Cover Page

The Influence of Lucas Cranach’s Judith Imagery on the

Development of the Protestant Reformation !

Maria Lynn Matthies

Director: Gabriela Sotomayor

Academy of Art University

Spring 2015

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Table of Contents

Proposed Thesis Topic 1

Proposed Thesis Advisor 2

Lit Review 3

Thesis Topic and Future Goals 8

Final Paper From AHS 620 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Proposed Thesis Topic

I propose that Lucas Cranach’s profound influence on the Protestant Reformation in Germany

goes beyond the worship images he created in conjunction with his friend, Martin Luther. These

additional images included his Judith and Holofernes series, which functioned as both a reaction to the

religious climate during the Reformation, and an aid in shaping Reformist values and allegiances

through the revival and relevance of the Old Testament figures. I will also analyze how Northern

depictions of Judith were influenced by Italian examples, as the way that ideas travel through artists

can impact the values of entire cultures and an examination of Judith and Holofernes will be

informative about the exchange of Italian Humanist and German Reformation ideals.

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Proposed Thesis Advisor:

Craig Griffeath

Area of Specialization: Northern Renaissance Art, Music Appreciation and History

Proposed Secondary Thesis Advisor:

Gabriela Sotomayor

Area of Specialization: Greek and Roman Art

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Lit Review

Dillenberger, John, Ed. Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings Edited and with an Introduction. New York: Anchor Books, 1961. ! This volume contains translations of selected writings by Martin Luther, before and during the

events of the Protestant Reformation. As the primacy of the word was at the core of the values of

Luther’s Reformation, his own writings are an important link to understanding how he viewed man’s

relation to God and the Church. In the introduction to this volume, John Dillenberger asseses the

historical and cultural circumstances that led up to Luther’s reform and allowed the receptive attitude of

those who would follow his beliefs. Dillenberger biographically traces Luther’s relationship with

religion as he grew up and entered the Augustinian Monastery. Luther had a continuous battle with how

one can negotiate a relationship with God and all that this demanded, which culminated in his

challenge to the Church in the form of The Ninety-Five Theses. Understanding the relationship that

Luther had to the Church is an important part to understanding how his friendship with Lucas Cranach

and his paintings supported the Reformation.

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Noble, Bonnie. Lucas Cranach the Elder: Art and Devotion of the German Reformation. Lanham: University Press of America, 2009.

Bonnie Noble, in the text Lucas Cranach the Elder: Art and Devotion of the German

Reformation, focuses on how Lucas Cranach was taking the ideas of the Reformation and pictorially

translating them for viewers. Her primary focus is on the Altarpieces that Cranach painted alongside the

teachings of Martin Luther. Law and Gospel, for example is important for illustrating Luther’s devotion

to the word of the Bible. These images include both picture and text and were created with the

consultation of Luther. Luther believed that images could aid in the understanding of the word, which is

important to the relationship between these two men. Noble describes the friendship as rooted in the

common values of Luther and Cranach, despite the different media they use to share their ideas.

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Smart, Alastair. The Renaissance and Mannerism in Northern Europe and Spain. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1972. ! Alastair Smart offers an explanation of the movements, both cultural and artistic, that were

going on during the time of the Renaissance and Mannerism in Northern Europe, which is the temporal

moment of the Protestant Reformation. This text is written as a survey of many different artists and

locations, which will aide in placing Lucas Cranach’s specific styles and values in juxtaposition to his

contemporaries. Smart discusses Cranach’s early painting roots in the ‚Danube School‘ and the

influence of his nudes and landscapes on other German artists. Important to the context of my thesis is

Smart’s exploration of Cranach’s visits to Italy and how his time there influenced his own paintings,

both in subject matter and style.

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Ozment, Steven. The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.

In The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation, Steven

Ozment critically analyzes the relationship between Luther and Cranach. Their influence on the

Reformation is integral, as it was prompted by Luther and his ideas, but Ozment equally acknowledges

the impact that Cranach’s art had on the events in Germany. Cranach is considered a bridge between the

everyday person and the reformers’ circles, able to convey the civic needs of the people to those trying

to make changes in the realm of religion. The role of Cranach’s art is discussed as a way to promote

devotional imagery within public and private, secular and religious locations. Cranach and Luther were

not opposed to the use of imagery for devotion and Cranach sought to stop iconoclasm. Also under

review in this text are the roles of biblical women in Reformation art and how Cranach chose to portray

them. Any artist’s portfolio can be traced alongside the history of his age and for Cranach this means

analyzing his art alongside the Reformation. Ozment brings the events of the Reformation to light in

the context of Cranach’s evolution as a painter.

