Andrea del Sarto's "Hanged Man" sketches

kwaw

Ross G Caldwell said:
This might also be why Vasari mentioned Macarius in this general context (I don't have the passage at hand, but I trust it is there).

Ross

The reference I have is Vasari vite de Pittori,tom.i.p183, edit. 1568, 4to.

From The Dance of Death Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood: With a dissertation on the several representations of that subject but more particularly on those ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein by Francis Douce esq. F.A.S. 1833. (p.33)

It has numerous woodcuts and verses related to the theme and is available complete as a pdf file through google here:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...ig=TQ4GBA8yKbBji41V6GSLV9SgXyA&hl=en#PPP11,M1

Here is the passage from Lives of the mos eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects translated from the Italian of Giorgio Vasari by Mrs. Jonathan Foster:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...sari+Orgagna&as_brr=1&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA205,M1

Kwaw
 

mjhurst

Hi, Ross, Kwaw,

Ross G Caldwell said:
do you know if anyone besides Vasari identified the Hermit in the Dance of Death and Triumph of Death with a specific hermit?
Since Kwaw pointed that out, I've seen other references which take it for granted that the preacher in some of the early macabre works was Macarius. As far as I can tell they all source back to Vasari rather than to original works, either textual works or paintings with textual identifications. Some older writers (Douce and those following him) even derive the word macabre from his name. What I haven't seen (yet) is someone reporting an actual pre-Vasari text in which Macarius' name occurs with one of these genres. So it still appears to be a nifty later interpolation, conflating Macarius' legend -- which has parallel elements -- with other works of art and literature.

Best regards,
Michael
 

Teheuti

Please move if this belongs elsewhere.

Nigel Jackson in his book Fortuna's Wheel has several intriguing bits regarding the Hanged Man.

The Apocryphal Acts of Peter (in which he is hung upsidedown) includes text saying "Unless ye make . . . those things that are above as those below . . . ye shall not have knowledge of the kingdom." See more below

XXXVIII. . . . For the first man . . . fell (was borne) head downwards, and showed forth a manner of birth such as was not heretofore: for it was dead, having no motion. He, then, being pulled down -who also cast his first state down upon the earth- established this whole disposition of all things, being hanged up an image of the creation (Gk. vocation) wherein he made the things of the right hand into left hand and the left hand into right hand, and changed about all the marks of their nature, so that he thought those things that were not fair to be fair, and those that were in truth evil, to be good. Concerning which the Lord saith in a mystery: Unless ye make the things of the right hand as those of the left, and those of the left as those of the right, and those that are above as those below, and those that are behind as those that are before, ye shall not have knowledge of the kingdom.

This thought, therefore, have I declared unto you; and the figure wherein ye now see me hanging is the representation of that man that first came unto birth.

Also, Plato describes in the Timaeus the incarnate soul as being anatrope (upside down) as he is entangled in the material life of the sensory world.

And in the Jewish legend of the scapegoat a man and an angel (Azazel) are hung upside down:
Now as soon as she heard the holy Name, Ishtahar pronounced it herself and flew up into the heavens, escaping the angel. And when God saw this, He said: “Because she removed herself from sin, let Ishtahar be set among the stars.” And Ishtahar was transformed into a star, one of the brightest in the sky. And when Shemhazai saw this, he recognized God's rebuke of his sin and repented, hanging himself upside down between heaven and earth. But Azazel refused to repent, and God hung him upside down in a canyon, bound in chains, where he remains to this day. That is why a scapegoat is sent to Azazel on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, bearing the sins of Israel. . . . According to Yalkut Shimoni, Ishtahar became a star set among the seven stars of the Pleiades, while Shemhazai, hung upside down between heaven and earth, became the constellation Orion.
http://www.torahaura.com/Bible/Learn_Torah_With/LTW_5761/LTW_5761_Noah/ltw_5761_noah.html

Nigel Jackson's book is worth getting
http://www.lulu.com/content/221158
 

mjhurst

Deterrence

Humanity has rarely exhibited the kind of humane sensibilities which most of us take for granted. Things we might call atrocities, (including slavery, torture, massacre, and even genocide), were quite often considered appropriate... depending on the circumstances and the identity of the victims. The ancients, from the Persians through the Romans, found crucifixion to be a great punishment because of its PR value. The prolonged and excruciating death, along with the public display before, during, and after death, were exactly what was needed to establish the power and authority of Rome (or whomever). That is no doubt why, when the Christians assumed power and felt obliged to do away with crucifixion, they needed a replacement. Breaking with the wheel and the subsequent display satisfied that need perfectly, making the wheel the Christian version of the cross.

