing events, Jacopo da Sellaio could be un resonated with the genre under-text of the narration of Poliziano. The “simultaneity” of the scenic construction is also seen in the throne positioned of Pluto holding his stick, sitting in the Tenaris hole (it's visible also in the right upper corner of the second panel), Metamorphosis, X, and in scorched a bit to the right, suffering tormenting by the fire of unsatisfied desire, Eurydice (“Pluto and Proserpine, perhaps, enthroned, as always in the mysteries all the rulers... And, in whatever way, sculpturally or by depicting, were represented everywhere sufferings.”
From another perspective, in the panel by da Sellaio, except an understanding of the “decor simultane,” is present the novice method of dividing cycles onto acts, even though triple acted play by Jacopo da Sellaio (Orpheus with domesticated animals, Aristeus chasing Eurydice, and the final scene of Orpheus in hell) is not entirely adequate for possible division by acts in the narration of Poliziano (death of Eurydice, two attempts of Orpheus to get her back, the final scene of tearing Orpheus body apart by the Bacchantes). Prof of, except one time scenic construction of the play the author also recognized inward dynamics of the dramatic narration, spatial and chronological ones, are the Bacchant hoops of enthroned Pluto, what is linking, in the eyes of the observer, to the final act of tearing apart of Orpheus body.
The saints' “cells,” “Parnassus” by Andrea Mantegna, and the perceptive model of the pre-cinematographer epoch clarifies the temporality of the cycle of da Sellaio. The panels of “Orpheus and Eurydice” can be viewed as saints’ “cells;” albeit, if the middle part of an icon demonstrates the (temporarily) out-standing of the personality of the saint or hermit, therefore the cycle’s episodes consequently increases the action dramatist in linear time. The artwork by Andrea Mantegna “Mars and Venus, or Parnassus» (1497) consolidates in one dimension several different time topics, and, despite the panels getting their sense in the three-unity, the cycle of Da Sellaio — is a spatial and consequent unification of scattered fragments of the narration’s temporality. Consequently, the perceptive model of the pre-cinematographer epoch’s meaning lies in the statement that the time was spatialized, consequently decomposed, and fragmented by compositional pictures.
And so that means that Jacopo da Sellaio not just had been reading and recognized, but also creatively rethought the results of the work of the Medici academy, to which Angelo Poliziano himself belonged, the former one was, to some extent, a conceptually independent thinker, not to mention the finest level of his painting and the painting execution of his own prearranged composition.
