Page 248 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

that at the very moment of Saint Jerome's death Martino a Mugnone outside the Porta al Prato,
(A.D. 420) Augustine was writing a letter to him, but it is difficult to see why such an apparently *45
seeking advice about the nature of the bliss of trivial rhyme has been included. Lightbown's LECTERN
souls in paradise. Augustine's study was instanta- alternative reading — "where is brother Martin ?
neously flooded with light, which was accompa- He has slipped away. And where has he gone ? He c. 1500-1515
nied by an "ineffable fragrance" and the voice of is outside the Porta al Prato" —poses even greater Central Italian
Jerome, who indicated that an understanding of problems. The geometrical diagrams in the trea- walnut, carved and inlaid with numerous
the infinite mysteries of heaven was inaccessible tise are generically Euclidian rather than illustra- other woods
(94% x
(diameter)
5}Vs)
to the finite, earthbound intellect of man without tive of recognizable problems of interpretation. 240.5 x 135 Arcangeli 1942; Chastel 1953; Chastel
references:
the aid of divine revelation. The miraculous rays The inscription on the cornice was added after the 1965; Pignatti 1967; Rotondi 1969; Cantelli 1973,
of light that diverge from a point to the upper left transfer of the fresco to the nave wall, since it tells figs. 28, 35-36, 3^-39; Ciati 1980; Tosti et al. 1982;
of the armillary sphere in the fresco would have us that the intensity of the saint's studies has Haines 1983; Trionfi Honorati 1983; Cheles 1986
originally been more apparent when the work was made him oblivious to his change of location.
freshly gilded, but the impact of the directional The best evocation of the essential meaning of Church of San Domenico, Gubbio
light on the saint's features retains its formal and Botticelli's image is still provided by Vasari's
expressive power. This same story was later illus- account in 1568: Since the grain of wood lends itself to being cut
trated by Carpaccio in the Scuola di San Giorgio This work succeeds most admirably in that he straight, the fifteenth-century Italian masters of
degli Schiavoni in Venice (Roberts 1959). Ghirlan- has demonstrated in the head of the Saint that intarsia, pictorial marquetry, quickly realized that
daio's Saint Jerome contains no narrative implica- profound cognition and sharp subtlety which is the new techniques of geometrical perspective
tions beyond his representation as translator of only present in persons of wisdom who contin- were particularly well suited to their art. Perspec-
the Bible from Hebrew into Latin, and it is rea- tival illusions in marquetry proved to be particu-
sonable to suppose that the choice of subject for ually devote their thoughts to the examination larly attractive and compelling, not only because
Botticelli's fresco was determined by a desire to of topics of the highest order and greatest of the warmth and tonal contrasts of the various
make an explicit link with Ghirlandaio's already difficulty. woods but also because of the way that wood, as a
existing image. M.K. common structural material, conveys a sense of
Both saints have been fittingly depicted as solidity. Masters soon vied to show their virtu-
humanist scholars, and Botticelli has provided osity in ever more complex vistas, geometric
Augustine with suitable equipment for cosmolog- bodies, and other solid objects. The finest surviv-
ical speculation — an armillary sphere (showing
the earth at the center of the sphere of the
heavens in the Ptolemaic manner), a manuscript
treatise on geometry, and an accurately portrayed
clock. The time on the clock indicates the passing
of the twenty-fourth hour of the day; that is to
say (in the system used in this period), the hour
of sunset, the supposed time of the miraculous
appearance of Saint Jerome (Lightbown 1978).
However, Botticelli has muddled the numbering
of the dial, allowing for only three of the four
divisions hidden by the shelf and subsequently
having to jump from xvm to xxi in order to finish
on xxnii (Kemp 1984). The saint's equipment is
entirely consistent with that of actual Renaissance
studioli, such as that depicted in the intarsia
decorations in the studioli of Federigo da Mon-
tefeltro at Urbino and Gubbio. The clear depiction
from the low viewpoint of the armillary sphere,
lectern with open drawer, inkwell, and clock with
crenellated foliot wheel recalls comparable details
in the Urbino and Gubbio intarsie and lends sup-
port to the idea that Botticelli was involved in the
design of inlaid decorations for Federigo (Rotondi
1959). It is unclear whether the cosmological par-
aphernalia were included as an allusion to the
kind of speculations that Jerome was to criticize in
the story, or, as is more probable, whether they
were deemed by Botticelli to be the kind of equip-
ment required by any serious philosopher-
theologian (Kemp 1984).
The strange scribbled inscription in the geo-
metrical treatise — "the house of St. Martin has
collapsed, and where has it gone? It is outside the
Porta al Prato" — may refer to the Church of San

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 247