The image of Paris in Venetian art through the prism of the works of George and the Giorgionesques

Fomina Irina Anatolievna ORCID: 0009-0009-9229-9006 Postgraduate Student, Department of Semiotics and General Theory of Arts, Lomonosov Moscow State University 3/1 Bolshaya Nikitskaya str., Moscow, 125009, Russia electrena@gmail.com

"The Story of Paris."

About a rare subject in the art of the Venetian Renaissance

This article is devoted to rare scenes illustrating the story of the Trojan Prince Alexander (Paris), which briefly became very popular in Venetian art, and then also suddenly disappeared.

The purpose of this work is to trace the appearance and evolution of plots related to individual episodes from the life of Paris, borrowed from the works of ancient and medieval authors; to identify the reasons for the interest in individual scenes from the life of the Trojan prince among the Venetian masters of the early 16th century; to show the role and significance of these works in the art and culture of Venice.

In this regard, the artistic embodiment of the image of Paris will be viewed through the prism of the Trojan myth.

Earlier studies conducted in Russian historiography on the role of the Trojan myth in the history of Venice covered the socio-political structure of the state (Lukin P. "Novgorod and Venice: comparative historical sketches of the formation of the republican system") and universalist aspirations in the legends about the origin of Venice, which asserted its self-identification and independence (Doskas B. "The myth of Venice as Alterum Byzantium"). However, these scientific studies did not address the issues of the artistic transformation of the Trojan myth into the culture of the state of Venice and the image of Paris into an ideal embodiment in Venetian art.

Since its formation, Venice, surrounded by myths and legends that explained its uniqueness, power, splendor and superiority over other Italian cities, appeared in the eyes of contemporaries mundus alter (another world). The Most Illustrious Republic owes its position in the European and Mediterranean arenas to its own historiography. For a long time, Venice was in the area of glory of the heiress and legitimate guardian of ancient Roman traditions and power, Byzantium, and developed with an eye to the state structure of New Rome. However, by the late Middle Ages, the growing and increasingly prosperous population of Venice began to realize the absence of its own ancient past and "composed" an outstanding pedigree for itself ^{[1, p.246]}. It included legendary narratives that allowed the Venetians to perceive themselves as the direct heirs of the oldest free states. So, in the annalistic Venetian chronicles, as a prologue to historical events, there are several legends about the origin of the city. A special place among them is given to the legend of the Trojan origin of the Venetians ^{[2, pp.12-15]}, according to which a new life in the Adriatic was founded by natives of Troy who fled from the walls of the destroyed city. According to medieval chronicles, they arrived on the Adriatic coast and stopped on the island of Castellum, where the history of Venetia prima began.^{[3, pp.194-213]} And, as the Chronicon Gradense chronicle, which was created over a century and a half (1081-1204), tells us, all this happened long before the foundation Rome by Romulus and Remus ^[4], which allowed Venice to claim a more ancient and noble origin.

Over time, under the influence of the Trojan legend, imperial ambitions appear in the ruling circles of the republic, which turns it into an active player in the European and Mediterranean arenas. By the middle of the 15th century, it had become not only the strongest state in the Eastern Mediterranean, but also a powerful economic and cultural center in Europe. From that moment on, she is called Dominio Venetia – Mrs. Venice, and she needs a new official historiography ^[5]. To this end, her story is being revised and rewritten in accordance with the classical model. In the aristocratic circles of Venice, there is a fashion for the all'antica culture and ancient art objects, which were brought to the Venetian antique markets in large numbers from the Eastern Mediterranean region, from the islands of the Greek archipelago and Crete. An important feature of the imported antique material was its belonging to the field of Greek (rather than Roman) art, which endowed it with a special aesthetic perfection and sophistication, as well as a specific subject related to classical mythology.

Ancient artifacts have gained special value among the Venetian nobility, being a visible confirmation of the nobility of families and the antiquity of aristocratic families. They have become an invariable element of the aesthetic design of the residential environment of Venetian palazzi and the basis for the formation of private antique collections, contributed to the formation of the art market and the birth of the tradition of antique collecting in the Most Serene Republic. The plots and images of classical mythology permeate the life of Venice, becoming part of its great civic rituals, where a special role was assigned to the momarii (or mumarii, bombarii, as they were sometimes called) ^{[6, pp. 1-12]}. This was how festive festivities appeared in documents of that time, within which theatrical street performances of the spettacoli cittadini unfolded. Their repertoire included ancient volgarizzamenti comedies based on a mythological plot, glorifying the state and the ruling council, extolling virtues, as well as entertaining the court society and the crowd of citizens. They were very popular with the Venetian public, allowing the townspeople and numerous pilgrims to feel the inextricable connection of the city with ancient history, as if descended on the streets and squares of Veneto.

During this period, the plots of the Trojan cycle became very popular, including those on the construction of Ilium, the Trojan battle, the "Court of Paris" and the "Abduction of Helen", which, thanks to the square spectacles, take root in the spiritual and artistic culture of Venice, taking on a visual form.

