Page 252 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

mix of buildings in the Urbino painting, such such series commissioned by Piero del Pugliese
as the juxtaposition of the grand centralized for the family house on the Via de' Serragli in
"temple" with the facade of a "parish church," Florence, which probably included the Hunt and
gives a feeling of credibility to the ideal town the Return from the Hunt (both Metropolitan
center. The superbly controlled description of the Museum of Art, New York), and possibly the Fire
three-dimensional bulk of the objects in space, in the Forest (Ashmolean, Oxford), which show
such as the wellheads, and their integration into the early history of man. The Ringling painting
the perspective scheme explain the temptation felt has been associated with the Pugliese series (Fahy
by earlier commentators such as Kenneth Clark to 1965), but differences in size and style seem to
attribute the Urbino painting to Piero della exclude this possibility. It may have belonged to
Francesca himself. The Walters townscape, by an otherwise unknown series or on its own may
contrast, displays its exemplary buildings and have adorned a single piece of furniture. In 1510
decorative features in a more literal and less "nat- Piero was collaborating with the famous wood-
uralized" manner, not unlike the background in worker Baccio dAgnolo on the making of "cassoni
Perugino's fresco of the Donation of the Keys in con spalliere" for Filippo Strozzi (Craven 1975).
the Sistine Chapel. The statues of the four Vir- Such spalliere would have formed the upright
tues atop the columns — apparently Justice, Tem- backs above the main body of chests.
perance, Abundance, and Fortitude — allude Although this scene of building cannot be spe-
directly to the characteristics of the political cifically associated with any of the known series
regime that would be conducive to the creation of by Piero, it does fit well with those that deal with
such a cityscape, while the fountain from which aspects of the early history of human skills, such
the women (and the man?) draw water refers to as the discovery of fire or the activities of Vulcan.
the way in which the provision of fountains was The painting of Vulcan shows primitive men con-
regarded as a sign of a ruler's magnanimity in the structing the framework of a wooden building, at
script that appears to mix Latin and Greek charac- Renaissance. The strange proportions of the fig- a stage of civilization at least two steps removed
ters incoherently, while the tablet on the left- ures recall those in the panels of the Story of from the accomplished builders in the Ringling
hand palace is indecipherable. Griselda (National Gallery, London) by an anony- picture. The general source for Piero's visions of
Despite the obvious similarities, the organiza- mous master in the orbit of Signorelli. The differ- the origins and progress of human civilization
tion of the space in the Urbino and Walters panels ences between the conceptions may suggest a appears to be the first chapter of book n in Vitru-
is rather different in feel. The composition in the different mind at work in the two paintings or vius' Ten Books on Architecture. The Roman
Urbino picture has an amplitude and unity that indicate that the same artist was using two rather author describes how the discovery of fire
are absent in the Walters townscape, which different approaches. Until a direct comparison of
appears to have been compiled additively from a style and constructional methods can be made in originally gave rise to the coming together of
repertoire of classicizing buildings. The subtle the context of the present exhibition — the first men, to the deliberative assembly and to social
time they have been brought together —the most intercourse. And so, as they kept coming
in greater numbers into one place,
together
likely attribution is to different artists working finding themselves naturally gifted beyond
around 1500, one perhaps in the environment of
Urbino and the other in Florence. M.K. other animals in not being obliged to walk with
faces to the ground, but upright and gazing on
the splendors of the starry firmament, and also
being able to do with ease whatever they chose
*49 with their hands and fingers, they began in that
first assembly to construct shelters
And
Piero di Cosimo since they were of an imitative and teachable
Florentine, 1462-1521 nature, they would daily point out to each other
THE BUILDING OF A DOUBLE PALACE the results of their building, boasting of the
novelties in it; and thus, with their natural gifts
c. 1510-1515 sharpened by emulation, their standards
oil on panel improved daily.
82.6 X 196.9 f^2 /2 X 77 /2J For Alberti in the Renaissance, the architect was
2
2
references: Morgan 1960; Fahy 1965; Frederickson
and Zeri 1972; Panofsky 1972; Craven 1975; Bacci of particular importance in shaping the ideal of
1976; Ryknert et al. 1988 civic order and could indeed take a lead in showing
how a better social life might be achieved. Piero's
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota picture of a great classical structure being erected
by our ancestors in a virgin plane, like the eighth
Piero di Cosimo's most famous works were series wonder of the world, is a vision of architectural
of spalliera paintings of mythological and allegor- optimism that aligns it in function with the spal-
ical subjects, that is to say, panels set into the liera paintings of ideal townscapes in Urbino, Bal-
furnishing of a room at a level above the dado or timore, and Berlin (see cat. 147-148). Although
as upright elements in pieces of furniture. If such the general tenor of Piero's representation is clear,
panels survive untrimmed, they show, as here, it is not easy to interpret precisely what is hap-
the ragged lip of paint and priming that once pening. In particular, the building itself is not
abutted an integral frame. Vasari refers to one readily recognizable as any known kind of struc-

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 251