The Life and Art of Sandro Botticelli
 
|
|
|
CHAPTER VII∧ 1475- 1478
Botticelli as a painter of classical myths.
|
第七章∧
1475 - 1478
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
AMONG the Florentine masters of his age Botticelli stands out as the foremost painter of classical myths, the man in whose art the enthusiasm for pagan antiquity, which was the ruling passion of Lorenzo's immediate circle, finds the fullest and most complete expression. This phase of Sandro's art has become of late years almost as popular as his religious paintings. On the one side we know him as the painter of Madonnas, on the other as the master of the Venus and the Pallas, the Primavera and the Graces. Since all the varying moods of the fickle world in which he lived were reflected in his work, it was natural that this, the strongest and most powerful influence of the times, should find a place there.
|
第七章
同時代のフィレンツェの画家のなかで、ボッティチェリは、古典神話の画家として際立っている。ロレンツォの直近の仲間の心をとらえていたギリシャ古典への熱情が、彼の芸術のなかで、最大かつ最も完全な表現を見つけていた。サンドロの芸術のこの段階では、キリスト教の宗教画と同じくらい人気を博すようになっていた。一方では、サンドロ・ボッティチェリが聖母子の画家として、他方ではヴィーナスやパラス・アテネ女神、春（プリマヴェーラ）と 三美神の画家として、我々は知っている。彼が生きた変転する世界のすべての様々な気分が彼の作品に反映されたので、この、時代の最強かつ最も強力な影響が、サンドロの作品の中に居場所を見つけるのは自然なことであった。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
The classical revival which had permeated the literature of the Laurentian age was slowly gaining a hold on the art of the Quatrocento, and affecting both the sculpture and painting of Florence. Painting, indeed, had been so long exclusively dedicated to the service of the Church, that some time elapsed before the prevailing humanism of the day was able to turn its course into new channels. But by degrees the twofold forces of scientific realism and the study of classical models succeeded in transforming Art in all its manifold forms. The passion for building splendid palaces which distinguished not only the Medici but all the great families of Florence, afforded the decorative arts fresh scope for development, and supplied painters with a new field. Vasari tells us that Dello, an artist who flourished in the first half of the century, decorated cassoni with subjects from Greek and Roman history, and myths from Ovid's Metamorphoses. And as a remarkably fine specimen of the artist's skill in this direction, he mentions the furniture of a whole room, which was decorated in this style for Cosimo di Medici's son, Giovanni. The story of Paris, we learn, was among the subjects which Paolo Uccello painted in the Casa Medici. Donatello, we know, reproduced classical motives from antique gems, the legends of Ulysses and Pallas, of Bacchus and Ariadne, of Diomedes and the Palladium in the eight marble medallions with which he adorned the inner court of the palace, and the Pollaiuoli brothers painted their lifesize figures of Hercules upon the walls of the same house.
|
第七章
ロレンツォ時代の文学に浸透していた古典復興は次第に15世紀芸術にその位置を確保し、フィレンツェの彫刻と絵画の両方に影響を与えた。確かに、絵画は長い期間、教会のためだけにあったのだが、当時の人文主義の広まりに応じて、新しい役割を持てるようになりつつあった。しかし、次第に科学的現実主義と古典人文主義の二つの力は、そのすべての多様な形式で芸術を変えてゆくことに成功した。メディチ家だけでなく、フィレンツェのすべての偉大な家系の、華麗な宮殿を建築するための情熱は、装飾芸術に新鮮な発展の舞台を与え、画家たちに新しい活躍の場を提供した。ヴァザーリによれば、世紀の前半に活躍した芸術家デッロは、家具の櫃をギリシャ・ローマの歴史やオウィディウスの「変身物語」からとった主題で装飾した。そして、この方向での芸術家の技能の著しく精緻な手本として、ヴァザーリはこの形式で装飾されたコジモ・デ・メディチの息子、ジョヴァンニのための部屋全体の家具に言及している。ギリシャ神話のパリスの物語は、パオロ・ウッチェロがメディチ邸で描いた主題のなかにある。ドナテルロは、古代の宝石、ユリシーズとパラス、バッカスとアリアドネ、そしてディオメデス、そして宮殿の中庭を飾る八つの大理石製円形浮き彫りのパラスの像を作り出した。ポライウォーロ兄弟は同じ邸宅の壁にヘラクレスの等身大肖像画を描いた。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
The close intimacy that existed between the humanists and artists of Lorenzo's immediate circle produced rich fruit in this direction. Leon Battista Alberti, the brilliant and many-sided man who anticipated Leonardo in the marvellous versatility of his talents as writer, architect, sculptor, painter and musician, and who discoursed to Lorenzo and his companions on summer evenings in the woods of Camaldoli, lays it down as a fundamental principle that the artist should cultivate the society of poets and orators in order to draw inspiration from their eloquence. In his "Treatise on Painting" the same writer gives the artist minute directions for the representation of pagan gods and heroes, Jupiter and Mars, Hercules and Antaeus, Castor and Pollux, as if these themes were the only subjects worthy of the painter's serious attention. Already, when Alberti wrote, it is plain that the antique was rapidly becoming as much the fashion with painters and sculptors as with poets and men of letters. Alberti himself died in 1472, before Lorenzo had reigned in Florence for three years, and when Botticelli was still comparatively unknown. But his treatises on Architecture and Painting were, no doubt, introduced to Sandro's notice by one of the leading humanists of Lorenzo's court.
|
第七章
ロレンツォの直近の仲間の人文主義者と芸術家の間で存在していた親密さは古代ギリシャ文化の復興の方向での豊富な成果を生み出した。レオン・バッティスタ・アルベルティは、著述家、建築家、彫刻家、画家、音楽家としての彼の才能の素晴らしい多様性にレオナルドを予感させる聡明で多彩な人物で、カマルドリの森の夏の夜に、ロレンツォとその仲間たちに講義をしたほどだが、芸術家は詩人と朗読者の交流を促進し、その雄弁から着想を引き出さねばならないことに重点を置いた。アルベルティの「絵画論」で、彼は古代ギリシャの神々や英雄、すなわちゼウスとマルス、ヘラクレスとアンタイオス、カストルとポルックス（ゼウスの子で双子の兄弟）をどのように表現するかを事細かく指示した。まるで、他の主題などは画家のまともな考慮に値しないと言うかのようであった。アルベルティがそのように書いたときすでに、古代志向が急速に詩人や文学家と同じように画家や彫刻家の間で流行になっていた。アルベルティ自身は1472年に死亡した。その３年後にロレンツォがフィレンツェに実質的に君臨することになるが、その頃はボッティチェリはまだあまり知られてはいなかった。しかし、建築と絵画に関する彼の論文は、ロレンツォの宮廷の主要な人文学者の一人によって、サンドロに間違えなく伝えられていた。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
This was Angelo Ambrogini, generally known by the name of Poliziano, from the mountain-town of Montepulciano, where he was born in 1454. The distinguished humanist, who was so intimately connected with the Magnifico and his children, came to learn Greek and Latin at Florence as a friendless orphan, and in his poverty sought the help of this generous patron. At the age of sixteen he translated four books of "the Iliad" into Latin, and won the appellation of Homericus juvenis from the Florentine humanists. At eighteen he wrote his famous musical drama of "Orfeo" during a brief visit which he paid to Mantua with the young Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga in the summer of 1472. But his influence extended far beyond his own productions. When, a few years later, he became Professor of Greek and Latin, the power and eloquence of his genius attracted the most brilliant youths of Florence to his lectures. "His function was to inspire," writes one of the latest historians of the Renaissance, Sir Richard Jebb, "and his gifts were such that his brief span of life sufficed to render him one of the most influential personalities in the history of Italian humanism."
|
第七章
この人文学者はアンジェロ・アンブロジーニである。一般にポリツィアーノの名で知られ、彼が1454年に生まれたモンテプルチャーノの山間の町の出身である。優れた人文学者となったが、もとは、フィレンツェでギリシャ語とラテン語を学ぶために来たのだけれど、貧困の中で、身寄りのない孤児だったので、寛大な庇護者の助けを求めた。それで、ロレンツォ・イル・マニィフィコやその子息と縁ができたのだ。16歳の時、ポリツィアーノは「イーリアス」の四冊をラテン語に翻訳し、そしてフィレンツェの人文主義者から「ホメロスのような若者」の称号を獲得した。1472年の夏に、18歳で彼は、若い枢機卿フランチェスコ・ゴンザーガとマントヴァへの短い訪問中に「オルフェウス」という有名な歌劇を書いた。しかし、彼の影響ははるかに彼自身の作品を超えて拡張した。数年後、彼はギリシャ語とラテン語の教授になり、その天才の能力と雄弁はフィレンツェの最も優秀な若者を集めた。「彼の役割は、霊感を与えること、」最新のルネサンスの歴史家の一人、サー・リチャード・ジェブは、「そして彼がもたらしたものは、彼は短い人生だったけれども、イタリアの人文学の歴史において最も影響を残した存在になったことだった」と記した。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Sandro Botticelli was one of those who fell under the spell of the "Homeric youth," and caught the fire of his impassioned rhetoric. Like his august patron, Angelo Poliziano showed the keenest interest in art and artists. He edited Alberti's works, suggested the subject of The Battle of the Centains and Lapithac to the young Michelangelo for one of his first bas-reliefs, and composed Latin epitaphs for the moments erected by Lorenzo to Giotto in the Duomo of Florence, and to Sandro's master, Fra Filippo Lippi, in the Cathedral of Spoleto. And, just as in later years, the young Raphael sought the help of the humanists of Urbino, of Bembo, and Bibbiena, and Castiglione, in the composition of his great Vatican frescoes, so now Botticelli found inspiration in the poems of the youthful Poliziano.
|
第七章
サンドロ・ボッティチェリは「ホメロスのような若者」に魅せられた者の一人であり、彼の熱情的な話し方に熱狂した。寛大なパトロン、ロレンツォと同じに、アンジェロ・ポリツィアーノは芸術と芸術家に大変鋭い関心を示した。彼はアルベルティの作品を編集し、若いミケランジェロに、彼の最初の大理石高浮彫りの作品の主題に「ラピタイ族とケンタウロスの戦い」を提案し、フィレンツェのドウオモにジョットのため、またにスポレートの大聖堂にサンドロの師匠フラ・フィリッポ・リッピのために、ロレンツォが建立する記念碑のラテン語碑文を作成した。また、後年、若いラファエルが、ヴァチカン大聖堂のフレスコ画の作成にウルビーノ、ベンボ、ビッビエーナ、カスティリオーネの人文主義者の協力を求めたように、当時、ボッティチェリは若いポリツィアーノの詩に霊感による着想を見い出した。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Whether Sandro was able to read the Latin poets for himself remains a doubtful question. Vasari, we know, tells a story of a neighbour whom the painter accused of holding the false opinions of Epicurus, and who in turn charged Sandro with heresy, since without learning (senza aver lettere) and being hardly able to read, he ventured to write a commentary upon Dante. But whether we accept the literal truth of this statement or not, it is clear that Botticelli was familiar with the works of contemporary poets and with Italian renderings of classical authors. The very fact that Vasari describes him as a persona sofistica, seems to imply that he dabbled in philosophy and took part in the arguments and discussions that were so fashionable among the Platonists of the age. The verses of Lorenzo and Poliziano, the prose writings of Alberti, and the dialogues of Lucian were evidently well known to him. And deeply stirred as he was by the realities of the present, the idealism of his nature led him to take delight in romantic themes. His poetic and impressionable temperament was quick to respond to the influences in the air about him, and he felt as few other artists of his day could feel the charm of the old myths which had so powerful a fascination for the finest minds of the age.
|
第七章
サンドロは、自分でラテン語の詩を読むことができたかどうかは疑わしい。ヴァザーリは、エピクロスに関する誤った考えを持っていると言って、サンドロに非難された隣人が、お返しに、学問もなく、読むこともできないくせに、ダンテについて講釈をたれた異端者であるとサンドロを非難したという話を、我々に伝えている。しかし、我々はこれを文言通り真実として受け入れるかどうかはともかく、ボッティチェリは、同時代の詩人の作品と古典のイタリア語翻訳に精通していたことは明らかだ。ヴァザーリが、サンドロを「探究心の人（ペルソーナ・ソフィスティカ）」と評したまさにその事実が、サンドロが哲学に手を出し、同時代のプラトン学派の中で大変盛んだった議論と討論に参加したことを意味するようだ。ロレンツォとポリツィアーノの詩、アルベルティの美文、及びルキアノスの対話を、明らかによく彼は知っていた。現実に深く突き動かされ、生来の理想主義は、彼自身にロマンチックな主題に喜びを感じさせるようになった。詩的で繊細な気質は彼をして、取り巻く空気の影響へすぐに反応させた。そしてサンドロは自分以外の同時代の芸術家がほとんど、サンドロにとっては最高に魅力的な古代の神話に魅力を感じていないと感じた。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Both Antonio Billi and the Anonimo tell us that Sandro painted many figures of nude women that were surpassingly beautiful. After giving us this information the last-named writer adds the following sentence: "At Castello, in the house of Signor Giovanni de' Medici, he painted many pictures which are among his finest works."
|
第七章
アントニオ・ビッリと「アノニモ」は、サンドロが驚くほど多くの美しい女性の裸体画を描いていたことを伝えている。「アノニモ」は、「カステッロにある、ジョヴァンニ・デ・メディチの家で、サンドロは彼の最も素晴らしい作品に属する多くの絵を描いた」と追記している。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Vasari, who wrote thirty or forty years after the Anonimo compiled his record, confirms this statement, and tells us that in his time two of these pictures by Sandro were still at Castello, a villa belonging to the Duke Cosimo. "One of them," he continues, "is a new-born Venus who is blown to the shore by the Loves and Zephyrus. The other is also a Venus, whom we see crowned with flowers by the Graces to represent the figure of Spring; and both of these the painter has represented with rare grace."
|
第七章
「アノニモ」が記録を編集してから、30年または40年を経て、ヴァザーリはこの上記の言葉を確認し、当時、サンドロによるこれらの絵画作品のうちの二枚は、カステッロのコジモ公の別荘にまだ残っていたと伝えている。「そのうちの一つは、愛とゼフィルスによって海岸に吹き寄せられた生まれたてのヴィーナスである。もう一つもヴィーナスであり、「春」を表現するために三美神によって花を冠されたものである。そしてこれら両作品で画家は気品に満ちた表現をした」とヴァザーリは伝える。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
In this description we recognize the Birth of Venus, now in the Uffizi, and the Allegory of Spring, which is now in the Accademia. There is no mention of these paintings in the various inventories of the Magnifico's collections, and both the Anonimo and Vasari speak of them as belonging to the villa of Castello. This villa, the Anonimo informs us, was the house of Signor Giovanni de' Medici. This was none other than the famous Captain, popularly known as "Giovanni delle bande nere," John of the black bands, the only son of the valiant Madonna of Forli, Caterina Sforza, by her third marriage with the son of Lorenzo de' Medici's handsome cousin Giovanni. This gallant soldier was mortally wounded in a skirmish with the German forces under the Connetable de Bourbon and Frundsberg, then marching on Rome, and died, a few days afterwards, at Mantua in December, 1526. In Vasari's days the villa of Castello was the property of Giovanni's son, Cosimo I, who had by this time risen to supreme power in Florence and had assumed the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany.
|
第七章
この記述は、現在ウフィッツィ美術館にある「ヴィーナスの誕生」と、アカデミア美術館にある「春」（訳者注：現在は両方ともウフィッツィ美術館にある）を示している。ロレンツォ・イル・マニフィコのコレクションのさまざまな台帳には、これらの作品は言及されておらず、「アノニモ」とヴァザーリの両方が、カステッロの別邸に属するものとして伝えている。これは、「アノニモ」によれば、シニョール・ジョヴァンニ・デ・メディチの別邸であった。これは、有名な隊長、ジョヴァンニ・デッレ・バンデ・ネーレ 、別名、黒備えのジョヴァンニである。勇敢なカテリーナ・スフォルツァが、ロレンツォ・デ・メディチのいとこの美男子ジョヴァンニとの三度目の結婚でもうけた唯一の息子としてフォルリに生まれた。この勇敢な戦士は、フランス元帥ブルボン公やフルンツベルクの下でのドイツ軍との戦いで1526年12月にマントヴァにおいて致命的な負傷を負い、その後ローマに行進し、数日後に死亡した。ヴァザーリの時代、カステッロの別邸は、ジョヴァンニの息子のコジモ一世の所有であった。コジモ一世はフィレンツェの最高権力に昇格し、トスカーナ大公の称号を獲得した。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
This double statement naturally leads us to conclude that Sandro's two great mythological pictures were originally painted for Lorenzo di Piero Francesco, the uncle of Giovanni delle bande Nere, and elder brother of that Giovanni who married Caterina Sforza. This youth was the grandson of Cosimo's only brother, Lorenzo, and the head of the younger branch of the house. His father, Pier Francesco, a partner in the Medici bank, and a loyal supporter of Piero il Gottoso and his sons, died in 1474, leaving him a large fortune, and the Magnifico was especially anxious to retain the friendship and support of this wealthy kinsman, who gave him financial assistance on more than one critical occasion. In 1478, when, after the Pazzi conspiracy, Lorenzo was in sore straits for lack of money, he mortgaged his estates at Mugello to his cousin, and betrothed his own daughter Luigia to Giovanni di Pier Francesco. The girl, however, died young, so that this plan for the union of the two branches of the family was frustrated. But the Magnifico employed his elder cousin on several important affairs of state, and sent him to France in 1483 as ambassador to Charles VIII, whose open supporter he afterwards declared himself, when that monarch entered Florence in 1494. But as long as the Magnifico lived, he had no cause to repent of the trust which he reposed in Lorenzo, and the most cordial relations were maintained between the cousins. Lorenzo di Pier Francesco was only two years younger than Giuliano de' Medici, and joined with zest in the jousts and hunting parties with which his cousins amused the gilded youth of Florence. At the same time he shared their literary tastes, wrote songs and Latin verses, and was a generous patron of scholars and artists. Adoration of the Magi which Sandro's pupil, Filippino Lippi painted for the monks of S. Donato in 1496, we may still see the portraits of the different members of this branch of the Medici family. Lorenzo is the dark man in the prime of life, wearing a red mantle. His brother, Giovanni, is the graceful, fair-haired youth in a long green cloak, bearing a gold casket in his hand, while in the gray-headed old King kneeling in the foreground we have the portrait of their father. Pier Francesco. Lorenzo's beautiful villa of Castello, on the heights above Careggi, commanded a splendid view over the valley of the Arno, and was renowned for the extent and loveliness of its gardens. Here Pier Francesco's son entertained the Magnifico and the other members of his family at many a sumptuous banquet, and held splendid festivities in honor of the distinguished guests who visited Florence. Sandro's old patrons, the Vespucci, were among his most intimate friends. Amerigo Vespucci, the great traveller, who was about his own age, took shelter at Lorenzo's villa of Trebbia in Val Mugello during the plague of 1476, and afterwards sent an account of his voyage to his old associate. Amerigo's niece, it is also worthy of note, who was born in this same year, received the name of Piera Francesca. Dr. Brockhaus, to whose researches we are indebted for this information, further remarks that the serpent worn by Simonetta in Piero di Cosimo's famous picture at Chantilly, was the device of Lorenzo di Pier Francesco, who may have employed the artist to paint this portrait of Marco Vespucci's young wife for his own benefit. Angelo Poliziano was also intimately acquainted with Lorenzo, and dedicated the first of his "Sylvae", a poem in praise of Virgil, to this brilliant and accomplished youth, as well as an idyll on the rural charms of the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano. Nothing was therefore more natural than that the Magnifico's rich and accomplished kinsman should wish to decorate his villa with mythological subjects painted by Sandro's hand on themes suggested by the verses of Poliziano.
|
第七章
この二つの記述は、当初、サンドロの二つの偉大な神話の絵画作品が、ジョヴァンニ・デッレ・バン・ネールの叔父であるロレンツォ・デ・ピエル・フランチェスコと、カテティナ・スフォルツァと結婚したジョヴァンニの兄ロレンツォ・イル・ポポラーノのために描かれたと結論づける。この若者は、コジモの唯一の兄ロレンツォの孫であり、一家の若頭であった。彼の父、ピエル・フランチェスコはメディチ銀行の共同経営者で、そしてピエロ・イル・ゴットーゾとその息子たちの忠実な支持者であったが、1474年に亡くなった。彼は大きな財産を残していた。そしてマニフィコは、一度とならず、重大な機会に財政的援助をしてくれたこの富裕な近親者の友情と支持を維持することを特に気にかけていた。1478年、パッツィ家の陰謀の後、ロレンツォが資金の不足のために苦境に陥っていた時、フレンツェの東北のムジェロにある自分の財産を担保にいとこから借金するとともに、娘ルイジアをジョヴァンニ・ディ・ピエル・フランチェスコと婚約させた。しかし、ルイジアは若くして死んだので、二つの分家の同盟はうまくゆかなかった。それでも、マニフィコは、彼の従兄を国のいくつかの重要な役職につけた。1483年にはシャルル八世のもとへ大使としてフランスに派遣されたが、シャルル八世が1494年にフィレンツェに入国した時には、自身をその支援者と公言した。しかし、マニフィコが生きていた限り、ジョヴァンニ・ディ・ピエル・フランチェスコはロレンツォに託した信頼を裏切ることはなく、従兄弟同士の間で最も親しい関係が維持されていた。ロレンツォ・デ・ピエル・フランチェスコはジュリアーノ・デ・メディチよりわずか二歳年下で、従兄のジュリアーノがフィレンツェの陽気な若者たちを楽しませていた騎馬試合と狩猟に参加した。同時に、彼は文学の趣味を共有し、歌とラテン語の詩を書き、学者と芸術家の寛大な支援者であった。サンドロの弟子のフィリッピーノ・リッピが1496年に聖ドナートの修道士のために描いた「東方三博士の礼拝」には、メディチ家のこの分家の様々な人々の肖像を見ることができる。ロレンツォ（・デ・ピエル・フランチェスコ）は、赤いマントルを身に付けた、壮年期の色黒の男性である。彼の弟、ジョヴァンニは優雅で、綺麗な髪の若者で、長い緑色の袖なしマントを着て、金の入れ物を手に持っている。正面で灰色の髪の高齢の博士が跪いているのが、彼らの父親である。カレッジの高台にあるロレンツォの美しいカステッロの別邸は、アルノ渓谷の素晴らしい景色を望み、その庭の広さと美しさで知られていた。ここでピエル・フランチェスコの息子は、マニフィコとその家族の多くを豪華な宴会でもてなし、また、フィレンツェを訪問した著名な賓客を迎えて素晴らしい祝宴を催した。サンドロの古くからの支援者、ヴェスプッチ家の人々は、ロレンツォの最も親密な友人たちであった。偉大な旅行家であるアメリゴ・ヴェスプッチはほぼ同じ年齢であったが、1476年のペストの流行の間にロレンツォのムジェロにあるトッレビアの別邸に避難し、その後、彼の親しい仲間に航海の計画を伝えた。アメリゴの姪は、同じ年に生まれ、ピエラ・フランチェスカと名づけられたことも注目に値する。我々がこうした情報のために頼りにしているブロックハウス博士によれば、シャンティーのコンデ美術館にあるピエロ・ディ・コジモ作の有名な絵画でシモネッタに首飾りとして蛇を巻き付けていることは、マルコ・ヴェスプッチの若い妻の肖像画を描かせるためにピエロ・ディ・コジモを雇ったロレンツォ・デ・ピエル・フランチェスコの考案であった。この作品（訳者注：『シモネッタ・ヴェスプッチの肖像』として有名で、女性が半裸である。シモネッタは1476年に他界しており，この作品が描かれたのは1480年代で、本人を目の前にして描いたものではない。カートライトは第五章で、この作品をサンドロのもののように記している）はロレンツォ自身のために描かせたものである。アンジェロ・ポリツィアーノもロレンツォと近い知り合いだった。ポリツィアーノはこの素晴らしい才能のある若者に、ウェルギリウスを称賛する詩、「森（シルヴァエ）」の第一作とポッジョ・ア・カイアーノのメディチ別邸の田舎の魅力を詠う牧歌を献呈した。それゆえ、マニフィコの裕福な熟達した親戚が、ポリツィアーノの詩で示唆された主題にサンドロの手によって描かれた神話的な画題で別邸を飾ることを望むということは、自然なことであった。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
In 1476 or 1477, the young humanist, who already stood so high in Lorenzo's favour, began to compose an epic poem in honor of Giuliano's tournament. As Luigi Pulci some years before had celebrated the Giostra di Lorenzo in a well-known poem, so Poliziano now abandoned his Homer to sing the arms and loves of the gallant Giuliano. The leading note of the epic is struck in the opening stanzas, in which the poet addresses Lorenzo as the laurel in whose shade Florence can rest in perfect security, and expresses a pious hope that some day he may have the happiness to sing the praise of Lorenzo's name and bear his renown from the Indies to the far ocean, from the Numidian shore to Boutes. But since the task is as yet beyond his strength, he will tune his lyre to another melody, and sing the prowess and the loves of the Magnifico's younger brother. In a series of idyllic scenes, the poet tells the story of Giuliano's loves. First of all, he describes "il bel Giulio," the brave and adventurous youth, whose life is spent in the pleasures of the chase and of study, who is devoted alike to the service of the Muses and Diana, despises women and lovers, and leads a free joyous life in the fields and the woods, while fair nymphs sigh for him in vain. Then he narrates the wiles by which Cupid, determined to avenge this slight, aims his arrow at the heart of the proud youth through the eyes of the beautiful Simonetta, and describes Giuliano's meeting with the lovely nymph in the solitary shades of the forest, and the dream in which she appears to him clad in the armour of Pallas. In a long digression Poliziano takes us to the court of Venus in the island of Cyprus and pictures the gates of the palace, adorned with reliefs of the Venus Anadyomene, the loves of Jupiter, Bacchus, Apollo, and other gods and heroes. There Cupid sings the glories of the house of Medici and returns to prepare Giuliano for the combat in which he is to win fresh laurels. But in his dream, Simonetta is suddenly withdrawn from his sight, in a thick cloud, and the hero, waking from sleep, invokes the help of Pallas and Cupid, and lifts his eyes to the sun, which is the emblem of glory.
|
第七章
1476年または1477年に、すでにロレンツォの好意を集めていた若手人文主義者は、ジュリアーノの騎馬試合を祝して壮大な詩を作り始めた。数年前、ルイジ・プルチが皆に知られた詩でロレンツォの騎馬試合を祝っていたので、ポリツィアーノはホメロスをやめて、勇敢なジュリアーノの戦いと愛を詠うことにした。叙事詩は、ロレンツォを、その木陰でフィレンツェが完璧な安全のもとにいられる月桂樹のようだと呼び、いつの日にかロレンツォの名を称賛する詩を詠い、その名声をインド諸国から遠い海まで拡めるという幸わせを得るような敬虔な希望を表している。しかし、その仕事はまだ当時のポリツィアーノの力を超えているので、彼は竪琴を別の旋律に合わせ、マニフィコの弟ジュリアーノの勇気と愛を歌う。一連の牧歌的な情景では、詩人はジュリアーノの愛の物語を伝える。まず、勇敢で冒険心に富んだ若者、ジュリアーノのことを「イル・ベル（美男子）ジュリオ」と呼ぶ。彼の人生は、狩猟と勉学の楽しみに費やされている。ミューズ（音楽，芸術、学問の女神）とディアナ（狩猟の守護神）への献身に捧げられている。女性と恋人を嫌い、野や森の中で自由に楽しい生活を送っているが、美しい乙女たちは彼を見てはむなしくため息をつく。それからポリツィアーノは策略を語る。キューピッドは、この恋への軽視への仕返しをすることに決め、美しいシモネッタの目を通して、誇りある若者の心に、矢を狙う。彼は、森の孤独な木陰で素敵なニンフとのジュリアーノの逢い引き、そしてシモネッタが鎧を纏ったパラスの姿でジュリアーノの前に現れる夢を語る。長い曲折で、ポリツィアーノは私たちをキプロス島のヴィーナスの宮殿に連れて行き、ウェヌス・アナデュオメネ（海より出づるウェヌス）、ユピテル（ゼウス）、バッカス、アポロ、その他の神々や英雄の浮き彫りで飾られた宮殿の門を描写する。キューピッドはメディチ家の栄光を歌い、新しい月桂冠を勝ちとる戦いのためにジュリアーノに準備させるために戻る。しかし、彼の夢の中で、シモネッタは突然、厚い雲の中を視界から逃げ出し、勇士は眠りから目を覚まし、パラスとキューピッドの助けを借りて、栄光の象徴である太陽に目を上げる。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Here, just as Giuliano is to enter on the Giostra which was to be the theme of his epic, the poet breaks off abruptly at the forty-sixth verse of the second book. In all probability his task was interrupted by the terrible events of the conspiracy of the Pazzi and the murder of Giuliano, after which he never had the heart to resume his song, and the great epic remained unfinished. In this beautiful fragment, however, we have not only the finest of Poliziano's efforts in verse, but the source from which the painters of the Renaissance drew some of their fairest creations. Raphael derived his wonderful fresco of the Triumph of Galatea from this poem, and Botticelli found in it the theme of his loveliest pictures.
|
第七章
ジュリアーノが自分を謳った叙事詩の主題になった騎馬試合に登場するのと同じように、詩人は第2冊目の第46詩で突然作品を中断する。パッツィ家の陰謀でジュリアーノが殺されるという恐ろしい出来事によって、詩人の仕事は中断されたが、その後、詩を継続させる気にならなかった。そして偉大な叙事詩は未完成のままとなった。しかし、この美しい未完の作品については、ポリツィアーノが最高の詩作を行っただけでなく、この作品が元になってルネサンス時代の画家たちが最上級の作品を創造した。ラファエルは、この詩から着想を得て「ガラテアの勝利（1511年）」の彼の素晴らしいフレスコ画を描いた。ボッティチェリも、最も美しい作品の主題を見つけた。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
The exact significance of Sandro's famous Allegory of Spring which the Anonimo and Vasari saw at the Medici villa of Castello, and which is now one of the chief ornaments of the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence, has been the subject of endless controversy. Some critics maintain that Botticelli owed his conception to the Latin poets, others are equally convinced that he was inspired by contemporary singers. Professor Warburg traces the origin of the composition to Poliziano's Rusticus, "a Latin poem in praise of spring-time, which he wrote at the Medici villa of Fiesole in 1483, and sees in the figure of the god Mercury, a reminiscence of an ode of Horace ("Carm.", I, 30), which had been recently translated by Zanobi Acciauoli. Signor Supino considers Sandro's picture to be an illustration of Lorenzo de' Medici's "Selve d'Amore", while others are equally certain that he found his inspiration in the lines of Lucretius. Dr. Steinmann recognizes the portrait of Simonetta in the form of Venus and that of Giuliano in the figure of Mercury. Several authorities consider the scene represents Giuliano's first meeting with his mistress in the heart of the forest; one German writer, Herr Emil Jacobsen, has framed an ingenious theory, according to which Botticelli here shows us the awakening of Simonetta in the Elysian fields. An Italian critic, Signor Marrai, carrying allegory still further, sees in the different figures emblems of the elemental forces and the powers of Nature renewing their life in the coming of Spring.
|
第七章
「アノニモ」とヴァザーリがカステッロのメディチ別邸で見たサンドロの有名な「春（プリマヴェーラ、春の寓意）」は、現在（訳者注：1904年当時）フィレンツェ美術学校所蔵の主作品の一つであるが、その正確な意義は、際限のない議論の対象になっている。批評家の何人かは、ボッティチェリが古代ローマの詩人に作品の着想の元があると主張し、他の人は同時代の詩人に触発されたと確信している。ワルブルク教授は、「春」の画面構成の起源をポリツィアーノの詩集『ラスティクス (牧歌)』だとしている。「春を称賛するラテン語の詩で、1483年にフィエーゾレのメディチ別邸で書いたもので、メルクリウス神の姿の中に、ザノビ・アッチャイウオーリによって翻訳されたホラチウスの頌歌の回想を見る。シニョール・スピノはサンドロの作品をロレンツォ・デ・メディチが作った詩「愛の森（セルべ・ダモール）」を表していると考えている。他の批評家は同様にルクレティウスの影響があると考えている。シュタインマン博士はシモネッタの肖像をヴィーナスの姿で、ジュリアーノの肖像をメルクリウスの姿で描かれていると考えている。権威のある何人かは、その情景はジュリアーノが森の中でその愛する人との最初の逢瀬を描いていると考えている。ドイツの作家、ヘル・エミール・ヤコブセンは、ボッティチェリはここで、死後の天上の世界でのシモネッタの目覚めを示している、という独創的な理論を構想した。イタリアの批評家シニョール・マライは、「寓意」をさらに引き継いで、異なる姿に春の到来に生命を回復させる要素の力と自然の力の象徴を見ている。
| |
CHAPTER VII
The best interpretation of Sandro's Allegory, we are convinced, is to regard it, in Signor Venturi's words, as a "painted epilogue of Poliziano's 'Giostra'". The particular passage which the artist has chosen to illustrate is the poet's description of the realm of Venus and the coming of Spring. This description, which was one of the most admired portions of Poliziano's epic, he has followed in no servile spirit, adapting it freely to his own uses, and surrounding the creations of his fancy with imagery borrowed from other sources, whether Poliziano and Lorenzo's own verses or familiar passages from classical poets, Lucretius and Ovid. In the composition of his picture, there can be little doubt, Sandro benefited by the help and advice of Poliziano, who, as we have seen, took a lively interest in artistic matters, and was the intimate friend and companion of the Medici brothers and their kinsman, Lorenzo di Piero Francesco. It was, as we know, the habit of these Renaissance lords and ladies to employ the poets and scholars in their service to compose the paintings which artists were desired to execute for the decoration of their houses. Isabella d'Este invariably applied to some wellknown humanist, such as Pietro Bembo or Paride da Ceresara, to supply Giovanni Bellini and Perugino with minute directions for the Fantasie which were to adorn the walls of her studio. In the same way, the members of the Medicean circle may well have sought advice from the brilliant young poet who early learnt to tune his lyre to courtly uses. Poliziano probably discussed all the details of the picture, which Sandro was to paint for the halls of Castello, with Lorenzo di Piero Francesco and his friends, while the Magnifico himself, as the leader of fashion and arbiter of taste in Florence, doubtless took an active part in the discussion.
|
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
The enchanted region where Venus reigns in the isle of the southern seas has been portrayed with exquisite charm by the painter. Here, in a forest glade, under a bower of orange trees laden with golden fruit, and surrounded by a luxuriant growth of myrtle, the Queen of Love holds her court.  Tall and slender in form, but with a certain royal grace in her bearing, arrayed in robes of white and gold and carrying a red mantle on her arm, the goddess advances to welcome the coming of Spring, and invites her guest to enter with a gracious gesture. We see the beauteous Primavera, stepping lightly over the grassy sward, bearing a lapful of roses which she scatters before her as she goes. Her fair hair and graceful throat are wreathed with blue cornflowers and starry daisies; her white robe is garlanded with long-trails of fresh green ivy and briar roses, and patterned over with flowers of every hue. This is truly the nymph of whom Poliziano sings:
|
第七章
ヴィーナスが南の海の島で統治する場所は画家が絶妙な魅力で描いている。そこは、森の空き地で、オレンジの木の木陰で、ミルトス（ギンバイカ）の繁茂に囲まれた愛の女王は謁見をしている。背が高く細身の体であるが、その振る舞いには気高い優雅さがある。 白と金の長くてゆるやかな外衣と、腕には赤いマントで盛装し、女神は、春の到来を歓迎するために進み、優雅な仕草で来訪者を招く。私たちは、麗しい春の花の女神が、草地の上に軽く足を踏み出し、衣服に一杯のバラを抱え、進むに従ってそれを前に撒き散らしているのを見る。彼女の美しい髪と優雅な首は青いヤグルマギクと星形のヒナギクに取り巻かれ、彼女の白衣は、長く伸びる新鮮な緑のツタとバラで飾られている。そしてすべての色合いの花の模様がつけられている。これは本当に、ポリツィアーノが歌う、乙女（ニンフ）である。
| |
Ma lieta Primavera mai non manca,
|
しかし幸せな春は
| |
|
And this, too, is the fair Simonetta who has conquered Giuliano's heart; the adored mistress whom the poet describes in the first book of the Giostra:
|
そして、これも、ジュリアーノの心を射止めた美しいシモネッタである。詩人が「騎馬試合（ジオストラ）」の第一巻（Iulio e Simonetta）で述べる崇拝された婦人：
| |
Candida è ella, e candida la vesta,
|
彼女は色白、衣も白い
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Whatever may be the exact significance of this fair vision, Botticelli clearly borrowed all this imagery, the rippling hair of gold, and the white robe painted with roses and flowers of varied hue, from Poliziano's description of Simonetta, just as the emerald bough and golden fruit "of the bower of Venus and the green and flowery-meadowed and smiling forest." are used as the setting for his Primavera:
|
第七章
この美しい画面の重要さが正確には何であれ、ボッティチェリは明らかにこのすべてのイメージを使っていた。金色の波打つ房状の髪、バラとそして色合いの異なる花を描かれた白い衣裳、ポリツィアーノのシモネッタの描写から、エメラルド色の枝、ヴィーナスの木陰の黄金色の果物、緑と花の草原と笑顔の森がボッティチェリの「春」の舞台として使われている。
| |
Ride le attorno tutta la foresta.