In addition to theatrical street performances, the sources of Trojan stories were numerous writings by ancient Greek authors, starting with the Cypria (VII–VI centuries BC), which may have become the basis for Homer's Illiad, to the works of Sophocles and Euripides (preserved fragmentary). In the Middle Ages, these stories were well known to the Venetian public from a variety of compilations (Paris is the devil who kidnaps the human soul, manifested in the form of Helen and tries to imprison her in Hell, correlated by medieval culture with burning Troy) ^{[7, pp.11-14]}, as well as the free presentation of myths by Fulgentius in the work "Mythologiae" (end of the fifth century), Ovid's "Heroides", Lucian of Samostat's "Judgment of the Goddesses", the texts of which were translated by the end of the XV century. Another interesting version of the myth was presented by Virgil in the poem "Aeneid" (which confirmed the glorious origin of Rome for centuries) ^{[8, pp. 120-123]}

The earliest works of art with scenes from the life of Paris include small caskets and caskets made of ivory, horn or wood, made by Venetian craftsmen in the first half of the XV century. They were probably presented as gifts to young brides. A striking example is the decorative panels made to order by the Paduan artist Dario di Giovanni in 1468-1469 with the plot "The Abduction of Elena", which accompanied the solemn procession at the wedding of Catherine Korner and King of Cyprus Jacques II Luisian ^[9].

Despite the fact that the subjects of ancient mythology were present in Venetian life in the form of decorations accompanying solemn processions and theatrical performances (momarias), they took shape in a separate genre in art much later (compared with neighboring Florence). This is explained by the peculiar character of the Venetian Renaissance, which developed in the conditions of the conservative way of cultural and spiritual life of the Most Serene Republic. As a result, the orientation of Venetian artists towards Byzantine patterns and the undivided dominance of religious themes in art ^{[10, p.24]} prevented the emergence of secular painting.

The penetration of mythological subjects into Venetian art became possible thanks to the Northern Italian graphics of that time, which were distinguished by significant freedom from all kinds of censorship ^{[10, p.24]}.

Probably the earliest translation of the "Judgment of Paris" plot into Venetian art were two graphic works from the famous albums of Jacopo Bellini (1396-1470): "Naked Women in a Bathhouse" (British Museum, fol.31) and "Three Naked Women with three children" (Louvre, fol.88) ^{[11, pp.175,177]}. A hint of the famous plot is seen in the apple motif, which is present in both works. Despite the genre character of the scene in the first drawing, the heroines of this plot resemble ancient goddesses. Each female figure has iconographic parallels with the image of Venus, whether it's a hand gesture covering her breasts or admiring her reflection in the mirror – everything speaks to the perfection of their beauty. At the same time, the competitive spirit is clearly visible in the arrangement of the female figures.

The continuation of this story may be the tarnished image of the sheet "Three naked women with three children", possibly forming the pendant of the first story. In the barely discernible silhouettes, one can guess female figures with a round object in their hands resembling an apple, and the heroines themselves are goddesses revealed to the court of Paris. Three children's figures can be little putti, the constant companions of deities in ancient mythology.

The plot of "The Court of Paris" gets further development only at the turn of the XV- XVI centuries. One of the first prints of the same name to appear during this period was the novel by Francesco Colonna "Hypnoerotomachia Polifila", published in Venice in 1499 in the printing house of Aldo Manuzia. A little later, Paris, in the form of a shepherd, "... whose fame has reached the stars, is a beautiful guardian of the flock, but he himself is more beautiful than the flock" ^{[12, V(40)]}, appears as an ecphrastic description of the relief on the city wall in the novel Arcadia by Jacopo Sannazzaro, published in 1505 in the printing house of the same Aldo Manuzia.

During this period, the Venetian masters aroused an unprecedented interest in the Trojan theme, which is confirmed by a number of works that appeared in Venetian art between 1500-1520. However, the ancient story well known to the Renaissance (about the shepherd from Mount Ida, chosen to judge the beauty of the three goddesses) is being translated here in a new edition. Unlike other cultural centers in Italy, the plot of "The Court of Paris" does not find a wide response in the art of the Venetian Cinquecento. Thus, in Florence, the Trojan theme becomes not only a reflection of the ideas of civic humanism, embodied in high-genre subjects such as battle scenes, but also the personification of the triumph of female beauty. While in Venetian art, this theme touches on the sphere of personal interests and private life of Venetians. The only exceptions are a few canvases, including a lost painting attributed by various researchers to Giorgione or Titian, known from a copy from the collection of the Pinacoteca of the Old Masters in Dresden, as well as Tintoretto's work from the collection of the Eremitani Gallery in Padua.

Penetrating into the homes of Venetians in the form of decorative paintings on everyday objects: cassoni chests, caskets, caskets, decorative panels, and later furniture and even musical instruments, later it was not limited to the field of decorative art, establishing itself in easel painting.