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Proske, Mirela. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Munich: Prestel Publishing, 2007.

This text provides concise insight into the personal and professional life of Lucas Cranach.

Proske elucidates the complicated relationship that Cranach had with the Reformation, as he supported

Martin Luther and the Protestant cause while at the same time boosting his career partly through the

patronage of Catholic leaders. Proske discusses the development of Cranach’s stylistic choices as he

progresses through different geographical areas, patrons, and political climates. The influence of the

Reformation on his artwork is considered significant, as it shaped his style, thematic decisions, and the

popularity of his workshop. His personal life is explored through his relationships with political and

religious leaders, his sons, and his friend, Luther.

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Thesis Topic and Future Goals

Area of Study: Northern Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, Museum Studies.

Future Goals:

After graduating from the Academy of Art University, I plan to pursue a position in assistant

curation and research at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco European Collection or an

international museum, such as the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany. I have been working toward this

longtime goal by studying German and art history abroad, undertaking a Masters degree in Art History,

and gaining valuable experience at the Legion of Honor in an education internship. I am interested in

many aspects of museums, such as education and public programs, but my primary goal is to reach the

curation and research positions. After my MA is complete I therefore plan to participate in a doctoral

program.

My thesis augments my future goals as this topic is currently under-developed; there is a wealth

of German research that must be translated and developed for an English audience. The connection that

Europeans still have to the religious significance of the Reformation is largely lost in America, so I plan

to take my research abroad in order to bring more insight into English language research.

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Final Paper

AHS 620- Italian Renaissance

Professor David Riffert

!The Mortal Motivation for Union with the Ancient Gods in High Renaissance Painting

The High Renaissance in Italy was largely influence by the revival of classical antiquity,

particularly the artistic, literary, and political teachings left behind by ancient Greece and Rome.

Despite the reigning belief in Catholicism under the papacy, the cinquecento experienced a

proliferation of artwork featuring the ancient Greek and Roman lexicon of gods. These productions

carried a host of meanings, including multivalent allegory for the hierarchical position of humans as

they compare to the gods. The perspective of a human’s position within the hierarchy of the universe

was inextricably linked to humanism and neoplatonic thought within the intellectual circles of the High

Renaissance.

A new development in the status of the artist at this temporal moment in Italy found painters,

sculptors, and other participants in the humanistic subjects deeply entrenched in these circles of

humanist thinkers. Through close interactions with such crowds, the artists were compelled to produce

images depicting revived classical themes embedded with the beliefs of the High Renaissance. I

propose that High Renaissance painters implemented the themes of ancient gods interacting with

mortals in order to heighten the humanist idea of man’s centrality within the universe; the notion that

humans are able to ascend to a divine status within the studies of humanism. The interaction with gods

was a vehicle through which the Renaissance person could attain greatness. Divine inspiration became

more attainable for mortals through interrelations with the classical gods, which would allow a person

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to come closer to reverting to the One, the true form of the soul as it returns to its original form and the

divinity of the gods.

One High Renaissance painter who embraced his role as a purveyor of ideas about the

interaction between mortals and gods was the Venetian painter, Tiziano Vecelli, or Titian. One can see

in the painting Danae1 from 1553-1554 that Titian, like other High Renaissance painters, becomes a

creator himself through his depictions of mythological scenes. He is able to reflect through his artwork

the values of both gods and mortals back onto the viewers and shape the way the Renaissance citizen

perceived himself and his position in the world. Over the course of the Renaissance, the roles of artist

evolved from tradesmen to respected and educated members of society. Artists became the

dialecticians for transmitting ideas about the soul for the amelioration of Renaissance humanity.