|
森じゅうを巡る
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
The laughing nymph Flora, who follows closely on the steps of Spring, dropping rosebuds and anemones from her lips, as she flies from the embraces of Zephyr, the blue-robed god of the spring breezes, who tries to seize her in his arms, was no less evidently suggested by Poliziano's lines:
|
第七章
青衣を纏った西風の神ゼフィロスは腕の中にクロリスを捕まえようとするが、クロリスは唇の間からバラの蕾とアネモネをあふれださせ、彼女はその抱擁から逃れようとする。しかし、ゼフィロスがクロリスに触れると、クロリスは笑うニンフのフローラ（花の女神）に変身し、春の足音にぴったり付いていく。この場面はポリツィアーノの書いた詩には、あまり明らかに示されていなかった。：
| |
ove tutto lascivo, drieto a Flora,
|
ゼフィロスはフローラに恋して、その後ろに飛びつく
| |
|
Lorenzo employs the same image in his "Selve d'Amore"
|
ロレンツォは、自作の「愛の森」に同じ情景を書いている。
| |
Vedrai ne regni suoi non piu veduta
|
もはやそこは女神の国とは知らず
| |
|
Both poets probably borrowed the image from the following passage of the Latin poet Lucretius:
|
どちらの詩人もおそらくラテン語の詩人ルクレティウスの次の一節からイメージを借りてきた。
| |
|
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
The group of three Graces who, clad in draperies of transparent gauze, dance on the dewy lawn, with hands linked together, was plainly suggested by Leon Battista Alberti, who in his "Treatise on Painting," mentions this subject immediately after his well-known description of the Calumny of Apelles, as having been often painted by the ancients and eminently adapted for treatment by modern artists.
|
第七章
透明な薄衣で覆われ、一緒に手を結んで、露を帯びた草地で踊っている三美神は、レオン・バッティスタ・アルベルティが、その「絵画論」において、この主題はサンドロの「誹謗（1494-1495年作）」のよく知られた描写の後すぐに言及したが、古代人によって何度も描かれ、現代（当時）の芸術家によって大いに翻案されてきているものだ。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
"What shall we say," he writes, "of these three youthful sisters, whom Hesiod names Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia, and whom the ancients painted with laughing faces, holding each other's hands and adorned with loose and transparent robes? Solutis Gratiae zonis (Horace, Carm.," I, 30).  They are supposed to be emblems of Liberality, because one sister gives, the second receives and the third gives back the gift, which conditions must be satisfied in all perfect liberality." Before them goes the god Mercury, whom Horace names in the Ode to which we have already referred, as the herald of Venus and of the Graces ; a stalwart youth, wearing a winged helmet on his thick black locks and red drapery round his strong limbs, who scatters the mists in the tree-tops, with the caduceus in his uplifted hand, all unconscious of the golden shaft which Cupid is aiming at his heart. The presence of the winged boy who, hovering in the air above the head of Venus, draws his bow to let off his shaft, recalls Poliziano's lines when, on the first meeting of "il bel Giulio" with Simonetta, Cupid secretly aims an arrow at the hero's heart:
|
第七章
アルベルティは、「この三人の若い姉妹について我々は何を言うべきか？ ヘーシオドスはこの三女神をアグライア(輝き)，エウフロシュネ(喜び)，タレイア(花の盛り)と(訳者注：現在一般には、左の「愛欲」、中央の「純潔」、右の「愛」とされている)名付けた。古代人は笑顔にこの三美神を描いた。 三美神は互いに手を繋いで、ゆったりした透明の薄衣を纏っていた。帯を解いた三美神（Solutis Gratiae zonis）である。三美神は贈り物の象徴であると考えられているが、それは、一人が与え、二人目が受け、そして三人目に渡し、そして贈り物を返すからである。そしてその条件は完全な気前良さで満足させられなければならないのだ」と言った。三美神の先を行くのがメルクリウス（ヘルメス）である。先に参照したホラチウスがその「頌歌」において、ヴィーナスと三美神の使者である。ぶ厚い黒髪と赤い上衣を強靭な腕に纏い、頭上に翼のついた兜を着けている逞しい若者は、腕を上げて杖で木の上の霧を払っている。キューピッドが金色の矢でメルクリウスの心を狙っている（訳者注：現在ではこの矢は三美神の「純潔」に向けられているとされている）のを全く意識していない。ヴィーナスの頭上の空中に浮揚しながら、弓を引いて矢を放とうとしている翼のある少年の存在は、シモネッタと「イル・ベル（美男子）ジュリオ」との最初の逢瀬を詠ったポリツィアーノの、キューピッドは密かに矢を青年の心に向けるという一節を思い起こさせる。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
The introduction of this motive, as well as the resemblance of Botticelli's Mercury to the portraits of Giuliano dei Medici, afford fresh proofs that in Sandro's picture we have an illustration of Poliziano's "Giostra." As Signor Venturi remarks, this hypothesis is further supported by an old fifteenth-century engraving, which belongs to a "Rappresentazione " entitled L'innamoramente di Galvano da Milano.
|
第七章
こうした動きを導入したことは、ボッティチェリのメルクリウスがジュリアーノ・デ・メディチの肖像に似ているこのと合わせて、サンドロの作品にはポリツィアーノの「騎馬試合（ジオストラ）」の影響があるという新たな証拠となる。アドルフォ・ヴェンチューリが指摘しているように、この仮説は、15世紀の彫刻でさらに支持されている。この彫刻は、「ミラノのガルヴァー恋に落ちる」というタイトルの「表現」と言う作品である。
| |
|
Here the mistress of Galvano appears as the nymph of Spring with her hands full of flowers, while Cupid hovering above her head is in the act of aiming a dart at her lover's heart.
|
この彫刻では、ガルヴァーノの女神は、手にいっぱいの花を持つ春のニンフとして現れ、彼女の頭の上に浮かんでいるキューピッドは、彼女の恋人の心へ矢を向けている。
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
All the leading features of Botticelli's early works are present in this picture. The tall, slender forms and light, clinging draperies of the dancing maidens recall Fra Filippo's angels. The rich gold embroideries which adorn the white robe of Venus, and the pearls in her fair tresses, display the love of ornament which he had learnt in the workshop of the goldsmith-painters. The influence of the Pollaiuoli is still marked in the careful drawing of the nude in the limbs and attitude of Mercury, as well as in the exaggerated curve of the hip which is common to all Sandro's early figures, and is especially noticeable in the Fortezza and the Pallas. At the same time, there is a distinct advance in freedom of style and individuality of character. In the features of the Graces, in the rhythmical movement of their dance, in their wavy locks and wistful eyes, we already recognize Botticelli's favourite types, the forms and expression which are especially associated with his art, while the smile on the face of Spring has the subtle charm that haunts his friend Leonardo's creations. The sense of air and motion that pervades the picture, the swift action of the god Zephyr, the fluttering garments of Spring, are all highly characteristic.  Both in these details and in the varied treatment of the locks of Flora and the Graces we have another proof of his familiarity with Alberti's treatise. After discoursing of the manner in which the passions of the soul are expressed in the movements of the body, Leon Battista proceeds to treat of the motions of inanimate objects. "And since the delineation of movement of hair and locks, of stems of trees and branches, and of drapery in pictures adds greatly to their charm, I should certainly wish that hair should be represented in the following different ways: Sometimes it twists in a circle, forming a knot, at other times it flows on the air, imitating flames; now it curls downwards under other locks, now it is lifted upwards in one direction or another. In the same way, the branches grow upwards and fall back, partly towards the stem, and are partly twisted in the shape of coils of rope. And the same thing may be seen in draperies; as, from the trunk of one tree, many branches are born, so from one fold many other folds are born, and in these folds of drapery all these different movements are seen, so that there is no fold of drapery in which almost all these movements are not to be found. But let these movements, as I always repeat, be gentle and moderate, and set forth the grace rather than the difficulties of art." Sandro had evidently studied Alberti's book attentively and profited largely by his advice, in this and in his later pictures. But what strikes us most of all in his Primavera is that newborn joy in the gladness of spring and the beauty of Nature, which speaks in each delicate bud and tender leaf, and which makes this picture so perfect an image of the delicious May-time which Lorenzo and his companions were never tired of praising in their songs. The old classical myth appears blended with the new spirit and is transfigured by the poet's fancy into a faery dream of the young Renaissance:
|
第七章
ボッティチェリの初期の作品の主な特徴はすべてこの作品にある。踊っている乙女たちが背の高いこと、細身の姿と軽くてまといつく薄衣は、フラ・フィリッポの描いた天使を思い出させる。ヴィーナスの白い衣を飾る豊かな金の刺繍と、美しい房になった髪の真珠は金細工匠の工房で学んだ装飾への傾倒を表す。ポライウォーロの影響は、サンドロのすべての初期の人物像に共通している股関節の誇張された曲線と同様に、メルクリウスの手足と姿勢の裸体部分の注意深い描写にはまだ顕著である。この作品「春」以外にも、「剛毅」と「パラスとケンタウロス」には特にはっきり見られる。同時に、様式の自由と性格づけの独自性には明確な進歩がある。三美神の特徴では、踊りの律動的な動き、波打つ房状の髪や思いに沈む眼差しに、ボッティチェリの好みを見つけることができる。すなわち、彼の芸術に特に関連した形態や表現である。「春」の顔の笑みはサンドロの友人レオナルドの作品によく現れるいわく言いがたい魅力がある。画面全体に拡がる空気と動きの感覚、西風の神ゼフィロスの素早い動き、春の風に揺れる衣服はすべて非常に特徴的である。これらの細部とフローラと三美神の房状の髪の様々な扱いの両方で、我々はアルベルティの論考が当を得ていることの別の証しを得ることになる。魂の情熱が身体の動きに表現される様子を論述した後、レオン・バティスタ・アルベルティは、さらに身体そのもの以外のものの動きに言及する。「そして、作品において髪の毛や髪の房、木の幹や枝や、薄衣の動きの線描がそれらの魅力に大きく寄与しているので、髪を次の異なったやり方で表現して欲しい： 髪の毛は、時には、円の形でひねり、結び目を形成し、他の時には風に乗って流れ、炎のようになる。そうして今度は、他の髪の房の下で下方に曲がり、次には一方向あるいは他の方向に持ち上げられる。同じように、枝は上向きに成長し、一部は幹に向かって垂れてくる。枝は、部分的に縄のとぐろ巻きの形に捻られる。女神が纏う薄衣でも同じことが見られるかもしれない。一本の木の幹から、多くの枝が生まれているように、一つの襞から他の多くの襞が生まれ、薄衣のこれらの襞から全ての多くの動きが見える。これらの異なる動きはすべて見られる。何の動きも見つからない襞はない。しかし、私がいつも繰り返して示すように、これらの動きは、穏やかで節度があるべきであって、芸術の難点ではなく優雅さを明らかにさせよう」サンドロはアルベルティの論考をどうやら注意深く研究し、この作品だけでなく後の作品においても、大変役に立てた。しかし、彼の「春」で最も魅力的なことは、春のうれしさで新しく生まれた喜びと、繊細なつぼみと柔らかい葉のひとつひとつで表現される自然の美しさであり、そのことが、この作品をとても気持ちのよい「五月のひととき」のそれは完璧な表現にしたので、ロレンツォとその仲間たちは、この作品への称賛に詩で応えることに飽きなかった。古い古代神話は新しい精神と融合されて現れ、詩人の想像力によって若いルネッサンスの耽美な夢に変貌させられるのだ：
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Ben venga maggio
|
第七章
五月よ、ようこそ
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
Even today, when time and neglect have darkened the soft blue of the sky and the glossy verdure of myrtle and orange leaves, and dimmed the bright hues of flowers and fruits, Sandro's Primavera remains one of the most radiant visions that has ever dawned on the soul of a poet-painter. How much more must the loveliness of the young Florentine master's painting have called forth the admiration of the humanists who met that joyous springf-time in the fair gardens of Castello! But a tragic doom hung over these dreams of youth and love:
|
第七章
時間の経過と怠慢が、画面の汚れによって、空の柔らかい青とミルトス（ギンバイカ）とオレンジの葉の光沢のある草色を暗くし、また花や果物の明るい色合いを薄暗くした今日でさえ、サンドロの「春（プリマヴェーラ）」は、詩人であり画家であるサンドロの魂に現れた最も幻想的な情景の一つである。若いフィレンツェの巨匠の作品の美しさは、カステッロの美しい庭園でその喜びの春の時間に遭遇した人文主義者の称賛をどれほど呼び起こしたことか！しかし、悲劇的な運命は、若さと愛の夢の上に影を落としていた。
| |
Quant'è bella giovinezza,
|
うるわしき若さも
| |
|
CHAPTER VII
So, in the words of Lorenzo's Carnival hymn, sang the chorus of youths in Greek costumes, as the pageant of Bacchus and Ariadne was borne on a triumphal car from the doors of the Medici palace, while troops of white-robed maidens, crowned with flowers, danced merrily on the Piazza di Santa Trinita and mingled their songs with the voices of the young men, to the music of viols and flutes. Giuliano himself joined in the mirth, and the Magnifico, with Poliziano at his side, looked on from the steps of his house at the corner, as the gay revellers passed before him in procession, all unmindful of the prophetic ring in the light refrain of their song, telling them how soon youth and joy must pass away. Within a year of Giuliano's triumphal Tournament, the "bella Simonetta" was no more, and exactly two years later, before Poliziano had finished the second book of his "Giostra", Giuliano himself, the darling of the Florentines, was murdered by the Pazzi conspirators on Sunday, the 26th of April, 1478. Poliziano broke off his poem to tell in sterner prose the dark story of the plot that brought his hero's life to this sharp and sudden close, and Sandro turned from painting visions of beautiful nymphs and the joyous spring-time, to record the names and effigies of the traitors, on the walls of the Palazzo Pubblico.
|
第七章
そうして、ロレンツォのカーニバル賛美の歌を、ギリシアの衣装で若者が合唱して歌い、バッカスとアリアドネが勝利の車に乗り、メディチ宮殿の扉から行列になって出て行ったとき、白い衣装を着た少女たちは花の冠を戴き、隊を組んで進み、聖トリニータ広場で陽気に踊り、ビオールとフルートの音楽に沿って、若い男性の声と歌を合わせた。ジュリアーノ自身は歓喜の催しに参加し、マニィフィコは、彼の側にポリツィアーノを従え、メディチ宮殿の角にある階段から、陽気な酔っ払いたちが行列をなし、彼の前を行進するのを見ていた。その歌は、明るい反復にある預言的な意味にはみな気がつかず、青春と喜びがいかに早く消えてゆかねばならぬかを伝えている。騎馬試合にジュリアーノが勝利してから一年以内に、「美しきシモネッタ」は早くも亡くなった。そしてちょうど二年後、ポリツィアーノがその「騎馬試合（ジオストラ）」の第二巻を完成させる前に、フィレンツェの人気者、ジュリアーノ自身が、1478年4月26日の日曜日にパッツィ家の陰謀で殺害された。ポリツィアーノは、ジュリアーノに突然で凄惨な死をもたらした陰謀の暗い筋書きを断固たる文体で語るために、詩作の継続をやめた。サンドロは美しい乙女や楽しい春の時の情景の絵画製作から、今度は庁舎の壁面に裏切り者の名前を記録しその末路の肖像を描くことになった。
|
CHAPTER VIII∧ 1478 - 1480
Conspiracy of the Pazzi.
|
第八章∧
1478 - 1480
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
THE conspiracy of the Pazzi sent a thrill of horror through Florence. The plot had been hatched in Rome by the Pope's nephew Girolamo Riario, and Francesco Pazzi. Another kinsman of his Holiness, the young Cardinal Raffaelle Riario, a boy of sixteen, was present as the honoured guest of the Medici brothers and was with them in the Duomo at Mass, when the bloody deed was done. The Archbishop of Pisa, Francesco Salviati, took an active part in the conspiracy, and the Pazzi family was closely connected with the rival house of Medici, Guglielmo de' Pazzi being the husband of Lorenzo's sister Bianca. Two priests actually made the attempt upon Lorenzo's life, and to crown all, the murder took place at the most solemn moment of the mass. Giuliano fell dead on the steps of the choir, pierced with nineteen wounds by the daggers of the traitors. One of them, Francesco Pazzi, was conversing in the most familiar manner with him, as they walked up the nave of the great church together, and threw his arm round the waist of the murdered man, to ascertain that he wore no armour under his doublet. Lorenzo himself narrowly escaped the same fate, and was only saved by his own presence of mind and the courage and devotion of his friends. One of them, Francesco Nori, was stabbed through the heart in his efforts to save the Magnifico's life, and the assassin's dagger grazed Lorenzo's neck as, running in front of the high altar, he took refuge in the Sacristy, where Poliziano and his companions closed Luca della Robbia's bronze doors in the face of his pursuers. "The holiest places of the Duomo ran with blood. Nothing but noise and shouting," wrote an eye-witness, Filippo Strozzi, "could be heard in the church. A general panic seized all who were present. One fled here, the other there," while the terror-stricken boy Cardinal clung to the steps of the altar and protested his innocence."
|
第八章
パッツィ家の陰謀はフィレンツェ中にぞっとするような恐怖を広げた。陰謀の策略は法王の甥ジロラモ・リアリオとフランシスコ・パッツィによってローマで立てられた。ローマ法王の別の親族、若い枢機卿ラファエーレ・リアリオ、当時16歳の少年は、メディチ兄弟の名誉ある賓客として出席し、血まみれの行為が行われたときに、ミサが行われたドウオモで彼らと一緒にいた。ピサの大司教、フランチェスコ・サルヴィアティは、陰謀に積極的に参加した。パッツィ家は競争相手のメディチ家と密接に結ばれていた。グリエルモ・デ・パッツィはロレンツォの姉ビアンカの夫である。二人の司祭は、実際にロレンツォの命を狙い、何度も狙った挙句の果てに、殺害の企てはミサの最も厳粛な瞬間に行われた。ジュリアーノは聖歌隊席の階段で死亡したが、裏切り者の短剣によって突き刺され十九箇所もの傷を負っていた。首謀者の一人フランチェスコ・パッツィは、これから殺そうとする相手の男と大聖堂の真ん中の通路を並んで歩く時に、胴着の下に鎧を着ていないことを確かめるために、親しそうに話しかけながら、相手の男の胴の周りに腕をまわした。ロレンツォ自身も危ういところで同じ運命を逃れ、自身の平静さと友人たちの勇気と献身によってやっとのところで救われた。そのうちの一人フランチェスコ・ノーリは、マニィフィコの命を救うおうと、一瞬自らを盾にしたために心臓を突き刺された。さらに暗殺者の短剣は、ロレンツォの首をかすめた。彼は高祭壇の前を走って、聖具室に逃げ込んだ。そこでポリツィアーノやその同志たちが追っ手を避けるためにルカ・デッラ・ロッビア作の青銅の扉を閉めた。目撃者のフィリッポ・ストロッツィは、「ドウオモの最も聖なる場所には血が流れた。騒音と叫び声のほかには何も教会で聞こえなかった。そこにいた人々はみなパニックになった。恐怖におびえた枢機卿の少年は祭壇の階段に這いつくばって、自分の無実を主張していた」と書いた。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
But the Florentines rallied loyally round Lorenzo, and crowds surrounded the palace to which he had been borne in safety with shouts of "Palle, palle!" Giuliano's murder was avenged with terrible promptitude. Francesco Pazzi, the Archbishop of Pisa, and two of his kinsmen were hung that very day from the windows of the Palazzo Pubblico. Jacopo Pazzi, the head of the family, managed to escape from the city, but was caught hiding in the neighbourhood and given up to justice by a young peasant, and was hanged, together with his brother Renato. The guilty priests were discovered hidden in the Badia and dragged out to torture and death. Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli, who was Giuliano's actual assassin, escaped to Constantinople, but was surrendered a year later by order of the Sultan, and was hanged from the Palazzo. "He was a bad, bold man," writes Poliziano, "who knew no fear, and was mixed up in every kind of wickedness. And he was the first who stabbed Giuliano in the heart with a dagger. Then not content with having murdered Giuliano, he hurried towards Lorenzo, who was able to escape into the Sacristy with a few followers, upon which Bandini ran his sword through Francesco Nori, an able man who was one of the Medici's chief agents." More than seventy victims, among whom were several innocent kinsmen and servants of the Pazzi, were put to death in all, and the walls of the Palazzo were lined with corpses.
|
第八章
しかし、フィレンツェの人々は忠義にもとづきロレンツォのもとに結集し、群衆は彼が安全確保のために戻っていたメディチ宮殿（本邸）を「球、球（訳者注：パルレの繰り返しは6つのボールを含むメディチの紋章を指す）」の叫び声で囲んだ。ジュリアーノの殺害には恐ろしいほど迅速に仕返しが行われた。ピサ大司教のフランチェスコ・サルヴィアティとその親近者二人は、すぐに市庁舎（シニョーリア、またはパラッツォ・パブリシコ）の窓から吊り下げられた。パッツィ家の長老ヤコポ・パッツィは街から逃げ出したが、近辺に隠れているところを見つけられ、若い農民により正義に服し、弟のレナトと共に一緒に吊された。悪事を働いた司祭たちはバディアに隠れていたのを発見され、引きずりまわしの拷問を受け死亡した。ジュリアーノを実際に暗殺したベルナルド・バンディーニ・バルンチェリは、コンスタンティノープルに逃げたが、一年後にはスルタンの命令で降伏し、市庁舎から吊り下げられた。ポリツィアーノは「彼は悪で、大胆な男だった。恐れ知らずで、あらゆる種類の邪悪に染まっていた。そして、彼は、最初にジュリアーノの心臓を短剣で刺した男であった。その後、ジュリアーノの殺害では満足せず、彼はロレンツォのところへ急いだ。バンディーニはメディチ家の首席代理人の一人である有能なフランチェスコ・ノーリを剣で突き抜いたが、ロレンツォは、幾人かの同志と一緒に聖具室に逃げこんだ」と書いた。七十人以上の犠牲者が出たが、その中には何人かの罪のない近親者やパッツィ家の召使が死んでおり、市庁舎の壁には死体が並んでいた。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
It was then that Sandro Botticelli was employed by the Signory to paint the effigies of the chief conspirators upon the exterior of the palace walls. "In 1478," writes the Anonimo Gaddiano, "on the facade where was the Bargello, above the Dogana, he painted Messer Jacopo, Francesco and Renato de' Pazzi, and Monsignor Francesco Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa, and two Jacopo Salviatis, one the brother, the other the kinsman of the said Messer Francesco, and Bernardo Bandini, hung by the neck, and Napoleone Francesi, hung by one foot, who all conspired against Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici. And at the foot of their effigies Lorenzo placed epitaphs, and the one on Bandini runs thus:
|
第八章
サンドロ・ボッティチェリが陰謀の中心人物たちの肖像をポデスタ宮の壁の外面に描くことを委嘱されたのはこのときであった。「アノニモ」・ガッディアーノは、「1478年に、税関の上のバルジェロ宮があった正面外壁に、ボッティチェリは、長老ヤコポ、フランチェスコとレナート・デ・パッツィ、そしてピサ大司教フランチェスコ・サルヴィアティ、二人のヤコポ・サルヴィアティとその弟、フランチェスコの近親者、ベルナルド・バンディーニの絞首刑、ナポレオーネ・フランチェシの片足吊りの刑を描いた。これらの人物はいずれもジュリアーノとロレンツォの暗殺の陰謀に関わった。そしてそれらの肖像の下にロレンツォはそれぞれ碑文を置いた。バンディーニのところには次の碑文がある。
| |
Son Bernardo Bandini, un nuovo Giuda.
|
私はベルナルド・バンディーニ。ユダの生まれ変わりだ。
| |
|
This description of Bandini, as a traitor and murderer in church, shows how much the horror of the crime was heightened by the fact that it was perpetrated in the sanctuary. Napoleone Francesi, whom Sandro painted, the Anonimo tells us, hanging by one foot, was represented in this manner, because he alone among the conspirators succeeded in escaping safely, and, more fortunate than Bandini, was never captured.
|
教会内での事件の犯人、裏切り者、殺人者としての、バンディーニについての、この碑文は、犯罪が聖域で犯されたという事実によってその恐怖がいかに増したかを示している。サンドロが描いたナポレオーネ・フランチェシは、「アノニモ」によれば、片足吊りの刑に処されたことになっているが、この男はバンディーニよりも悪運が強く、陰謀に加わった者たちのなかで唯一、のうのうと逃げおおせたのだった。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
The selection of Sandro for this office is another proof of his close connection with the Medici and of the high favour in which he stood with Lorenzo at this period. The Council of Outlawry, from whom he received the commission, paid him forty gold florins for executing the task in the month of July, 1478, so that we may conclude he spent about two months on the work. According to Vasari, who, however, ascribes the painting of the effigies of the Pazzi conspirators to Andrea del Castagno, the work was executed in a marvellous manner. "It would indeed be impossible," he writes, "to describe the art and judgement which was shown in the personages here portrayed mostly taken from life and hung in strange attitudes of the most varied and beautiful description."
|
第八章
この仕事にサンドロが選ばれたことは、メディチ家との密接な関係と、彼がこの時期にロレンツォから高く評価されていたことのもう一つの証拠でもある。法務委員会からサンドロはこの仕事を依頼されたのだが、この委員会は1478年7月にその仕事のために40フローリンをサンドロに支払ったことから、我々はサンドロがこの仕事に約二ヶ月を要したと結論づけることができる。パッツィ家の共謀者の肖像はアンドレア・デル・カスターニョが描いたものだとするヴァザーリも、この作品は大変よくできていると評価している。「それは死の姿を描かれ、ほとんど命を取られ、最も多様で美しく描かれた奇妙な姿勢で吊るされた人物に示された芸術と審判を描写することは確かに不可能だっただろう」とヴァザーリは書いている。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
Another curious thing which may be mentioned, in connection with this grim task that was assigned to Botticelli, is that his friend Leonardo has left us a drawing of Bandini's execution, which was taken on the 29th of December, 1479, when the criminal was hanged, after being given up by the Sultan. The keen interest and close attention with which the artist has followed the death-agony of the wretched criminal, is characteristic of the master who used to attend executions and dissect corpses in Milan. The body, in its loose garments, is seen hanging at the end of a rope with the head bent forward, the arms tied behind the back, and in the margin of the framing we read the following notes describing Bandini's clothes: "Small tan-coloured cap, black satin doublet, blue mantle lined with fox, black hose." These details seem to imply that the drawing, which is now in M. Bonnat's collection, originally served as a sketch for a more important work. Perhaps Leonardo may have been employed to paint the effigy of Bandini, by the side of the conspirators whom Botticelli had already depicted on the walls of the Bargello.
|
第八章
ボッティチェリに任されたこの厄介な仕事に関連して言及されるであろうもう一つの別の奇異な事実は、サンドロの友人レオナルド・ダ・ヴィンチが、トルコのスルタンによって送還され、1479年12月29日にフレンツェで絞首刑になった犯罪者バンディーニのスケッチを我々に残していることだ。レオナルドはミラノで死刑執行に立会い、遺体解剖を何度もしていたのだが、そうした画家としての特性が、卑劣な犯罪者の死の苦しみを、鋭い関心と細心の注意をもって描かせている。ゆるい衣服をまとった身体は、縄の端にぶら下がって見え、頭が前に曲がっていて、腕が背中で縛られている、スケッチの余白に、バンディーニの衣服を説明した次の記述がある：「小さな黄褐色の帽子、黒サテンの胴着、キツネ、黒馬の毛の線が並んだ青い上衣」これらの詳細な記述は、現在、ボナ美術館の所蔵のスケッチが、もともとは、より重要な作業のスケッチとして描かれたことを暗示しているようだ。おそらくレオナルドはボッティチェリがバルジェッロの壁にすでに描きあげていた共謀者の絵画のそばで、バンディーニの肖像を描くよう依頼されていたのかもしれない。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
During the troubled times that followed the death of Giuliano and the rising of the Pazzi, we hear of no more commissions for pictures. Florence was threatened by enemies on every side, and all Lorenzo's courage and diplomacy were needed to suppress factions at home, and to avert the open and covert attacks by which Pope Sixtus endeavoured to effect his downfall. But when this critical moment in his career was over, and the security of the State and his own supremacy was assured, the Magnifico once more employed Sandro to work for him.
|
第八章
パッツィ家の反乱とジュリアーノの死に続く苦難の時代には、絵画製作の依頼はまったく途絶えたようだ。フィレンツェはあらゆる方向の敵に脅かされていた。ロレンツォは自らの全ての勇気と外交力を振り絞って、国内の対立を抑え、法王シクストゥスがロレンツォの失脚を成し遂げようとやっきになり、仕掛けてきた公然・非公然の攻撃を避けることが必要だった。しかし、なんとかこの重大な危機を乗り越え、国家の安全と彼自身の覇権が確保できたときには、マニュフィコはサンドロを彼のためにもう一度働かせた。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
In the spring of 1480, Lorenzo returned in safety from his perilous mission to the court of Naples. This bold step had been crowned with complete success. After three months' parleying, King Ferrante had finally signed a treaty with the Florentine republic, and Lorenzo was able to set sail for Pisa, taking with him as a parting gift from the old king, a fine horse which he received with the remark "that a messenger of joyful news ought to be well mounted." When he reached Florence he met with the most enthusiastic reception. "The whole city," writes Guicciardini, "went out to welcome him, and hailed his coming with the greatest joy, since he brought with him peace and the assurance of the preservation of the State." His faithful friend Poliziano celebrated the occasion in a new poem, expressing his joy at the sight of Lorenzo's face and his longing to clasp his right hand and bid him welcome to his home:
|
第八章
1480年の春、ロレンツォはナポリ宮廷での危険な任務から無事に帰ってきた。ロレンツォ自身が数人の側近だけを伴って、ナポリに乗り込むという、この大胆な措置は、完全な成功を収た。三ヶ月にわたる談判の後、ナポリ王フェルディナンド(訳者注：フェランテとも呼ばれる)はフィレンツェ共和国との条約に遂に署名をした。ロレンツォはピサに向けて出帆することができた。親しくなった王からは別れに当たって見事な馬の贈り物を受けた。ロレンツォはこの贈り物を受けるさいに、「喜ばしい知らせの使者は良い馬に乗らなくては」と礼を述べた。彼がフィレンツェに帰還したとき、かつてないほどの熱狂的な歓迎を受けた。歴史家グイチャルディーニは、「全市民が、平和と国家の安全の保証を持ち帰ってきたのロレンツォを歓迎するために街に出て、大いに喜んで彼の帰還を歓呼して迎えた」と書いている。彼の忠実な友人ポリツィアーノは、ロレンツォの顔を見たときの喜びと、彼の右手を握りしめて故郷への帰還を歓迎したいという思いを、新しい詩を作って表現した：
| |
O ego quam cupio reducis contingere dextram
|
ああ、我、君の右手に触れたし
| |
|
The poet gives an animated account of the scene that day at the palace of Via Larga, of the crowds which filled the halls and of his own vain endeavour to press through the joyful throng and 人に the hero of the hour, whom he sees from afar, with smiling countenance, greeting his friends and thanking them with words and smiles and hands. But since he cannot greet him in person, he sends Lorenzo his verses to hail him on this auspicious day and bear witness to his servant's love and joy:
|
詩人は、その日、ラルガ街の宮殿での、広間を満たした群衆やそして時の人に挨拶をしようと嬉しそうな群衆をかき分けて進もうとする詩人自身の虚しい努力を生き生きと語る。時の人は遠くからしか見えなかったが、笑顔で、友人と言葉や笑顔と握手で挨拶し礼を言っていた。しかし、詩人は直接時の人に挨拶ができないので、かわりに、このめでたい日にロレンツォを讃える詩を、しもべの愛と喜びの証しとして、送る：
| |
Ite, mei versus, Medicique haec dicite nostra:
|
行くがいい、私の歌よ、メディチのもとへ、最高の友への挨拶として
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
It was then that the Magnifico, desirous to commemorate the restoration of peace and his own triumphant return, employed Botticelli to paint the famous picture of Pallas subduing the Centaur which was discovered some ten years ago, in a dark corner of the Pitti Palace.  The only mention of this painting in contemporary records is to be found in an inventory of the contents of the palace in Via Larga that was taken on the 7th of October, 1516. Six months before that date Giuliano de' Medici, the Magnifico's son, had died at Fiesole. His only surviving brother, Giovanni, was the reigning Pope, Leo X, and his nephew, Piero's son Lorenzo, had been proclaimed Duke of Urbino. The only Medici left in Florence, were the representatives of the younger branch of the house, Piero, the son of Botticelli's patron, Lorenzo di Piero Francesco, and his first cousin, Giovanni delle bande nere the son of Caterina Sforza. A division of the family property was made between them, and in the list of pictures here mentioned we find the following entry: "In the second room on the ground floor, a figure of Minerva and a Centaur."
|
第八章
それは、マニフィコが、平和の回復と自身の凱旋を記念したいと思い、ボッティチェリに、現在では非常に有名になった「パラスとケンタウロス」を描かせることにしたのは、このときである。 この「パラスとケンタウロス」は、約十年前（1897年ころ）にピッティ宮の暗い人目につかない場所で発見された作品である。この作品の唯一の言及は、1516年10月7日に引き取ったと、ラルガ街のメディチ宮殿の所蔵物の台帳に当時の記録があった。その日の半年前、マニフィコの息子ジュリアーノ・デ・メディチは、フィエゾレで死亡している。その唯一の生き残りの兄弟、ジョヴァンニは、当時、法王レオ十世で、その甥、ピエロの息子ロレンツォはウルビーノ公と宣されていた。フィレンツェに残された唯一のメディチの家系が、その若い分家の当主の、ピエロで、すなわちボッティチェリのパトロンであるロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコである。そしてその最初のいとこ、カテリーナ・スフォルツァの息子ジョヴァンニ・デッレ・バンデ・ネーレ（訳者注：「バンデ・ネーレ」は黒帯の意）であった。一家の財産の分割は、家族間で決められた。絵画作品の一覧の中に、我々は次の記載を見つけた：「一階の二番目の部屋、『ミネルバとケンタウロスの姿』」
| |
|
In another inventory, taken at a slightly later date, this entry is repeated as follows: "In the second room, by the side of the hall on the ground floor, a Minerva and Centaur on canvas, with a panel behind it."
