Andrea del Sarto's "Hanged Man" sketches

Hi Mary,

Teheuti said:

I believe Michael & Ross have mentioned Evelyn S. Welch's _Art in Renaissance Italy_ but I don't see their quoting this:

"In 1396 Milan's city statues banned depictions on the town hall: 'Since certain images are painted on the walls of the Palazzo Nuovo of the commune of Milan, representing false witnesses and corrupt notaries, merchants and money changers, and although they seem to be made for the purpose of confounding and defaming frauds, yet they disgrace and defame not only the authors of the deceits themselves, but also the whole city in the eyes of visitors and foreigners; for when the latter see these images, they imagine and are almost convinced that the majority of citizens can barely be trusted, and are involved in great falsehoods; and so it is decreed that all these pictures be removed, and that no one should be painted in future.' p. 218.

Welch further notes that by the mid-fifteenth century Milan was still using the immagini infamanti, although they 'had shifted from illustrating financial shame to illustrating political shame.'

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Michael quoted these in post number 39, in extenso.

I don't have this book (shame on me) but I do have her "Art and Authority in Renaissance Milan" (1995).

Ross

Ross G Caldwell said:

Michael quoted these in post number 39, in extenso.

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Thanks - I did a search but for some reason it didn't come up.

Teheuti said:

Thanks - I did a search but for some reason it didn't come up.

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Maybe searches don't turn up text in the "quote" block. When quoting a post to respond to, any quoted text doesn't show up in the reply window either. It must be an html artifact.

Ross

For those who might be reading Betts, "Tarot and the Millennium", where he mentions the Milanese legislation concerning "hanging upside down" (for crimes against the state - i.e. treason), he says immediately after quoting the law (p. 278) that "This was one of the Visconti's torture-punishments, of which the forty-day execution (quarentena) for high-treason was the most cruel and infamous."

Here is a description of that execution -

"Quaresima

Galeazzo II is the author of the famous quaresima, in which criminals against the state, after the forty-first day of slow agony, drawn out with intervals of repose, expired during atrocious torments. We cannot do better than to translate literally from Azario, who has handed down the edict: “The intention of the lord is that from the start, the punishment of traitors begins little by little. The first day, five whippings (cinque tratti di curlo) (probably of rope); second day, he rests; The third day another set of five whippings. The fourth day he rests. The fifth day again five whippings. The sixth day, he rests. The seventh day another set of five whippings. The eighth day he rests. The ninth day they shall make him drink water, vinegar and ash. The tenth day he rests. The eleventh day again water, vinegar and ash. The twelfth day he rests. The thirteenth day two strips of skin are taken from the shoulders, and are left to be dripped upon (perhaps by boiling water or oil). The fourteenth day he rests. The fifteenth day the skin from the soles of each foot is removed, then he is made to walk on chickpeas. The sixteenth day he rests. The seventeenth walking on chickpeas. [Eighteenth day presumably he rests – Morbio or Azario has forgotten it]. The nineteenth he is placed on the rack. The twentieth he rests. The twenty-first he is placed on the rack. The twenty-second he rests. The twenty-third day they will take an eye out of his head. The twenty-fourth he rests. The twenty-fifth they shall cut his nose off. The twenty-sixth day he rests. The twenty-seventh they shall cut a hand off. The twenty-eighth he rests. The twenty-ninth they shall take the other hand. The thirtieth day he rests. The thirty-first they shall take a foot. The thirty-second he rests. The thirty-third day they shall take the other foot. The thirty-fourth he rests. The thirty-fifth day they shall cut off a testicle. The thirty-sixth day he rests. The thirty-seventh day they shall cut off the other testicle. The thirty-eighth, he rests. The thirty-ninth day they cut off his penis. The fortieth day, he rests. The forty-first he will be attached under a cart, and afterwards placed on the wheel.