Titian executed many works, which portray themes of classical gods seeking out a union with

mortals. In Danae, the role of the ancient gods is represented by Zeus. Zeus comes to Danae in the form

of a shower of gold, signifying an earthly lustful desire as manifested through the intentions of a

celestial being. Titian builds the scene out of rich, yet soft color and gives the figures a sense of

tangible presence through the Venetian colorito style. The forms in the image are soft and cohesive

because of the absence of sharp or contrasting lines. There is barely a distinction between the inside of

Danae’s chamber and the environment outside. This emphasizes the ability to transcend between the

earthly and heavenly realms. It is difficult to discern whether there is a window at the back of the room,

or merely the absence of a wall, which accentuates Danae’s status in her tower as already close to the

gods. The openness allows the weather to come straight into the room, bringing with it the golden

clouds from which Zeus, in the form of the golden shower, rains. The golden shower is tangible, falling

toward Danae in streams of light and coins. Unified by the glow of the golden shower in the middle of

the composition, all of the colors become soft and harmonious. As one of the pieces in Titian’s Poesie

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series, Danae’s openness to a physical encounter with a god accentuates the desire for human ascension

within the ideas of humanism.

Before the modern school of Italian humanism, ancient theories about humanity’s position in

the world already emphasized human magnitude. As Jean Seznec states in his text, The Survival of the

Pagan Gods, “Philosophy, from Aristotle onward, had recognized a divine element within the human

soul” (11). This is an idea that would be appropriated and expounded on in the Renaissance. From the

beginnings of modern humanism, a resurrection that is most commonly attributed to Petrarch, there was

a focus on the revival of classical ideas, texts, and civic organization. It is therefore reasonable that the

artists who studied within the Florentine circle of humanists would likewise become interested in the

polytheistic cultures of ancient Greece and Rome and try to work out the role that the gods played in

the context of their modern Italy. If the humanist scholars found importance in reviving aspects of

classical culture, it is difficult to ignore the large roles of the gods.

During the High Renaissance in Italy, the practice of humanism had already gained popularity, due

largely to the Florentine School under the leadership of Marsilio Ficino. Within the precedents of

humanism, man is the only being who can choose to change his status within the greater realm of

beings through his actions. In the article, Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance Neoplatonism, Nicholas

Goodrick-Clarke states that

By placing the human soul, like a droplet of divinity, at the center of the universe,

Ficino initiated a fundamental spiritual revolution in man’s self-regard. Within his

dynamic cosmology, the soul thus combined in itself everything, knew everything, and

possessed the powers of everything in the universe. This cosmology was not just a

formal intellectual model but rather a map for the travels and ascent of one’s own

soul” (41).

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Should he strive toward the status of a god or angel, he could potentially achieve this, as Ficino

divulges the belief that a human’s soul already contains all of the potential that exists in the universe.

One must simply learn to identify that greatness in order to ascend. An ideal way to identify greatness

in oneself is to encounter the gods and recognize their divine soul with one’s own.

Giovanni Pico de la Mirandola, a student and colleague of Ficino, describes why the gods could

be interested in humans just as much as humans may seek or welcome the company of gods. Pico states

in his Oration of the Dignity of Man that he has

come to some understanding of why man is the most fortunate of living things and,

consequently, deserving of all admiration; of what may be the condition in the hierarchy of

beings assigned to him, which draws upon him the envy, not of the brutes alone, but of the

astral beings and the very intelligences which dwell beyond the

confines of the world…man is, with complete justice, considered and called a great

miracle and a being worthy of all admiration”(111).

The attraction of the gods to earthly beings is advantageous for the humans, as they may use the gods

for the ascension of their souls without having to struggle too much to find them. Titian utilizes the

interest that Renaissance thinkers already had in the classical past to help convey his message.

The emphasis on humankind’s ability to transcend realms is executed in Danae through the

expression and pose of the figure of the princess. As she reclines back on the bed within her chamber,

her face wears an expression of foreknowledge. She does not seem surprised by the arrival of Zeus, as

her body language remains relaxed and passive. It is as if she knows through this interaction, her own

soul will ascend and become closer to the form of the gods. This acceptance, which could also be read

as a veiled eagerness, can be seen additionally in Titian’s 1545 version of the same subject2. In this

version, Danae is accompanied by a putto instead of her own handmaid, which alludes to the divine

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love arriving from Zeus. Her lips are closed, instead of parted as they are in the 1553-1554 version of

the scene. Her closed mouth leaves little room for a surprised expression and her eyes look knowingly

and expectantly toward the shower of gold. According to Pico, people have the agency to freely change

themselves. Through the look on Danae’s face and her accepting body language, Titian alludes to her

awareness of the human quest for knowledge. This puts her in a position of power in this situation, as if

she is using Zeus’s lust for her own purposes of becoming closer to the One.