The image of the Trojan Prince Alexander, by virtue of his "happy and serene pastoral existence in the midst of nature" ^{[10, p.214]} and the ideal of rural life with its "primordial simplicity of being" ^{[13, p.64]}, acquire special relevance among humanistically educated Venetians during the period of the decline of the economic and political greatness of the Most Serene Republic. Paris turns out to be a kind of prototype of the hero who corresponded to the mentality of Venetian society at the turn of the century, when disappointment and disagreement with the status quo led to the widespread dissemination of the ancient ideal of otium – a free and peaceful course of life away from wars and government duties. At this time, a number of rare episodes from the life of the Trojan prince appeared in Venetian art.

"Baby Paris, left on Mount Ida." Giorgione? About 1510. Princeton University Art Museum.

One of these scenes ("Baby Paris, left on Mount Ida" from the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum), attributed to Giorgione's workshop, illustrates a scene in which, on Priam's orders, the baby is taken away from the city and left in the valley to perish. The image of a baby abandoned to the mercy of fate next to a lonely tree reinforces the motif of loneliness. Separated by the river from the towering city, the image of a baby creates an expressive contrast between helplessness before the forces of nature and life under the protection of city walls. This scene could be a reflection of the state of mental breakdown in Venetian society, involved in the tragic conflicts of the war and having lost its former power, greatness and glory.

During the same period, other works appear that chronologically continue the previous plot, illustrating the discovery of Paris by shepherds and the transfer of the baby to a foster mother. These works are also attributed to the masters of the Giorgione circle. However, when comparing them with the painting "Baby Paris, left on Mount Ida", it is impossible not to note the differences in the painting of landscapes and the depiction of figures that give out in the first painting the work of masters from before the Giorgione period. A similar approach was typical of earlier examples of semi-genre painting in the landscape.

"The education of Paris." About 1510. David Teniers, a copy of a Giorgione painting. The location is unknown.

And here it is appropriate to refer to Giorgione's supposedly lost painting "The Education of Paris", a copy of which was made in the 17th century by David Teners. Giorgione builds her narrative in a completely different way. The plot structure resembles the iconographic scheme of the Holy Interview: the symmetrical arrangement of figures in space with a direct view to the viewer, in the foreground in the center of the painting (instead of the Madonna and Child on the throne) is the main motif – baby Paris, depicted in a rural landscape.

At the same time, the individual figures of the painting contain emblematic references to the characters of the "Thunderstorm" (a shepherd with a staff and Paris's foster mother, which is especially clearly seen in this abridged version of Teners)

It should be noted that one of the well-known interpretations of George's "Thunderstorm" is the love story of Paris and the nymph-prophetess Oenone, whose "fruit of love" was the infant Coryphus, depicted in his mother's arms ^{[14, p. 340]}). The painting "The Education of Paris" is also attributed an allegorical meaning. According to Marcantonio Michael, Giorgione painted another work on a Trojan theme, which has also not survived to this day. It depicted Aeneas carrying Anchises out of burning Troy. This painting probably formed a pendant to the subject of "Education", since, according to the descriptions of the Venetian historian, both works consisted of decorative wall panels hanging side by side in the style of paysage moralis. The image of the "Education of Paris" symbolized the Lust that destroyed Troy, while the second plot served as an allusion to the Virtue that, in the person of Aeneas, revived the Trojan nation.

There are also several portrait works, including Giorgione's painting "Young Paris with an arrow", according to one version, Paris later kills Achilles with this arrow. In addition to this work, a copy of Giorgione's portrait "The Boy with the Apple" and Titian's painting "The Young Man with the Flute" have been preserved. Despite the fact that the titles of these works do not contain direct indications of a connection with the Trojan prince, this circumstance is emblematically strongly hinted at by the attributes in the hands of the young heroes: an apple, an arrow, a flute.

Thus, Paris appears as a musician in Titian's later work Paris and Oenone, where he is depicted as a shepherd delighting his ears with his favorite flute playing.

It should be noted that, according to one of the interpretations of Giorgione's painting "Rural Concert", images of Paris and Apollo are seen in the male figures ^{[15, p. 385]}: the ancient god of art teaches a Trojan to play the lute to delight a girl's ears.

Summarizing the reflection on the phenomenon of the emergence of certain rare subjects in Venetian art in the first decade of the XVI century, it should be noted that for the Venetians, the image of Paris becomes the ideal of a new personality gentile uomo, which appeared in the era of state transformations. Having emerged in the wake of changes in the public consciousness, the new image corresponded to the mentality of Venetian society. Contemporaries, portraying the hero against the background of rural nature, poetized the image of Paris and saw in him a noble man who, by the will of fate, found himself in the role of a shepherd. In the second half of the 16th century, this image was transformed into Jacopo Tintoretto's painting The Court of Paris, but despite the preservation of the pastoral genre program, not only the format but also the stylistic execution of the painting changed, responding to the demands of modern times.