|
それほど離れていない後日に調査されたもう一つの台帳に、同様の記載がある：「一階の広間の隣の第二の部屋、板で裏打ちされたカンバスに描かれた『ミネルバとケンタウルス』」
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
This description is perfectly accurate, and the newly-discovered picture now in the Pitti Palace is painted on canvas, which Botticelli also employed for his Birth of Venus in the Uffizi, a work probably executed about the same time. The Pallas passed into the Pitti Gallery together with most of the Grand Ducal collection, towards the end of the eighteenth century, and was engraved in Frassinetti's "Galleria Pitti illustrata", published in 1842. The editor of that work describes the work in question as an "An Allegory by Sandro Botticelli", which seemed to be connected with Lorenzo il Magnifico, since it bore his device of the triple ring, but the exact significance of which it was impossible to explain. Fourteen years later, on the marriage of the Archduke Ferdinand of Lorraine, some alterations were made in the Pitti Gallery, and Botticelli's Pallas was removed with some other pictures to a storeroom in the palace, where its very existence was forgotten. It was only in 1895, that an English connoisseur, Mr. Spence, who happened to be paying a visit to the Duke of Aosta, caught sight of the Pallas in a dark ante-room of the private apartments reserved for royal use, and recognized it as a work of Botticelli.
|
第八章
この説明は正確であり、ピッティ宮殿で新しく発見された絵画はカンバスに描かれている。ボッティチェリはおそらく同じ時期に製作したウフィッツィ美術館所蔵の「ヴィーナスの誕生」にもカンバスを使った。「パラス」は、18世紀末にかけて、大公国コレクションの大部分と一緒にピッティ美術館に収蔵された。1842年に出版された「ピッティ美術館所蔵画集」に彫版で印刷された。この画集の編集者は、問題の作品について、「サンドロ・ボッティチェリの寓意」として記しているが、ロレンツォ・イル・マニフィコの図柄である三重の輪が描きこまれていることから、ロレンツォと結びつきがあると考えられた。しかし、そのことの正確な意味は説明ができなかった。14年後、ロレーヌ大公フェルディナンドの結婚で、ピッティ美術館でいくつかの改修が行われ、ボッティチェリの「パラス」は、宮殿の倉庫にいくつかの他の作品と共に移された。以降、その倉庫の存在自体が忘れられてしまった。アオスタ公を訪問することになっていた英国の鑑定家スペンスは、フィレンツェで王室御用達のために確保された居住区画の暗い控えの間で「パラス」を見つけ、そしてそれがボッティチェリの作品であると認識したのは、つい近年の1895年であった。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
Although this painting is not mentioned by Vasari or any contemporary writer of the Laurentian age, it is clear that we have here an allegory of Lorenzo de' Medici's victory over his enemies, and the establishment of his wise and beneficent rule. As Poliziano's courtly verse records the most glorious moment in the Magnifico's life, so Botticelli's painting remains a lasting memorial of Lorenzo's triumph and the disastrous fate of the Pazzi conspirators. Art and poetry had already associated the goddess Pallas with the house of Medici. The muse of Poliziano and the brush of Sandro had taught the Florentines to see in the Greek goddess the protectress of Lorenzo and Giuliano, and the guardian of their family. On the other hand, the Centaur had been held to be the symbol of political strife and disorder since the days of Plutarch. Giotto introduces a Centaur as a type of rebellion and crime into his fresco of Obedience at Assisi, and Dante speaks of the Centaurs as accursed creatures in his "Purgatorio".
|
第八章
この作品はヴァザーリやロレンツォの時代の著述家によって言及されていないが、ロレンツォ・デ・メディチが敵に勝利したこと、そしてその賢明で慈悲深い統治が確立されたことの寓意がここにあることは明らかである。ポリツィアーノの宮廷風の詩はマニフィコの人生で最も栄光の瞬間を記録し、ボッティチェリの絵画は、ロレンツォの勝利とパッツィ家の共謀者の悲惨な運命の永続的な記念碑として残る。芸術と詩はすでに女神パラスをメディチ家に結び付けていた。ポリツィアーノの詩才とサンドロの筆は、フィレンツェの人々に、ロレンツォとジュリアーノに、ギリシャの守護女神とその家族の守護者を見るように導いていた。一方、ケンタウルスはプルタルコス（訳者注：プルータク英雄伝で知られる）の時代から政治的な闘争と無秩序の象徴とされてきた。ジオットはアッシジの「服従」のフレスコ画に反逆と犯罪の見本としてケンタウロスを描き、ダンテは「神曲・煉獄編」の呪われた生き物としてケンタウロスを語る。
| |
|
In this case, the Centaur not only appears as a common emblem of crime and folly, but fitly represents the Pazzi, whose name literally signifies "fools".
|
この場合、ケンタウロスは犯罪と愚行の共通の象徴として現れるだけでなく、パッツィ家をぴったりと象徴している。なぜなら、その名パッツィ、pazziは文字通りイタリア語で「狂気」を意味するのだ。（訳者注：元の英文ではfoolsで、役は「愚か者」となるが、イタリア語のpazziを訳すと「狂気」となる。）
| |
CHAPTER VIII
Nothing can be simpler than the composition. Pallas, a tall and stately figure, bearing the Medusa shield on her back, and armed with a massive halberd, stands before us as if she had just alighted upon the earth, and seizes the Centaur by the forelock. Her white robe is embroidered with the triple diamond ring that was the favourite device of the Medici, and the graceful olive bough wreathed about her brows and trailing over her breast and arms, are symbols of the good tidings of peace which Lorenzo had brought back with him from Naples. This Centaur with the shaggy locks reminds us of the painting by the Greek artist Zeuxis, which Lucian describes. But he is no monster of vice and ugliness. On the contrary, his venerable figure and aged face seem to plead for mercy, as he cowers before this triumphant daughter of the gods, who looks down upon her captive in all the might of divine youth and beauty. Behind her we catch a glimpse of distant hills and seas, that may be intended to represent the Bay of Naples, with the ship which bore Lorenzo homewards sailing across its waters.
|
第八章
構図はこれ以上簡単になることはできないほどだ。パラスは背が高く、堂々とした姿であり、背中にメドゥーサの盾を背負い、そして巨大な斧槍で武装している。彼女はちょうど地上に降りて、ケンタウルスの前髪を捕捉したかのように我々の前に立つ。彼女の白衣は、メディチ家の好みの三重のダイヤの指輪文様で刺繍され、そして優雅なオリーブの枝が彼女の額を輪になって飾り、胸や腕の上枝は伸びている。このことは、ロレンツォがナポリから持ち帰った平和の良い知らせの象徴である。この毛深い髪が房になったケンタウルスは、ルキアノスが記したギリシャの画家ゼウクシスが描いた作品を思い出させてくれる。しかし、ケンタウルスは邪悪で醜怪な怪物ではない。それどころか、聖なる若さと美しさのすべてをまとって捕ええた捕虜を見下す、この勝ち誇った神々の娘の前で、ケンタウルスは、縮こまりながら、その由緒ある姿と老いた顔で、慈悲を嘆願しているようだ。パラスの背後には、遠くの丘や海が垣間見える。それはナポリ湾を示しているようだ。船には海を越えて帰還するロレンツォが乗船しているのだ。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
Both the types and general style of the picture confirm the supposition that it was painted in the year 1480, some time after the Primavera, but certainly before the Birth of Venus. The figure of Pallas resembles the Fortezza and the figure of Venus in the Allegory of Spring. But although her form still retains the prominent curve of the line of hip, which is a curious feature of Sandro's early frescoes, the signs of the Pollaiuoli's influence are less marked than in these last-named works. The gentle, half-pitying expression on the face of Pallas, and the decorative pattern of the olive foliage, are full of charm, and the painter's scheme of colour is nowhere more pleasing and harmonious than in this composition. The mantle falling over the white robes of the goddess is of a rich green; the sandals on her feet are of orange hue, and her bright locks of red-gold stream on the breeze, in the soft, rippling waves commended by Alberti. On the left, a mass of gray shelving rocks represents the cavern which is the Centaur's home, and forms a striking background to the group. So the painter once more proved that poetic imagination can gild the dullest theme with light, and transform even a political cartoon into a dream of beauty.
|
第八章
作品の様式も全体的な表現法のどちらもが、この作品が「春（プリマヴェーラ）」のあと、しかし、確かに「ヴィーナスの誕生」以前の1480年に描かれたものだという推定を強固にさせる。パラスの姿は、「剛毅（フォルテッツィア）」や「春の寓意（訳者注：春『プリマヴェーラ』の意）」のヴィーナスの姿に似ている。彼女の姿態はサンドロの初期のフレスコ画で特徴的な腰の際立つ曲線を保持しているが、ポライウォーロ兄弟の影響の兆候は「春（プリマヴェーラ）に比べてあまり認められない。パラスの顔の優しく、半ば哀れむような表情、及びオリーブの葉の装飾的模様は、魅力に満ちている。この画家の色彩の扱い方は、この作品の構成におけるよりも、心地よく調和のとれたものは他にない。女神の白い衣の上に重なる上衣は、豊かな緑である。彼女の足の履物は、オレンジ色の色相のものであり、そして明るい赤みを帯びた金色の髪が、アルベルティが言うように、そよ風の柔らかいさざなみのなかで、たなびいている。左側の灰色の棚のようになっている岩石の塊は、ケンタウルスの住処である洞窟を表し、印象的な背景を形成している。そうして、画家はいま一度、詩的想像力が最も退屈な主題をも光をあて見事なものにできることを、さらに政治風刺画でさえもを美の夢の中に変えることができることを証明した。
| |
|
We have neither historical information nor documentary evidence to guide us in determining the precise date of the two other mythical subjects by Sandro's hand, which are still in existence. One is the Birth of Venus which Vasari mentions, together with the Primnavera, as being in the Grand Duke Cosimo's villa of Castello, and which came with the Grand Ducal collection into the Uffizi. The other is the long, narrow panel which goes by the name of Mars and Venus in the National Gallery.
|
今存在しているサンドロの手による神話を主題にした他の二つ作品の正確な完成日付を決定するのに必要な、歴史上の情報も文献上の証拠も我々は持っていない。ヴァザーリによれば、その一つは「ヴィーナスの誕生」である。「春（プリマヴェーラ）」と一緒にコスモ大公邸のカスティーヨ邸にあったもので、現在はグラン・デュカル・コレクションとしてウフィツィ美術館に入っている。もう一つは、ロンドン・ナショナル・ギャラリー所蔵の上下は小さく横長（訳者注：69cm x 173.5cm）の板絵の「ヴィーナスとマルス」である。
| |
|
CHAPTER VIII
The subject of the former picture, as we have already seen in the case of the Primavera was evidently derived from Poliziano's poem of Giuliano's Giostra. In a passage adapted from one of the Homeric hymns, the poet describes the birth of Venus. Among the sculptured reliefs which adorned the portals of the palace of Venus in the enchanted isle of Cyprus, he sees the new-born Aphrodite, a maiden with a divine face, gently wafted by the soft breath of the Zephyr on the white foam of the Aegean waves, towards the flowery shore:
|
第八章
「ヴィーナスの誕生」の主題は、「春（プリマヴェーラ）」の場合ですでに見てきたように、明らかにポリツィアーノの「ジュリアーノの騎馬試合（ジオストラ）」の詩（訳者注：Stanze、スタンツェ、が元の名称で、「部屋」の意味があるが、ここでは「韻律を活用して作られる韻文」で、それを作品の名称にしている）に由来している。その内容は、ホメロス讃歌の一つから派生した一節で、詩人はヴィーナスの誕生を描いている。キプロスの魔法にかかったような魅力的な島にあるヴィーナスの宮殿の門を飾る浮き彫りした彫刻の中に、彼は生まれたばかりのアフロディーテを見る。これは、神聖な顔をした乙女で、西風の神ゼフィロスのやさしい息に吹かれて、エーゲ海の波の白い泡の上で、花の岸辺に向かって静かに漂って来るという情景だ。
| |
Vera la schiuma e vero il mar diresti,
|
泡は真にあり、海も真にある、と汝は唱う、
| |
CHAPTER VIII
Heaven and earth, the poet sings, rejoice at the coming of this daughter of the Gods. The white-robed Hours wait to welcome her and spread a star-sown robe over her ivory limbs, and countless flowers spring up along the shore where her feet will tread. All of this exquisite imagery is faithfully reproduced in Sandro's painting. He represents his Venus Anadyomene laying one hand on her snowy breast, the other on her loose tresses of yellow hair - a form of virginal beauty and purity, as, with her feet resting on the golden-tipped shell, she glides softly over the rippling surface of the waves. He paints the shower of single roses fluttering about her form, and the winged Zephyrs clad in garments of pale mauve and green, and linked fast together as they hover in the air above, and waft the goddess to the shore of love. Following another of Alberti's suggestions, Botticelli introduces the actual "faces of Zephyr and Auster, appearing out of the clouds, in the opposite side of the picture, and blowing on the figures in such a manner that their draperies shall take beautiful folds in the breeze." After his wont, Sandro simplifies the composition, and in the place of the three Hours, mentioned in Homers' hymn, and in Poliziano's "Stanze", he shows us one fair damsel, the nymph of spring, wearing a white robe, embroidered with blue cornflowers, and girdled with convolvulus and roses, who springs forward with light and elastic step to offer Venus a pink mantle sown with daisies. In the laurel-groves that grow along the shore and spread out their boughs to shelter the new-born Aphrodite, we have, no doubt, a courtly allusion to Lorenzo's name. In the dedication of the "Stanze" Poliziano addresses his patron as the laurel under whose shade Florence can rest safely:
|
 <
第八章
天と地は、詩人が詠う、神のこの娘の到来で喜ぶ。白の衣をまとった時間の女神ホーラは彼女を歓迎し、その象牙のような身体に花を撒き散らした模様の衣をかけるために待つ。そして無数の花々が彼女の足が進む岸辺に沿って咲き出す。この絶妙な情景の全てをサンドロは忠実にその絵画作品で再現する。サンドロの描くヴィーナス・アナデュオメネは雪のように白い胸に一方の手を置き、他方の手はゆるく房になった黄色の髪の上に置く。乙女の美しさと清らかさを持った身体は、足を黄金色の開いた貝殻に乗せ、波のさざめく表面を滑るようにして来る。サンドロは、ヴィーナスの彼女の身体にひらひらと飛んで舞う一輪ごとのバラを降り注がせる。淡い藤色と緑の衣をまとった翼を持つゼフィロスは上空に浮かび、愛の岸に女神を吹き寄せる。アルベルティのもう一つの提案に従って、ボッティチェリは、絵の左側では、雲の外に現れる西風の神ゼフィロスと南風の神アウスターの実際の顔を描き込む。そして風の神々はそよ風を吹きかけ、その髪や衣服が風にたなびき、また美しいひだが出来るようにしている。サンドロはいつも通り、構成を単純にする。ホメロスの讃歌やポリツィアーノの「スタンツェ」に詠われている時の三女神の代わりに、一人の美しい乙女、春のニンフ、を示す。春のニンフは青いヤグルマギクの模様で刺繍され、ヒルガオやバラに帯のように取り巻かれた白い衣をまとい、軽くしなやかな足取りで跳ねるように進み、ヴィーナスに、ヒナギクを縫い込んだ上衣を差し出す。浜に沿って生え、生まれたばかりのアフロディテを守るように枝を伸ばしている月桂樹の木立に、疑いなく、ロレンツォの名前の上品な暗示を見ることが出来る。「スタンツェ」の献辞で、ポリツィアーノはロレンツォをその木陰の下でフィレンツェが心安く憩える月桂樹と讃えている。
| |
E tu, nato Laur, sotto il cui velo.
|
月桂樹が生まれ、その庇護のもと
| |
|
and he speaks of him elsewhere as the "laurel-tree who sheltered the song-birds who carolled in the Tuscan spring."
|
ポリツィアーノはトスカーナの春に祝歌を歌った歌鳥を庇護していた「月桂樹」としてロレンツォのことを別のところで話している。（訳者注：Lorenzoと言う名前にはLaurentisから着た人の意味があり、Laurentisはlaurelのある所である）
|
|
CHAPTER VIII
The sense of light and 、 movement is wonderfully given in wind-blown draperies and fluttering roses, in rippling waves and tossing locks that would have delighted the heart of Alberti, in the light and springing footstep and glad gesture of the nymph of Spring, in the gliding motion of Venus herself. Sandro never fashioned a fairer or more delicate form than this Goddess of love, whose ivory limbs may well have been modelled, as tradition says, from some antique marble among the statues of the Medici gardens. Some critics, indeed, have suggested that Botticelli borrowed the attitude of his goddess from the famous little statue known as the Medici Venus. Dr. Julius Meyer, with more probability, thinks that he found his model in another classical statue, which Benvenuto Rambaldi saw when he paid a visit to Florence, a hundred years before, and which, according to his description, agrees exactly in form and pose with the Venus of Sandro's picture. But the wan face of the goddess with her mournful air and sad, wistful eyes, is unlike any Greek or Roman image of the Heaven-born Queen of Cnidus and Paphos. All the sorrow of the modern world is there, the strange note of unsatisfied yearning which this painter of the Laurentian age has made peculiarly his own, and which appeals with a singular power to the children of the present day. This impression is heightened by the absence of sun, and the cold gray morning light that is slowly stealing over the distant bays and headlands of the landscape, and the long reaches of silent sea. We know not where Sandro caught this mediaeval note which blends so strangely with the bright myth of the old Greek world; but we feel there is no mere affectation in his melancholy, which finds expression both in his sacred and in his secular works, in his Madonnas and Angels as well as in his nymphs and muses. It may have been only the natural utterance of that sadness which seems to be the common heritage of the poetic temperament - the sense of tears in mortal things; or it may be the reflection of that sorrowful consciousness of the uncertainty of life, of human love and coming death, which threw its shadow over the gay festivals of those Renaissance days, and haunted Lorenzo's own songs with a mournful echo:
|
第八章
軽快でうきうきした動きの感覚は、風に吹かれた衣服の襞や羽ばたくように飛ぶバラに、海面の波紋やアルベルティの心を喜ばせた揺れる髪に、春の乙女の軽い弾む足音と喜びの中に、またヴィーナス自身の滑空するような動きに、素晴らしく与えられている。サンドロは、この愛の女神よりもより美しく繊細な形態を作り出したことはない。ヴィーナスの象牙色の肢体はメディチ家の庭にある古代の大理石の彫像から、伝統に沿って、形作られたのであろう。一部の批評家は、ボッティチェリがメディチ・ヴィーナスと呼ばれる有名な小さな彫像から自分の女神の姿勢を借用したと示唆している。ジュリアス・メイヤー博士は、100年前にベンヴェヌート・ランバルディがフィレンツェを訪れた際に見た別の古典的な彫像をサンドロはモデルにしたと考えており、彼の記述によれば、その形と姿勢はサンドロの絵のヴィーナスと全く同じである、とより確度の高いことを言っている。ランバルディのその古代彫像の描写を見ると、サンドロの絵のヴィーナスと形態や姿勢がぴったりと一致している。しかし、悲しみの空気を漂わせ、悲しげな思いに沈む眼をしている女神のはかなげな顔は、クニドス（プラクシテレスがアプロディテ像を製作した都市）やパフォス（訳者注：アプロディテ誕生の地）の天国生まれの女王のギリシャ的あるいはローマ的のどのような印象とも異なる。現代世界のすべての悲しみはそこにある。ロレンツォ時代のこの画家が自分自身のものとした満足することのない憧れの不思議な記録であり、今日の子供たちの心に並外れた力で訴えている。この印象は、太陽が描かれていないことと、遠くの湾岸や海岸の岬や穏やかな海の長い淵にゆっくりと忍び寄る冷たい灰色の朝の光によって強調される（訳者注：この「ヴィーナスの誕生」は修復が行われ、元々の光輝くような明るい色調に戻っている）。サンドロが古代ギリシャの世界の明るい神話とあまりにも奇妙に混じっているこの中世の調子をどこで知ったのかわからない。しかし、我々は、彼の憂うつの中に単に気取りと言うものは感じられない。彼の憂うつは神聖なものや世俗的な作品の両方で、すなわち聖母と天使だけでなく、彼の乙女や美神の両方でその表出がある。それは、詩人的気質の共通の遺産であると思われるその悲しみの自然な発話であっただけかもしれない。それは、死すべき者の涙の感覚、あるいは生命の不確実性の悲しみの意識の反映かもしれないが、人間の愛と来るべき死が、当時のルネッサンス時代の賑やかな祭りに影を投げかけ、哀れな響きでロレンツォ自身の歌につきまとった。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
di doman non c'è certezza
|
明日は確かならず
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER VIII
In this picture of the Birth of Venus the painter, we realize, has taken a new step in advance, and having freed himself altogether from the influence of other masters, henceforth relies entirely upon his own resources. The stiffness and rigidity of his early works have given way to perfect ease and grace, the old defects and difficulties have been overcome, and Botticelli has attained to a beauty of line and a decorative completeness such as has been rarely surpassed by any other artist.
|
第八章
「ヴィーナスの誕生」の作品では、画家は先に向けて新しい一歩を踏み出し、他の親方の影響から完全に解放されたので、その後は自分自身の能力に全面的に依存している。彼の初期の作品の堅さは、完璧な落ち着きと優雅さに近づいた。以前の欠陥や困難は克服された。ボッティチェリは線描の美しさと装飾的な完成度を達成しており、他の画家で彼にかなうものはほとんどいなかった。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The other classical subject which Sandro painted about the same time, that is to say, soon after the canvas of Pallas subduing the Ccntatir and before his journey to Rome, in the beginning of 1481, is the painting entitled Venus (in the National Gallery).
|
サンドロが同じ時期に描いた他の古典的な主題としては、ローマへの旅の前で、カンヴァス画の「パラスとケンタウロス」の製作のすぐ後に、ロンドン・ナショナル・ギャラリー所蔵の「ヴィーナスとマルス」を1481年の初めに描いた。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER VIII
This long narrow panel was probably originally intended to adorn the top of a doorway in one of the Medici palaces or villas, and remained in Florence until it came to England in the Barker collection some fifty years ago. At the sale of that collection, in 1874, it was bought by the trustees of the National Gallery, acting under the advice of the newly appointed director. Sir Frederic Burton. The Loves of Mars and Venus was a favourite theme both with Renaissance poets and painters, and is the title of one of those curious dramatic compositions which Lorenzo wrote, and which were performed on festive occasions by his own children. It consists of four monologues spoken in turn by Venus, Mars, Apollo and Vulcan, and contains some of Lorenzo's best and sweetest verse. The old story is also introduced by Poliziano in a well-known passage of his "Stanze" (Libro I, 122), where Cupid, on returning to his mother's palace in Cyprus, finds Venus reclining on a couch with Mars in her lap, surrounded by a troop of joyous little Loves, who shower roses over the lovers:
|
第八章
この横に長く背丈の小さい板絵は、当初、メディチの宮殿や別邸の一つの玄関口の上を飾るためのもので、50年前（訳者注：1860年頃）にバーカー・コレクションが購入しイギリスに渡るまで、フィレンツェにあった。そのコレクションから、1874年に、新しく任命された館長フレデリック・バートンの助言の下で動くナショナル・ギャラリーの受託者によって購入された。「ヴィーナスとマルスの愛」は、ルネッサンスの詩人や画家の両方にとって好まれる主題であり、ロレンツォが書いた、自分の子供たちによりお祝いの機会に演奏された好奇心をそそる劇的な曲の題名の一つである。ヴィーナス、マルス、アポロン、ヴァルカンの四つの独白で構成され、ロレンツォの最高に甘い詩でできている。古い物語はまた、ポリツィアーノにより自身の「スタンツェ」の有名な一節に取り入れられた。キューピッドがキプロスの母親の宮殿に戻ってくる途中、小さな愛の兵士に囲まれて、ビーナスが長椅子に横になり、彼女の膝にマルスが寝ているのを見る。小さな愛の兵士は愛し合う人たちにバラを降り注ぐ。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Trovolla assisa in letto fuor del lembo,
|
ヴィーナスはベッドの端に座っている
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER VIII
The attitude of Venus in Sandro's picture certainly recalls these lines, which may well have supplied the painter with his theme. On the other hand, the close connection that exists between this painting and another passage of the same poem, has led Dr. Richter to suggest a different interpretation of the subject. In the second book, the poet describes the dream which Venus sends to Giuliano in his sleep. His fair mistress, Simonetta, appears to him wearing the armour of Pallas, and Cupid, whispering in his ear, tells him that the goddess will give him the victory in the Tournament, and that when the fight is over, his love will lay down her arms and be given back to him clad in her old white robe. In the broad-chested, strong-limbed young man, with the olive skin and the thick curly locks, whom Sandro represents slumbering with his head drowsily sunk back on the flowery sward, Dr. Richter suggests we have "il bel Giuliano" himself, the mighty hunter who sleeps in the cool shade of the myrtle bowers, dreaming of his beloved. Here, too, according to the same critic, is the lady of his love, who, clad in a white gold-braided robe, and resting her arm on a crimson pillow, sits up erect and grave, watching the sleeping warrior with an air of contented repose on her face. The careful arrangement of the fair nymph's curled and plaited locks, her life-like and expressive features, have led Dr. Richter to suggest that we have here a portrait of Simonetta robed in the bianca gonna ready to meet the eyes of her lover when he wakes out of sleep. Meanwhile three merry little goat-footed Loves play with his lance and helmet, and one mischievous boy blows through a shell into the slumbering hero's ear, while another laughing child peeps out from under his arm without apparently producing the least effect. These sportive children do not belong to Poliziano's epic, but were evidently suggested by a passage in which Lucian describes a picture of the Marriage of Alexander by the painter Aetion. This Greek poet, whose minute and critical account of works of art was very popular with the Florentine humanists of the Renaissance, describes the three little Cupids bending- down under the weight of Alexander's spear, and tells how one of these has slyly slipped his head into the breast-plate lying on the ground, exactly as Sandro has painted them.
|
第八章
サンドロの作品でのヴィーナスの姿勢は、これらの詩の一節を思い起こさせる。確かにサンドロに主題となるものを与えたかもしれない。一方、この絵画と同じ詩の別の部分の間に存在する密接なつながりは、リヒター博士に、その主題の異なる解釈を示唆させた。第二巻の本では、詩人はヴィーナスが眠っているジュリアーノに送る夢を描く。彼の美しい愛人、シモネッタは、彼にはパラスの武具をつけているように見える。そして、耳にささやくキューピッドは、女神が騎馬試合で勝利をもたらし、戦いが終わると、彼女の武具を取り、そのいつもの白い衣を着て彼のところに戻ってくる。オリーブ色の肌と濃い巻き毛の髪の、胸幅の広い、強い体躯の、サンドロが花が咲く野原に頭を横たえてまどろんでいるように描く、若い男の中に、リヒター博士によれば、我々は「イル・ベル（美男子の）・ジュリアーノ」その人を見ているのだ。愛する人を夢見て、マートル（ギンバイカ）の涼しい木陰で眠っている強い狩人がいるのだ。同じ批評家によれば、金編みの白い衣を着て、紅い枕の上に腕を置き、きちんと厳粛に起き上がり座って、眠っている戦士を満足げに落ち着いた表情で眺めているその男性が愛する婦人がいる。美しい乙女の巻いて編んだ髪が丁寧に整えられ、生き生きして表情に富む様子は、リヒター博士に、我々は、白い衣をまとい、愛する人が眠りから目を覚したらすぐに目を合わせるつもりのところのシモネッタの肖像画を見ているのだと、言わせたくなる。その間、三人の小さなヤギの足をしたサテュロスたちが彼の槍と兜で遊び、一人のいたずらなサテュロスが眠っている英雄の耳にシェルを吹き込み、もう一人の笑っている子どもが腕の下から覗いているようである。これらの陽気な子どもたちはポリツィアーノの壮大な叙事詩には登場しないが、ルキアノスがアレクサンダーの結婚の絵を画家アエティオンが描写する過程で明らかに示唆された。ルネッサンス時代のフィレンツェの人文主義者の間でその精緻で批判的な作品が大変人気があったこのギリシャの詩人は、アレクサンダーの槍の重さの下で三人の小さなキューピッドが潰されかかっていると説明し、サンドロが描いたのとまったく同じように、そのうちの一人が地面に横たわっている胸当て板の中に頭を滑り入れたことを描いた。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER VIII
Whatever the correct interpretation of the subject may be, we have without doubt, in the National Gallery panel, one of the finest and most highly finished of Botticelli's works. There can be no question as to the rare decorative charm of the design, or the incomparable beauty of line that is revealed in living forms and flowing draperies. The nude limbs of the sleeping warrior and soft roundness of the baby forms and faces are admirably modelled. The rich colouring of the crimson cushion and gold-chased armour, the snowy whiteness of the nymph's robes, are set off by the dark-green foliage of the myrtle bower and the delicate tints of the sky and sea that appear in the distance.
|
第八章
作品についての正しい解釈が何であれ、ロンドン・ナショナル・ギャラリーの板絵には、ボッティチェリの作品の中でも最も完成度の高いものの一つがある。図案の類まれな装飾の魅力や、線描の生き生きとした形態や襞で現れる比類のない美しさには疑問の余地がない。眠っている戦士の裸足と、赤ちゃんの形や顔の柔らかい丸みは、見事に形取られている。真紅のクッションと金模様を打ち出しにした武具の豊かな色彩、乙女の衣の雪白さは、遠景のマートル（ギンバイカ）の木陰と空と海の微妙な色合いで覆われている。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER VIII
The companion panel to this picture in the National Gallery, a Venus or Simonetta reclining on a couch, while three Amorini play at her feet with bunches of grapes and red and white roses, was also acquired for the nation at the Barker sale, and still bears the name of Botticelli, but is evidently an inferior work by a scholar's hand. The best authorities now recognize it as the work of Jacopo del Sellajo, one of Sandro's most skilful and industrious assistants, who executed most of the similar compositions in the Louvre and other galleries.
|
第八章
ロンドン・ナショナル・ギャラリーのこの作品に付随する板絵は、「ヴィーナス」すなわちシモネッタがソファに座っていて、三人の天使（アモリーニ）がブドウと赤と白のバラのついた枝で彼女の足元で遊んでいる作品が一つあり、バーカー・コレクションからの売却に際し国家のために買収されたものである。ボッティチェリの名前は作者としてまだ残っているが、明らかに弟子の手による二流の作品である。最高権威は今、それをヤコポ・ダ・セライヨの作品と認めている。ヤコポはサンドロの最も巧みで勤勉な助手の一人で、ルーヴル美術館や他のギャラリーに所蔵の同様の作品のほとんどを製作していた。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER VIII
The Bacchus, lifting a cup to his lips with both hands, which Vasari saw in the Medici palace and describes as a very beautiful figure, has unfortunately disappeared, and we can only hope that, like the long lost Pallas, it may once more be brought to light by some unexpected stroke of fortune.
|
第八章
ヴァザーリが、メディチ家の宮殿で見て、非常に美しい姿と記述した、両手で自分の唇に杯を持ち上げるバッカスの肖像画は残念ながら消えてしまっている。そして我々は、長い間失われていた「パラス」のように、いつかその作品がいくつかの予想外の幸運の巡り合わせで、いま一度日の目を見ることが出来ることを期待するしかない。
CHAPTER IX∧
1480 - 1481
第九章∧
1480 - 1481
CHAPTER X∧
1481 - 1482
第十章∧
1481 - 1482
6. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssops and shall dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed over the ranning water:
7. And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.
レビ記第十四章:6 生きている小鳥を、杉の木と緋色の撚り糸とヒソプ（訳者注：ヤナギハッカ）といっしょに取り、湧き水の上でほふった小鳥の血の中に、その生きている小鳥と一緒にそれらを浸す。
レビ記第十四章:7 それを、癩病から清められる者の上に七たび振りかけて、その者を清いと宣言し、さらにその生きている小鳥を野に放す。
|
CHAPTER XI∧
Botticelli returns to Florence.
|
第十一章∧
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
WE learn from the chronicler of the Papal court, Jacopo da Volterra, that the decoration of the Sixtine Chapel was completed by the month of August, 1483. On the 10th of July, being the Vigil of the Feast of St. Lawrence, the Pope, whose impatience could no longer be restrained, paid an unexpected visit to the chapel to see how the work was progressing, and found the frescoes almost finished. A month later, on the Feast of the Assumption, the Chapel was solemnly opened by his Holiness. Crowds of visitors were admitted to see the sanctuary which had been adorned by the foremost of living masters. Sandro Botticelli's share in the work was probably completed some months, although it is doubtful if he can have returned to Florence before the end of 1482.
|
第十一章
我々は、1483年8月までにシスティーナ礼拝堂の装飾絵画が完成したことを、法王宮殿史官のヤコポ・ダ・ヴォルテーラから学ぶ。7月10日、聖ローレンス祭の不寝番になった法王は、もはや忍耐力を抑えられず、礼拝堂への突然の訪問により壁画製作がどのように進行していたかを見に行った。そして、フレスコ画がほぼ完成したことを知った。一月後、聖母被昇天の祝祭日に礼拝堂はローマ法王聖下によって厳粛に開場された。訪問者の群衆は、当時最高で若手の親方（マエストロ）によって装飾された聖域を見ることを許された。サンドロ・ボッティチェリ担当の作品は、1482年の終わり以前にサンドロがフィレンツェに戻ることができたのかどうかは疑わしいが、おそらく数ヶ月で完了しただろう。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The arrest and death of the revolted Archbishop of Krain, which, as Dr. Steinmann has shown, was the incident illustrated in Sandro's fresco of the Punishment of Korah, did not take place until December, 1482; and it is, therefore, hardly possible that this part of the painter's work in the Papal Chapel was finished much before Christmas.
|
シュタインマン博士が示したように、クラナハの大司教の逮捕と自殺は、サンドロの「コラ、ダタン、アビラムの懲罰」のフレスコ画で描かれた事件であった。この事件は1482年12月以降に起こったのであった。従って、法王の礼拝堂での画家の作品のこの部分は、クリスマスのかなり前に完成していること有り得ない。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
According to Vasari, Pope Sixtus, no mean authority in artistic matters, was highly satisfied with Botticelli's frescoes, and gave the painter "a considerable sum of money, recognizing that he had surpassed all his peers and acquired greater fame and reputation than any of the competitors. But unfortunately," the biographer continues, "Sandro, with his usual recklessness, squandered all the money that he had earned in Rome, and having finished that part of the work which was assigned to him, and seen it uncovered, he returned suddenly to Florence." That Botticelli was a dreamy and unpractical person, setting little store on money and careless of personal advantage or honour, we can well believe. But Vasari's account of his idle and extravagant habits is probably as much exaggerated as his repeated assertions that the painter abandoned his work, and consequently fell into dire poverty in later years.
|
第十一章
ヴァザーリによると、法王シクストゥス四世は、芸術的な問題では容易ならぬ見識を持っていたが、ボッティチェリのフレスコ画に非常に満足した。伝記作家は、「法王は、サンドロが同輩の皆をまさり、競争相手の誰よりも大きな名声と評価を獲得したことを認め、画家にかなりの金額を与えた。しかし残念なことに、サンドロはいつもの無軌道さで、ローマで得たすべてのお金を浪費し、彼に割り当てられた仕事の部分を終え、その完了を確認したら、突然フィレンツェに戻ってしまった」と言う。ボッティチェリが、夢見がちで非実務的な人で、お金に無頓着で、個人的な利益や名誉を気にしないということを、我々は十分信じることができる。しかし、サンドロの遊んで過ごし、浪費する習慣についてのヴァザーリのここでの記述は、おそらく、画家が後年、仕事を放棄し、その結果、悲惨な貧困に陥ったとの、繰り返される主張と同じように誇張されている。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
The historian, however, does full justice to Sandro's genial temper and to the great affection which he cherished not only for his own pupils, but for all those who loved and studied art. "He loved beyond measure those whom he knew to be diligent students of art." As a natural result, the great master was popular with all the young painters in Florence. Even scholars in the rival workship, Bartolommeo di Giovanni and the young Michelangelo Buonarroti, both of whom received their first training from Ghirlandaio, were on friendly terms with Botticelli, and the former worked for many years as his assistant. The most distinguished of all his pupils, Filippino, showed his affection for his master by introducing a portrait of Sandro into his first important work, the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of the Carmine. The task of finishing this series of paintings, which had been interrupted by the early death of Masaccio in 1428, was assigned to Sandro's promising scholar by the Carmelite friars, who were anxious to complete the decoration of their convent church and had not forgotten that Filippino's father had once been a brother of their Order. The young painter may have received this commission while Botticelli and Ghirlandaio were still absent, and probably executed the second fresco, which represents the Crucifixion of St. Peter, soon after his master's return from Rome. Many of the leading personages of the Medici circle, who were closely associated with Sandro, figure in these works of Filippino. Among the portraits introduced in Masaccio's unfinished painting of the "Raising of the King's Son", Vasari mentions Luigi Pulci, the poet of the Morgante Maggiore and of Lorenzo's "Giostra", whose great epic had only recently appeared in print for the first time; Piero Guicciardini, the kinsman of the historian, who left his books so reluctantly to joust with the gay Giuliano; and Tommaso Soderini, the first cousin of the Magnifico, and one of Sandro's most intimate friends. The painter Antonio Pollaiuolo, a tall man with a high cap and long nose, appears in the next fresco of the Trial of St. Peter and St. Paul, standing close by the throne of the Emperor Nero, while Botticelli stands in front of the archway, which connects this subject with that of the Crucifixion of St. Peter, watching the scene of martyrdom. He wears a long red mantle, green leggings, and has a gray cap on his head; while in the profile of his face we recognize the same strongly-marked features, deep-set eyes, and long locks, as, standing a little apart from the crowd, he fixes his gaze intently on the scene before him.