Reciprocity exists between the gods and mortals, as both parties are looking to gain something

from the union. The ancient philosopher, Plotinus, believed that human souls seek to return to the One.

John R. Bussanich describes this in The One and Its Relation to Intellect in Plotinus as “the “mystical

return,” in which Intellect, or the ascended soul, transcends the structure of reality by means of its

“non-intellectial” and erotic part and achieves union with the One” (page 3). Following the Plotinian

idea that the mortal desire for union with the One can become more attainable through relations with

the divine, it becomes apparent that the stereotype of the lustful god seeking sexual company with

human women is not the full story within the humanistic interpretation. Though gods seek the company

of mortals, there is a desire and motivation on the part of the favored mortals to become closer to a

divine soul through the union with a god. There is an inherent contradiction between humans as the

most ideal being and the idea that this perfection lies within the ability to change. If humans are made

more perfect by the ability to ascend into a more godly form, it is difficult to ignore the implication that

gods are, as already occupying the realm of deities, still more perfect than humans. In Titian’s Danae,

the viewer is reminded of the mortality and earthbound state of man by the inclusion of Danae’s

handmaid.

Danae’s handmaid is portrayed in a more earthly manner than the glowing, nude body of Danae.

The way the princess is shown gives her an ethereal quality that one does not see in the handmaid. She

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is wholly mortal, clothed in heavy, drab garments, and seems to be ignorant to the circumstances. Her

unawareness emphasizes her as a figure still bound to the earth and lacking more godly pursuits. She is

unable to conceptualize that“the higher world of Ideas or Forms provided archetypal patterns of

everything that existed on the lower mundane plane. The human soul originated in the higher world but

is trapped in the body in the lower world, and Plato’s writings sometimes describe the return or ascent

of the soul to its true, perfect home” (Goodrick-Clarke, 40). The handmaid would represent the soul

that, though it originated on a higher plane, is trapped and unaware of her potential. She is presumably

not holding out her apron to be a part of the union with a god, but rather to attempt to collect the golden

coins of the shower. These coins hold value as currency in the lower plane, despite being a medium of

divine ascent to the mortal who can appreciate their value for the soul. This aspect of greed in the event

alludes to earthly qualities. Danae, like her companion, is still human, yet she sees Zeus’s shower as a

path to the world of Forms.

As Pico elucidates in his Oration on the Dignity of Man, humans are the center of the universe,

even to the gods. The desire of the gods to unite with mortals is a recurring theme in ancient myth, and

one that High Renaissance artists used fortuitously to support the humanist agenda of man’s centrality.

In the text Handbuch der Ikonographie: Sakrale und Profane Themen der Bildenden Kunst, Sabine

Poeschel discusses the base roles of gods and humans in interactions between the two. Referring to

another of Zeus’s exploits, his pursuance of the earthly Leda, Poeschel states about the roles that ”der

Zeus als “animalische” Potenz, während die Leda ist als weibliche schönheit gesehen“ (305). She

emphasizes Zeus as animal potency and Leda as feminine beauty, which attracts the desire of Zeus.

The subject of Leda and the Swan was one that we also have high Renaissance examples of.

Leonardo da Vinci, in his preliminary sketches of Leda and the Swan,3 shows the implication that Zeus

seeks Leda for her human approachability and perfection. Within the sketches Leda, as the mortal in the

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situation, has attributes that emphasize her as a feminine, ideal human. She is young, beautiful, and

susceptible to the advances of the god in his animalistic form. Leonardo, as a High Renaissance artist,

emphasizes the potential of humans. Zeus, in the bestial form of a swan, continues to pursue his

attractions to Leda. He wraps his wing around her shoulders and presses his beak toward her hair. The

wing that protrudes from the opposite side of Leda mimics the appearance of an angel wing coming off

of Leda’s back, alluding to the swan as a vehicle for the higher, celestial understanding of Leda’s soul.

There is a strong juxtaposition in this piece between the soft beauty of Leda’s earthly body,

representing the readiness of her soul to ascend to the realm of higher forms, and the beastly form of

Zeus, who is to aid her in this endeavor. It is as if her corporeal manifestation already reflects the

beauty of her soul. An more sensual and somatic version of the subject is executed in the High

Renaissance by Michelangelo Buonarroti.