(Carlo Morbio, “Storie dei municipj italiani”, (Milano, 1838) vol. III, pp. 48-49)

Ross

Sickening! You have to wonder if the Romans (Italians) ever understood how base they were and how far they had not progressed in civilised behavior. No wonder the Greeks thought them brutish pigs. Christianity seems to be only a veneer of power and control- rather than a philosophy or faith and only a whisper away from their cruel tyrannical past. I think I say thanks quietly for the description- but I have become somewhat desensitised just lately with this Hanged Man thread. Such a model for a game! ~Rosanne

kwaw said:

The Trumpet of a good fame and honor, inflames also the mind with a sting of virtue; wherefore Plutarch speaks thus of moral virtue: "The lawgivers occasion in the cities love of honor and envy, but against the enemies they use Trumpets and flutes, to kindle the flame of wrath and desire of fighting." And certainly there is nothing that kindles the mind more to virtue than the Trumpet of fame and honor, and that especially in young men.

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On shame (and fame) as a goad to virtue in renaissance pedagogical and psychological theory, see for example:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Renai...and+Pocaterra's+'Dialoghi+Della...-a015488512

O death, where is thy sting?

On one side we have the sting of shame

On the other the sting of fame

On either side of death, shame and fame, debit and credit, like the pans of a pair of scales.

And in the centre Death, in which we remember that our accounts may be closed at any time and sealed until final inspection.

That fame should be more highly esteemed (as a higher trump) than the prick of conscience is perhaps evidence of a secular or humanist type consciousness.

Of shame in relation to death we should note that death itself in Christian terms is a result of the Fall of Man, death enters into the world as a result of the original sin the shame of which we all bear; thus it is the shame that triumphs all other aspects of life, having brought death into the world.

Starling said:

the history of what people thought the card was about in the 18th and 19th Century has changed the original meaning to the one that most of us use today. Like it or not, the previous 650 years have happened, and like a lot of things meanings have changed over that time.

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There is a tendency to equate historical with "original" rather than with a sequence through time. Perhaps this is very strong with Tarot in that we have few documents from the first couple hundred years that indicate who originated the tarot, precisely what it's "first" form actually was, and what the images precisely meant to the originator. Therefore a lot of energy goes into theories of what these might have been. It's still a mystery, but one where there are enough clues and occasional new facts to make it really interesting.

But, history should and does include the entire development of thought, ideas and practices - a fact-based storytelling narrative that, ultimately, should record all the changes. Yet, as apparent from the total number of official threads on the aeclectic forum, an historical perspective is only part of the whole story. Start a thread on the Hanged Man in the Talking or Using Tarot sections and I think you'll find that there is no "one" meaning that "most of us use today," as you state above. In fact, when Rachel Pollack and I teach together we often present the Hanged Man as an example of how differently modern practitioners view this card since she and I view the card quite differently. I see it most often as indicating problems and "hang-ups" (even if there is a spiritual cause), while Rachel sees it more as an overt card of spiritual and physical well-being. Furthermore, some see it as one of the most dire cards in the deck.

Mary

kwaw said:

Of shame in relation to death we should note that death itself in Christian terms is a result of the Fall of Man, death enters into the world as a result of the original sin the shame of which we all bear; thus it is the shame that triumphs all other aspects of life, having brought death into the world.

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The more I understand the idea of shame/Fall/death, especially in regards to the medieval mind, the more it seems like the source of the upside down shame paintings. In a sense, betrayal is the ultimate shame as it has damned all humankind and continues to do so. Each betrayal, debt and treachery is a piece of that Fall. It is a falling away of an individual from the uprightness of the community, and this weakens the whole community - as noted in the city statue of Milan.

However, I'm not sure that it "triumphs all other aspects of life" for a spiritual life dictates that Death is not the end.

Hi Starling,

As long as the thread stays tolerably on-topic (within range of Sarto's images of infamanti, and their plausible meanings at the time and place of composition - implicitly including the early tarot), this thread will be alright.

Mary is trying to steer other concerns into a history of ideas thread, a very good idea, so maybe your concerns and interests will be better dealt with there.

Ross