There is another (there are several, but I have a period picture of this one) form of inverted execution that was apparently used by a people notorious for their cruelty and unbridled slaughter, the Mongols. These infamous folks made medieval Christians and Muslims almost seem like decent human beings by comparison... but that's another story of deterrence. Here I just wanted to post a picture of another form of inverted execution, with hands tied behind the back, rather reminiscent of the Hanged Man.

mongolUpsideDown.jpg

Prisoners for Target Practice and Head-first Burial; MS c.1300​

As with the previously posted examples of hangings as a symbol of law and order, all sorts of barbarism served this function. Inverted hanging, with the struggling criminal surviving -- perhaps for days -- and then being left on display, was a great form of civic advertising. It was a kind of deeply and obviously moralistic street theater. And when shame paintings were banned, it was apparently not because the practice (either in effigy or reality) was objected to per se, but because the long-standing images gave the impression that people in the city were not trustworthy. That is, although shame-paintings was a billboard pointing out that Justice prevailed in the city-state, it was also a sign that there were too many dirt-bags there.

Best regards,
Michael
 

kwaw

Ross G Caldwell said:
Focusing in on explicit examples of the practice around the time and in the place where the trumps were created, Moakley noted a particularly close one – Francesco Sforza’s father, Muzio Attendolo (nicknamed Sforza, “the Strong”), had been a subject of shame painting in Rome in 1412, during the pontificate (soon thereafter considered an anti-pontificate) of John XXIII (Pope 1410-1419):

Thus Moakely was able to associate the card with an event in the past directly related to the Sforza family, for whom Bembo painted the cards (and also, without explicitly noting it, to the traditional number of the card, XII).

"I am the peasant Sforza of Cotignola, traitor, who have committed XII treasons against my honour; promises, agreements, pacts I have broken."

Assum, Clemente Francesco Sforza, quoted by Gertrude Moakley in Tarot Cards Painted by Bembo p.95

Did the Pope specify the 12 treasons, or is the number symbolic, referencing Judas Iscariot the 12th apostle and traitor ~ as he is listed in all the gospel listings of the apostles:

Matthew x.2-4

Matthew 10:2 The names of the twelve apostles are these. The first Simon which is called(MT: also) Peter: and Andrew his brother. James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother.
Matthew 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew the publican. James the son of Alphe and Lebbeus, otherwise called Thaddeus.
Matthew 10:4 Simon of Chane, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him.

Mark iii. 13-19
Mark 3:13 And he went up into a mountain, and called unto him whom he would, and they came unto him.
Mark 3:14 And he ordained the twelve that they should be with him, and that he might send them to preach.
Mark 3:15 And that they might have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils.
Mark 3:16 And he gave Simon, to name, Peter.
Mark 3:17 And he called James the son of Zebedee, and John James brother, and gave them Bonargs to name, which is to say the sons of thunder.
Mark 3:18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartelemew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphey, and Taddeus, and Simon of Cane,
Mark 3:19 and Judas Iscarioth, which same also betrayed him.

Luke vi.12-17
Luke 6:12 (MT: And) It fortuned in those days,(MT: that) he went out into a mountain for to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Luke 6:13 And as soon as it was day, he called his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, which also he called his apostles.
Luke 6:14 Simon, whom also he named Peter: and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartlemew;
Luke 6:15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus and Simon called Zelotes,
Luke 6:16 and Judas James' son, and Judas Iscariot, which same was the traitor.

In connection with early representation of the traitor with purse bags, Judas was keeper of the purse bag:

John 13:29
Some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, buy those things that we have need of against the feast: or that he should give something to the poor.

It is also possible his name is derived from or plays upon the Syriac for purse sicariot.

The connection with Judas the traitor seems the most simple and probable explanation for the Pope's use of the number 12 ~ unless there were in actual fact 12 counts of treason?
 

kwaw

kwaw said:
Also of consideration perhaps, as previously mentioned in other threads, is the medieval conflation of Oedipus with Judas in the Golden Legends.

Kwaw

Also Oedipus, like Judas, was a traitor; the murder of a father by a son being considered historically an act of treason (as was for example the murder of a husband by his wife).
 

Teheuti

kwaw said:
Also Oedipus, like Judas, was a traitor; the murder of a father by a son being considered historically an act of treason (as was for example the murder of a husband by his wife).
To wax metaphysical - this would suggest that the Hanged Man may be about enlightenment or redemption through the breaking (reversal) of the most primal of taboos.

Mary
 

kwaw

Judas, Oedipus, Fate & Free Will.

Rosanne said:
The message of Oedipus of that you can't escape your fate- seems a very logical one for a card game of Trumps- we are dealt the cards and must play them to the best of our ability and not leap to judgements- just as like life is dependent on how well we play the game or how well we live our life. It makes sense the mixing of the two streams of myth and morality and the reconciling Pagan/classical thought with Christianity(a Renaissance theme).

http://books.google.com/books?id=3k...t=html&sig=ACfU3U1N9IfbuWSDN3XYChNjYoSl7IbR9Q
 