The original work of Michelangelo’s Leda and the Swan has been lost, but one can still observe

the essential design by referencing Peter Paul Rubens’ Copy of Michelangelo’s Leda and the Swan,4

done in 1601. In this representation Zeus as the swan and the mortal Leda are depicted in the middle of

their passion, as opposed to Leonardo’s version of the hatching of the children after the initial intimacy.

Leda is being pressed backward against a barrier, her left arm wrapped over it for stability, and a potent

Zeus pressing his beak to her lips. The Swan appears forceful in his advances, but Leda does not

attempt to shy away or avoid his advances in any way. Her body language impresses upon the viewer

that she is welcome to the union, again testifying to the mortal desire to become closer to the gods. In

ancient mythologies the desire of the gods to unite with mortals quite often results in offspring These

next generations are, by nature of being begotten by immortals, inherently closer to divinity than was

their earthly parent.

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Due to her coition with Zeus, Leda hatches four children, two of whom are conceived with her

mortal husband, Tyndareus, the king of Sparta. citation. These offspring begin their lives nearer to the

equivocation with the One than their mortal parent had been because of the union of their mortal born

parent with a heavenly god. Similarly in the mythology of Danae and Zeus, a divinely charged son is

born of the unification of mortal and god. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the poet narrates an oration given

by Perseus, son of Danae and Zeus. Perseus’s speech is aimed to the parents of his beloved Andromeda

before he rescues her from a sea serpent. “If I were here as suitor, I, Perseus, son of Jove and Danae,

Conqueror of the snakey-headed Gorgon, The daring flier through the winds of heaven, You would

accept me, I think before all others” (Book IV, lines 697-102). Perseus invokes his divine begetting as

one of the reasons to be allowed to wed Andromeda, as her marriage to a human who is nearer to

divinity will, in turn, aide in the ascension of her own soul toward the One. There is stimulus behind

reproducing with gods beyond aiding one’s personal motives, as it additionally creates offspring that

are even closer to the form of gods.

Although the union and consequent procreation with divine figures was largely considered a

beneficial endeavor in order to become closer to the form of a God within humanistic beliefs, there

were examples within the High Renaissance of paintings depicting unwilling mortals. The ancient

myths include stories of the capture of mortals who were averse to the advances of gods. In Titian’s,

Rape of Europa5 another part of his Poesie series from 1560-1562 the artist shows the female mortal

being carried away by Zeus in the form of a bull, seemingly against her will. In Ovid’s telling of the

story, he informs how “She grows bolder, Climbs on his back, of course all unsuspecting, And he

rises…and slowly edges From the dry sand toward the water, further and further And swimming now,

with the girl, trembling a little And looking back to the land” (Book II, lines 868-873). This interaction

does not sound like it involved physical force to take Europa, but rather that she was tricked. While

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many High Renaissance examples of relationships between gods and mortals do not necessarily show

resistance on the part of either party, Titian’s piece makes a point to show Europa’s dissatisfaction. Her

position on the back of the bull is precarious, suggesting that she did not begin the ride willingly as she

was unable to get herself positioned properly. She cranes her head back over her right shoulder to look

to the figures she has left behind on the shore. This scene certainly suggests that the desire for the bond

is on the side of the god. Zeus seeks the mortal company of Europa and lured her in through the

loveliness of the bull. This story points out that the gods are not always willing to bend to the wills of

the mortals they seek, serving as a warning to viewers of the piece to tread carefully in interactions

with the immortal gods-

Both ancient Greek and High Renaissance humanists use the gods as symbols and metaphors,

not necessarily considering them as literal beings. In the 1553-1554 Danae, the shower of gold that falls

down to Danae represents a transfigured Zeus. The corporeal god becomes less tangible in the form of

the gold, and thereby it becomes easier to consider a metaphorical meaning for the god. This visit could

be a metaphor for human fault, as Danae is locked in the tower because of the paranoia of her father,

King Acrisius. The human fault of the handmaid is also present, as the servant appears to collect the

wealth of the coins for their earthly value. Artists resurrect the use of pagan gods to give meaning about

the relationship between man and the search for human centralism. This can easily come in the form of

a warning not to ignore self-reflection and contemplation of one’s actions.