|
第十一章
しかし、歴史学者は、サンドロの温和な気性と、自身の弟子だけでなく、芸術を愛し、学ぶすべての人々のために心に抱いていた愛情を、「サンドロは、芸術をよく勉強する若い人たちをとても大好きであった」として、十分に認めている。自然な結果として、この偉大な親方（マエストロ）はフィレンツェのすべての若手画家たちに人気があった。競争相手の工房の弟子で、ともにギルランダイオからの最初の修行を受けたバルトロメオ・ディ・ジョヴァンニや若いミケランジェロ・ブオナローティはボッティチェリと親しい間柄になり、バルトロメオは長年助手として働いた。サンドロの弟子の中で最も著名なフィリッピーノは、自分の最初の重要な作品、サンタ・マリア・デル・カルミネ聖堂ブランカッチ礼拝堂のフレスコ画に、サンドロの肖像を描き込み、親方への愛情を示した。1428年にマサッチオの早い死によって中断されたこの一連の絵画を完成させる作業は、修道院教会の装飾を完成させることを切望していたカルミネの修道士によってサンドロの有望な弟子に割り当てられた。フィリッピーノの父はかつてこの修道院の同胞だったのだ。若い画家フィリッピーノはボッティチェリとギルランダイオがまだローマに行って、フィレンツェにいない間にこの委託を受けたのだろう。おそらくローマからの師匠の帰還の直後に「聖ペテロの磔刑」を表す第二のフレスコ画を製作した。サンドロと親しかったメディチ家の仲間の主要な人物の多くは、フィリッピーノのこれらの作品に登場している。マサッチョの未完の絵画「王の息子の蘇生」にフィリッピーノが新たに描き込んだ肖像の中で、ヴァザーリは、その偉大な叙事詩は最近に初めて出版された、叙事詩「大モーガンテ（モーガンテ・マジョーレ）」と、ロレンツォの時の「ジオストラ（騎馬試合）」の詩人ルイジ・プルチ、書籍を離れてまで、人気のあるジュリアーノと騎馬試合をするのは嫌だった、歴史家の親戚のピエロ・ギッシアーディーニ、マニフィコの最初の従弟で、サンドロの最も親密な友人の一人、トマソ・ソデリーニの姿を認めた。高い帽子と長い鼻を持つ背の高い男の画家のアントニオ・ポライウォーロが、「論争する聖ペテロと聖パウロ、聖ペテロの磔刑」のフレスコ画に登場し、皇帝ネロの近くに立っている。ボッティチェリは、アーチへの通路の前に立ち、「聖ペテロの磔刑」の主題を結びつけ、殉教の場面を見ている。彼は長い赤い上衣、緑色のレギンスをはき、頭に灰色の帽子をかぶっている。彼の顔の様子では、我々は、いつものサンドロらしい特徴、深みのある目、長い髪の毛を認める。サンドロは群衆から少し離れたところに立ち、目の前の出来事に見入っている。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
But this earnest, serious man, who pondered so deeply over the gravest themes, and whose fairest faces are clouded with the same shadow of majestic sadness, could be gay enough at times. Sandro, writes Vasari, was a very pleasant person - "Fu Sandro persona molto piacevole." - famous for the merry sayings and practical jokes in which he frequently indulged with his friends and pupils. The biographer proceeds to recount several of these for our benefit.
|
第十一章
しかし、深刻な主題について非常に深く熟考し、そしてその最も澄んだ顔は荘厳な悲しみの影で曇っている、この真面目で硬い男は、時にかなりにぎやかな（訳者注：ここで「gay」という単語が使われているが、20世紀初めに、ここでサンドロを「同性愛者」とすることは、彼を犯罪者というに等しい）ことがあった。サンドロはとても楽しい人だった、と、バサリを書いている。「イル・サンドロ モルト ピアチェーヴォレ」 愉快なことを言ったり、 経験に富んだ冗談で有名で、ちょくちょく友人や弟子を楽しませた。伝記作家は、我々の参考に供するために、次に、これらのいくつかを詳しく話す。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
On one occasion, Biagio Tucci, an artist who worked with him for many years, and was associated with him in several important occasions, painted a replica of one of his master's most popular pictures - a tondo of the Madonna with eight life-sized angels, which, in Vasari's days, adorned the Church of San Francesco, outside the gates of San Miniato. Sandro succeeded in finding him a customer who promised to give six florins for the picture, and hastened to tell Biagio the good news. At the same time he advised his pupil to hang up the Madonna in a good light, and promised to bring the citizen, who had agreed to buy the picture, to see it the next morning. Biagio was overjoyed at his good fortune and readily followed his master's advice. But that evening, when Biagio had gone home, Sandro and another of his assistants, Jacopo by name, cut out eight scarlet paper caps, such as were worn by the chief magistrates, and with the help of a little white wax, fixed them on the heads of the eight angels who were grouped round the Madonna in Biagio's tondo. The painter returned the next morning and Sandro introduced the citizen who had promised to buy the picture, and who was in the secret. Great was Biagio's amazement when he saw that his Madonna, instead of being surrounded by angels, was sitting in the midst of the Signory of Florence. He began to make excuses and protest his ignorance of the alteration in his picture, but the merchant took no notice and began to praise the work. So Biagio remained silent and accompanied his customer to his house, where the artist received the six florins which had been agreed upon as the price of the picture. When Biagio returned to the bottega, he found that Sandro and Jacopo had removed the red paper caps in his absence, and that his angels were once more angels, and no longer hooded citizens. For a while the poor artist remained stupefied, unable to understand what could have happened. At length he turned to Sandro, saying, "Maestro mio, I know not if I am dreaming or where I am! when I was here before, these angels had red caps on their heads and now they have none - what can this mean?" "You are out of your mind, my poor Biagio," replied Sandro gravely. "This money has turned your head. If this were the case, do you suppose for a moment that this citizen would have bought your picture?" "That is true," replied Biagio; "he certainly did not say a word of this to me; but still it seems a very strange thing." In the end, all the other apprentices and assistants came round him, saying the same as Sandro, until Biagio began to think that he had been the victim of some delusion of his own brain.
|
第十一章
ある時、長年サンドロと一緒に働き、いくつかの重要な機会に協働していた画家、ビアジオ・トゥッチは、自分の親方サンドロの最も人気のある絵の複製を描いた。聖母と八人の実大の天使たちの円形画（トンド）である。ヴァザーリの時代にサン・ミニアート門の外にあるサン・フランチェスコ教会を飾ったものだ。サンドロは、この作品のために六フロリン金貨を提供することを約束した顧客を見つけることに成功し、ビアジオに良い知らせを急いで伝えた。それと同時に、サンドロは良い光の中で聖母像を展示するように弟子に助言し、翌朝にそれを見るために作品を購入することに同意した客を連れて行くことを約束した。ビアジオは幸運に喜んで、サンドロの助言に二つ返事で従った。しかし、その夜、ビアジオが家に帰ったあと、サンドロと別の助手、名前はヤコポ、は高位高官が着用するような緋色の紙帽子を八枚、切り取って作り、白蝋の助けを借りて、ビアジオの円形画の聖母の周りにいる八人の天使の頭に貼り付けた。画家は翌朝戻ってきて、サンドロはその絵を買うと約束した市民を紹介した。誰だかは秘密だった。ビアジオの聖母が、天使に囲まれているのではなく、フィレンツェのお偉方の真中に座っているのを見て、ビアジオの驚きは大きかった。ビアジオは言い訳をし始め、絵が変更されたことを知らなかったと主張したが、商人はそんなことには気づかずに作品を賞賛し始めた。だからビアジオは黙って、客の家について行った。そこでは、画家は絵画の価格として合意された六フローリンを受け取った。ビアジオが工房に戻ったとき、サンドロとヤコポが自分が出かけている間に赤い紙の帽子を取り除いたこと、そして天使はもう一度天使であり、もはや帽子付きの市民ではないことを発見した。しばらくの間、可哀想な画家は何かが起こったか理解できない、ぼーっとしたままであった。しまいにビアジオはサンドロに言った、「マエストロ・ミオ、私は夢を見ているのか、私がどこにいるのか分かりません。私がここにいたとき、天使たちは頭の上に赤い帽子を被っていましたが、今は頭には何もありません。これはどういう意味ですか？」「君はおかしくなったんじゃないか。可哀想なビアジオ」サンドロは深刻そうに答えた。「このお金で君はいい気になった。もしそうなら、君はこの客が君の作品を買ったと思うか？」ビアジオは答えた。「 お客は確かに私に何も言わなかったが、それはまだ非常に奇妙なことだ」と。最後に、他のすべての徒弟や助手たちがビアジオの周りに来て、ビアジオ自身が脳の妄想の犠牲者であったと思うようになるまで、サンドロと同じことを言った。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
Another time, a clothweaver came to live next door to Sandro, and put up eight looms in his house, which, when they were at work, not only deafened poor Sandro with the noise of the shuttles, but shook the whole house, which was none too solidly built, so that the painter could not do any work or even remain in the house. In vain he begged his neighbour to remedy his grievance, but the man replied that he could and would do as he chose in his own house. Upon this Sandro, filled with indignation, caused an enormous stone, "which would have been a waggon-load of itself," to be balanced on the wall of his own house, which was higher than that of his neighbour and not by any means firm. Every time the wall shook, this stone was in danger of falling, and of crushing not only the roofs and floors of the house, but the looms and the weavers who were at work, to the dismay of the trouble-some neighbour. Terrified at this new peril, the man hastened to Sandro, but received the same reply which he himself had made before, namely, that in his own house he could and would do as he pleased. Since he was unable to obtain any other answer, he was obliged to come to reasonable terms, and from that time proved a good and peaceable neighbour.
|
第十一章
別の時には、布地織り業者がサンドロの隣に住みに来て、家に八台の織機を置いた。彼らは仕事場にいるときに、可哀想なサンドロを機の杼（シャトル）で耳を聞こえなくしただけでなく、あまりしっかりと造られていない家屋を揺すったので、画家は仕事をすることも、家に留まることもできなかった。サンドロは苦情の種を改善するよう隣人に懇願したが無駄だった。相手は自分の家では自分で出来るように、したいようするのだと答えた。これに対して、サンドロは、怒りでいっぱいになって、自分の家の壁に平衡を保つために、「それだけで荷車一台分の重さであろう」という巨大な石を引き起こして建てたた。この石は隣家の壁より高く、しっかり立っているとは言い難かった。壁が揺れるたびに、この石は落ちる危険性があり、家の屋根や床だけでなく、職場の織機や織物を壊す危険性があった。これで、迷惑を起こしている隣家を狼狽させた。この新たな危機で恐怖を抱いた隣家の男はサンドロのところに慌てて来たが、本人が以前にサンドロに言ったのと同じ返事を受けた。どんな他の答えも得ることができなかったので、隣家の男は合理的な条件にするしかないと考えるしかなくなり、その時以降は良き平和な隣人となった。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
"And it is also said," continues Vasari, "that on one occasion, Sandro, by way of a joke, went to the vicar of his parish and accused one of his friends of holding the heretical opinions of the Epicureans, and believing that the soul dies with the body. The injured citizen summoned his accuser to meet him before the ecclesiastical court, and when Sandro appeared, he exclaimed: 'It is true that I hold this opinion concerning this man's soul, who is a beast. And do you not also hold him to be a heretic, since without being learned, and hardly indeed knowing how to read, he has ventured to write a commentary on Dante and take the poet's name in vain?’" The anecdote is worthy of note as showing Botticelli's interest in theological questions and his well-known love of Dante, whose "Divina Commedia" he certainly illustrated, in a manner which proves that he had studied the text very closely, if he did not actually write a commentary on the great poem.
|
第十一章
ヴァザーリはこんなこともあったと続ける。「ある時、サンドロは、冗談のつもりで、教区教会の司教代理のところへ行き、友人の一人がエピクロス派の異端的な意見を持ち、魂は身体とともに死ぬと信じていると非難した。傷つけられた市民は、告訴人を召喚して教会裁判所で会うことにした。告訴人としてサンドロが現れたとき、彼は叫んだ。『私は、獣であるこの人間の魂についてこの意見を持っているのは事実です。なぜなら、学ばずに、実際に読む方法を知ることはほとんどないのに、彼はダンテに注釈を書いて、詩人の名前を得ようと無駄な努力をしてきたからです。そして、皆さんも、彼を異端者とするのではないか』と」ボッティチェリが神学的な問題に興味を持っていることと、サンドロのダンテへの愛（このことは皆に知られていた）を示しているような逸話は注目に値する。ダンテの神曲にサンドロは確かにテキストを非常に詳細に研究した上で、挿絵を描いたが、この偉大な詩の作品に実際には注釈を付けなかった。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
But the best of these stories of Sandro is told by the Anonimo Gaddiano. One day his intimate friend, Messer Tommaso Soderini, a favourite cousin and loyal follower of Lorenzo de' Medici was urging him to marry before it was too late. The painter steadily refused to be persuaded, and when Messer Tommaso still pressed the point he replied: "I will tell you what happened to me the other night. I dreamt that I was married, and the bare idea made me feel so miserable, that for fear I should fall asleep and dream the same dream over again, I got up and rushed about the streets of Florence all night, as if I were a madman!" "After that sally," adds the writer, "Messer Tommaso saw that this was not the kind of soil to plant a vineyard in."
|
第十一章
しかし、サンドロのこうした物語の中で最高なのは、「アノニモ」・ガッディアーノが語るものだ。ある日、彼の親密な友人であり、ロレンツォ・デ・メディチの気のあった従弟で忠実な同志であるトマソ・ソデリーニは、サンドロに手遅れになる前に、結婚するよう促した。画家は、説得されることをしっかりと拒否したのだが、トマソはもうひと押しした。そのとき、彼は答えた。「昨晩私に起こったことお話ししよう。私はある女と結婚している夢を見た。女は仕事には口を突っこむ、どこへでもついてくる、最後には私が通りへ狂人のようになって逃げだすと、後から追いかけてくる、いやはやこんな目に会うぐらいなら、独りで気楽にやったほうがましだ」と。「その冗談の後で、トマソには、これはブドウ園を作る種類の土壌ではなかったことがわかった」と「アノニモ」は付け加えた。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XI
Instances of Sandro's power of repartee and shrewd, if not always civil, answers, were evidently commonly repeated by his contemporaries. On one occasion, continues the Anonimo, he said to a certain person who had expressed a wish that he had a hundred tongues with which to defend his arguments, "You say that you want more tongues, as if you had not already more than you require! You had better wish for more brains, poor fool, as it is very clear that you were born with none.
|
第十一章
サンドロの当意即妙の才と抜けめのない、いつも礼儀正しいとはいえないが、応対の能力の例は、同時代の人々によって明らかに普通に繰り返し言われていた。「アノニモ」は言う。ある時、サンドロは、自分の主張を守るために百の舌を持ちたいという望みを表明した人に言った。「あなたはより多くの舌がほしいと言っている。まるで、あなたが必要とする以上の舌を既に持っていないかのように。それより、あなたはもっと頭脳を持った方がいい。哀れな愚か者よ。とにかく、あなたが能無しで生まれたことは確かなのだ」と。
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
A dreamer and a mystic at heart, yet a gay and lively companion, the best of masters and truest of friends, with a kind heart and keen sense of humour, full of sympathy for promising scholars and of love for little children, taking delight in the society of his intimate friends, but loving his books still better, spending freely and giving largely, strong in his likes and dislikes, deeply religious but a stern foe to cant and hypocrisy, passionate in his enthusiasm for great leaders and lost causes - such was Sandro Botticelli, the favourite painter of Lorenzo de' Medici and the faithful follower of Savonarola.
|
夢想家であり、神秘主義者であり、しかし、賑やかで活発な仲間であり、最高の親方（マエストロ）で真実の友達であり、親切な心とユーモアの鋭い感覚を持ち、将来ある弟子への大きな共感や小さな子供たちへの愛にあふれ、親密な友人たちとの交流に喜び、しかしいまだに勉強好きで、自由にお金を使い気前よくあげて、好き嫌いを強く持ち、深く宗教的だが偽善に対しては厳しい敵であり、偉大な指導者や、逆に勝ち目のない人々に対し強い熱意をもつ。それがサンドロ・ボッティチェリ、ロレンツォ・デ・メディチが愛した画家、サボナローラの後の忠実な信者である。
CHAPTER XII∧
1483- 1489
第十二章∧
1483 - 1489
CHAPTER XIII ∧
1484 - 1488
第十三章∧
1484 - 1488
CHAPTER XIV∧
1489 - 1498
第十四章∧
1489 - 1498
Countless were the replicas, endless the imitations of original works by the master, which issued from Sandro's workshop in these days and bore his name throughout the years to come.
複製は無数になり、サンドロ自身の作の模造品も限りなく、サンドロの工房から当時、出され、以後何年にも渡って、サンドロの名が冠された。
|
CHAPTER XV∧ 1491 - 1500
Botticelli's paintings of St. Zenobius.
|
第十五章∧
1491 - 1500
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
AS long as Lorenzo de' Medici lived, he proved a good friend to Botticelli. On the 5th of January, 1491, the painter was appointed member of a commission which met to judge the designs which had been prepared for the facade of the Duomo. Ghirlandaio, Alessio Baldovinetti, Filippino Lippi, Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, and Cronaca were among the members of the commission, and Lorenzo himself presided over this important meeting. Antonio Pollaiuolo and Giuliano da Maiano, and several other eminent architects, sent in models for competition, but Lorenzo and his advisers ultimately agreed to defer their decision for the present, saying that the question was too important to be decided hastily. Four months later, on the 18th of May, Botticelli was chosen, together with Domenico Ghirlandaio, his brother and assistant Davide, and the miniaturists Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni, to execute a series of mosaics for the decoration of the chapel of St. Zenobius, in the Duomo. The work was never carried out, but three panels on the life and miracles of the Saint, by the hand of Sandro, which are still in existence, may have been originally designed in preparation for the task, and afterwards adapted for use as Cassoni. Two of these, in which the calling, baptism and consecration of the good Bishop, and his first miracles are represented, now belong to the collection of Mr. Ludwig Mond. A third, formerly in the Metzger and Quandt collections, is now in the Dresden Gallery. Here the Saint resuscitates a child, who has been run over by the wheels of a cart, and restores him to his mother's embraces,
 while, in another compartment, he is represented lying on his death-bed and giving his last blessing to the assembled priests and people. All of these  are marked by the same richness and variety of architecture and the same animated action.The consternation aroused in the street by the accident to the boy, and the rapture of the mother who clasps her child once more in her arms are both vividly depicted, but the artistic effect of the whole is marred by the crowds of figures introduced, and the violent gestures and extravagant emotion displayed by the different actors in the drama. Two other interesting works of a similar nature, but of a finer and more restrained style, may be mentioned here, although their finer style and more restrained action seem to point to an earlier date of execution. One, the Story of Virginia, is in the Morelli Gallery at Bergamo, the other, the Death of Lucretia, has recently passed from the Ashburnham Collection into that of Mrs. T. L. Gardner at Boston in the United States. These long narrow panels were evidently intended for the decoration of wedding chests or other furniture, and may, as Morelli suggests, belong to the series which Sandro painted for the house of his old patrons, the Vespucci. "In the Via di Servi," writes Vasari, "on the walls of a room in the house of Giovanni Vespucci, he painted many pictures framed in richly-carved panelling of walnut wood, full of beautiful and highly animated figures." Both pictures are remarkable for the imposing character of the classical architecture which is introduced in the background, and for the dramatic power with which the different incidents in these tragic tales are represented. The Story of Virginia is decidedly the finer of the two and contains, as Morelli has said, "about fifty figures as spirited in conception as they are careful in execution, each one indispensable to the harmony of the whole." As Vasari remarks, Sandro certainly never grudged his pains, and his smallest pictures are always crowded with figures. "Fu copioso di figure nelle storie." In this case, however, the composition is better than usual, and the groups are less confused and the action less exaggerated. "I could," writes Morelli, "scarcely name another work in which Botticelli's great artistic qualities, as well as his defects, are so strikingly apparent as in his masterly representation of this tragic scene." The background of the picture is occupied by a stately basilica adorned with bas-reliefs and pillars, where the Roman aedile administers justice, seated on a raised tribunal, while in the foreground the actual scene of Virginia's abduction takes place, and a group of armed riders, chariots and prancing horses are introduced. This panel is, fortunately, in excellent preservation and retains much of its original richness and harmony of color.
|
第十五章
ロレンツォ・デ・メディチが存命の間は常に、ロレンツォはボッティチェリにとって良い友人だった。1491年1月5日に、画家は、ドウオモの正面外観の設計の審査委員会の委員の一人に任命された。 ギルランダイオ、アレッシオ・バルドヴィネッティ、フィリッピーノ・リッピ、ペルジーノ、ロレンツォ・ディ・クレディ、クロナカ（訳者注：シモーヌ・ポライウォーロ）が委員であり、ロレンツォ自身がこの重要な会議を主宰した。アントニオ・ポライウォーロ、ジュリアーノ・ダ・マイアーノほか数名の著名な建築家が競争に参加を要請された。しかし、ロレンツォとその顧問は、この件は大変重要なので性急には決定できないとして、さしあたり、誰に設計をさせるかの結論を先送りした。四か月後の5月18日、今度は、ボッティチェリは、ドメニコ・ギルランダイオ、その兄弟で助手のダビデ、細密画家のゲラルドとモンテ・ディ・ジョバンニと一緒に、ドウオモの聖ゼノビウスの礼拝堂の装飾のための一連のモザイク画を施工するために選ばれた。モザイク画の準備のため、サンドロの手による聖人の生涯と奇跡に関する三枚の板絵（訳者注：全体では四枚で、現在メトロポリタン美術館にある「聖ゼノビウスの規制」が、ここでは言及されていない）は描かれた。施工は結局行われなかったが、板絵は現在残っている。それらは、後には、家具の櫃の一部に使用された。フィレンツェ最初の司教の召し、洗礼と奉献、そして最初の奇跡が表されている。これらの連作のうちの二つは、現在（1904年）ルートヴィヒ・モンドの所蔵である（訳者注：現在はロンドン・ナショナル・ギャラリー所蔵）。以前にメッガーやクバントの所蔵だった三つ目はドレスデン・ギャラリーにある。この作品では、聖人は、荷車の車輪に轢かれた子供を蘇生させ、母親の胸に戻し、
 別の部分では、聖人は死の床に横たわって、司祭たちや集まった人々に最後の祝福を与えている。これらはすべて、同じ豊かさと多様な建築物、同じ動きのある人々によって特徴付けられている。  子供の事故で街でおこった驚きと、救われてもう一度腕の中で子供を抱く母親の喜びは、どちらも鮮やかに描写されているが、全体の芸術的効果は、描かれた群衆や、出来事内のさまざまな人物の激しい身振りや過剰な感情表現によって損なわれている。他にこの二つの作品と興味深く似たような性格ではあるが、より洗練され、抑制された様式の作品を紹介しよう。といっても、それらのより洗練され、抑制された様式は、もっと早い時期の製作を意味しているかも知れない。一つは「ウェルギニア物語」で、ベルガモのモレリ・ギャラリーにあり（訳者注：現在はベルガモのカッラーラ美術館所蔵）、もう一つの「ルクレチアの死の物語」は、アシュバーンハム・コレクションからアメリカのボストンのガードナー夫人の所蔵になっている。これらの横長で高さの小さい板絵は、明らかに嫁入道具の櫃や他の家具の装飾を意図したもので、モレリが示唆しているように、サンドロが馴染みの顧客のヴェスプッチ家のために描いた連作かも知れない。ヴァザーリは、「ヴィア・ディ・セルヴィ（セルヴィ通り）の、ジョヴァンニ・ヴェスプッチの家の部屋の壁に、サンドロは多くの作品を製作し、それらは豊かな彫刻を施したウォールナット額に入れられ、そこには美しく大変生き生きした人々の姿が描かれている」と述べている。「ウェルギニア物語」と「ルクレッツィアの死の物語」の両方の作品は、背景に導入された古典的な建築の堂々とした特徴や、これらの悲劇の物語のさまざまな出来事が表現される劇的な力が、顕著である。「ウェルギニア物語」は明らかに二つのうちでより細かく描かれていて、モレリは、「約50人の人物の描写が丁寧になされたように、その役割にも生気を与えられ、全体の調和にそれぞれが不可欠になっている」と述べた。ヴァザーリは、サンドロは確かに細かく描くことを面倒に思ったことがなく、最も小さな作品でも常に人物でいっぱいである、すなわち「物語には人物が沢山登場する」としている。しかし、この作品の場合、構成は他よりも優れており、人物の集団はあまり混乱せず、また、その動作の誇張も少ない。モレリは、「私は、ボッティチェリの偉大な芸術的資質と彼の欠点が、この悲劇の場面の彼の熟達した表現のようにはっきりと分かるという作品は、これを置いて他にはない」と書いている。作品の背景は、浮き彫り彫刻や列柱で飾られた大聖堂で占められ、その大聖堂では、ローマの司法官吏が一段と高い裁判官席に座っている。前景には、ウェルギニアが実際に誘拐される情景が、武装した騎士、二輪馬車、躍りはねる軍馬とともに描かれている。この板絵は幸運にも良い状態で保存されてきて、元々の表現の豊かさや色彩の調和が残っている。
| |
CHAPTER XV
The different schemes for the completion and adorning of the Duomo which, as we have seen, were set on foot in 1491, were interrupted by the premature death of Sandro's great patron, Lorenzo il Magnifico. All through the summer and autumn of that year he suffered acutely from gout, and even the waters of Morbo and the pure air of the Volterra hills failed to relieve his pains. The cold weather of the early spring increased his sufferings, and when on the 10th of March, 1492, the elevation of his son Giovanni to the Cardinalate was proclaimed, Lorenzo was unable to be present at the solemn Mass celebrated in honour of the occasion in the Duomo, and could only be carried round on a litter, to greet the brilliant company assembled at the banquet in the Medici Palace. Ten days later he was taken to his favourite villa at Careggi, and there, with Pico and Poliziano to soothe his dying moments, and Savonarola to give him the last blessing, the great man died on Sunday, 8th April, at the age of forty-three. His body was borne to Florence, and rested for two days in state in San Marco until, on Tuesday the 10th of April, he was buried in the parish church of San Lorenzo, by the side of his father and grandfather.
|
第十五章
1491年に策定されたドウオモの正面外観の装飾のためのさまざまな計画は、サンドロの偉大な守護者、ロレンツォ・イル・マニフィコの早すぎる死によって中断された。その年の夏と秋にかけて、ロレンツォは痛風により激しく苦しみ、モルボの水とヴォルテッラの丘の清浄な空気も痛みを和らげなかった。年が明けても、春の初めの寒さは苦しみを増した。1492年3月10日に息子ジョバンニの枢機卿への昇格が宣言されたが、ロレンツォは、ドウオモでのそれを祝う厳粛なミサに出席できなかった。なんとかメディチ宮殿の祝賀会に集まった賓客に、輿に乗って挨拶するのが精一杯だった。10日後、彼は一番の気に入りのカレッジ別邸に連れて行かれた。そこには、ピコとポリジアーノが今際のきわの安らぎのために同行した。そしてサヴォナローラが最後の祝福を与えに来訪した。偉大なフィレンツェ人は4月8日の日曜日に43歳で死亡した。その遺体はフィレンツェに運ばれ、聖マルコ修道院で2日間安置され、4月10日の火曜日に聖ロレンツォ教区教会に彼の父と祖父の側に埋葬された。
| |
|
"Well may each one of us ask, 'what is this poor human life of ours?'" moralizes Luca Landucci, in true Piagnone fashion, as he records these events. "This man was to all appearance the most glorious man living, and he had the greatest fame and the richest and proudest position in the world. Everyone said that he governed Italy, and he was indeed a wise man, and all that he did prospered. And he had just succeeded in accomplishing what no other citizen had done for very long, he had seen his son raised to the rank of Cardinal. And yet with all this glory, when he reached this point he could go no further. Oh man, man, what reason hast thou for boastfulness (translator's comment: what hast thou to be proud of)? May God, who alone is great, pardon this man's sins, as I pray that He may pardon me!
|
「我々一人ひとりが、『人間の命は何と儚いものよ』と尋ねたくなる。この人は、誰が見ても、この世に生を受けた中で最も輝かしい人間であった。世界で最も偉大な名声を受け、豊かで誇り高い地位にいた。誰もが、この人がイタリアを統治したと言った。真に賢明な人であり、彼が行ったことは全て繁栄した。そして、彼は、他の市民が長年に渡ってできなかったことを達成した。すなわちその息子が枢機卿に昇格したのである。これはメディチ家のというだけでなく、フィレンツェ全体の栄誉である。そしてこのすべての栄光を受けて、ここまでやってきたのに、それ以上進むことはできなかった。 ああ、これは人間の自惚れであろうか。神よ、私を許したまえ。そのようにこの人の罪を許したまえ」と、ルカ・ランドゥッチは、言葉通りの「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」のように、泣きながらこれらの出来事を記録している。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
In Lorenzo de' Medici Florence lost her wisest and most successful ruler, and her artists were deprived of their most enlightened patron. The brilliant circle of which he had been the centre soon melted away. Pico della Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano both died two years after their illustrious friend, and Michelangelo left Florence. Botticelli never appears to have had any dealings with the Magnifico's worthless son, Piero, who soon disgusted his father's best friends, but he still clung to his old patron, Lorenzo di Pier Francesco. Fortunately for Sandro and his friends, this cousin of Lorenzo, as well as his younger brother Giovanni, both joined the popular party, and were allowed to remain in Florence and even employed on affairs of State when their kinsman, Piero, and his family were expelled from the city. It was probably about this time that Sandro began his series of drawings on the "Divina Commedia" for this patron, and when, on the 14th of July, 1496, young Michelangelo wrote to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco, who had sent him with introductions to his friends in Rome, he addressed his letter to "Sandro del Botticello the painter", in a cover bearing the Piagnone motto, "Christus!" But although Sandro had embraced the doctrines of the Friar, and shared the general enthusiasm of his revival, he must have seen with sorrow the dispersion of the magnificent collections which Lorenzo and his family had acquired with so much pains, the confiscation of the antique marbles and the priceless medals and vases and the "many beautiful objects" which were sold by public auction in front of Or San Michele. The revulsion of fickle popular feeling vented itself in these angry reprisals, and it was only the strenuous exertions of Savonarola, supported by Botticelli's learned friend, Giorgio Vespucci, that saved the famous Laurentian Library. Still sadder for the painter of the Tornabuoni frescoes was the summer day when young Lorenzo, the mirror of fashion and popular leader of the Florentine youth, was condemned to death with his four illustrious fellow-citizens. In vain Guid' Antonio Vespucci begged for delay, and Savonarola himself recommended the youth to mercy. Francesco Valori was inexorable, and the five partizans of the Medici were put to death amid the lamentations of the spectators. Within the next few months, Savonarola died at the stake, and the great movement closed in tears and bloodshed. In 1498, the year of Savonarola's execution, we learn from an income-tax paper that Sandro was still living in his old home in the Via Nuova. Both his father and elder brother Giovanni were dead, and the house was now the property of his nephews, Benincasa and Lorenzi Filipepi. But Simone Filipepi, we know, still lived under the same roof and shared a country house (Casa di Signore) in the parish of San Sepolcro, with him. The brothers, it appears, bought this house outside the gate of San Frediano, together with a vineyard and some fields, soon after their father's death, in April, 1494, for the sum of 156 florins and a yearly quit-rent of four soldi and a pair of capons, which they paid to the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. Thus it is clear that we need not believe Vasari's description of the extreme state of penury to which the painter found himself reduced by his neglect of work and frenesia for the Frate's cause. But Sandro must have suffered keenly during the terrible events of 1498, which his brother records with all the vividness of an eye-witness who was profoundly interested in the issue of the struggle.
|
第十五章
ロレンツォ・デ・メディチの死により、フィレンツェはその最も賢明で最も成功した支配者を失い、その芸術家たちは最も見識のある支援者を奪われた。ロレンツォが中心だった華麗な集まりはすぐに消え去った。ピコ・デラ・ミランドラとアンジェロ・ポリッツアーノは、偉大な友人の死に続いて二年後に亡くなり、ミケランジェロはフィレンツェを去った。ボッティチェリは、マニフィコの無益な息子ピエロと何の付き合いもなかった。ピエロは、すぐに父親の大切な友人たちをうんざりさせたのだった。サンドロはまだ以前からの支援者、ロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコの支援を受けていた。サンドロと彼の友人にとっては幸いにも、ロレンツォのこのいとこは、その弟ジョバンニと一緒に主流派に参加し、近親者のピエロやその家族がフィレンツェから追放された後にも、フィレンツェに留まり、行政に参画することを許された。たぶんこの時期であろう。サンドロはこの支援者のために「神曲」の挿絵の製作を始めた。そして、1496年7月14日、若いミケランジェロがロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコに手紙を送った。ロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコはローマの彼の友人にミケランジェロを紹介し、ミケランジェロはローマに行っていた。彼はその手紙の宛先を「画家のサンドロ・デル・ボッティチェッロ」としたのだった。封筒には「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」の好きな言い方「キリスト万歳！」が書かれていた。しかし、サンドロは修道士の教理を受け入れ、彼の復活に熱意を共有していたにもかかわらず、ロレンツォと彼の家族が収集した壮大なコレクションの四散を非常に苦しく悲しみを持って見ていた。古代の大理石彫刻や貴重なメダルや花瓶や「多くの美しいもの」が没収され、オルサンミケーレ教会の前で競売によって売られたのだった。移り気な人心の反感はそのはけ口を報復に向けた。有名なラオレンティン（訳者注：「ロレンツォの」の意）図書館を救ったのはボッティチェリの学識ある友人ジョルジオ・ヴェスプッチが支持していたサヴォナローラの奮闘による。トルナブオーニのフレスコ画の作者にとってさらに悲しかったのは、フィレンツェの若者の流行の先達であった若いロレンツォ・トルナブオーニが、彼の優れた同輩の四人の市民とともに、死刑判決を受けた夏の日であった。グイド・アントニオ・ヴェスプッチは執行の延期を嘆願し、サヴォナローラ自身も若者に慈悲を与えるよう勧めたが無駄であった。フランチェスコ・ヴァローリは冷酷で、メディチ派の五人は群衆の嘆きの中で死に至った。次の数か月のうちに、サヴォナローラは火刑に処せられ、大きな歴史の動きは涙と流血で幕を閉じた。 サヴォナローラの処刑された1498年に、サンドロがヴィア・ヌオヴァの古い家にまだ住んでいたことが、納税報告書からわかっている。父と兄のジョバンニは死んでいたが、その家は今では甥、ロレンツィ・フィリペーピとベニンカーサの家であった。しかし、シモーネ・フィリペーピは、サンドロと同じ屋根の下に住んでいて、サン・セポルクロ教区の田舎家（カーサ・ディ・シニョーレ）を弟と共有していた。兄弟たちは、1494年4月に、父親が死亡した直後に、サン・フレアノ門の外のこの家と、葡萄園と多少の農地を購入したと思われる。このため、合計156フローリンを支払い、一年に四ソルドの免役地代、二羽の鶏をサンタ・マリア・ヌオーヴァ病院に支払うこととなったことがわかった。したがって、我々は、サンドロが仕事を放棄し、修道士に入れあげた挙句、極端な貧困に陥ったとするヴァザーリの記述を信じる必要はないことは明らかである。しかしサンドロは1498年に続いた恐ろしい出来事にひどく苦しんできたにちがいない。一方、兄は騒動の問題に深く関心を持っている目撃者として出来事を生々しく日記に記録していた。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
Step by step he follows his sainted leader through the days of his waning popularity, and of the increasing animosity of his foes. He describes the successive scenes of the ordeal by fire, the midnight attack on the convent, the mock trial and falsified depositions, the torture and dungeon, and the final execution on the Piazza, which Simone himself witnessed. "I was present at this spectacle and say what I saw, and know these things to be true." He records how on the scaffold Bishop Pagagnotti pronounced the words: 'I separate you from the Church militant and triumphant.'; and how he heard the Frate reply: 'Monsignore, you are mistaken. You can separate me from the Church militant but not from the Church triumphant. That remains with God (Sta a Dio).' And he bears unfaltering witness to the Friar's holiness and purity of life. "His worst enemies could not say a word against his conduct. He read and prayed and wrote, and said his office, and never wasted a moment, and gave audience to all who wished to see him. No one ever left him unconsoled, although it were his worst enemy, and he was always joyous and cheerful... When in prison, bound hand and foot in the vilest dungeon, he bore his sufferings without a murmur - this his jailer told me - but only said to him: 'Live honestly and God will bring you to his paradise, where we shall be together again.' And he wrote out a brief rule of life with his disabled hand, and gave the man some advice for his little daughter, who sometimes came to see him." And he adds that Ser Ceccone, the notary who drew up the process and wrote down the supposed depositions of the Frate, died in the same year, crying out in the anguish of his remorse: "I have been another Judas, and have betrayed innocent blood."