Rosanne

:D I have just re read this thread and actually your noting of the importance of position 12 for the Hanged Man Kwaw- is the most logical. Judas the 12th Man.
It is like Death at 13; there is no other logical place for the card other than 12, or in Death's place at 13. This brings up for me the the whole 'intent' of the sequence. Fate, Chance, Free will, and a Game of cards- as you have said in other threads Love God, but do what you wilt lol. Not so deeply theological, as if often delved into. It is more like (to me) what image shows the position in the sequence most acceptably and understood. There was no need to number the cards- they had a natural order. The Devil at 15 (thrice Sinister)- the Pope at 5 (blessing Hand) Where else would Love be but a 6? So for me it is finding out why one image is traditionally at a position in the sequence to discover if what we have today was the the original natural order. For me somehow the Hermit at 11 seems somehow more natural, than at 9............but Hanged Man at 12 is perfect.
~Rosanne
 

kwaw

Ross G Caldwell said:
For the Pisa Anchorites, I was struck by both Kwaw's Macarius and the middle frame of the Anchorites (middle-middle), which shows an "anchorite" and a nude figure by a tree. This reminded me immediately of Macarius' own sayings, in fact number 2 in the alphabetical collection, where he tells the story of his own wanderings in the wilderness.

I quote from Benedicta Ward, "The Sayings of the Desert Fathers" (Cistercian Publications, 1975): "One day Macarius the Egyptian went from Scetis to the mountain of Nitria for the offering of Abba Pambo. The old men said to him, 'Father, say a word to the brethren.' He said, 'I have not yet become a monk myself, but I have seen monks. One day when I was sitting in my cell, my thoughts were troubling me, suggesting that I should go to the desert and see what I could see there. I remained for five years, fighting against this thought, saying, perhaps it comes from the demons. But since the thought persisted, I left for the desert. There I found a sheet of water and an island in the midst, and the animals of the desert came to drink there. In the midst of these animals I saw two naked men, and my body trembled, for I believed they were spirits. Seeing me shaking, they said to me, 'Do not be afraid, for we are men.' Then I said to them, 'Where do you come from, and how did you come to this desert?' They said, 'We come from a monastery and having agreed together, we came here forty years ago. One of us is an Egyptian and the other a Libyan.' They questioned me and asked me, 'How is the world? Is the water rising in due time? Is the world enjoying prosperity?' I replied it was, then I asked them, 'How can I become a monk?' They said to me, 'If you do not give up all that is in the world, you cannot become a monk.' I said to them, 'But I am weak, and I cannot do as you do.' So they said to me: 'If you cannot become like us, sit in your cell and weep for your sins.' I asked them, 'When the winter comes are you not frozen? And when the heat comes do not your bodies burn?' They said, 'It is God who has made this way of life for us. We do not freeze in winter, and the summer does us no harm.' That is why I said that I have not yet become a monk, but I have seen monks."

(pp. 125-126)

I can't read the remains of the inscription on the image, so I'm probably wrong, but this anchorite sitting with the naked man by the tree really reminded me of this passage.

This might also be why Vasari mentioned Macarius in this general context (I don't have the passage at hand, but I trust it is there).

Ross

According to the following article (link below) the anchorite fresco includes an episode from the life of another Macarius, Macarius the Roman:

"The closest analogue we have found to the seduction story among hagiographic narratives is in the life of Macarius the Roman, depicted in the murals of the Campo Santo, Pisa, and preserved in the late medieval editions of the Vitae patrum ("Lives of the Fathers").16 The story, which is not in the fifth-/sixth-century Vitae patrum collections, was known in the Greek church by the tenth century, and must have been current in the West at least by the thirteenth century. It tells how Macarius, a desert hermit, is tempted by the devil in the guise of the beautiful woman whom Macarius was to have married years earlier but from whom he fled to the wilderness on his wedding day. She comes to his desert retreat (in the Pisan murals she is in pilgrim's garb, with bird's feet protruding below),

http://www.philipresheph.com/a424/gallery/camposanto/anchorites.htm
middle row 3rd highlighted box from the left, beneath the lions digging a hole

claiming that she also fled from the world on their nuptial day, desiring like him to lead a life of celibate asceticism. Unlike the bishop in the Andrew tale, however, Macarius has no guardian angel to protect him: the wandering pilgrim and the diabolic seductress, opposing figures in the Andrew miracle, are here merged into one figure. Likewise lacking is the intellectual debate motif, represented by the Three Questions in the Andrew story. But the number three is a factor in the Macarius legend in that the visitor is revealed to the hermit over a three-day period: first he finds a woman's veil outside his cave, next a pair of woman's shoes; having taken both items into his cave without crossing himself, he finds the woman on the third day. After a supper of acorns and conversation, the devil-woman caresses his body, he falls asleep, and during his slumbers they have sex (in somno me peccatum perpetrasse cognovi, "I knew that I had committed the sin in my sleep").17 The morning after, "she" has gone, and he is filled with remorse over his lost virginity. His pet lions help him dig a hole in his cave in which he buries himself up to the neck. Here again the triadic motif is evident, since Macarius exists in this state, living off the grass that grows near his face, for three years, at the end of which the lions dig him up and he feels himself totally healthy and purified. He is rewarded with an ecstatic vision of Christ and His angels in his cave."

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/whandqintro.htm

On Macarius the Roman:
http://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/calendar/los/October/23-04.htm

Kwaw