Mythology functions as a tool to shape the lives of humans. Through the lessons that are

outlines in myths, humans are encourages and enabled to reflect upon their own actions and develop

their souls. The idea of soul making, as James Hillman outlines it in the text, Revisioning Psychology,

was in important process to scrutinize in order to discover how one goes about building, shaping, and

refining one’s soul. Hillman states that “by ‘soul’ I mean the imaginative possibility in our natures, the

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experiencing through reflective speculation, dream, image, and fantasy—that mode which recognizes

all realities as primarily symbolic or metaphorical” (Hillman, x). For the mortal characters of the

mythologies, the ability to reflect upon why they desired to be joined with a god would be an important

aspect to forming their souls, which would essentially help them ascend closer to the forms of the gods.

If being with a god on a sexual level allowed a mortal to realize that the union was a metaphor for their

own divine potential, then the experience could be truly valuable. Soul making could develop in this

fashion of first hand experiences and the reflection thereupon, but the artists of the High Renaissance

were careful to also pass these metaphorical messages on to their contemporary audiences.

Hillman expounds the idea that one must shape his or her own soul, or point of view, through

reflection upon experiences. As experiences can occur metaphorically, a depiction of a mythological

event could have the same instructional value for a person as true occurrences in one’s life. The

viewing of the piece is the substitute for the lived action and, after reflecting on the event, one could

take away the same instruction as if it had been truly lived. In this way the artist helps to shape, or

develop, the way a viewer of the scene perceives one’s personal role in society and the consequences of

their actions. These were ideas likewise shared by Ficino.

As Ficino believed, the soul exchanged its commerce with the mundane and material

things of this outer world for a new contact with the spiritual aspects of the incorporeal

and intelligible world of higher planes. Such spiritual knowledge is unobtainable as

long as one’s soul is enmeshed in ordinary experience and the noisy concerns of this

troubled world. In these lower states of consciousness, the soul is barely awakened.

But once the attention is directed inward, the soul begins to ascend the spiritual

hierarchy of the cosmos, all the while learning and interacting with higher spiritual

entities. Ficino always presented these mystical exercises and ascent experiences as

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journeys of the soul toward higher degrees of truth and being, culminating in the direct

knowledge and vision of God (Goodrick-Clarke, 41).

An inward-directed attention toward one’s soul and the process of its journey is essential for becoming

closer to divine realms. Without this awareness of one’s own soul making, the hierarchy cannot be

scaled. The paintings themselves invoke a pleasure in the viewer that causes them to contemplate not

only a deeper meaning within the narrative being depicted, but beauty itself as it is separated from

forms.

High Renaissance artists use allegories of gods to represent humanist ideals. They seek to use

their own education in order to instruct their audiences about the actions of gods. By positing the gods

in some of their most ennobling positions, artists are teaching the viewers that, not only can they be

placed within the same scenes as the gods, they are also able to equal or surpass their greatness through

the practice of noble and good deeds. “For Italian art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries invests the

ancient symbols with fresh beauty” (Seznec, 6). For the Renaissance audience this beauty within the

mythological scenes is their own potential. Beauty itself can be a medium through which earthly souls

can ponder higher realms in order to ascend. This tool had been a part of Renaissance humanism long

before the High Renaissance masters appropriated it.

Known for his decorative presentation of divine beauty, Sandro Botticelli provided through his

paintings visual manifestations of the heavenly forms. In his Birth of Venus6 if 1486, he displays the

nascence of the goddess of beauty and love, providing an apt tool for contemplation. The

contemplation of beauty was part of an ancient model that, through the resurrection of classical themes,

continues to influence Renaissance humanism. “In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates identifies love as an

active force that holds all things together. Ficino attributed the active influence of thought and love to

the human soul, which could reach out and embrace all things in the universe” (Goodrick-Clarke,

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40-41). Ficino attributed love and beauty to the soul’s realm. Their contemplation allowed the soul to

better understand the universe, which in turn is an aid to the higher understanding of the soul.

Botticelli’s painting, in showing the goddess of love in her purest, earliest form, encourages the viewer

to think about the origins of beauty and how beauty grows and changes with time and individual

outlooks.

Beauty and its influence on the formation of the soul was a constant subject in the Renaissance.

While writing his book of courtly appropriateness and excellence, The Book of the Courtier Baldasar

Castiglione considered the role of beauty at length.