|
第十五章
人気の衰えつつあり、敵の憎悪が増していく日々に、聖人の指導者に一歩一歩、歩み寄るシモーネは、自身が目撃したシニョーリア広場での火の試練、修道院への深夜の攻撃、擬似裁判と偽装された処分、拷問と牢獄、シニョーリア広場での最終的な処刑の、連続的な場面を描写した。「私はこの光景に立会い、私が見たことを語る。これらのことが真実であることを知っている」と書いた。彼は、足場の上のパガノッティ司教がどのように宣言したかを記録する。「爾を戦闘と勝利の教会から除籍す」と、そして司教が修道士の返答をどう聞いたか：「あなたは間違っている。あなたは私を戦闘の教会から除籍することはできるが、勝利の教会からは除籍できない。それは神の御心のままであるからである」と。そしてシモーネは、修道士の神聖さと生の純粋さへのゆるぎない証人となる。「修道士の最悪の敵は、彼の行為に対して一言も言葉を発することができなかった。（訳者注：以降は、獄中での様子）修道士は読んで祈って書いて、職務日課の祈りを唱え、一瞬も無駄にしなかったし、会いたいといすべての人と謁見した。それは彼にとっては最悪の敵だったが、誰も彼を慰めないではいられなかった。そして、彼はいつも喜び、陽気であった... 捕らえられ、劣悪な牢獄で手足を拘束されたとき、修道士は静かにその苦しみを耐え - これは彼の看守が私に言ったことだ -：『正直に生きよ、神はあなたを私たちと一緒に神の楽園に連れて行くであろう』： そして、修道士は痛めた手で人生の簡潔な訓示を書き、時々修道士に会いに来た看守の小さな娘のために助言を与えた」とシモーネは記録した。そして、さらにシモーネは、訴状を作成し、修道士のあらかじめ予定されていた内容の宣誓証書を書き留めた公証人セール・セルコーネが、後悔の悩みの中で「私はもう一人のユダであり、罪のない人の血を売るようなことをした」叫びながら、同じ年に死亡した、と付け加えた。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
Very gloomy is the picture which contemporaries paint of the days of persecution which followed, when many of the friars of San Marco were cast into prison and his devoted followers were doomed to ruin and death. Then the vilest calumnies were heaped upon the Frate and his friends, and no one could speak his name without peril to his life. All fear of God and reverence for holy things seemed to have died out, blasphemy and sacrilege went unpunished. Hell itself seemed to open, and all its devils were let loose. In those terrible days Simone Filipepi fled for safety to Bologna, where many of the Piagnoni had already taken shelter, but Sandro remained in Florence. His old connection with the Medici and the friendship of Lorenzo di Pier Francesco stood him in good stead; but he saw the crime and misery about him, and shared in the deep dejection of the faithful Piagnoni who had believed in the prophet's word and looked for the coming of the New Jerusalem that was to be set up on earth.
|
第十五章
聖マルコ修道院の修道士の多くが牢獄に投獄され、ジロラモの献身的な信者が破滅と死に至ることに運命付けられた時代の迫害を描いた絵は、非常に暗澹たるものだ。それから、最も激しい中傷がジロラモの友人に畳み掛けられ、誰も自分の人生に危険を冒すことなくその名前を言うことができなかった。神へのすべての恐れと聖なるものに対する畏敬の念が死滅したように見え、不敬や冒涜は罰せらなかった。地獄そのものが開いているように見え、すべての悪魔が放たれた。その恐ろしい日々にシモーネ・フィリぺピは、ボローニャへの安全のために逃亡した。そこでは、「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」の多くがすでに避難していたが、サンドロはフィレンツェに残っていた。メディチ家との彼の長い関係とロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコの友情がサンドロの安全に役に立った。しかしサンドロは自分のまわりの犯罪と悲惨を見て、預言者の言葉を信じ、地上に建てられた新しいエルサレムの到来を待っていた忠実な「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」と深い落胆を共にした。
| |
|
"And I was stupefied and amazed," writes Luca the chemist. "And grief filled my heart at the sight of this fair edifice which had suddenly crumbled into dust... Florence looked to see the foundation of a New Jerusalem from which laws would go forth to the whole world, and the coming of a new age, when all men would see the splendour and example of good living and witness the reform of the Church, the conversion of the infidels and the consolation of the good. And now, alas! we saw the contrary of all these things... 'In voluntate tua Domine omnia sunt posita.'"
|
そして、私は立ちすくむほどに驚かされた。この清らかな信仰の建築が突然粉々に打ち砕かれたのを目の当たりにして、悲しみが私の心を満たした。フィレンツェに新しいエルサレムが創建され、そこから律法が全世界に広がり、新しい時代が到来し、栄華と良い生活の例を見て、教会の改革と、異教徒の改宗と、良き人々の慰めの実現の証人となる、はずだった。それなのに、今悲しいかな。皆、真逆のことが起こっている。『すべてのものは御身の思し召しに服従す』としか言えない」と薬種商のルカは書く
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
Then it was that in the bitterness of his soul at the failure of these high hopes, Sandro painted his Allegory of Calumny, that wonderful little picture which breathes so deep a sense of sadness and passionate a faith in the final triumph of Truth.  The subject was taken from the "Dialogues" of the Greek poet Lucian, with which, as we have already seen, Botticelli was intimately acquainted, probably through Guarino's translation, and which had become familiar to Florentine artists from its introduction into Alberti's "Treatise on Painting," that book which supplied Sandro with so many of his favourite motives. The scene is laid in a noble pillared hall, adorned with antique statues and bas-reliefs of classical subjects in chiaroscuro heightened with gold. Old Greek myths and Roman stories are mingled with Hebrew legends. The gods of Hellas and the Caesars of Imperial Rome appear side by side with the saints and apostles of the Christian Church, in the true spirit of Florentine humanists. Pallas bearing the Gorgon's head forms a companion piece to Judith with the head of Holofernes, and St. George and the Dragon are represented on the same frieze as Apollo and Daphne and a family of Centaurs at play with a young lion. Venus and her Amorini, Jupiter and Antiope, Trajan and the Widow, the Death of Lucretia, are introduced side by side with statues of apostles and prophets, and a single figure of St. George, which recalls Donatello's statue in the niche of Or San Michele and Andrea del Castagno's portrait of Pippo Spano.
|
第十五章
期待が高かっただけに、それが失敗に終わった時のサンドロの魂の苦しみの中で、「誹謗」は描かれた。素晴らしい小品（訳者注：62cm x 91cm）であり、悲しみの深い感覚と真理の最終の勝利を情熱的に信ずる心が息づいている。 その主題は、ギリシャの詩人ルキアノスの「対話」から取られている。先に言及したように、ボッティチェリはおそらくグアリーノ･ダ･ベローナの翻訳によって詳しく知ることになったのであろう。これは、アルベルティの「絵画論」に導入され、フィレンツェの芸術家には馴染みになっていた。その「絵画論」からサンドロは多くのお気に入りの着想を得ている。「誹謗」の場面は、古代の彫像や金で強調された明暗法で描かれた浮き彫り彫刻で飾られた列柱のある堂々とした広間に展開している。古代ギリシャの神話とローマの物語がヘブライの伝説と一緒に混ざり合っている。古代ギリシャの神々とローマ帝国の皇帝たちがキリスト教会の聖人たちや十二使徒と並んで登場している。これはフィレンツェの人文主義者の真の精神に基づくものだ。浮き彫り彫刻では、ゴルゴンの首をつけた甲冑を纏ったパラスは、ホロフェルネスの首を持つユーデットと同じ種類の作品であり、聖ゲオルギオスと竜は、アポロンとダフネや、獅子と遊ぶケンタウロスと同じ小壁に表現されている。ヴィーナスとキューピッドたち、ユピテルとアンティオペ、トラヤヌス帝と未亡人、ルクレツィアの死が、十二使徒や預言者たちの彫像に並んで描きこまれている。中央の柱にある聖ゲオルギオスの彫像は、ドナテルロによるオルサンミケーレ教会の壁龕の彫像やアンドレア・デル・カスターニョによるピッポ・スパーノの肖像画を思い起こさせる。
|
|
CHAPTER XV
Under this stately Renaissance portico a fearful crime is being perpetrated in the name of Justice. The unjust judge, clad in a green robe and bearing the crown and sceptre which denotes his kingly office, as described by Lucian, is seated on his throne between Ignorance and Suspicion, two repulsive-looking women, who with impatient gestures and eager haste pour their malicious accusations into his long ears. Before him Envy, a pale and squalid figure, clad in shaggy skins, having, in Alberti's words, the air of a person exhausted by long conflict, reaches out one skinny hand to arrest the judge's attention and leads forward Calumny with the other. This central figure of the allegory appears, according to Alberti's directions, in the form of a fair and richly-clad woman, "una donnetta bella", with a cunning and malicious face. In one hand she bears a flaming torch, while with the other she drags the prostrate boy Innocence by the hair along the floor, heedless of his prayers for mercy.  Two attendants. Fraud and Treachery, wait upon her footsteps, and with hurried, agitated movements and gestures wreath their mistress's head with roses. A few steps from this group, at the feet of Innocence, stands Remorse, an old hag, with bent figure and decrepit limbs, wearing a black mantle over her ragged clothes and leaning on a crutch as she looks back over her shoulder at the nude form of Truth who, fair as Venus Anadyomene of old, lifts her hand to heaven in the calm certainty that there her mute appeal will be heard. Through the open arches of the pillared loggia behind we look out on a wide waste of green waters and far horizons, which leave an indefinite sense of dreariness on the mind, the expression of the painter's conviction that Truth and Justice were nowhere to be found upon earth.
|
第十五章
この堂々としたルネッサンス様式の柱廊で恐るべき犯罪が、正義の名の下に犯されている。「不正」な審問官は、緑（訳者注：現在の画像では褐色に見える）の衣を纏い、王位を示す王冠を被り王笏を手にして、ルキアノスが記しているように、いやな感じの女二人、「無知（訳者注：Ignorance）」と「猜疑（訳者注：Suspicion）」との間の玉座に座っている。女たちは審問官のロバのような長い耳の中に悪意に満ちた言いがかりをせっかちに忙しく吹き込んでいる。審問官の前には「憎悪（訳者注：英文ではEnvyだが、憎悪と訳されるのが一般）」がいる。青白く卑しい姿をして、けば立った皮の衣を纏い、アルベルティが記すように、長い闘争に憔悴した人間に見える。その「憎悪」は痩せこけた腕を前に伸ばし審問官の注意を引いている。一方の手は「誹謗（訳者注：英語ではCalumny、この作品の題になっている。一般的な訳は、罪人呼ばわり、中傷）」の手首を掴んで、前に引きずっている。この「誹謗」がこの作品の中心にあり、アルベルティの説明では、豊かな衣服を纏った真っ当な女「ウナ・ドネータ・ベラ（ちょっといい女）」だが、狡猾な悪意に満ちた顔をしている。左手には火のついた松明を持ち、右手で、打ちひしがれた少年「無実（訳者注：Innocence）」の頭の髪を掴んで、床の上を引きずっている。 <「無実」は慈悲を願う祈りをしているが、「誹謗」はそんなことは御構いなしだ。二人の付き人がいる。「欺瞞（訳者注：Fraud）」と「嫉妬（訳者注：英語ではTreachery、一般的な訳は反逆、背信である。WikiではConspiracy）」である。二人は「誹謗」の足取りに合わせてついてゆき、この女の頭にバラの花冠をつけようと焦って慌てている。この何歩か左で、「無実」の足元に、「悔恨（訳者注：Remorse）」が立っている。醜い老婆で、俯いた姿で、よぼよぼの手足をし、ぼろを着た上に黒の上衣を纏って、杖にすがっている。振り向いて自分の肩越しに裸体の「真実（訳者注：Truth）」を見返している。「真実」は、いにしえの海より出づるヴィーナスの姿をして、静かな確信を持って、その無言の願いが聞き届けられるよう、右手を上げ天を指差している。背後には柱廊の柱の間のアーチの下に、何もない緑の水の広がりと水平線が見える。これは精神の荒涼の際限ない感覚をもたらし、真実と正義が地上にはどこにも見出せないという画家の確信にも似た表現である。
| |
|
This allegory, in which the classical ideals of the master's early manhood are combined with the bitter experiences of later years was Sandro's silent protest against the tragedy of Fra Girolamo's cruel end. When he painted that inspired vision of Truth, with the upturned eyes and the tresses of golden hair streaming over her white limbs, can we doubt that he recalled the burning words with which the Frate closed his great course of sermons on the Psalm Quam bonus: "Wine is strong, the king is strong, women are stronger, but Truth is mightier than all, and will prevail."
|
この寓意は、親方（マエストロ）の初期の古典的な理想と、後年の苦い経験とを組み合わせたもので、フラ・ジロラモの残酷な終焉の悲劇に対するサンドロの静かな抗議だった。サンドロが「真実」の幻想的な光景を描き、上向きの目と金髪の毛の房が白い身体の上を流れ落ちているとき、修道士が詩篇73「まことに恵み深い」による偉大な説教を次の言葉、「酒は強し、王も強し、女はさらにつよし。だがそれよりも強きは『真実』であり、全てに勝つ（訳者注：一般の聖書には記載されていない。聖書外典の１エズラ記にある）」で締めくくったことをサンドロが思い出さなかったとは我々は言えない。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
The story is told with dramatic force and vigour, if, as in most of Sandro's last works, the violent gestures and confusion of the figures mar the general effect, and the rich, harmonious colouring and profusion of gold in the sculptured friezes agrees with the technique of the Nativity of 1500, a picture of about the same size. This little Allegory of Calumny probably belongs to the same dark days, when no one dared speak the Frate's name and honest men could only declare their secret thoughts in parables. Then, in the silence and solitude of his home, Sandro painted this wonderful little picture and gave it to his dearest and most intimate friend Antonio Segni. Perhaps Antonio was a Piagnone, like himself, and understood the hidden meaning of his painted allegory. We know, at all events, that he was a man of taste and culture, the chosen friend of another great painter Leonardo, who a year or two later gave him his own noble drawing of Neptune and the Sea-gods riding the Waves. He treasured Botticelli's Calumny among his choicest possessions, and his son, Fabio Segni, in whose house Vasari saw the little painting, "a thing as beautiful as it well can be," wrote the following Latin epigram upon the frame:Indicio quemquam ne falso Jaedere tentent "This little panel is a warning to mortal kings not to judge any man falsely. Apelles gave a similar work to the King of Egypt. The King was worthy of the gift and the gift not unworthy of the King."
|
第十五章
作品の物語は、サンドロの晩年の作品の大部分と同じように、激しい仕草と人物の混乱が全体を損ねる影響をもたらすとしても、劇的に活力をもって語られる。そして、彫刻を施した装飾壁の金をたくさん使い、豊かで調和の取れた色彩は、1500年製作のほぼ同じ大きさの「神秘の降誕」（訳者注：109x75cm）の技法と一致している。この小さな「誹謗」は、恐らく誰もが修道士の名前を口に出せず、正直な人でも自らの秘密の思考を例え話でしか言えなかった暗い日々の作品であろう。そして、自宅での沈黙と孤独の中で、サンドロはこの小さいが素晴らしい絵を描いて、親愛なる親友のアントニオ・セーニに寄贈した。おそらくアントニオは「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」の一人で、サンドロの描いた寓意の隠された意味を理解していたであろう。いずれにしても、アントニオは趣味と教養の人で、もう一人の偉大な画家レオナルドの選ばれた友人であることを我々は知っている。それから一年か二年後にレオナルドは見事な「海の馬に騎るネプチューン」をセーニに贈っている。アントニオ・セーニはボッティチェリの「誹謗」を彼の選ばれた財産の中で大切にしていた。そして彼の息子、ファビオ・セーニの家で、ヴァザーリはこの小さな絵を見た。ファビオは「これほど美しいものがあり得るのだ」と、額縁に次のラテン語の言葉を書いた。Indicio quemquam ne falso Jaedere tentent 「この小さな板絵は、人間を間違って判断してはならないとの、地上の王たちに対する警告である。アペレスはエジプトの王へ同様の作品を送った。王はこの贈り物にふさわしく、贈り物は、王に不釣り合いではなかった」
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
Even in those dark days Sandro's faith in the Friar never wavered. Every line of Simone's chronicle breathes the same profound conviction that this man, whom Florence had rejected and put to death, was a prophet sent from God. The writer notes how in the course of the next few years many of Fra Girolamo's words have come true, and dwells with satisfaction on the violent and miserable end which had already overtaken some of his most bitter enemies, Pope Alexander VI, Caesar Borgia, King Alfonso of Naples, Lodovico Sforza, and many others. And he records the unwilling testimony borne to Savonarola's innocence by his jailors and persecutors, most of all by Doffo Spini, the bold and reckless leader of the riotous Compagnacci who stormed the convent, and who was afterwards present at the Frate's trial.
|
第十五章
その暗い日々でさえ、サンドロの修道士に対する信仰は決して揺らぐことはなかった。シモーネの日記のすべての行には、フィレンツェが拒絶し死刑にしたこの男が、神から送られた預言者であるとの変わらぬ信念が息づいている。この書き手は、次の数年間、フェラ・ジロラモの言葉の多くがどのように成し遂げられたのか、そして激しく悲惨な終末が最も冷酷な敵に既に襲いかかっているかに満足していた。その敵とは、ローマ法王アレクサンダー六世、チェーザレ・ボルジア、ナポリ王アルフォンソ、ロドヴィコ・スフォルツァなどである。そして、彼は、サヴォナローラの無実を証明する看守と迫害者による隠された証言を、記録している。その多くはドッフォ・スピーニによるものである。ドッフォ・スピーニは暴力的なコンパニァッチ（訳者注：反ジロラモ派集団）の大胆で無謀な首謀者であり、コンパニァッチは修道院を襲撃した。後に、ドッフォ・スピーニは修道士の裁判にも出た。
| |
|
Among other curious records, on the 9th of April, 1503, Simone notes down a conversation which he had that day with Doffo Spini, whom he met in the street as he left his house in the Via Nuova to go to vespers at San Marco. A certain Bartolommeo Carducci, who was walking with Doffo, turned angrily on Simone, reproaching him with all the ruin and trouble which Pra Girolamo and the Piagnoni had brought upon the city. Upon which Doffo Spini took up the subject and said that he never knew Fra Girolamo until he saw him in prison, and during his examinations.
|
他の興味深い記録のなかでも、シモーネは1503年4月9日、聖マルコ修道院の晩祷に行くためにヴィア・ヌオーヴァの家を出て通り道で出会ったドッフォ・スピーニとの会話を記録した。ドッフォと歩いていたバルトロメオ・カルドゥッチという人が、怒ってシモーネに向かって、フラ・ジロラモと「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」が街にもたらしたすべての荒廃と困難を叱責した。ドッフォ・スピーニがこの問題を取り上げて、刑務所にいるのを見て、取り調べに入るまで、自分はフラ・ジロラモを知らなかったと言った。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
(Another curious little picture of this period, in which Mr. Berenson and Dr. Steinmann recognize Botticelli's hand, is the so-called Derelitta or Outcast in the Pallavicini Palace in Rome. A young woman in a ragged white linen garment is seated on the steps of a stately Renaissance building, weeping bitterly. Her long dark hair falls heavily over her face, her head is buried in her hands, and her other clothes lie strewn on the steps around her. In her loneliness she is the very image of inconsolable despair. This figure bears some resemblance to that of Remorse in the Allegory of Calumny, but it is difficult to believe that this work, which is so curiously modern in style and sentiment, could have been painted by a fifteenth century master.)
|
第十五章
（ベレンソンとシュタインマンがボッティチェリの手を認めているこの時期の別の興味深い小さな作品は、ローマのパラヴィチーニ宮殿のいわゆる街外れあるいは疎外地を描いたもので、ぼろぼろの白いリネンの服を着た若い女が、堂々たるルネッサンスの建物の階段に座り、激しく泣き叫ぶ。長い黒い髪は顔の上に重くかかり、顔は手に埋め込まれ、着ていた服は彼女の周りの階段に散在している。孤独で、絶え間ない絶望の表している。この表現は、「誹謗」の「悔恨」と類似しているが、妙に現代的な様式と感情表現であるので、この作品が、15世紀の親方（マエストロ）、すなわちサンドロによって描かれたと考えるのは難しい。）
| |
|
"If," he added, "I had heard him before and knew him intimately - as Simone here," he said, turning- to me, "I should have been an even more ardent follower of his than Simone; because I saw nothing but good in him until his death; but it was necessary that he should lay down his life, as it was with Christ." "And he said many other things which I may perhaps one day write in this book," continues Simone, "although not without danger; but now my bark is still on the high seas, and I must guide its course wisely, trusting in God to bring me safely to port."
|
「もしかしたら」ドッフォは続けて言った。「私が以前からジロラモのことを聞いていて、親密に知っていたら - このシモーネのように」彼は私に向かって言った。「私はシモーネよりも彼の熱心な信者になっていたはずだった。ジロラモが死ぬまで私は彼に良いこと以外は何も見なかったのだから。 しかし、ジロラモはキリストと同じように命を落とす必要があったのだ」と。「そして、ドッフォは、私が多分いつかこの本に書き込むかもしれない他の多くの事柄を言った」シモーネは続ける。「今は私の小舟がまだ高潮にあり、私は賢明にその航路を辿り、神を信頼して、自分を安全に港に連れていかなければならない時期だ」と。
| |
|
In the "Giornate" of that devoted Piagnone, Lorenzo Violi, we find repeated allusions to an "Academy of Unemployed Artists" who, having no work to fill their time in those troubled days, were in the habit of meeting in the shop of Sandro Botticelli. The name of Savonarola was often on the lips of these artists who, having nothing better to do, fought the old battles over again, and attacked or defended the Frate's actions and teaching, according as they were Arrabbiati or Piagnoni. On these occasions, Lorenzo Violi tells us, the painter's brother Simone was often present, and wrote down some of these discussions in his "Cronaca". Amongst others, Simone has recorded the following conversation, which took place on the Feast of All Souls, November 2nd, 1499.
|
献身的な「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」の一人、ロレンツォ・ヴィオーリの日々では、そうした困難な時期に、仕事がなくて時間を持て余している「失業芸術家アカデミア」の会員だと度々言っていた。そしてサンドロ・ボッティチェリの工房で集まるのが習慣になっていた。サヴォナローラの名前は、しばしばそこに集まる芸術家の口にのぼったが、何もすることがなく、反ジロラモ派（憤激派、アラビアティ）や「泣き虫連中（ピアニヨーネ）」のように、修道士の行動と教えを攻撃したり擁護したりしていた。この時、ロレンツォ・ヴィオーリは、画家の兄のシモーネがよく参加していて、日記にこれらの議論のいくつかを書き留めていると語っている。とりわけ、シモーネは、1499年11月2日、万霊節（死者の日）に行われた次の会話を記録した。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
"Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, my brother, one of the good painters whom we have had in these times in our city, being in my presence, by the fireside at home, about eight o'clock at night, told me how that day, in his shop in Sandro's house, he had reasoned with Doffo Spini on the fate of Fra Girolamo. And indeed Sandro, knowing Doffo to have been one of the chief persons who had been present at his examination, adjured him to tell him the real truth as to what crimes were found in him to deserve so shameful a death. Upon which Doffo replied: 'Sandro, must I speak the truth? We never found in him any venial, much less any mortal sin.' Then Sandro asked him: 'Why then did you put him to so shameful a death?' 'It was not I,' replied Doffo, 'but Benozzo Federighi. And if we had not put this prophet and his companions to death, but had sent them back to San Marco, the people would have sacked our houses and cut us all to pieces. The thing had gone so far that we determined that they must die for our own sake.' After that many other words passed between them, which I need not repeat." This interesting record throws light on the painting of the Nativity which Sandro completed a few months after the November evening when he extorted that memorable confession of Fra Girolamo's innocence from Doffo Spini. It is clearly one of those works which, like the portraits of Savonarola and the pictures of his execution, were hidden by his devoted followers in the days of persecution, and handed down as treasures by their descendants. Sixty years ago, this Nativity was brought from Florence to England by Mr. Young Ottley, and in 1878, it passed from the Fuller-Maitland collection into the National Gallery.
|
第十五章
「私の弟、アレッサンドロ・ディ・マリアーノ・フィリッペピは、我々の街のこの時代の優秀な画家の一人である。サンドロは、夜の八時頃、サンドロの家の工房の、暖炉のそば、私のいる前で、フラ・ジロラモの運命についてドッフォ・スピーニに問いただした。そして実はサンドロは、ドッフォがジロラモの尋問に立ち会った中心人物の一人であったことを知っていたので、ドッフォに、ジロラモに何の罪が認められて、あれほどの屈辱的な死を与えることになったのか、本当の真実を話して欲しいと言った。ドッフォは答えた：『サンドロ、私は真実を語らねばならないでしょうか？我々はジロラモに、死刑に値するどころか、些細な罪すら見つけられなかったのです』そこでサンドロは尋ねた。『それでは、なぜあなたは彼をあのような屈辱的な死刑に処したのですか？』『それは私が決めたのではありません』とドッフォは答えた。『決めたのはベノッツォ・フェデリーギです。それにもし、この預言者とその仲間連中を死刑にしないで、聖マルコ修道院に送り返していたら、今度は反対に、民衆が我々の家を略奪し、我々を八つ裂きにしていたことだろう。事態はもうとめようもなかったので、我々の身の安全のために彼らを死なせることに決めたのだ』そのあとも、多くの言葉が二人の間を行き交ったが、私はそれを繰り返す必要はありません」この興味深い記録は、サンドロがドッフォ・スピーニからフラ・ジロラモが無実だという記念的な告白を引き出したこの11月の夜の数か月後に完成した「神秘の降誕」に光を投げかける。これも、サヴォナローラの肖像画とその死刑執行の絵のように、迫害の時代に献身的な信者によって隠され、その子孫によって宝として受け継がれた作品の一つであることは明らかである。60年前（1844年）に、この「神秘の降誕」はフィレンツェからヤング・オットレイによって英国に持ち込まれ、1878年にはフラー・メイトランド・コレクションからロンドン・ナショナル・ギャラリーに移っている。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
Here the painter's soaring fancy has transformed the story of the birth of Christ into a mystic vision of the triumph of Savonarola and his final reward. The rude wooden roof of the penthouse is set against a rocky cavern, in the heart of a pine forest. The Madonna kneels in adoration before her new-born Child, and St. Joseph crouches on the floor with his head sunk in his folded arms, watching over his charge. On the right a winged angel with an olive-branch in his hand, urges on the shepherds who kneel in lowly worship before the manger throne. On the left another eager seraph, with a branch and scroll in his hand, turns to the kneeling Kings from the East whom we see here, crowned with olive and clad in flowing white robes, and points to the Holy Child whose presence they seek. Three angels, clad in symbolic hues of white, red, and green, with olive crowns on their heads and olive branches in their hands, sing the "Gloria in Excelsis" from an open chantbook, on the penthouse roof. In the blue sky above, twelve more seraphs dance hand in hand, swinging olive-boughs to and fro, and dangling their golden crowns in an ecstasy of joy.
|
第十五章
ここで画家の遠大な空想は、キリストの誕生の話をサヴォナローラの勝利とその最後の報いの神秘的な情景に変えた。差し掛け小屋の粗末な木の屋根は、松林の中心にある岩の洞窟に取り付けられている。聖母は御子の前で敬意を表してひざまずいている。そして、聖ヨセフは床にしゃがみ込んで、頭を自分の折り畳んだ腕の中に沈めて、御子を見守っている。右側には、手にオリーブの枝を持つ翼のついた天使が、低くひざまずいている羊飼いたちに飼い葉桶の王座の前で早く礼拝するよう勧めている。左の熱心な熾天使は、手に枝と細いリボンを付けて、見る通りオリーブの王冠をつけ、流れる衣服を着てひざまずいている東方から来た三人の王に向かい、彼らが探し求める御子を指し示す。白と赤と緑の象徴的な色彩の衣服を纏った三人の天使は、オリーブの冠を頭に、オリーブの枝を手に、屋根の上で開いた聖歌本から『天のいと高きところには神に栄光あれ』を歌う。上の青い空では、12人の熾天使が手を取り合い、オリーブの大枝を前に後ろに揺らせて踊り、黄金の冠を有頂天になってぶら下げている。
| |
CHAPTER XV
The hour, long foretold by the Cumaean Sibyl on the banks of Lake Avernus, has come at length. There is joy in heaven, and peace and goodwill on earth. The Virgin's face has lost all trace of care and sadness, and the Child laughs for gladness as he looks up in his mother's face. In the foreground crawling devils are seen hurrying away to hide among the rocks, while rejoicing angels fall on the necks of Fra Girolamo and his martyred companions, and welcome them with rapturous embraces. On the scroll in the foremost angel's hand we read the words: "Hominibus bonae voluntatis", an allusion to the message of peace and goodwill which the Frate brought to mankind. As a further proof of his unshaken belief in the innocence of the three Saints whom he represents crowned with olive and wearing the Dominican habit, Sandro has written the following words in Greek letters on the upper part of the panel: "This picture I, Alessandro, painted at the close of the year 1500, during the troubles of Italy, in the half-time after the time which was prophesied in the eleventh of St. John, and the Second Woe of the Apocalypse, when the devil was loosed upon the earth for three years and a half. Afterwards he shall be put in chains according to the Twelfth, and we shall see him trodden under foot as in this picture." In these mystical terms, borrowed from the Book of Daniel, Sandro proclaims his conviction that Savonarola and his martyred companions were the witnesses slain for the word of their testimony, as told by St. John in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation. And he tells us in no uncertain voice that the hour of vengeance is at hand when the accuser of the brethren will be cast down and bound.
|
| |
|
This inscription was first deciphered by Professor Colvin, who published his interpretation of the Greek lines in the "Portfolio" of 1871.
|
この銘文はコルヴィン教授によって最初に解読され、1871年の「ポートフォリオ」にギリシア語の行の翻訳を公開した。(訳者注：ヴァザーリが1550-1568に出版した「サンドロ・ボッティチェリ」の英語版の294ページに詳しくギリシャ語からの翻訳について記している）
| |
|
So the painter would have us know that in these dark and desperate times, his faith in the Friar had never failed, and that he still looked forward to a day when the prophet's word should be fulfilled, and good triumph over evil.
|
それで、画家は、暗く絶望的な時代にも、修道士への信仰は決して挫折しておらず、また預言者の言葉が成就し、善が悪に勝利する日を楽しみにして来たことを我々に知らせたかったのであろう。
| |
|
CHAPTER XV
A pen-drawing of a kneeling Madonna, with St. Joseph crouching behind the Child, is still preserved in the Uffizi, and although it differs in some respects from the picture, was evidently a preliminary study for the central group. In the faulty proportions of these figures as well as in the hasty execution of the faces, we see signs of decaying powers and advancing years. But the colour of the picture is rich and glowing, and the dancing Angels are as light and joyous in their movements as any which Sandro drew of old. Above all his imagination is as full of fire and buoyancy, his faith and love are as strong as in the early days of his youth, when he first painted for the Medici.
|
CHAPTER XV
御子の後ろに立つ聖ヨセフと、ひざまずいた聖母のペン画はまだウフィッツィ美術館で保存されていて、絵画作品とはいくつかの点で異なるが、明らかに聖母子の部分の下書きであった。これらの人物の不完全な比率と顔の急ぎの描写では、我々はサンドロの衰退の兆候と老いの進行を見る。しかし、絵の色は豊かで輝きがあり、踊る天使たちは、以前のサンドロの作品と同じように、軽快で喜びに満ちた動きをしている。とりわけ、彼の想像力は火のような輝きと快活さに溢れ、彼の信仰と愛は、若い頃のように強く、最初にメディチ家のために描いたころと同じくらいだ。
| |
Another drawing, which was evidently a sketch for the three Angels singing the "Gloria in excelsis" on the penthouse roof, is preserved in the Uffizi, and is so delicate and beautiful an example of Sandro's art
|
差し掛け小屋の屋根の上で『天のいと高きところには神に栄光あれ』を歌っている三人の天使たちの素描だったもう一つの絵は、ウフィッツィでは保存されていて、サンドロの芸術のとても繊細で美しい例である。
|
CHAPTER XVI ∧ 1490 - 1510
- Botticelli's illustrations of Dante's "Divina Commedia"
|
第十六章∧
1490 - 1510
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
THE Nativity of 1500 was, as far as we know, the last picture which Botticelli ever painted. But he lived ten years longer, and probably devoted much of his time during this last period of his existence to one of his greatest works, the illustration of the "Divina Commedia".
|
第十六章
1500年の「神秘の降誕」は、我々が知る限り、ボッティチェリが描いた最後の作品であった。しかし、それから以降さらに10年生きていたので、おそらくその晩年を偉大な作品の一つ、「神曲」の挿絵の製作に多くの時間を費やしたのであろう。
| |
|
A revived enthusiasm for the study of Dante had been one of the leading features which distinguished the Florentine humanists of Sandro's time. Lorenzo himself made repeated efforts to obtain the restoration of the great poet's ashes from the Podesta of Ravenna, and translated Dante's treatise, "De Monarchia", and another of the foremost scholars of the age, Cristoforo Landino, the friend of Alberti and Marsilio Ficino, wrote a commentary on the "Divina Commedia", which was solemnly presented to the Signoria on its publication in 1481. From early days, Botticelli shared in this enthusiasm, and was himself an ardent student of Dante. "After his return from Rome," writes Vasari, "being a man of a speculative turn of mind, he wrote a commentary on part of Dante, illustrated the 'Inferno' and had it printed; and in these occupations he wasted a great deal of time and neglected his own work, which was a cause of infinite disorder in his life."
|
ダンテ研究の熱意の復活は、サンドロの時代のフィレンツェの人文主義者を特徴付けるものである。ロレンツォ自身は、ラヴェンナ（訳者注：ダンテがフィレンツェを追放されて後、各地を転々とし、最後に居を落ち着かせたまちである）の行政長官に対して偉大な詩人の遺骨の返還を得るために努力を繰り返したし、ダンテのラテン語の論文「帝政論」の翻訳を行った。アルヴェルティとマルシリオ・フィチーノの友人であり、時代を先駆ける学者の一人であるクリストフォロ・ランディーノは、「神曲」の解説を書き、1481年に出版され、フィレンツェ市庁に恭しく贈られた。ボッティチェリは若い頃からこの熱意を共有し、ダンテを熱心に勉強していた。ヴァザーリは、「サンドロがローマから帰還して後、思弁的な性質の人間になり、ダンテの一部について解説を書き、『地獄（インフェルノ）』を描き、それを印刷した。これらの作業で、サンドロは多くの時間を無駄にし、自分の本来の仕事を怠った。これは彼の生活に測り知れない混乱が生じさせた」と記している。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
If Sandro, as Vasari tells us twice over, ever wrote a commentary on Dante, the work has not hitherto come to light, but the drawings with which he illustrated the three divisions of his fellow-citizen's great poem of heaven and earth, have fortunately been preserved. Another of his biographers, the Anonimo Gaddiano, gives us further information on the subject; saying that Sandro "illustrated a Dante in carta pecora (parchment) for Lorenzo di Piero Francesco de' Medici, which was held to be a marvellous thing." But, although we know the name of the illustrious patron from whom Sandro received this important commission, we have no certain knowledge of the date when the vast work was executed. There can be little doubt that it extended over many years, and made large demands on the painter's time and thoughts, "consuming," as Vasari says, "valuable hours, and leading him to neglect more profitable engagements." Sandro may even have begun the work, as the biographer tells us, soon after his return from Rome, but more probably about 1490, while from the style and work-manship of the "Paradiso," he was evidently engaged upon this portion of the poem during the last years of the century, when he made the pen-and-ink studies for the Nativity in the Uffizi.
|
第十六章
ヴァザーリが我々に語ったように、サンドロがダンテに関する解説を書いていたとしても、これまでのところ、その記録は日の目を見ていない。しかし、サンドロと同じフィレンツェ人ダンテの、天と地の偉大な詩「神曲」の三つの部分を、サンドロが描いた図は、幸いにも保存されている。サンドロの伝記作家のもうひとりである「アノニモ」・ガッディアーノは、この件についてのさらなる情報を、「ロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロ・フランチェスコ・デ・メディチのための羊皮紙にダンテを描いたが、これは素晴らしいことだ」と我々に提供している。しかし、サンドロがこの重要な委託を受けた著名な支援者の名前は分かっているが、我々は膨大な作業が行われた時期を全く知っていない。ヴァザーリは、「これは長年にわたって続いてきたことは疑いもなく、画家の時間と思考に大きな負担をもたらした。貴重な時間を浪費し、より有益な仕事を無視するようさせた」と言う。ローマから戻ってからすぐに、サンドロはこの仕事を始めたかもしれないが、「天国篇」の様式と仕事ぶりからみると、おそらく1490年頃、15世紀の最後の十年には、もっと明らかにこの「詩」の仕事に関わっていた。その時、サンドロは今もウフィッツィ美術館にある「神秘の降誕のための下絵」でインクによるペン書きの研究を行っていた。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
There is, indeed, a strong probability that he turned his attention to the illustration of the "Divina Commedia" at a still earlier period in his career, and supplied the original sketches for the nineteen copper-plates of the "Inferno", which adorned the edition published at Florence in 1481 by the German printer, Nicolaus Lorenzo, or Niccolo della Magna, as he was called in Italy. These plates, which are executed in the rude manner of early Tuscan engravers, were formerly ascribed to Baccio Baldini, a Florentine goldsmith, whose plates, according to Vasari, were all designed by Botticelli. Dr. Lippmann, however, who made a minute and elaborate analysis of these engravings, which appeared in the same volume containing Landino's commentary, is of opinion that the true name of the artist is still unknown, but that he certainly worked from Sandro's drawings. The close connection between these copper-plates and the drawings by Botticelli's hand now preserved at Berlin and in the Vatican, is undeniable, although it is impossible to say how far the painter was responsible for the actual designs.
|
第十六章
確かに、彼は画家になってまだ早い時期に「神曲」の挿絵に注目し「地獄篇（インフェルノ）」の19枚の銅版刷りの元版の素描を提供したことは、かなり確実であろう。1481年に、ドイツの印刷業者ニコラウス・ロレンソ、イタリアでの名前はニッコロ・デッラ・マグナによってフィレンツェで出版された版の装飾に使われている。初期のトスカーナの彫版工の未熟な技術で製作されたこれらの印刷用彫版は、以前はフィレンツェの金細工師バッキオ・バルディーニが彫ったことになっていた。その元版はヴァザーリによればボッティチェリが描いたものとされた。しかし、ランディーノの解説を収録している同じ巻に現れる、この銅版印刷の細密かつ精巧な分析を行ったリップマン博士は、これを描いた画家の本当の名は、未だわからないが、その画家は確かにサンドロの素描から原版を起こした、との意見を持っている。現在ベルリンとバチカンで保存されているこれらの銅製彫版とボッティチェリの手による素描の密接な結びつきは否定できないが、画家が実際の印刷までにどれだけの責任を持っているたかは断定できない。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
The history of the Dante drawings which Sandro executed for his old friend and constant patron, Lorenzo di Pier Francesco, is also wrapt in obscurity. All we know is that the volume bears a label with the word Paris, April, 1803, the name of Giovanno Claudio Molini, a Florentine bookseller who had considerable dealings with English and French collectors. He it was, we may conclude, who brought the precious volume which had laid forgotten in some old Florentine library, to Paris, and sold it to the Duke of Hamilton, by whom it was placed among the treasures of Hamilton Palace, near Glasgow. There it was discovered fifty years ago by Dr. Waagen, who immediately recognized Botticelli's style in the drawings, and declared that these were the Dante illustrations mentioned by Vasari. In 1882, this book, containing eighty-five drawings by Sandro's own hand, was purchased by the Prussian Government at the Hamilton sale, and has now been placed in the Berlin Museum. A folio of admirable facsimile reproductions, with full explanatory text, was published in 1896, by the late Dr. Lippmann, which affords students the opportunity of becoming more closely acquainted with these deeply interesting works.
|
第十六章
サンドロが、古い友人であり支援者であるロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコのために製作したダンテの作品に関する経緯は、曖昧さで包まれている。我々が知っているのは、この書物には「パリ、1803年4月」と、英国や仏国の収集家とかなりの取引をしていたフィレンツェの書籍商で「ジョヴァンノ・クラウディオ・モリーニ」と言う名前の書かれた札があることだけだ。この書籍商はどこかの古いフィレンツェ図書館で忘れ去られていた貴重な書籍をパリに運んで、それをハミルトン公に売却し、グラスゴー近郊のハミルトン宮殿の宝物の中に置かれたと結論づけられるであろう。50年前（1854年）、これらの挿絵を見てボッティチェリの作品だと認識したワーゲン博士によって発見され、これがヴァザーリの言うダンテの「神曲」の挿絵であると宣言された。1882年に、サンドロ自身の手による85の挿絵を含むこの書籍は、プロイセン政府がハミルトン家から購入し、現在はベルリン博物館に置かれている。1896年には、リップマン博士によって、説明文を添えて、素晴らしいファクシミリ複製本が出版された。リップマン博士は、学生に興味深い作品をより近くに知る機会を提供したのだ。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
When this illustrated Dante first came into the Duke of Hamilton's possession, sixteen sheets were found to be wanting. Eight of these, belonging to the early part of the "Inferno" (cantos2-7, 11 and 14), are still missing; but the other eight (cantos9, 10, 12, 13, 15 and 16) were fortunately discovered by Dr. Joseph Strzygowski, in the Vatican Library, eighteen years ago. They formed part of the collections of Queen Christina of Sweden, and were bought from her by Pope Alexander VII in 1689. In the quality of the parchment, and in the style of both writing and illustration, these sheets agree exactly with the original volume formerly in Hamilton Palace, and must have been removed from that book during the seventeenth century.
|
第十六章
この挿絵のついたダンテの「神曲」が最初にハミルトン公の所有になった時、16枚の頁が欠けていることが判明した。「地獄篇」の初めの部分に属するこれらの8つ（歌2、3、4、5、6、7、11、14）はまだ失われたままである。しかし、他の8つ（歌9、10、12、13、15、16；訳者注：歌1と8については原著に記載なし）は18年前（1886年）にはバチカン図書館で、ヨセフ・ストルツゴゥスキ博士によって幸いにも発見された。これらの頁はスウェーデンのクリスチーナ女王の所有になっていたが、1689年に法王アレクサンダー七世が女王から購入し、バチカン図書館で所蔵されていた。羊皮紙の質や書き方、描き方の状況から、以前ハミルトン宮殿に所蔵されていた元の書物の一部と完全に判断された。これらの頁は17世紀に切り取られたに違いない。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
Thus we see that Botticelli's work originally consisted of a hundred drawings, besides the title-page and coloured diagram of Hell, which is now in the Vatican library, among the illustrations described and reproduced by Dr. Strzygowski. All of these were first drawn with a soft silver-point, supposed to contain an alloy of lead, and afterwards roughly traced over with pen and ink. Only three of the series are painted in body colour; while a fourth, illustrating Canto 10, now in the Vatican, is partly tinted; the figure of Dante being painted red and that of Virgil blue. In all probability Botticelli originally intended the whole series to be coloured in conformity with the usual practice, but gave up the idea owing to the unsatisfactory result of his first experiments in this method. Dr. Strzygowski, indeed, is of opinion that the colouring of the four drawings was the work of some miniaturist; but the late Dr. Lippmann, a critic of high authority, expressed his conviction that both drawing and colouring were exclusively Sandro's work, and that no other hand had a share in these illustrations. Many of the drawings are badly damaged and several are partly effaced, while the composition is of very unequal merit. The types and costumes of the figures in many instances bear a marked relation to the work of earlier illustrators who, during the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, had devoted their attention to Dante's great poem and adorned the poems of the "Divina Commedia" with miniatures. Chief among these are the Modena Codex from the Este library, belonging to the latter half of the fourteenth century, and the Altona Codex, which is the work of three Florentine painters who lived early in the fifteenth century. In both of these the method adopted by the artists is the same that we see in Botticelli's manuscript - that is to say, the illustrations are drawn with with the pen and lightly coloured with a wash of water-colour. Those of the Altona Codex are especially noteworthy, and include many striking figures in contemporary costume, such as Brunette Latini, Vanni and others. The Centaur Cacus, who is seen in the illustration of the twenty-fifth canto of the "Inferno", is remarkably similar to Sandro's rendering of the same subject, and the drawing of the griffin, leading the car of the Church as described in the twenty-ninth canto, is introduced in both of the earlier works; while in a third Codex of the fifteenth century, now at Naples, the chariot drawn by the griffin, and escorted by the elders, crowned with green wreaths, and angels bearing the seven-branched candlesticks, appears exactly as in Botticelli's illustration. Another and better known Dante Codex is the MS. from the Urbino collection, which is still preserved in the Vatican Library. This MS. once belonged to Duke Federico, and to judge from the traces of Mantegna and Piero de' Franceschi's influence which the drawings bear, was executed about 1470 or 1480. Here the representations of Roman heroes and classical legends show a considerable knowledge of the antique, while the illustrations of the "Paradiso", which are generally ascribed to Giulio Clovio, are of a higher order than any of the drawings in the earlier series. But a finer artistic conception of the theme and a more skilful hand was needed to give expression to Dante's creations; and this we find for the first time in the drawings of the Berlin Museum. Both by nature and education Sandro was pre-eminently fitted for the task. His mystic temperament, the powerful attraction which theological subjects evidently had for his mind, led him to take profound interest in the divine poet's work, and the close and attentive study which he had devoted to the great poem, is revealed at every page of his drawings. Now, after the lapse of four centuries, Sandro's illustrations remain the best and most satisfying artistic interpretation of Dante's great epic that has ever been attempted, while they deserve to rank among the finest and most imaginative works of the Renaissance.
|
第十六章
このようにボッティチェリの作品は当初、100の挿絵と、加えて、表題の頁と地獄の彩色された図で構成されていた。ストルツゴゥスキ博士による解説や複製とともに、今はヴァチカン図書館に所蔵されている。これらのすべては、鉛を合金として含むと思われる柔らかい銀筆で最初に描かれ、その後、インクをつけたペンで大まかにトレースされた。挿絵のうち三つだけが線描だけでなく面的に塗られている。一方、バチカンにある歌10は、部分的に着色されている。ダンテの衣服は赤とウェルギリウスの衣服は青で描かれている（訳者注：地獄篇18歌では全体が色付けされ、同様に、ダンテは赤、ウェルギリウスは青の衣服で描かれている）。ボッティチェリは当初、全篇が通常の習慣に従って色付けされることを意図していたが、この方法での彼の最初の試みの不満足な結果のためにそれをあきらめた。ストルツゴゥスキ博士は、実際には合わせて四つの挿絵の色付けは、誰か他の細密画家によるものとの意見である。しかし、権威のある批評家であるリップマン博士は、作図と絵彩色の両方ともサンドロだけの手によるものであるとの確信を表明した。多くの挿絵はひどく傷ついており、いくつかでは部分的に消えてしまっているが、それにもかかわらずその構成は非常に価値がある。色々な場面での人物の種類やその衣裳は、14世紀から15世紀にかけてダンテの偉大な詩に注目し、「神曲」の詩を細密画で飾った初期の挿絵画家の作品と、明らかな繋がりがある。これらのうちの主なものは、14世紀後半のエステ図書館のマデナ写本と、15世紀初頭の三人のフィレンツェの画家の作品であるアルトナ写本である。これらの両方で、当時の画家が採用した方法は、ボッティチェリの自筆の挿絵で見られるのと同じである。つまり、挿絵はペンで描かれ、線描の内側をさっと一様に水彩で軽く着色される。アルトナ写本の人物は特に注目されるべきであり、ブルネット・ラティーニ、やヴァンニなどの当時の衣裳を纏った多くの著名人物が描かれている。「地獄篇」の歌25の挿絵に見られるケンタウルス・カークスの描写は、サンドロの同じ主題の描写と驚くほど類似している。また、歌29に描かれているように教会の車を引くグリフィン（訳者注：上半身が鷲で、翼を持ち、下半身はライオンの生き物）の描き方は、サンドロの以前の作品に書き込まれている。一方、現在ナポリにある15世紀の第三の写本では、グリフィンによって引かれ、長老たちが付き添い、緑の花輪を戴冠した馬車と、七分岐の燭台を持つ天使たちが、ボッティチェリの挿絵とまったく同じように現れる。もう一つのさらによく知られているダンテ写本は、MS.（訳者注：mano-scritti、すなわち手書き写本）である。もとはウルビーノのコレクションにあったが、今はバチカン図書館で保存されている。このMS.はかつてフェデリーコ公の所蔵であったが、アンドレア・マンテーニャの描線やピエロ・デラ・フランチェスカの描写への影響から判断すると、1470年か1480年頃に製作されたものだ。ここでは、ローマ時代の英雄と古典的な伝説の再現は、古代に関するかなりの知識を示しているし、一般にはジュリオ・クロヴィオの作品とされる「天国篇」の挿絵は、それ以前の挿絵作品のいずれよりもより高度なものだ。しかし、ダンテの創造した作品に表現を与えるためには、より洗練された芸術的な概念とより熟達した技術が必要である。我々はこれをベルリン美術館の挿絵ではじめて発見した。天賦のもの、そして修行や自己の研鑽によって、サンドロはずば抜けてその仕事にぴったりであった。その神秘的な気質、すなわち、神学上の主題がサンドロの心に明らかにもたらした強力な魅力は、詩人の神聖な作品へ深く関心をもつように導いたし、サンドロが偉大な詩に捧げたきめの細かい研究の成果は、その挿絵の全ての頁に現れている。四世紀が過ぎた現在（1904年）、サンドロの挿絵は、今まで試みられてきたダンテの偉大な叙事詩の最高かつ最も満足のいく芸術的解釈として残っており、ルネッサンスの最高かつ最も想像力のある作品に位置付けられなければならない。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
The master's hand is plainly visible throughout. We recognize his peculiar type of features; his skill in depicting rapid movement and flying draperies; his love of natural beauty in the delicate drawing of trees and flowers, in the myrtle and orange, the palm and pomegranate, the flowering blossoms and grasses, the slender stems and fluttering roses of his celestial regions. We see his marvellous beauty of design, his supreme mastery of line, alike in the leaping flames and nude forms of the circles of his "Inferno", and in the swaying trees and dancing angels of his "Paradiso". And we see his wonderful powers of expression in the different scenes in which Dante follows every word and gesture of his adored Lady, as she expounds the mysteries of the Christian faith, in the rapt face and yearning eyes of the listening poet, in the radiant smile and uplifted gaze of Beatrice.
|
第十六章
親方（マエストロ）自身の手は全体のいたるところにはっきりと見える。我々はこの挿絵の中に、サンドロの人物像の独特な様式や、素早い動きやひらひらする衣服の襞を描く技術や、天界の領域の、マートル（ギンバイカ）とオレンジ、椰子（ヤシ）と柘榴（ザクロ）、咲く花や草、細い茎や風にそよぐバラにある自然の美しさへのサンドロの愛を認める。我々はサンドロの「地獄篇」の第1から第9に至る各圏の跳躍する炎と人間の裸体においても、「天国篇（パラディーゾ）」の揺れ動く木と踊る天使においても、驚くほど美しい意匠、線描の最高の技を見る。そして、自らが崇拝する女性、ベアトリーチェが晴れやかな笑顔と高揚した視線をして、耳を傾ける詩人のうっとりとした顔と憧れの目の前で、キリスト教の信仰の謎を明らかにするにつれて、ダンテは彼女のすべての言葉と仕草をたどる、それぞれ異なった場面での、サンドロの表現力のすごさに我々は気づく。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
The illustrations of the "Inferno", as might be expected, form the least successful portion of the painter's work. The compositions are too often crowded and confused and the introduction of mediaeval imagery is more grotesque than imposing. There is little attempt at dramatic expression, and the painter fails to render the gloom and horror, the fierce passions and mingled emotions, the love and hatred, the anguish and despair, which are so vividly described in the poet's story. But the care with which Sandro follows the text of the poem is evident throughout his work, and gives these illustrations an extraordinary interest. This close attention to the text of the poem is remarkably shown in the coloured diagram of the "Inferno", which originally formed the frontispiece of the volume, and in which not only the nine different circles of hell, but the principal events of the poet's pilgrimage are introduced. We see the rushing stream of Acheron and the bark of Charon; the naked souls shivering on the brink, and the horned devils, painted red and yellow, who torment unhappy sinners. We see the flaming walls and lofty battlements of the city of Dis, and the blazing sarcophagi where Dante finds Farinata and Pope Anastasius. In his minute and elaborate analysis of this plan, Dr. Strzygowski has even succeeded in identifying many of the chief personages whom the poet meets in these regions. The figures of Homer and the old Greek and Latin poets, of Paolo and Francesca, clasped together as they are borne on the whirlwind ; the three-headed Cerberus, the harpies and centaurs, Pluto and Geryon, may all be distinguished. The costume of the two poets is especially noteworthy. Virgil wears a blue robe and deep crimson mantle, with a white collar and a high pointed cap in the form of a mitre, of the same purple colour, trimmed with fur and lined with white. His beard and venerable aspect agree with the description of Virgil teaching in his school in Rome, which is given in the curious mediaeval romance of "Dolopathos", and show how closely Botticelli followed these old traditions. Dante, on the contrary, has no beard, and wears a red cap and mantle over a green robe throughout the series.
|
第十六章
「地獄篇」の挿絵は、予想されるように、サンドロの仕事の中で最も成功していない範疇に含まれる。この画面の構成はあまりにもしばしば混雑、混乱しており、中世の形象の描き込みは印象的というよりも異様である。劇的な表現はほとんど試みられておらず、詩人の書いた物語には鮮やかに描かれている憂鬱と恐怖、激しい情熱と混乱した感情、愛と憎しみ、苦悩と絶望を描き出すことができないでいる。しかし、サンドロが詩の本文に注意深く従っていることは、その作品を通して明らかであり、これらの挿絵には特別な重要性が与えられている。この詩の文へのこのような細心の注意は、「地獄篇」の彩色された図に実にはっきりと示されている。この図は、もともとはこの書籍の扉を形成し、地獄界の9つの異なる圏だけでなく、詩人の巡礼での主な出来事が描き込まれたものだ。我々は、三途の川（アケロン）の激しい流れと渡し守（カローン）の船、崖っぷちで震えている裸の死者の魂、そして不幸な罪人を苦しめる角のある赤と黄の悪魔を見る。我々は、冥界の神（ディス）の都市の燃え立つ城壁やそびえ立つ狭間胸壁、そしてダンテがファリナータと法王アナスタシウスの名のを見つけた石棺を見る。ストルツゴゥスキ博士は、この作品について詳細に分析した結果、これらの場面で詩人が出会う多くの主な人物を特定することに成功した。ホメロスと古代ギリシアとラテンの詩人の姿、旋風に運ばながら手を握り合ったパオロとフランチェスカの姿、三つの頭を持つ犬のケルベロス、女面鳥身の怪物のハルピュイアと半人半馬の怪物のケンタウルス、冥界を司る神のプルートと三頭三体の怪物のゲリュオンはほぼ、すべて判別される。 二人の詩人の衣裳は特に注目に値する。ウェルギリウスは青い衣服と緋色の上衣を纏い、白い立ち襟とミトラ（教冠）の形の、毛皮で飾り白い線がつけられた同じ緋色の尖った帽子を被っている。彼のひげと尊い姿は、ローマの彼の学校で教えているウェルギリウスの描写に合致している。これは「ドロパトス」という不思議な中世の小説の賢人で、ボッティチェリがこれらの古い伝統にどれほど密に従っているかを示している。逆に、ダンテはひげもなく、全篇にわたって赤い帽子を被り、緑色の衣裳の上に緋色の上衣を纏っている。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
In accordance with the practice of many older Giottesque masters, Botticelli has grouped several incidents together in a single subject. The figure of Dante, for instance, appears as many as five times in the first illustration (Canto i in the Vatican). We see the poet lost in the depths of a tangled forest,
Che la diritta via era smarrita,
|
第十六章
ボッティチェリは、多くの古いジョット流の画家の習慣に従って、複数の出来事をひとつの場面にまとめた。例えば、ダンテの姿は、最初の挿絵（バチカンにある歌1）に5回も登場する。我々は、暗き森の中をさまよう詩人を見る；
「ふと気がつくと、私は正しき道の失われた暗き森の中をさまよっていた」
| |
|
we watch him emerging from the thicket to climb a hill lighted by the beams of the rising sun, and foiled in his attempt by the successive appearance of the panther, the lion, and the wolf. The different trees of the forest, the pine with its cones, the laurel and orange, are all drawn with exquisite care and delicacy, and the countenance of the poet Virgil, the dolce Duca who finally comes to Dante's rescue, is singularly noble and expressive. We follow the poets through the circles of the Inferno, and see the torments of the lost and the hideous exultation of the fiends, the centaurs armed with arrows and the harpies darting snakes of fire. The wealth of the painter's imagination finds full scope in the illustration of the eighth and ninth Cantos, where Dante and Virgil are rowed across the waters of the Styx in the bark of Phlegyas to the city of Dis, and the devils, who guard the battlements, forbid the poets to enter. The Furies, crowned and girdled about with snakes, appear on the towers, and a grinning devil holds up the Gorgon head, which Virgil hides with his hands from Dante's sight; while below we see a heavenly messenger flying across the Styx to their help. At his touch the gates fall back and the poets enter the City of Hell, and walk along the narrow path among the flaming graves, where Farinata and Cavalcanti rise from the tomb to greet them. Again, in the thirteenth Canto, he has a subject to his taste in the tangled thorns and briars of the thicket, where suicides expiate their crime, and harpies make their nest among the brambles, while hell-hounds devour the prodigal. The horrors of Malebolge and the lake of the boiling pitch, which reminded Dante of the Arsenal of Venice, where fraudulent money-changers are punished, and horned devils armed with hooks and forks, drive them back into the boiling flood, are depicted with the most vivid realism. But by far the finest drawing of the Inferno is the illustration of Canto XXXI. Here we reach the edge of the lowest circle, where six naked giants, bound in chains, keep guard round the mouth of the yawning gulf. Nimrod, the mighty hunter, blows his horn, and Antaeus, holding Virgil and Dante in his right hand, lowers them down into the nethermost abyss. The composition is full of grandeur and originality, and the admirable foreshortening and modelling of the nude forms recall Sandro's early studies under Antonio Pollaiuolo. Deep down in the lowest circles, we see the traitors fast bound in a frozen sea, Ugolino devouring Archbishop Roger's skull, and Lucifer - a three-headed monster with bat's wings - crushing the arch-traitors, Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius between his teeth.
|
我々は詩人が茂みから出て日の出の輝きに照らされた丘を登り、ヒョウ、ライオン、オオカミが次々と現れるので、心をくじかれていた。森の異なる木々、松笠のある松の木、月桂樹とオレンジは、すべて絶妙な筆致で描かれている。そして、詩人ウェルギリウス、最終的にダンテを救い出しに来る「導きの人（デュカ）」の顔つきは、並はずれて高貴で表情に富むものである。我々は「地獄界」の圏を通って詩人たちに付いていき、亡者の苦悩や悪霊のおぞましい歓声、矢で武装したケンタウルス、火の蛇を投げつけるハルピュイアを見る。画家の想像力の豊かさは、第8と第9の歌の挿絵において十二分に発揮されている。ダンテとウェルギリウスがプレギュアスの船でスティクスの河を越えてディスの都市に漕ぎ着くと、狭間胸壁を守っている悪魔たちは詩人たちが都市に入るのを禁じる。頭で蛇がとぐろを巻いて冠のようになった復讐の女神のエリニュエス（訳者注：原著ではFuries）は塔の上に現れ、にやにや笑う悪魔はゴルゴンの首を上に掲げる。これに対してウェルギリウスはダンテが見ないように視界から手で隠している（訳者注：ゴルゴンの顔を見たものは石になってしまうという神話がある）。下の方には天の使者がスティクスの河を渡って彼らを助けに来るのが見える。天の使者が触れると門が後ろへ開かれ、詩人たちは地獄の都市に入り、燃え立つ墓の間の狭い道を歩いて行く。そこでは、ファリナータ（訳者注：ダンテをフィレンツェから追放した豪傑）とカヴァルカンティ（訳者注：ダンテの友人の父）が墓から立ち上がり、声をかける。また、第13番の歌では、サンドロは自らの好みの主題をもつれ合った荊の茂みのなかに見つけた。そこでは、地獄の猟犬は放蕩者を食い漁り、自殺者が自らの犯罪を償い、ハルピュイアはイバラの中で巣をつくっている。悪の袋（マレボルジェ）の恐怖と、ダンテに詐欺行為の両替商が処罰されたヴェネツィアの造船所のことを思い起こさせた煮えたぎる瀝青の池、そして煮えたぎる洪水の中に戻ってきた鉤（かぎ）やくま手で武装した角のある悪魔が、鮮明なリアリズムで描かれている。しかし、「地獄界」の最も素晴らしい描写は、第31歌の挿絵である。ここで我々は最深の圏の端に到達する。そこでは、鎖に縛られた6人の裸の巨人が、口を大きくあけている深い割れ目を守り続ける。力強い狩人であるニムロデが角ぶえを吹き、ウェルギリウスとダンテを右手で捕まえていたアンタイオスは、二人を最も深い深淵に降ろす。この画面構成は壮大さと創造性が溢れており、裸体の素晴らしい遠近短縮法と形態描写は、アントニオ・ポライウォーロの下でのサンドロの初期の研究を思い出させる。深い最下位の圏では、凍結した海にきつく閉じ込められた裏切り者ウゴリーノがルッジェーリ大司教の頭蓋骨にむしゃぶりつくのを、また、ルシファーは蝙蝠の羽を持つ頭が三つの怪物で、最大の裏切り者、イスカリオテのユダ、ブルータス、カシウスを歯の間で押しつぶしているのを見る。
|
|
CHAPTER XVI
All of Botticelli's illustrations for the thirty-three Cantos of the Purgatorio "have been preserved, and on the margin of the first nine drawings we read the opening words of each Canto, written with the same pen that traced the figures. "Per correr miglior acque" is inscribed at the foot of the first subject, which shows us Virgil and Dante's meeting with Cato of Utica. In the foreground Virgil bathes the poet's face and girds him with reeds, while a troop of blessed souls borne on a bark guided by Angel-bands, to the shore, leap on land, with uplifted hands, chanting "In Exitu Israel." For the benefit of the reader Sandro has sketched a diagram of the Mount of Purification, with its different circles, which rise from the sea, as described by Dante, opposite to the city of Jerusalem. Step by step we see the poets climbing the steep mountain-side, and passing through the crowd of souls that wait at the gates of Purgatory. There we see the joyful meeting between Virgil and his countryman Sordello:
|
第十六章
煉獄篇の第33歌のためのボッティチェリの挿絵のすべてが保存されており、最初の9つの絵の縁には、その図を描いた同じペンで書かれた各歌の初めの言葉が読みとれる。「美しい水を渡ろうと」は最初の挿絵の下のところに書かれており、ウェルギリウスとダンテのウティカのカトとの出会いを示し。前景では、ウェルギリウスは詩人ダンテのの顔を洗い、葦で腰を巻く。その間、祝福された魂たちの一団が天使の導かれる船に乗って海岸に運ばれ、岸に飛び跳ね、「イスラエルはエジプトをでる」を魂たちは声を合わせて歌い唱える。読者の便宜のために、サンドロは、浄水山の図を素描した。それはダンテが述べたように、エルサレムの都市の向かいにあり、海から立ち上がるさまざまな圏を持つ。詩人たちが険しい山腹を一歩一歩登り、煉獄の門を待つ魂の群衆の中を通り抜けていくのを見る。そこでは、ウェルギリウスと彼の同郷人ソルデロとの楽しい出会いがある。
|
O Mantovano, io son Sordello
|
「ああ、マントゥア人よ、私はあなたと同じ町の出身のソルデロ（訳者注：当時の著名人と面識ある宮廷詩人）です」そして二人の魂は、抱き合う。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
and the eagle that bears Dante, in his sleep, to the gate where the seated angel writes the letter P. with a flaming sword seven times on his brow, in token of the seven deadly sins which are to be expiated in this place. In the tenth drawing Botticelli gives us a representation of the white marble walls of the first circle, adorned with bas-reliefs carved with examples of humility - the Annunciation, King David dancing before the ark while Michal looks on from a window, and the story of Trajan and the widow, as told by Dion Cassius. This last subject, always a favourite story in mediaeval times, occupies a prominent place, and contains a number of carefully drawn figures, to which the master has devoted especial attention, while in the background he has introduced a battle-scene with a mass of serried spears, which strongly resembles Leonardo's famous cartoon of the Battle of Anghiari. In the twelfth drawing we have corresponding examples of the proud receiving the chastisement of their sins, according to the words of the Magnificat: "He hath put down the mighty from their seat."
|
第十六章
夢のなかで鷲がダンテを抱え連れてきた門に座っている天使が炎の剣で、ダンテの額に七つのＰの文字（煉獄の七つの冠で一つずつ浄去されるべき七つの罪。Ｐは罪を意味するラテン語 peccatum の頭文字）を記す。第10の挿絵でボッティチェリは、最初の冠の白い大理石の壁を表現している。その壁には謙虚を示す浅浮き彫りの彫刻で飾られている。受胎告知、ミカルが窓から見るなか、ダビデ王の聖なる箱の前での踊る様子、ディオン・カッシオスにより語られた皇帝トラヤヌスと寡婦の物語が見える。この最後の画題は、中世の時代には常に好まれた物語で、壁の主要な場所を占めており、サンドロは特に気を入れて丁寧に描かれた数多くの人物像がある。背景では、アンギアリの戦いの有名なレオナルドによる実物大下絵によく似ている、密集した槍の軍の戦いの場面を描き込んでいる。第12の挿絵では、 マリア讃歌（マニフィカート）の言葉によれば、罪の懲罰を受ける誇りに関連した例が見られる：「権力ある者を王座から引きおろした」と。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
The Fall of Lucifer, the Flight of the Assyrians, the Collapse of the Tower of Babel, the Death of Saul, the Sorrows of Niobe, and the Ruin of Troy are all lightly sketched out, and as in the Calumny, pagan and Christian motives are freely mingled together. The figures of Pallas, Mars, and Apollo are represented standing at the side of Jupiter, who contemplates the destruction of the Titans with serene equanimity. In the same drawing we see an angel folding the poet in a tender embrace that recalls the seraphs who welcome Savonarola and his martyred companions in the painting of the Nativity while further on the same angel wipes away a P. from Dante's brow with a touch of his wing.
|
第十六章
ルシファーの堕落、アッシリア人の敗走、バベルの塔の崩壊、サウル（訳者注：イスラエル最初の王）の死、ニオベの悲しみ、トロイの荒廃は、すべてさらっと描かれている。また、誹謗におけるように、異教徒とキリスト教徒の出来事が一緒に自由に混じり合っている。パラス、マルス、アポロの姿はユピテル（訳者注：ゼウス）の側に立って描かれている。ユピテルは穏やかに巨人たちの敗北をじっと見ている。同じ挿絵で我々は、「神秘の降誕」の作品でサヴォナローラと、そして一緒に殉教した仲間を歓迎する天使たちを想起させる柔らかい抱擁で詩人を抱える天使を見る。その天使がさらに、ダンテの額からその翼を触れさせひとつの P .を拭い取る。
| |
|
In the twenty-second Canto Dante and Virgil are joined by Statius, and the three poets are seen standing under the spreading branches of the tree laden with sweet-scented fruit:
|
第22歌でダンテとウェルギリウスにはスタティウスが加わり、3人の詩人が甘い香りの果実が実っている枝の広がる木の下に立っているのが見える。
| |
Con pomi ad odorar soavi e buoni.
|
あたりはその香りでいっぱいである。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
Here Botticelli has, after his wont, drawn every leaf and twig of the tree with the greatest care and delicacy. In the twenty-second Canto it resembles a fir, in the twenty-third the foliage and ripe fruit hanging from the boughs recall the orange-trees in the Primavera and a group of hungry spirits are seen hastening with eager gaze and outstretched hands to reach the fruit of which they may not taste.
|
第十六章
ここでボッティチェリは、画家としての職業柄、木のすべての葉と小枝を、最高の気遣いと繊細さで描いた。第22歌では、その木はモミの木に似ている。第23歌には葉全体や熟した果実は、「春（プリマヴェーラ）」のオレンジの木を思い出す。腹の減った魂の一団はじっとその果実を見つめ、手を伸ばして取ろうとしていた。しかしその果実は口にできないだろう。
| |
|
Very fine, too, is the illustration of the twenty-seventh canto, with the curling flames leaping up round the poor souls who here do penance for the sins of the flesh, and chant the "Summae Deus clementiae" in their pain. We see Dante with folded hands entering the flames at the angel's bidding, and we see him issue from the fiery trial to be crowned with a laurel wreath by the "dolce Duca" at his side.
|
第27歌の挿絵も、すばらしい。ここでは肉の罪の償いをし、苦痛の中で「いと大なる憐れみの神よ」を唱える貧しい魂たちの周りを巻きあがる炎が飛び跳ねている。我々は、天使の指示に従って、ダンテが腕を組んで炎の中に入るのを見る。そして、ダンテが、その傍にいる「導きの人（デュカ）」によって月桂樹の輪で戴冠されるために、激しい試練から出て来るのを見る。
| |
Per ch'io te sovra te corono e mitrio.