Gentlemen, beauty is a sacred thing, and I should not wish any of us to act like profane

and sacrilegious men in speaking ill of it and thereby incurring the wrath of God…I

say that beauty springs from God and is like a circle, the centre of which is

goodness…only rarely does an evil soul dwell in a beautiful body, and so outward

beauty is a true sign of inner goodness. This loveliness, indeed is impressed upon the

body in varying degrees as a token by which the soul can be recognized for what it is”

(330).

Castiglione supports the idea that an outward beauty represents a manifestation of inner goodness,

linking beauty to the goodness of the soul. By viewing beauty, a person views a high soul and thereby

links his or her own soul to that beauty, referring to Castiglione’s circle of beauty that centers on

goodness of soul. This is the role that a work such as Botticell’s The Birth of Venus plays in the

formation of the soul and its capacity for ascension through the goodness of beauty. The contemplation

of factors that please the aesthetic senses can be motivated by works of art, such as Botticelli’s, as well

as in the pieces that depict the union of gods and mortals, as the meaning and aesthetic presence can be

equally uplifting and beneficial to the formation of the soul.

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One can scarcely avoid the fact that in any Renaissance artistic production there is bound to be

more than one way to read the meaning. There is often a secular reading, a civic reading, and a

theological reading, and even a purely aesthetic reading to be extracted from a work of art. In the case

of mythological images about the interactions between mortals and gods, the intentions of the

participants are often multivalent. About the story of Danae, Poeschel states, “das Thema akzentuiert

zwei Aspekte, zum einen die Liebe, zum anderen die Verführung durch Gold“ (303). The theme

accentuates two aspects, on the one hand love, and on the other the seduction/temptation through gold.

Both love and seduction can be read as the motivation for either party. Zeus may truly love Danae, but

he may also be acting out a base seduction that relies on her greed as a human. By the same token,

Danae may love Zeus, or she may be seeking a union with a god for her own motivations of becoming

closer to a god and producing a half-divine child. These themes represent opposing ideas that one could

consider a ubiquitous presence in the depictions of the earthly seductions of mortals by gods.

Despite the element of Renaissance painting that includes the passions of the gods, the viewer is

encouraged to consider those aspects, which would more appropriately aide in the contemplation of

goodness, beauty, and the divine to allow the soul to ascend. Humanist thinking considers often the

ascension of man toward heavenly status, as man alone has the ability to change his position within the

hierarchies of the universe. The artists of the High Renaissance make liberal use of the themes of

mythology within their works, still implying that the union with the ancient Greek and Roman gods is a

divine union with the One. Mortals will be able to come closer to the gods through their interactions

and, because of the revival of classical themes within humanism, the ancient gods become the perfect

vehicle for this ascension. Through union with the divine, the birth of half-gods, and the stimulus to

contemplate beauty within the realm of the gods, High Renaissance painters forward the ideas of the

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humanists, allowing viewers to meditate on the potential of their own souls to ascend into the realm of

heavenly forms.

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Works Cited:

Bussanich, John R. The One and Its Relation to Intellect in Plotinus: A Commentary on Selected Texts (Philosophia Antiqua, Vol 49). Brill Academic Pub: Leiden, 1997. Castiglione, Baldesar. The Book of the Courtier. Penguin Classics: New York, 2003. !De la Mirandola, Giovanni Pico. Oration on the Dignity of Man. !Goodrick-Clarke, D. Phil, Nicholas, Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance Neoplatonism. From The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction, Italian Renaissance Magic and Cabala,” Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2008. !Hillman, James. Revisioning Psychology. Harper Perennial: New York, 1997. !Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Rolfe Humphries. Indiana Universty Press: Bloomington, 1995. !Poeschel, Sabine. Handbuch der Ikonographie: Sakrale und Profane Themen der Bildenden Kunst. Wissenschaftliche Buchgessellschaft: Darmstadt, 2005. !Seznec, Jean. Trans. Barbara F. Sessions. The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and its Place in Renaissance Humanism and Art. Harper Torchbook: New York, 1961. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Images Cited:

1Titian, Danae, 1553-1554.

2Titian, Danae, 1545.

3Leonardo da Vinci, cartoon for Leda and the Swan, around 1504.

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4Peter Paul Ruebens, Leda and the Swan, after Lost Michelangelo original, 1601.

5Titian, Rape of Europa, 1562.

6Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1486.

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