|
君に冠と司教帽をあげよう。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
Virgil's task is done; he has led Dante through the fires of hell and purgatory, and henceforth the poet needs his guidance no longer. Lord of himself and master of his passions, he is crowned with the temporal and spiritual crown, the wisdom that is alike human and divine, and his purified soul is rendered meet to enter the courts of heaven, and gaze on the face of Beatrice.
|
第十六章
ウェルギリウスの仕事は終った。ウェルギリウスは地獄と煉獄の火を通ってダンテを導いた。これ以降はダンテはウェルギリウスの指導を必要としない。自身が主であり、その意志の向かうままにする人として、現世と霊界の冠を受け、その知恵は、人間と聖人のようであり、その浄化された魂は天国界に入り、ベアトリーチェの顔を見るのだ。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
These scenes, full of mystic significance and beauty, were exactly suited to Botticelli's genius, and the painter has made good use of the opportunities afforded him in the closing cantos of the "Purgatorio". He takes us into the heart of the "divina foresta spessa e viva", where Matilda, a lovely woman after his favourite type, plucks flowers in the grassy meadow along the banks of the river Eunoe, singing as she goes, and shows us the poet standing at her side, with questioning hand, engaged in earnest converse. Suddenly a splendid light breaks over the dark forest, the sound of celestial melodies is heard, and Dante, lifting his head, sees the great vision of Beatrice throned triumphant on the car of the Church.  This subject covers the whole of a double sheet, and contains more figures than any other in the book. The chariot is drawn by a winged griffin, the symbol of Christ, and attended by the emblems of the four Evangelists, who walk at the corners of the car. The four cardinal virtues and three Christian graces, in the form of fair maidens wreathed with garlands of flowers, and clad in puffed and flying draperies, like the angels of the Coronation dance with light footsteps and swaying arms on either side. Seven angels, bearing lighted candle-sticks with long columns of smoke streaming across the heavens, and four-and-twenty elders, holding the open book of the Old Testament, as described in Landino's commentary, stand on the opposite side, facing the heavenly chariot. Two aged men, St. Paul and St. Luke, as the writers of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, accompanied by the four Fathers of the Church, walk behind the car, and last of all the venerable figure of St. John the Evangelist, the seer of Patmos, with head sunk in slumber on his clasped hands, brings up the rear. Beatrice herself, veiled in white and crowned with olive, is seated on the chariot, attended by angels who scatter roses in the air while the elders chant "Veni Sponsa de Libano" and Dante, bereft of his "dolce Duca", stands sadly on the shores of the stream, overwhelmed by the power of the old love, and the consciousness of his own unworthiness. All of these different motives are united in one magnificent picture, on which Botticelli has lavished his highest powers and rarest skill, and has marvellously succeeded in realizing the divine poet's vision.
|
第十六章
神秘的な意義と美でいっぱいのこれらの場面の製作は、ボッティチェリの天才にまさに適していて、画家は 「煉獄篇」を閉じる歌で与えられた機会をうまく利用している。彼は我々を「さわやかな緑濃い 聖の森（訳者注：煉獄界の最上階は地上楽園、即ちエデンの園）」の中心に連れて行く。マチルダはダンテの好きなタイプの素敵な女性で、夕方、エウノエ川（訳者注：「善憶」を意味するギリシア語に由来し、ダンテが新しく作った川の名）のほとりにある草原の牧草地に花を咲かせて歌う。彼女の側に立っている詩人は、真面目な話し合いをして、マチルダは疑問に答えている。突然、素晴らしい光が暗い森を照らし、天の音楽が聴こえ、頭を上げ、ダンテは、ベアトリーチェの偉大な幻影が教会の凱旋戦車の正面にいるのを見る。 この画題は、二頁に渡り、本書の中の他の画題のものより多くの人物像を含む。戦車は、キリストの象徴である翼のあるグリフィン（訳者注：鷲の頭と翼を持ち胴体がライオン）によって曳かれ、車の隅で歩いている四人の福音伝道者の象徴が付いている。四つの枢要徳（訳者注：知恵、勇気、節制、正義）と三つのキリスト教の美神徳（訳者注：信仰、希望、愛）は、花冠で飾られた綺麗な乙女の姿で、ふわっとして、襞が風になびく衣服に身を包んでいる。聖母戴冠のときの天使のように、軽い足取りで両脇で両手を揺らしている。七人の天使が天を越えて流れる長い煙の立ち上る灯された蠟燭を支え、24人の長老が旧約聖書を開いて抱え、ランディーノの解説に記載されているように、反対側に立って、天の戦車に面している。二人の老人たち、聖パウロと聖ルカは、使徒書の執筆者として、教会の四人の始祖たちと一緒に戦車の後ろを歩き、最後は、頭を抱えた手の上で眠りに埋もれている、福音伝道者聖ヨハネ、パトモスの先見者、がしんがりを務める。ベアトリーチェ自身は白い薄衣を被り、オリーブの冠をつけ、戦車に座っている。天使たちが空中にバラを散らし、長老たちは 「おいで、レバノンの花嫁」を唱え、ダンテは「導きの人」がいなくなって、かつての愛の力や自身の無力に圧倒され、流れの岸に寂しく立つ。これらの異なる要素はすべて、ボッティチェリが最高の力と類稀な技術をもって築き上げたひとつの素晴らしい壮大な絵で結ばれ、聖なる詩人の夢を実現することに驚異的に成功した。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
In the next drawing we see Beatrice gently dipping Dante in the cleansing waters of Lethe, after which the four Virtues, dancing as they go, lead them to Christ, and the three Christian Graces sing beside his lady's car. Last of all, in the thirty-third drawing, Beatrice appears seated at the foot of the tree, with an expression of deep sadness on her beautiful features, while the seven maidens chant the seventy-eighth Psalm: "Deus, venerunt gentes polluerunt templum sanctum tuum," "Thy holy temple have they defiled and made Jerusalem an heap of stones." Then Dante, at her bidding, is led by Matilda to drink of the healing stream, and, strengthened by the draught of holy water, feels his powers of body and soul renewed and ready to enter Paradise:
|
第十六章
次の挿絵ではベアトリーチェがレーテ河の清浄な水（訳者注：この水を飲むといっさいの罪の記憶が消されるという）にダンテを静かに浴びさせているのを見る。その後、四人の徳が踊って、キリストに導き、三人の美神はベアトリーチェの車のそばで歌う。最後に、第33番の挿絵では、ベアトリーチェが木の根元に座っているように見える。彼女の美しい表情には深い悲しみがあり、七人の巫女は78番目の詩篇「神よ、もろもろの異邦人は、あなたの聖なる宮を汚し、エルサレムを荒塚とした」を詠唱している。ダンテは、ベアトリーチェが言うように、マチルダに導かれ、癒しの流れを飲む。そして聖水をぐっと飲むと強くなり、身体と魂の力が回復し、天国界に入る準備ができていると感じる：
| |
Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.
|
清められ、星に向かって行く準備が整った。
| |
|
This last subject is one of the finest in the whole series. The foliage of the different trees in the forest is drawn with exquisite care and taste. As many as seven or eight different species may be distinguished, the palm, orange, citron, medlar and pomegranate are all clearly seen, while the wailing figures, standing on the banks of the river with bowed heads and yearning eyes, as they weep over the errors of the Church and the evil lives of Christians, are infinitely pathetic.
|
この最後の画題は、全体のなかで最も優れたもののひとつである。絶妙な心遣いと品格で、森の異なる木の葉すべてが描かれている。七つまたは八つの異なる種が区別されるが、シュロ、オレンジ、シトロン、カリン（メドラー）、ザクロはすべてはっきりと見える。一方、教会の誤りやキリスト教徒の邪悪な生活を泣いて悲しむ人たちは、川のほとりに立っていて、頭をたれ、救いを求める目をしているが、無限に哀れを誘う。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
In the illustrations of the "Paradiso" we notice a change in Botticelli's method of treatment. Instead of crowding his drawings with figures, and introducing a number of different incidents into the same subject, he confines himself almost exclusively to the two chief personages of the poet's epic, Dante and Beatrice, whom he represents, as a rule, by themselves, or else attended by a single angel or blessed spirit, who converses with them. The figures are drawn on a larger scale than in the "Inferno" or "Purgatorio," and the actual pen-work is as simple as the motive of the picture. Very few strokes are employed, but the effect produced is singularly fine and decorative. This time we have no plan or diagram, as was the case both in the "Inferno" and "Purgatorio". The celestial regions, the painter feels, are beyond the reach of human understanding. All he can show us are the forms of Dante and Beatrice, crowned with bay-leaves, borne upwards by the power of love to the heavenly realm. The conception is as original as the execution is delicate and beautiful. Leaving the flowery meads and winding stream far below, Beatrice floats through the air, drawing Dante after her. Together they soar upwards through the wind-bent trees of the forest, with eyes fixed on the opening heavens, in an ecstasy of love and yearning. The subsequent history of their journey through the ten heavens of the poet's system, as expounded by Beatrice in Canto II is now set forth. We see Dante and his guide in the successive spheres of the seven planets, and Beatrice, growing ever fairer and more radiant as she soars higher into the empyrean, explains the mysteries of God to her listening companion and clears away his doubts.
|
第十六章
「天国篇」の挿絵では、ボッティチェリの描写法の変化に気付く。画面を人物でいっぱいにし、一つの画題に数多くの出来事を描き込む代わりに、サンドロは、この叙事詩の主要な登場人物であるダンテとベアトリーチェの二人だけに限定して描こうとする。基本的に二人だけにし、例外的に、二人と会話する天使か祝福された精霊が一人だけ加わる。挿絵は 「地獄篇」や「煉獄篇」よりも大きな尺度で描かれており、実際にペンにより描く作業は挿絵の内容と同じくらい単純である。非常に少数の描線が使用されるが、生成される効果は比類なく美しく装飾的である。ここでは、「地獄篇」と「煉獄篇」とは異なり、見取り図や全体図がない。画家が感じる天国は人間の理解の範囲を超えているということだ。サンドロが我々に示すことができるのは、ダンテとベアトリーチェの姿であり、月桂樹の葉で冠を成し、天域の愛の力によって上方に支えられている。この着想は、描写が繊細で美しいのと同様に創意に満ちたものだ。花の咲く草原やうねる川の流れをはるか下にして、ベアトリーチェは空中を浮遊し、後にダンテを引き連れる。二人は一緒に、開いた天をじっと見ながら、風にたわんだ森の木々の上を、愛と憧れの恍惚感のなか舞い上がる。第2歌でベアトリーチェによって解説されたように、詩人の構想した10の天を巡る彼らの旅の続きは今始められた。我々はダンテと彼の案内役を7つの惑星の連続した天で見ることができる。そしてベアトリーチェは高く舞い上がり至高天（エンピレオ）に近くづくほど、より美しく、より輝かしくなり、耳を傾ける同行者に神の謎を解き明かし、その疑いを消し去る。
|
Quivi la Donna mia vid' io si lieta: I saw my lady so glad.
|
天の輝きを受け、
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
Often as the same motive and figures are repeated, there is no monotony in Sandro's conception. The variety of attitude and expression is unending. Sometimes Dante and Beatrice walk rapidly side by side, sometimes she stands before him with uplifted hand, discoursing eloquently of heavenly things. Sometimes the poet turns to Beatrice with a doubtful and anxious gaze, at other times his expression is transfigured by the brightness of her countenance, and his eyes are fixed ardently upon his lady's face. Sometimes they stand apart, and Beatrice is seen floating in the air, while Dante's eyes are bent on the ground in deep and earnest contemplation. The figures may be ill-drawn and out of proportion, the foreshortening and perspective may often be at fault, but the beauty of the conception, the grace and charm of the faces, are irresistible.
|
第十六章
多くの場合、同じ場面と人物像が繰り返されるが、サンドロの着想には単調なところはない。仕草と表情の多様性には果てがない。時にはダンテとベアトリーチェが並んで急ぎ足で歩くこともある。時にはベアトリーチェは手を掲げながらダンテの前に立って、天国のことを雄弁に語る。時にはダンテがベアトリーチェに疑いを抱いた、心配そうな目を向ける。他の時にはダンテの表情がベアトリーチェの顔立ちの輝きによって変化し、ダンテの目は淑女の顔に熱心に釘付けになる。時々二人が離れて立つと、ベアトリーチェは空中に浮かんで見えるが、ダンテの視線は深く真面目な熟考で地面に向けられる。人物像は不自然で、釣り合いを失っているかもしれないし、遠近法上はしばしば誤りであるかもしれないが、構想の美しさ、人物の顔の優雅さや魅力は卓越している。
|
|
CHAPTER XVI
In the third Canto, the circle of the moon, we see the poet's meeting with the fair women, who turn their faces all towards him as if eager to speak, and Beatrice, throwing one arm round Dante, tells him that these are not shadows, but realities, upon which the poet salutes Piccarda. In the sixth, Dante and Beatrice stand in the circle of Mercury, surrounded by a host of blessed spirits, "each shining with new splendour", whom the painter shows us under the figure of tiny sparks of flame. In the fourteenth Canto the figures of the poet and his mistress are repeated twice over; in the fifteenth he addresses his ancestor, Caccagiuda, and in the next illustration we see Beatrice step apart with a smile on her face - the smile which Dante tells us, recalled the cough of the maiden who warned Guinevere of her danger (Par. xvi, 15). Again the painter represents Beatrice addressing Dante with a smile when they rise into the sphere of Jupiter, and she bids him look about him and see the blessed company of spirits who hover around the form of an eagle:
|
第十六章
第3歌では、月の天で、我々は、詩人が綺麗な女性たちと会うのを見る。女性たちは、いかにも話したくてという様子で、顔をみなダンテに向ける。ベアトリーチェが片方の腕でダンテに抱きつき、この女性たちは幻影でなく、現実の人だと彼に伝える。詩人はそのうちの一人、ピカルダ（訳者注：煉獄にいた友人フォレーゼの妹で、神への請願が満たしきれなかった女性の一人）に挨拶する。第6歌のダンテとベアトリーチェは、水星天に立ち、「新しい栄耀で輝く」祝福された精霊に囲まれている。サンドロはそれを炎の小さな火花の下で我々に示す。第14歌では、詩人とその淑女の姿は二度繰り返される。第15歌で、ダンテの祖先であるカッチャクイダ（訳者注：キリスト教を守護する為に戦って死んだ皇帝親衛隊長）に話しかける。そして、次の挿絵では、ベアトリーチェが顔に笑みを浮かべ一歩離れるのを見る。ダンテが我々に言う笑顔は、危険をギネヴィアに警告した王妃の侍女の咳を思い出させた。また、画家は、木星天に上がった時、笑顔でダンテに話しかけるベアトリーチェを描く。彼女は彼にまわりのことを見るよう、また、鷲の姿の周りを浮遊する霊の祝福された一団を見るようダンテに話す：
| |
Volgiti e ascolta;
|
「振り向いて、よく聞きなさい。
|
|
CHAPTER XVI
"Turn round and listen, for paradise is not only to be found in my eyes." The poet's flight to the sphere of the fixed stars is the subject of the twenty-first drawing, where he is borne in the arms of Beatrice up the ladder which reaches into the eighth heaven. There we see him and his mistress again, surrounded by thousands of spirits in the form of flames, while the signs of the Heavenly Twins and the Bull appear at their feet, and the Sun of Christ occupies the centre of the picture. In the twenty-sixth drawing the names of the Apostles, "Piero, Giovanni, and Jacopo", are inscribed on the three flames which, hovering above the head of Dante, circle round the Sun, and we see Beatrice hiding the poet's eyes from the dazzling rays which blind him. In the next drawing, he looks back at the long distance that he has travelled, and sees the earth, dimly lighted by the rays of the sun, lying far below, while in the upper part of the same sheet he is represented soaring at Beatrice's side, attended by a flight of happy souls, into the highest heaven.
|
第十六章
恒星天への詩人の飛行は、第21の挿絵の対象であり、ベアトリーチェの腕の中に抱かれ、第8、恒星天に達する梯子を登る。牡牛座の次の双子座の宮（訳者注：黄道十二宮の星座の宮）がダンテとその淑女の足元に現れ、二人が何千もの炎の姿の聖霊に囲まれるのを再び見る。キリストの太陽が画面の中心を占める。第26の挿絵では、使徒たちの名前「聖ペテロ、聖ヨハネ、聖ヤコブ」が、太陽のまわりを囲む、三つの炎に描かれ、ダンテの頭上を舞う。そして、ベアトリーチェが見るものを盲目にする眩惑の光線から詩人の目を隠しているのを見る。次の挿絵では、ダンテは自ら旅した長い行程を振り返り、太陽の光で微かに照らされる地球を遠く下のほうに見る。同じ挿絵の上部で、ダンテはベアトリーチェの傍で舞い上がり一群の幸せな魂を伴い、至高天に入るのが描かれている。
| |||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XVI
Many of these later drawings seem to have been only lightly sketched in, and several of the figures are half-effaced. But the illustration of the twenty-eighth Canto is a splendid and elaborate composition, with countless figures, all carefully drawn and shaded. The painter, old and failing as he was, when he reached the last pages of Dante's poem, put forth all his powers to set forth the great vision which he had often heard Savonarola describe in impassioned language. All the grace and beauty of his art, all the mystic poetry of his soul, are present in this picture of the celestial city. We see the nine orders of Angels, who stand before God and chant their eternal song of praise as they circle round the throne. On the margin of the sheet of parchment, written with the painter's own pen, we read the first letters of the names of these celestial hierarchies, as described in Beatrice's own words:
|
第十六章
これらの以降の挿絵の多くは、軽く素描されているように見え、いくつかの挿絵は半ば消えかかっている。しかし、第28歌番の挿絵は、陰影のつけられた無数の人物が登場し、丁寧に素晴らしく描かれたもので、華麗で精巧な作品である。画家サンドロは、もう歳をとり力を失ってはいるが、ダンテの詩の最後の頁に到達したとき、サヴォナローラが熱狂的な言葉で表すのを何度も聞いた大きな未来像を明らかにするべく力を尽くした。彼の芸術のすべての優雅さと美しさ、魂のすべての神秘的な詩が、天の都市のこの挿絵にある。我々は神の前に立ち、王座の周りを回り、永遠の賛美歌を歌う、天使たちの9つ階級を見る。羊皮紙の余白には、画家自身のペンで書かれ、ベアトリーチェ自身の言葉で説明されているように、これらの天の階層の名前の文字を我々は読む：
| |||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XVI
These names, first given, as Dante tells us, to the different ranks of angelic beings, by Dionysius the Areopagite, are the self-same terms, used by our own poet Milton. "Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers." But the symbols borne by each order were, as Dr. Lippmann has pointed out, evidently borrowed from Dante's own book of the "Convito" (ii, 6), which Botticelli must have studied as attentively as he did the "Divina Commedia". Thus the three highest orders of angels bear rings, flags, and shields in their hands, symbolic of the Almighty power of God, and the next ranks hold sceptres and globes, as types of the Kingship of Christ over the earth. The fourth row are represented, either looking upwards in an ecstasy of adoring love, or else hiding their eyes from the splendour of the vision, while the lower ranks, who are described in the "Convito" as symbolizing the gifts of the Spirit, bear scrolls and tablets in their hands.
|
第十六章
これらの名前は、ダンテが我々に語るように、アテネのアレオパゴス評議所における裁判人ディオニュシオスによって、天使たちのそれぞれ異なる階級に与えられたもので、我々自身（訳者注：英国人）の詩人ミルトンによって使用される名、「座天使、主天使、権天使、力天使、能天使」と同義語である。リップマン博士が指摘したように、各階級に付けられた表象はダンテ自身の「饗宴」の本から明らかに借用されており、そのことは、ボッティチェリが「神曲」を研究していたように「饗宴」も注意深く勉強していたはずである。こうして、三つの最高位の天使たちは、神の全能の力を象徴するように、手に輪、旗、盾を持つ。次の階級の天使は、地上のキリストの王権の印として、王笏と球を抱く。第4列は、愛を崇拝する恍惚のなか、上を向くか、また未来像の素晴らしさから目を隠すかしている。「饗宴」に記されている精霊の賜物を象徴する下位の者は、巻物と告知板を手にしている。
| |||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPTER XVI
In the center of the heavenly host Dante stands with upraised hands and gazes, lost in adoring rapture, on the great vision, while Beatrice, at his side, points with triumphant gesture to the Throne of God. On the left, in the lowest tier of angels, one little cherub holds a cartellino in his hand, on which the painter has inscribed his own name - "Sandro di Mariano". In these words, written in the same minute characters as the lines from Dante's poem which are inscribed on the margin of his drawings, we see an expression of Botticelli's pious hope that his soul might at the last be numbered among the elect and share the bliss of heaven.
|
第十六章
天界の中心でダンテは偉大な光景を、歓喜に我を忘れ両手を上にあげて見る。ベアトリーチェは彼の傍で、勝ち誇ったように、神の玉座を指差す。左側には、天使の最下級で、小さなケルビムが手に札を持っている。そこには、彼自身の名前「サンドロ・ディ・マリアーノ」が書かれている。挿絵の縁に刻まれているダンテの詩句と同じく細かい文字で書かれている、これらの文字には、我々はボッティチェリの、自らの魂が、最後には選ばれた人のうちに数えられ、天の至福を共有するという、敬虔な希望の表出を見る。
|
|
CHAPTER XVI
In the next drawing Beatrice appears again among the angel choirs circling round the Light of God, resplendent in youth and loveliness. Her tall stature and royal bearing, her rippling locks and radiant smile strongly recall that other form of Priniavera which Sandro painted long ago, in the brilliant days of the Magnifico's reign, and which now came back to him as he "dreamt of the regions of eternal spring".
|
第十六章
次の挿絵では、ベアトリーチェが、神の光の周を回る天使の合唱団の中で、若さと愛らしさで華麗に再び現れる。背の高い身長と女王のごとき振る舞い、波打つ髪と輝かしい笑顔は、サンドロがずっと以前のマニフィコの治世の輝かしい時代に描いた「春」の女神の姿を思い出させる。そしてこのことは、永遠の春の地を夢見るように、サンドロに戻って来た。
| |
in questa primavera sempiterna
|
「この永遠の春に」
| |
|
Once more we see Dante at his lady's side, in the highest empyrean, looking down at the crystal river flowing at his feet, with the strange and beautiful blossoms of everlasting spring flowering along its banks and the "living sparks" - "faville vive" - whom Sandro represents in the form of winged genii hovering in the air and settling on the bells of the acanthus-shaped flowers, or else diving down into the shining waters.
|
もう一度我々は最高天（エンピレオ）で、淑女の傍の、彼の足元を流れる水晶のように輝く命の水の川を見下ろすダンテを見る。その川の岸には見なれない、美しい永遠に春であるように花が咲いている。サンドロがハアザミ（アカンサス）形の花の中に潜り込んでしまったり、輝く水に潜ったりする翼のある精霊の姿で表現した「生きている火花」が空中に浮かんでいる。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
The next sheet has been left blank, and there is no illustration to the thirty-first Canto. Only the Rose of heaven, which Dante describes in the last songs of his "Paradiso", is sketched out in the drawing for the thirty-second Canto, and the figures of Christ and his Mother are slightly indicated as throned on the highest point, while the Archangel Gabriel, "the morning star, whose face brightens as he gazes on the Sun," is seen with outspread wings, chanting that perpetual hymn with which the Courts of Heaven resound, "Ave Maria, gratia plena."
|
第十六章
次の挿絵頁は空白のまま残され、第31歌への挿絵はない。ダンテが彼の「天国篇」の最後の歌で描写した天の薔薇だけが、第32歌のために描かれている。キリストと聖母の姿は、一番高い場所にあることが少しだけ示されている。一方、「太陽をじっと見て顔が明るくなる明けの明星」の大天使ガブリエルは、大きく広げた翼を持ち、天国の宮廷に響き渡る永遠の賛美歌「アヴェ、マリア、恵みに満ちた方」を唱っている。
| |
|
Here the great series ends. The two remaining leaves are left blank, as if the pen had dropped from the master's hand before the work was complete. Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici, the patron for whom Sandro's volume was originally executed, died in 1503, probably before the drawings were finished, but in all likelihood the master went on with the work for some years after his old friend's death. This, however, is only conjecture, for we have no certain record of the great painter's last years. All we know is that he was still held in high honour by his fellow-citizens.
|
ここで素晴らしい挿絵の連作が終了する。残っている二枚の頁は、描こうとする前にペンが親方（マエストロ）の手から落ちたかのように空白のままである。サンドロにこの挿絵の製作を委託したサンドロの支援者ロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコ・デ・メディチは、この挿絵製作が完了する前の1503年に亡くなった。しかし、おそらく親方（マエストロ）は、旧友の死後数年間にわたって、仕事を続けたのであろう。これは、偉大な画家の最晩年の記録がないので、ただの推測にすぎない。我々が知っていることは、サンドロが仲間の市民から晩年にも依然として高い評価を受けていたことだけである。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
On the 25th of January, 1504, Botticelli, we find, was among the chief artists in Florence who were summoned by the Operai del Duomo, to choose a site for the young Michelangelo's colossal statue of David. Many of Sandro's old friends and associates were present on the memorable occasion when this illustrious company met in the hall of the Opera del Duomo and held a solemn council. Leonardo was there, after his long absence from Florence, and the favourite architect of the Medici, Giuliano di San Gallo, together with his brother Antonio, and Simone Cronaca, the Piagnone architect who built the new hall for the Consiglio Grande. Baccio d'Agnolo, the Piagnone sculptor, was there with Giovanni delle Corniole, the engraver who carved Savonarola's head on a well-known gem, and the fine old master, Andrea della Robbia, whose family was so closely associated with San Marco in the days of the revival, and who was already in his seventieth year. There, too, were Perugino and Cosimo Rosselli, the painters who had worked with Botticelli in the Pope's chapel; Piero di Cosimo, the clever foreman of Rosselli's shop, who had already surpassed his master; Ghirlandaio's follower, Granacci; and Sandro's own pupils, Biagio Tucci and Filippino Lippi, then at the height of his fame, but whose career was to be brought to a sudden and premature close only three months later. Sandro himself took part in the discussion which followed and supported the suggestion first made by Francesco Monciatto, a wood-carver, and seconded by Cosimo Rosselli, that the colossal statue should stand in front of the Duomo, as had been the original intention of the Operai who gave Michelangelo the commission. "When Cosimo had done speaking, Sandro," we learn, "spoke as follows: 'Cosimo has said where in my opinion the statue ought to be placed, in order that it may be seen by the passers-by, either at the side of Judith, on the steps of Santa Maria del Fiore, or else in the Loggia de' Signori, but rather, I think, at the corner of the church, and this I judge to be the best place.'"
|
第十六章
1504年1月25日、若いミケランジェロの巨大なダビデ像の設置場所を選ぶための協議会の委員に、ボッティチェリはフィレンツェの主要な芸術家の一人として、大聖堂（ドウオーモ）造営局によって選ばれた。サンドロの古い友人や仲間の多くは、大聖堂造営局の広間での輝かしい芸術家が参集したこの記念すべき評議会で再会した。フィレンツェを長年離れていたレオナルドがいた。メディチ家のお抱えの建築家、フィレンツェ出身のジュリアーノ・ディ・サン・ガロもその弟のアントニオと共にいた。大評議会の新しい会議場を建設した、ピニョーネ出身の建築家シモーネ・クロナカもいた。サヴォナローラの頭を彫り込んだ宝石で有名な彫刻家ジョヴァンニ・デッレ・コルニオーレと一緒に、ピニョーネ出身の彫刻家バッチオ・ダーニョロがいた。復活の日にその家族が聖マルコ修道院と密接に関連していた、すでに70歳の老親方（マエストロ）、アンドレア・デッラ・ロビアもいた。ローマ法王のシスティーナ礼拝堂でボッティチェリと同時に働いていた画家のペルジーノとコジモ・ロッセッリもいた。コジモ・ロッセッリの工房の優秀な職長であり、すでに師匠ロッセッリを超えていたピエロ・ディ・コジモもいた。ギルランダイオの後継者グラナッチもいた。そしてサンドロ自身の弟子、ビアジオ・トゥッチとフィリッピーノ・リッピもいた。当時、名声の高かったリッピは、そのわずか3か月後に突然亡くなってしまった。サンドロ自身は、木彫家のフランチェスコ・モンチアートが最初に提案し、コジモ・ロセッリが同調した、巨大な像はドウオーモの前に立てるべきであるとの主張を支持した。この案はミケランジェロに製作を委任した大聖堂造営局の元々の意向に沿ったものであった。コジモが話しを終えた後、サンドロは次のように語ったことを我々は知っている。「どこに像を置くべきかについては、私の意見では、通行する人に見えるようにするために、ドナテッロの『ユーディットとフォロフェルヌス』（訳者注：当時はシニョーリア広場のダビデ像のあった場所にあった）の隣か、花の聖母大聖堂（サンタ・マリア・デル・フィオーレ）の階段か、あるいはロッジア・デッラ・シニョリーア（訳者注：シニョリーア広場の角にある回廊の建物）が考えられるが、むしろ、 花の聖母大聖堂の角が最適な場所と私は判断している」と。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
Giuliano da Sangallo, however, demurred to this proposal, fearing that exposure to air would injure the marble, and suggested that the statue should stand under the Loggia. Upon this Messer Angelo di Lorenzo Manfidi, one of the heralds, objected, saying that the statue might interfere with certain ceremonies that were held in the Loggia during public festivities. Leonardo da Vinci, on the other hand, strongly supported San Gallo, and could not see that the giant's presence need injure the public ceremonies. Filippino and Piero di Cosimo then proposed that the choice of the site should be left to Michelangelo himself, "as he will know better than anyone else, how it should be." In the end, this last resolution was carried unanimously, and by Michelangelo's wish, the great statue was set upon the steps of the Palazzo, to the right of the entrance.
|
第十六章
しかし、ジュリアーノ・ダ・サンガッロは、大気にさらされると大理石を傷つける恐れがあるとして、この提案に難色を示し、その像はロッジア（訳者注：シニョリーア広場の角にある回廊の建物、ランツィの回廊）の屋根の下に立てるべきであると示唆した。これには、役人の一人のアンジェロ・ディ・ロレンツォ・マンフィディは、公的祝祭の際にロッジアで催される儀式を妨げることがあるかもしれないと言って反対した。一方、レオナルド・ダ・ヴィンチは、サンガッロを強く支持し、ロッジアにおいて巨大な像の存在が公式の儀式を妨げるとは考えなかった。フィリッピーノとピエロ・ディ・コジモは、「どうすればいいのか誰よりも一番よく分かっている」ミケランジェロ自身に任せるべきだと提案した。結局のところ、この最後の決議は満場一致で行われ、ミケランジェロの希望によって、宮殿の入り口の右側に大きな彫像が建てられることとなった。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
This, as far as we know, was the last public appearance of Sandro Botticelli. After that we hear no more of him. All we have is Vasari's melancholy picture of the old painter in his declining years, infirm and helpless, unable to stand upright, and supporting his tottering frame with two crutches. At length death came to his release. He died on the 17th of May, 1510, at the age of sixty-four, and was buried with his fathers in the family vault of Ognissanti, his parish church, near the spot where Simonetta Vespucci had been laid five-and-thirty years before.
|
第十六章
これは、我々が知る限り、サンドロ・ボッティチェリが公的な場に現れた最後の機会であった。その後の記録はなにもない。伝えられたのは、虚弱で無力な、まっすぐ立てない、二つの松葉杖で揺れを支えているという、衰えつつある老画家の、ヴァザーリによる憂鬱な描写だけである。そしてついに死が訪れた。サンドロは1510年5月17日に64歳で死亡し、亡骸はその教区教会であるオニサンティ聖堂の一隅の一家の墓所に埋葬された。そこはシモネッタ・ヴェスプッチが35年前（訳者注：1476年、正確には34年前）に埋葬された場所の近くである。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
Although he can hardly be said to have reached an advanced age at the time of his death, Botticelli had outlived most of his contemporaries and several of his scholars. Ghirlandaio, Cosimo Rosselli, the Pollaiuoli brothers, Filippino, were all dead. And he had lived long enough to see the decline of his own reputation. The great popularity which he had enjoyed during the last decades of the fifteenth century was already on the wane. In spite of the faithfulness with which Sandro's art reflected contemporary thought and feeling, and of the fascination which it had for the scholars of his age, it was in many respects out of harmony with the prevailing tendencies of Florentine painting in his generation. The finest qualities of his work, its beauty of line and charm of expression, were the direct inheritance of an earlier age, and had little in common with the new ideals and aims of Cinque-cento masters. The passion to emulate the grand style of Michelangelo, which swept with overwhelming force over Florentine art in the first years of the new century, helped to wipe out the memory of the past and sealed the doom of the old Gothic tradition. Before long Botticelli's fame had died away and his very name was forgotten.
|
第十六章
ボッティチェリは、当時としてもそれほど長生きしたとは言えないが、同世代の人々の大部分と彼の弟子のうちの多くを先に失っていた。ギルランダイオ、コジモ・ロッセッリ、ポライウォーロ兄弟、フィリッピーノはすべて先に亡くなっていた。そして、サンドロは自身の名声の低下を見るのに十分なほど長く生きた。サンドロが15世紀の最後の数十年の間に享受した大きな人気はすでに過去のものになっていた。サンドロの芸術がその時代の思考と感情を誠実に反映しているにもかかわらず、そしてその時代の人文主義者にとって魅力的であったにもかかわらず、多くの点で彼の世代のフィレンツェの絵画の優勢な流れとは調和していなかった。その作品の極上の素晴らしさ、線描の美しさと表現の魅力は、彼の前の時代から直接継承されたものであり、15世紀の画家の新しい理念や目標とはほとんど共通していなかった。新世紀（訳者注：16世紀）の初めにフィレンツェの芸術を圧倒したミケランジェロの壮大な様式に倣っていこうとする情熱は、過去の記憶を消し去らせ、古いゴシックの伝統の命運を封じ込めた。まもなく、ボッティチェリの名声は消え、彼の名は忘れられた。
| |
|
CHAPTER XVI
A curious proof of the oblivion into which his art had sunk, is to be found in the decree that was issued in 1598, by the Grand Duke Ferdinand I, a direct descendant of Sandro's old patron, Lorenzo di Piero Francesco. By this decree, Florentine citizens were forbidden to remove any works of art, by the hand of prominent masters, from the churches or houses of the city, or even to take them to their villas and country seats in the neighbourhood. In the list of excellent painters which follows, Botticelli's name is not even mentioned. Only two masters who flourished in the fifteenth century, Perugino and Filippino, are included in the list, while no less than seventeen painters of the Cinquecento are named. Among these we find not only the great masters, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Fra Bartolommeo, Titian, Correggio and Sebastiano del Piombo, but many distinctly secondary artists, such as Beccafumi, Franciabigio, Perino del Vaga, Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. So quickly do fashions in art change and pass away, so surely and completely does the march of Time obliterate the memory of men that were famous and honoured in their lifetime. During the next three hundred years Botticelli's name remained buried in forgetfulness, and it was only towards the close of the nineteenth century that the rare genius and high artistic qualities of this great master were once more fully recognized and appreciated.
|
第十六章
サンドロの芸術が顧みられなくなった証拠は、奇妙な形で残っている。サンドロの良き支援者ロレンツォ・ディ・ピエロフランチェスコの直系の子孫であるフェルディナンド一世大公が1598年に公布した法令のなかで発見されたのである。この法令により、フィレンツェ市民は、著名な巨匠の手による芸術作品を、都市の教会や自分の家から取り除いたり、近隣の別荘や田舎の屋敷に持っていくことを禁じられたのだが、この対象となる優れた画家の一覧には、ボッティチェリの名前は言及されていないのだ。15世紀に活躍した画家ではペルジーノとフィリッピーノの二人だけが一覧に含まれているが、15世紀の少なくとも17人の画家の名前はない。一覧には、巨匠であるミケランジェロ、ラファエロ、レオナルド、フラ・バルトロメオ、ティツィアーノ、コレッジョ、セバスティアーノ・デル・ピオンボだけでなく、ドメニコ・ベッカフーミ、フランチャビージオ、ペリノ・デル・ヴァガ、ヤコポ・ダ・ポントルモ、ロッソ・フィオレンティーノなどの多くの明らかに二次的な芸術家が含まれているのにである。それほど早く芸術の流行は移り変わり、それほど着実にまた完全に、時間は進んで、どんなに著名で尊敬を集めた芸術家でも、その痕跡も残さず、消してしまうのだった。以降300年の間、ボッティチェリの名前は忘れ去られたままになっていた。そして、この偉大な巨匠の稀有の天才的で高い芸術的資質がもう一度十分に認識され、大きく評価されるようになったのは19世紀の終わりに近づく頃であった。
| |
|
|
|
This noble figure was executed about the year 1470, as a companion to the six Virtues already completed by Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo for the decoration of the Tribunal of Commerce. "As a youth," writes Antonio Billi, the oldest of Sandro's biographers, "he painted in the Mercatanzia a most beautiful Fortezza. Vasari and the anonymous writer of the "Codex Gaddiano," both give us the same information. The Aretine biographer tells us that the painter, while still very young, painted a Fortezza among the panels of the Virtues which Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo executed in the Mercatanzia of Florence, and in his notice of the last-named artists, the Anonimo remarks that Piero painted six Virtues on the walls of the Hall of Commerce, but that the seventh was by the hand of Sandro Botticelli. The writer evidently derived his information in this instance from a much earlier document, "Memoriale" of the priest Francesco Albertini. In the account of "the statues and pictures, worthy of being remembered, in this our illustrious city of Florence," which this learned Canon of S. Lorenzo drew up for his friend the sculptor Baccio da Montelupo, and printed in August, 1510, he gives a full description of the contents of the Palazzo Pubblico, and adds the following note: "I have not mentioned the six figures of the Virtues which are in the Arte della Mercantia by the hand of Piero Pollaiuolo. The seventh is by Sandro." Albertini, who attended the celebrated scholar Giovanni Pico della Mirandola in his dying moments and witnessed his last will, was probably personally acquainted with the painter, whom he mentions in this familiar way, and wrote the notice while he was alive, since this Memoriale was only printed three months after Sandro's death.
We see Judith, clad in rich apparel, or, as the sacred text describes, "in her garments of gladness," bravely decked with bracelets and chains and ornaments, returning from the camp of the Assyrians across the mountains to Bethulia, strong in the might of the great deliverance that she has wrought for Israel. Her right hand holds the sword with which she has severed the neck of Holofernes; in her left she bears an olive-branch, the token of peace, as she walks lightly and swiftly across the open hillside, followed by her faithful handmaiden Abra, carrying the bottle of wine and cruse of oil in one hand, and the head of Holofernes in the sack on her head. In the valley below, on the banks of a broad river, we see the walls and gates of the city and the groups of armed horsemen riding out to meet her. The figure of Judith bears a strong likeness to the Fortesza. She has the same long neck, high cheek bones, and peculiar type of feature. Her eyes have the same wistful look; her countenance wears the same expression of gentle sadness, and forms a striking contrast to the eager, intent air of her serving-maid, whose gaze is fixed in silent devotion on the mistress for whose sake she has dared to meet danger and death. The picture has suffered much from the restorer, who has altered the position of Judith's right foot, but has uot succeeded in effacing pose. He has also repaired most of the landscape and part of the draperies without, however, destroying the charm of the colour, the delicate mauve tints of Judith's robe and the orange hues of her maid's coarser skirts. But the most striking thing in the group is the new sense of life and movement that is everywhere perceptible - the quick, gliding step of Judith herself, the breeze that stirs the folds of her garments and catches her servant's veil and the sack that rests on her head. Here we see signs of the new power and skill which Sandro had gained in the bottega of the Pollaiuoli, and realize the advance towards the fuller expression of his own individuality which he had made in the last few years.
The most famous example of the subject is the large altar-piece which Antonio Pollaiuolo himself executed in 1475, for the Chapel of the Pucci family in the Church of the Annunziata, and which was bought by the trustees of the National Gallery in the year 1857, from the representative of that noble family, the Marchese Pucci of Florence. We know how eloquent Vasari waxes in his description of the marvellous way in which the painter succeeded in imitating nature in his representation of the archer drawing his bow; "you see the veins and muscles swelling and the breath being held back!" And the work, Vasari adds, as we can well believe, "was more praised than any other ever painted by Antonio." But even before Antonio finished his great altar-piece for the Pucci, Botticelli had painted a SL Sebastian of his own for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. This panel, the "Anonimo" tells us, was completed by Sandro in January, 1474; and Vasari further informs us that a San Sebastiano was among the most remarkable of the works which Botticelli painted for Lorenzo di Medici. Sandro may have seen Antonio's cartoon for the Pucci St. Sebastian and the sight may have moved him to emulate the great artist's admired work. This picture so far resembles Pollaiuolo's masterpiece, that the figure of the saint is represented of the size of life, bound to the trunk of a tree, and the modelling was sufficiently in Antonio's style for the picture to be ascribed to that painter during many years by the Directors of the Berlin Gallery. But, as Crowe and Cavalcaselle, we believe, were the first to recognize, in other respects, the treatment of the subject shows a marked difference, and the hand of Sandro is evident in the ideal beauty of the face and the serene grace of the youthful martyr who stands there, as it were, unconscious of the six arrows with which he is pierced. If in the glad and joyous movement of Judith Botticelli had shown his power of representing action, in this Sebastian he proved that he could equally well delineate the figure in repose. The romantic expression of this youthful martyr with the regular features and clusters of curls round his brow, is heightened by the poetic charm of the landscape background, with its steep cliffs and lofty towers on the shores of a distant sea. This landscape was to be repeated with slight variations in many other fifteenth-century pictures, and was to serve as a model for more than one of Sandro's contemporaries in the days to come.
A boy-angel robed in green, with a wreath of bay-leaves on his fair locks, is in the act of presenting a bunch of purple grapes and ears of wheat to the Child, who rests on his mother s knee. The Virgin looks down pensively as she plucks one of the ripe ears of corn, and muses thoughtfully over those symbols of the Eucharist, while the Child in her arms lifts his little hand in blessing. Already the shadow of coming agony, some dim foreboding of the Cross and Passion, is clouding her soul with sadness, and the mysterious smile on the angel's face bids us see in this offering a prophetic type of the bread and wine of the Great Sacrifice. The attitude of the Madonna, seated before the open casement with her plump, rosy babe in her arms, the soft rose and pale blue tints of her draperies, the transparent veil on her rippling hair, and the charming glimpse of wooded hills and winding stream through the window, all recall Fra Filippo's style, and show us that Sandro had forgotten none of his first master's lessons. But, on the other hand, in his attempt to obtain structural completeness, in the fine modelling of the forms, and especially that of the angel's face, Botticelli shows how great was the progress which he had made since he left Fra Filippo's shop, and comes nearer to Pollaiuolo than in any other of his works. His technical proficiency, it must be confessed, is still incomplete; there are marked defects of drawing in the Virgin's hands, which are, as is often the case in Sandro's pictures, decidedly too large and out of proportion with the rest of the figure. But in spite of these obvious faults, the Chigi Madonna remains one of the most interesting of Botticelli's early works, and deserves to rank among the most typical and fascinating creations of Florentine painters in the fifteenth century.
While Lorenzo was decidedly plain with weak eyes, a broad nose, large mouth and sallow complexion, Giuliano's fine black eyes, curling dark hair, olive skin, and animated expression gave him a distinctly attractive and picturesque appearance. Although inferior to Lorenzo in ability and intellect, he inherited the refined taste of his family, was fond of music and painting, and wrote poetry which Poliziano describes as full of thought and feeling. From his boyhood Giuliano had been the darling of the people, and his reckless courage in the chase or tournament, his gay manners and courteous bearing made him a favourite with all classes. Poliziano and Machiavelli both tell us that he was the idol of the Florentines, and Paolo Giovio speaks of him as the prince and leader of the gilded youth of his day. But he was always loyal and affectionate to Lorenzo, and no shadow of jealousy or suspicion ever seems to have clouded the excellent understanding that existed between the brothers. While the elder of the two devoted his time and attention to the management of public affairs, the younger hunted and jousted and wrote verses in praise of fair ladies, and took a leading part in those pageants and amusements which delighted the eyes of Florence.
This daughter of a noble Genoese family, who at sixteen became the bride of Piero Vespucci's son, one of the most faithful followers of the Medici, had inspired the handsome Giuliano with a romantic devotion similar to that of Dante for Beatrice or of Petrarch for Laura. He composed verses in praise of her beauty and goodness, invoked her name when he rode in the lists, and made her the object of the Platonic passion which Poliziano celebrates in his famous poem. Giuliano's Tournament was held on the 28th of January, 1475, on the same Piazza di Santa Croce where Lorenzo's Giostra had taken place six years before. Then Piero had been alive, but now his two sons were the representatives of this illustrious house, and the stately pageant which gratified the hearts of the Florentines, afforded a fitting opportunity for celebrating the glories of the Medici brothers and their accession to supreme power.
But although the picture, which Rumohr bought in Florence for the Berlin Gallery, may possibly represent Lucrezia Tornabuoni, its execution is too inferior to be from the hand of Botticelli, and it can only be a school work. The profile of Simonetta in the Pitti has more affinity with Sandro's work, and the features agree with Ghirlandaio's portrait of Marco Vespucci's wife in his Ognissanti fresco; but the lack of grace in the figure and the exaggerated proportions of the long, narrow neck, make it impossible to believe that he was its author. Yet there is character as well as refinement in the clear-cut features, and undoubted charm in the slender, girlish form, with its quiet, simple dress of Puritan simplicity, the plain white cap and white slashed sleeve of the dark square-cut bodice, which in shape and hue so closely resembles the Berlin picture. Mr Berenson has ascribed this much discussed portrait to the unknown assistant and imitator whom he styles Amico di Sandro, and who may have executed this picture in his master's bottega. A halo of romance surrounds this Florentine beauty whose charms made so profound an impression on Lorenzo and his companions, and whose early death was so deeply lamented by the members of that brilliant circle. Poliziano describes her as "a simple and innocent maiden, who never gave cause for jealousy or scandal," and says, that "among other excellent gifts she had so sweet and attractive a manner that all those who had any familiar acquaintance with her, or to whom she paid any attention, thought themselves the object of her affections. Yet no woman ever envied her, but all gave her great praise, and it seemed an extraordinary thing that so many men should love her without exciting any jealousy, and that so many ladies should praise her without feeling any envy."
Giovanni is represented wearing a black vest with a scarlet cap on his fair curly locks, and a view of the valley of the Arno with the river winding through the plains in the background. The regular features are admirably modelled, and there is just that touch of melancholy in the expression which is often seen on the faces of those who die young. In order that there should be no mistake as to his identity the painter represented Giovanni holding in both hands a medal bearing the effigy of Cosimo, the old father to whom he was so fondly attached, and who used to say as he wandered through the rooms of his stately palace, inconsolable for the loss of his favourite son: "This is too large a house for so small a family."
This portrait, which was long attributed to Masaccio, and first restored to its true author by Morelli and Dr. Frizzoni, is evidently an early work, but already shows signs of that mastery which Botticelli afterwards revealed in portraiture. We have no clue to the personality of this youth in the red cap, with the broad forehead and the mass of thick wavy locks; but the force and beauty with which his bright, open countenance and keen intellectual air are rendered awakens our curiosity. He was in all probability some comrade of Sandro's youth, whether a student of art or letters, who belonged to the burgher class, and whose strong, eager face, and evident enjoyment of life forms a striking contrast to the high-bred air and mournful expression of Giovanni di Medici.
Many critics have recognized his nephew Giuliano in the handsome youth with the jet-black locks and the melancholy countenance, clad in black, who stands immediately behind Giovanni. The cut of his features, the shape of his head and arrangement of his hair, as well as the half-shut eyelids, closely resemble the Bergamo portrait, which must have been painted about this time in Sandro's workshop, and although the painter would hardly, as Mr. Horne has remarked, have introduced a living personage as one of the Three Magi, there is no reason why Giuliano should not have figured among the prominent members of the Magi's suite. Professor Ulmann, Dr. Steinmann, and other critics are further of opinion that Lorenzo himself is the youth who stands in the left-hand corner of the picture, wearing a crimson doublet embroidered with gold, and resting both hands on the hilt of his sword. In this case, however, the likeness is far less marked; neither is it easy to identify the other personages in the group, although the tall and dignified figure in the act of turning round to speak to his companion is supposed by some writers to be Angelo Poliziano, the poet of the Giostra and intimate friend of the Medici brothers.
The tall man with the hooked nose and dark, curling hair, standing in the right-hand corner, wrapped in a long, orange-coloured mantle, is clearly the portrait of the painter himself. Here we see him in what was evidently a characteristic attitude, looking back over his shoulder and fixing his keen gaze upon us. The powerful head, shaggy locks, and deep-set eyes all give the impression of a man of strong character and great intellectual force, and bear a striking likeness to the well-known portrait of Botticelli which his pupil, Filippino Lippi, was to introduce into his fresco of the Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Brancacci Chapel, eight or nine years later.
Curiously enough, the group of the Virgin and Child strikes us as the poorest part of the work. The relative proportions of the Child and of the Mother's hands are as faulty as in the Chigi Madonna, and this portion of the composition seems to have interested the painter less than the surrounding figures. But we hardly notice these defects in the general impression of completeness and harmony which the picture produces, and it is easy to understand the enthusiastic admiration which it excited among Botticelli's contemporaries. Among all his works it is the one which Vasari singles out for the highest praise: "It is impossible," he writes after giving a full account of the chief figures in the picture, "to describe the beauty which Sandro has given to the different heads that we see here. They are all placed in different attitudes. Some are seen full-face, others in profile, some again at three-quarters, while others are looking down. Their variety is infinite. Young and old are represented with a diversity and individuality that reveals the perfect mastery of his art. And we also notice that the followers of the Three Kings are kept separate, and are divided in such a manner that you see which are the servants of each one. In short, the work is certainly most admirable, and is so beautiful, alike in colouring, design and composition, that every artist of our times is filled with amazement at the sight."
It Ver et Venus et Veneris praenuntius ante
This part of the ceremony takes place immediately in front of the altar, where the high priest receives the blood of the dove in a golden bowl from the hands of a young Levite, and dips a brush of green myrtle - a plant endowed by the Mediaeval Church with the same healing properties as the hyssop of the Old Testament - together with the scarlet wood, into the blood of the victim, with which the leper is to be sprinkled seven times before he can be pronounced cleansed from his leprosy.
Botticelli's second fresco was an illustration of the early life of Moses, and occupied the space on the left wall opposite the Temptation to which it corresponds. Here no less than seven different episodes from the history of the Law-giver and the people of Israel had to be combined in a single fresco. Out of this unpromising material the painter has contrived to make a singularly beautiful and poetic composition. With true artistic feeling he seizes on the most picturesque incident in the story - the meeting of Moses with the daughters of Jethro at the well - and groups the other scenes round this central subject. We see Moses, the dark-haired stranger, drawing water in his bucket from the well for the thirsty sheep who wait by the stone troughs under the shady oak trees, and the Midianite shepherds retreating hastily, while the fair shepherdesses look with shy gratitude in their eyes at the chivalrous Hebrew who has come to their help. Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, with her tall, graceful form, gentle face and fair hair wreathed with myrtle, bearing the distaff and apple branch - a symbol of labour and its reward - in her hands, is one of Sandro's most attractive creations, and the whole scene is a simple and charming idyll of pastoral life.
Among these, Aaron is a conspicuous figure, with his Oriental turban and black beard; one little child looks up at his mother with the appealing gaze that Sandro has often repeated in his pictures of Madonnas with the Infant Christ. Another fair-haired boy carries a white dog - his chief treasure, as Mr. Ruskin remarks in his quaint way: "It is a little, sharp-nosed, white foxterrier, full of fire and life, but not strong enough for a long walk. So little Gershom, whose name was the Stranger, because his father had been a stranger in a strange land - carries his white terrier under his arm, lying on the top of a large bundle to make it comfortable. The doggie puts its sharp nose and bright eyes out, above his hand, with a little roguish gleam sideways in them, which means - if I can read rightly a dog's expression - that he has been barking at Moses all the morning and has nearly put him out of temper; and without any doubt I can assert to you that there is not any other such piece of animal painting in the world - so brief, intense, vivid, and absolutely balanced in truth; as tenderly drawn as if it had been a Saint, and yet as humorously as Landseer's Lord Chancellor Poodle."
The destruction of the guilty conspirators who have dared to assume the priestly office in plain disregard of the law of Moses, is rendered with dramatic vigour. One man is struck down in the act of approaching the altar of sacrifice, another falls back with a cry of terror before the uplifted rod of Moses, and a third lies prostrate on the ground, while Aaron, a majestic figure in his priestly robes and triple tiara, is seen standing behind the altar, calmly swinging his censer. His son Eleazar, seizing one of the censers from the altar, scatters the sacrilegious fire with a gesture of swift and fiery zeal, and on the right, one of the blasphemers is dragged away to be stoned by a crowd of indignant Israelites. On the left, Moses appears again, standing with his uplifted arm above the open abyss where Dathan and Abiram are being swallowed up, while Eldad and Medad, robed in white, hover in the air above and prophesy in the name of the Lord.
Yet one more figure, the second in the group on the right, is supposed by Dr. Steinmann to be the painter's own portrait. The deep-set eyes and finely-cut features have the same keen, eager expression as in the portrait of the Uffizi Adoration and Sandro's black cape and dark vest are conspicuous by their simplicity, among the scarlet robes and splendid apparel of the Cardinals and dignitaries who are present.
Such, for instance, was the painting of the allegory of Abundance at Chantilly, in which some unknown scholar has taken the figure in Sandro's beautiful drawing of the Malcolm collection, and added the child running before the woman carrying faggots, from the fresco of the Purification of the Leper in the Sixtine Chapel. Such, too, were Bartolommeo di Giovanni's panels of Jason at Colchis, formerly in the Ashburnham collection; his Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithae, belonging to Mrs. Austen at Horsmonden; his Story of lo at Langton in Scotland, and his Marriage of Thetis and Triumph of Venus in the Louvre. We may also recall the fascinating panels of the History of Esther at Chantilly and the Death of Lucrezia in the Pitti, by that scholar of Botticelli whom Mr. Berenson has dubbed Amico di Sandro; and the delightful Story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a subject plainly suggested by Poliziano's successful drama of Orfeo, painted by Jacopo del Sellajo, and recently exhibited at the Carfax Gallery in London. These panels, most of which were intended for the decoration of wedding-chests and other furniture, are of great interest as illustrating the domestic life of contemporary Florence, and showing the close and increasing connection that existed between the humanists and painters of Lorenzo's times. To us they are of especial value because they afford a fresh proof of Sandro's sympathy with the intellectual tendencies of his age, and of the singular attraction which the classical myths of Greece and Rome had for this Renaissance master. And they show that his treatment of these old legends, so far removed from Greek art, so wholly individual in style and character, appealed in a peculiar manner to the imagination of his contemporaries, and had, during the painter's life-time, acquired an extraordinary popularity in his native city. But, ere long, a great and sudden change was to pass over the life of Florence, and in that change Sandro was to bear his part, and take his place in the front rank of the new movement. The painter of Giuliano's "Giostra" and Lorenzo's "Pallas", of "the Venus" and "Primavera", the intimate friend of Poliziano and Tommaso Soderini, was to become a Piagnone or "sniveller" - a partisan of the sect of Fra Girolamo, as Vasari contemptuously terms it - and was to devote the art of his last days to the cause of Christ and the Frate.
and one of the most popular, "the Virgin with the Child and the Infant St. John", in the Louvre, is now recognized to be the work of an inferior hand. This ill-drawn but attractive group, with its lovely background of roses and cypresses, was evidently executed by a follower of Botticelli, in the days when the artist's fame was at its height, from one of his master's old cartoons. A considerable number of genuine paintings of Madonnas, and an infinite amount of imitations and repetitions by scholars and assistants, on the contrary, belong to the last twenty years of Sandro's artistic career. But it is a difficult, not to say impossible, task, to determine the chronology of these works and to divide the pictures that were painted in the eighties from those which belong to the nineties.
In beauty of design, in glowing richness and lovely transparency of colour, in exquisite finish and intensity of spiritual feeling, this tondo surpasses all Botticelli's other Virgins. The circular form had long been popular in Tuscan sculpture. Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Desiderio da Settignano and Mino da Fiesole had all employed it in turn for the carved Madonnas which adorned the shrines and smiled down on the passers-by, in the busy thorough-fares and narrow streets of Florence. Fra Filippo, as we have seen, had been the first to introduce the tondo in painting, but Botticelli understood better than any other master how to adapt it to the uses of pictorial art, and this picture of the Magnificat is an admirable example of the skill with which he knew how to develop an artistic motive. John Addington Symonds has suggested that Sandro, who loved flowers, and introduces fluttering roses alike into his faery dreams of Greek nymphs, and visions of Paradise, may have borrowed the composition of this picture from "the corolla of an open rose", and the way in which the curving lines of bowed heads, interlaced arms and meeting hands converge, bears out this idea. The same pattern is repeated in the flowing lines of the Virgin's veil and mantle, in the gauzy draperies that float about the crown suspended on high, and the windings of the stream that runs through the distant valley.
The Carmelite friar, again, had introduced curly-headed boy-angels into his groups of the Madonna and Child, and Sandro, improving on his master's conception, surrounds his Virgin with a troop of lovely children with curling locks and wistful faces. But the leading motive of the picture is altogether original. The Virgin, robed in a green mantle embroidered with gold, and wearing a transparent white veil over her fair tresses, is in the act of dipping her pen into the ink, to write her song of praise on the leaves of the missal which is held open by angel hands. Two other boy-angels hold a golden crowni above her head, and as the heavenly light streams over her, the Child on her knee looks up in her face with a sudden flash of inspiration. Then the full significance of the great sacrifice dawns upon the Mother's soul, and at the very moment when she realizes all her glory, when angels crown her brows and the Child guides her pen to write the words that pronounce her blessed among women, the sword pierces her heart with its mysterious foretaste of coming agony.
M. Müntz, who made a careful study of the points of connection between Botticelli and Leonardo, believes that the head of the Virgin in "the Magnificat" was borrowed from a sketch by Leonardo, which is now at Windsor, but although the attitude is similar, the resemblance of the features is but very slight, and the spiritual intensity of expression in the bowed face of Sandro's Madonna is far beyond anything in Leonardo's work. The mystic poetry of Botticelli's soul has borne him to heights as yet undreamt of in his great rival's philosophy, and in this wonderful little painting he has attained an ideal of divine sorrow and tenderness which remains unsurpassed in the annals of Christian art.
The Virgin is seated on a richly carved throne, raised on a pedestal of coloured marbles, under a bower of luxuriant verdure, in which the foliage, palm, cypress and myrtle are all mingled. The Baptist, a noble and ascetic figure, holding a cross in one hand and pointing with the other to a scroll bearing the words Ecce Agnus Dei, stands on the left of the throne; the Evangelist, a venerable and white-bearded old man, holds a pen and an open book in his hands, as if in the act of writing the Gospel, which tells how the Word was made God and dwelt among us. The Virgin's face closely resembles that of the goddess in the Birth of Venus, and wears the same gentle and pensive expression; while the laughing Child, stretching out both little arms to his mother, is one of the few joyous and happy types of childhood which Sandro has given us. All the details of the background - the thickly-woven boughs of palm and cypress and myrtle, which form a canopy above the Virgin and her attendant Saints, the tall white lilies and sprays of olive in enamelled jars, and the bowls of red and white roses set on the marble parapet are painted with exquisite care. This combination of natural beauty and artistic ornament produces the finest decorative effect and, as in the Birth of Venus and the Magnificat, the lavish use of gold in the foliage and draperies heightens the splendour of the whole.
Here the Madonna is seated on a lofty throne, flanked by stately marble pillars and other architectural details of classical type. The broad and simple folds of drapery, and the white veil resting lightly on her hair, recall the Berlin picture. The Virgin's features also resemble those of the last-named Madonna, but the eyes, instead of looking down, as in most of the earlier pictures, meet ours in grave and sorrowful appeal. Two winged angels, standing at her side, draw back the crimson velvet hangings of the canopy overhead, while two others gaze sadly at the instruments of the Passion - the nails and crown of thorns which they hold up in their hands. The Child, of a type evidently derived from the little boy who is seen walking by his mother's side in the Sixtine fresco of the Journey of Moses stands on his mother's knees, lifting his hand in blessing, and his countenance seems to have caught the sadness which haunts the angel-faces, as he muses sorrowfully over these tokens of his coming Passion. On the wide marble pavement at the foot of the throne are six Saints, in whom the painter brings before us six distinct types of struggling and sanctified humanity. On the one hand we see the heavenly warrior Michael, winged and clad in shining armour, his youthful grace and beauty forming a marked contrast to the aged scholar, St. Augustine, and the haggard prophet of the desert, St. John the Baptist, who stand beside him. On the other, we have St. Barnabas, the strong-featured man of action with a keen, vigorous face and long black beard; a mild-looking St. Ambrose, in mitre and ecclesiastical robes; 
and the virgin-martyr, St. Katharine, clad in a blue robe and bearing the palm of victory in her hand. Both in type and attitude, this gentle saint with the dreamy eyes and contemplative expression on her fair face, strongly resembles the reclining nymph in the panel of Mars and Venus, and belongs to the same family as the young woman carrying faggots in the Sixtine fresco, and the Graces in Giovanna degli Albizzi's wedding picture. This altar-piece has suffered from restoration, and the hand of assistants is plainly visible in some portions. The tones of colour are gay and vivid, but less harmonious than in most of Sandro's works, and the figure of the Baptist is awkward and ungainly, and will not bear comparison with the noble drawing of the same saint by the master's pen in the Uffizi. A line from the thirty-third canto of Dante's "Paradiso" is inscribed on the highest step of the Madonna's throne: as if this and the following line, "Umile ed alta piu che creatura", contained the thought to which the painter owed his inspiration, and which he wished to leave upon the mind of the spectator.
he painted another figure of Saint Augustine in his cell, seated under an arched recess, with a hanging in front, engaged in writing, while the floor is strewn with fragments of paper. Here the type of the face recalls the Augustine of the S. Barnaba picture and the Coronation of the Virgin in San Marco, while the ornamental details of the architecture are in the style of the master's later works. The wall is adorned with classical medallions touched with gold, similar to the basreliefs in the Allegory of Calumny. This carefully painted little picture, now in the Uffizi, was first discovered by Morelli, who recognized in it one of those "most beautiful paintings of small subjects" by Sandro, which are mentioned by Antonio Billi and the Anonimo Gaddiano. Both of these writers also allude to another "work of rare beauty", by our master's hand, a little St. Jerome which some critics identify with a small picture that is still the property of the Marchese Farmola in Florence. The aged saint is represented in the act of receiving his last communion from a priest, under a rude thatched hut. A fine drawing of this saint clad in his cardinal's robes, and holding a pen in his right hand and a book open before him, is also in the Uffizi.
This picture formed part of the Grand Ducal collection, and still retains its original frame, adorned with golden lilies on a blue ground. It may, therefore, have belonged to the Medici, but is generally supposed to be the tondo of the Madonna with angels in the Franciscan Church, outside the gate of San Miniato, which Vasari describes as a most beautiful work. "Il quale fui tenuto cosa bellissima." This description, however, may equally well refer to the Virgin of the Magnifcat, regarding whose origin we have as yet no certain knowledge. In form and general treatment, in the transparent veil which rests on the Madonna's golden tresses, in the lovely faces and curly locks of the six child-angels, who press round her with their open choir-books and blossoming lilies, this picture resembles the Magnificat. But there are several variations in the composition. The eyes of both Mother and Child are fixed upon us. Mary holds the pomegranate which gives its name to the picture; the Child lays one hand upon the fruit and lifts the other in blessing; while the golden rays which shed their radiance on the group, bear witness to his divine birth. The Madonna's face, in its sad and meditative expression, comes nearer to the Virgin of S. Barnaba, but the note of mournful yearning is still more prominent, and the angel-faces reflect the tender sadness in the countenance of both Mother and Child. The composition is as masterly in its way as that of the earlier tondo but the colouring is in a lower key and everything points to a later date of execution. 
If this picture was painted at the close of the eighties, the tondo which is now in the Amhrosiana at Milan, certainly belongs to the nineties. Here we have a new motive in the kneeling Virgin, who looks down in love and adoration on the Child held up before her by a child-angel, and beyond the marble parapet, a charming glimpse of river and woodland appears through the parted hangings of the canopy. The wingfed seraphs with streaming locks and fluttering draperies, hastening to draw back the curtains, are a distinct reminiscence of the S. Barnaba altarpiece. But the angel-faces and forms are less delicate, and there is an air of haste and agitation in their rapid movements that already betrays the tendency to violent gesture and hurried action which marked the work of Sandro's declining years.
The Madonna in the Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery at Milan has more affinity with the Virgin of the Magnificat in feature and attitude, as well as in the careful finish of the execution, marred as it has been in places by the restorer's hand. Here Mary looks down with exquisite tenderness on the unconscious Child, who plays with the nails and crown of thorns as he looks up in his mother's face, while she turns a page of the open missal. The expanse of clear sky and park-like landscape that is seen through the open casement behind her, recalls the Chigi Madonna, but is also seen in an Annunciation which was executed in his bottega about 1490. A variation of the Poldi-Pezzoli Madonna appears in another little picture now belonging to the well-known connoisseur, Mr. J.P. Heseltine. Here both the attitude and face of the Virgin are nearly the same, and are certainly the master's work; but the little St. John the Baptist who kneels before the Child, with a staff in his hand and a halo round his brow, was probably added by an assistant. Both the wide and rocky landscape and the marble bas-relief which adorns the parapet, are in Botticelli's later manner. The work evidently belongs to the period when he painted St. Augustine in his Cell and the Allegory of Calumny and when a large proportion of his work was left to the hand of assistants. This was certainly the case with the Annunciation which is now in the Uffizi. As Vasari informs us, this picture was painted for the Cistercians of Castello, whose chapter-house still contains Perugino's beautiful fresco of the Crucifixion. They were a prosperous and flourishing community towards the close of the fifteenth century, and in 1488 a Florentine citizen, Benedetto di Ser Giovanni Guardi, founded a chapel in their convent-church, which was dedicated to the Annunciation. He afterwards employed Botticelli to paint an altar-piece for this chapel, probably about the time of its consecration by Bishop Pagagnotti, on the 26th of June, 1436, and paid him thirty florins for the work. After being lost for many years, the picture was discovered thirty-two years ago in a wayside shrine, which formerly belonged to the nuns of Santa Maria Maddalene de' Pazzi, the community who, during many years, occupied the ancient house of the Cistercian monks. It is not, however, considered genuine by either Morelli or Mr. Berenson, and was, at all events, partly the work of an assistant.
The upper portion of the altar-piece is painted on a gold ground, as is the case with Fra Angelico's works, whom in some respects it resembles. In the lowly Virgin, bending, with hands humbly crossed on her heart, to receive the crown, and the venerable figure of God the Father, Sandro follows the traditional type. The bearded old man, wearing the triple tiara, belongs to the same family as the Popes and high priests in the Sixtine frescoes, the St. Augustine and St. Ambrose of the earlier altar-pieces; but the thrones of flame in the empyrean, and the troop of angels dancing hand in hand, in a tumult of exultant rapture, are purely of his own invention. Here all is stir and movement, flying draperies and loose locks flutter on the breeze, hurrying feet fly past us on the clouds, showers of roses are wafted through the air, and one blue-robed seraph borne heavenwards by the irresistible might of love, darts up to Mary's side and seems to claim a share in her joy and triumph. In the green meadow below, four saints contemplate the vision that has dawned on their wondering sight with varying degrees of emotion. St. Jerome, in his cardinal's hat and robes, gazes on the opened heavens with straining eyes; and St. John, the beloved disciple, lifts his arm heavenwards in a fiery transport of love and yearning; while St. Augustine writes calmly in his book, and St. Eligius, the patron of the goldsmiths, lifts his hand in blessing as he muses on the great miracle that he has witnessed. The cupola of the Duomo rises in the distance, and a mass of shelving rocks, such as we see in the master's Pallas and the Centaur and the Adoration of the Magi, is seen on the right. The predella of this altar-piece consists of five small subjects bearing the usual relation to the chief personages in the picture. The Annunciation, that subject which Dante saw carved on the marble walls of Purgatory, with the angel who opens the gate of heaven to mortals:
The vehement action of the aged Evangelist, and the rapid flight of the circling seraphs seem to indicate that this Coronation belongs to Botticelli's later period, when the serene beauty and repose of his earlier conceptions had given way to a more passionate and emotional mood. But within the last year new and unexpected light has been thrown on the subject. In the "Miscellanea d'Arte" for the year 1903, M. Jacques Mesnil published a passage which he had discovered in the convent records, describing the Chapel of the Arte di Porta San Maria, on the left side of the door of the church of S. Marco. "This chapel," writes the chronicler, "was known as the Chapel of St. Alo (Eligius) the patron of the goldsmiths, who belonged to the Guild of Silk Weavers, and gave a silver chalice with their arms and those of the Arte upon them to the said chapel." From very ancient days, the writer tells us, this Arte was the protector of the convent, and, on the Feast of San Marco, its members came to this church bearing torches, and a banner with their device was hung over the altar, and "if bad weather kept them away, they paid forty florins for the wax consumed. And the said Arte," he adds, "had an altar-piece painted for the sum of 100 gold florins, together with the grating and frame, and keep it up at their expense." This passage, which confirms Vasari's statement, led M. Mesnil to make further researches in the books of the Guild of Silk Weavers, and he discovered the records kept in the last decades of the fifteenth century, by the Notary of the Arte, Ser Niccolo da Romena, in which a careful record is kept of the donations that were made and the expenses incurred by the company. Unfortunately the account-books for the eleven months between October, 1487, and September the 6th, 1488, is missing, and no mention of Sandro's altar-piece could be found in any of the other volumes. From this we may fairly infer that the altar-piece which Botticelli painted by order of the Goldsmiths for their Patron Saint's chapel, was executed during that interval. The style and technique of the Coronation render this supposition highly probable, and the fact that Savonarola began his first series of sermons in the church of San Marco, in the Lent of 1489, lends especial interest to M. Mesnil's suggestion. If the Coronation was not executed under Fra Girolamo's direction, it was apparently finished about the time that his preaching began to attract general attention in Florence, and may have been the means of bringing Sandro into connection with the great Dominican friar whose teaching was to have so powerful an influence upon his art and life.
These sorrowful Madonnas, burdened with a mysterious sense of coming woe, these fair children, whose faces reflect the mournful foreboding of Mary's countenance, must have been inspired by the eloquent language in which the Frate describes the Mother of many sorrows. The wonderful success which the Madonnas of Sandro's bottega obtained, the amazing demand which sprang up on all sides for these tondi, was no doubt partly due to the new religious fervour which animated all classes in Florence during the brief period of Savonarola's revival. Every devout Piagnone, each pious soul who strove to follow the Frate's rule of holy living, saw in the tender melancholy of Sandro's Madonnas the fulfilment of a cherished ideal. If the master himself was too much absorbed in mystical dreams and too deeply interested in watching the development of public events to paint with his old industry, the scholars and assistants of his bottega made good use of their opportunity.
that no student of his work should fail to see it. Mr. Berenson has lately drawn attention to the exquisite charm of these seraphs, ten of whom are floating through the air with their faces turned toward each other, while a third, resting his hands on their shoulders, wafts them gently forward, and they all sing their hymn of praise together from an open book. This little drawing, which bears a close affinity to the painter's drawings of the Paradiso, is the more precious because so few of Botticelli's original sketches have been preserved. Probably those "infinite hands of apprentices" who worked in the bottega, and to whom Sandro showed himself so kind and indulgent a master, employed them so constantly for their own pictures that, as Mr. Berenson suggests, "they were worn to tatters by repeated use."