Temperance

[Huck]

http://lssacademy.com/2009/10/15/cardin ... eadership/

A further "Temperance with elephant" design as project for a ceiling by Sir James Thornhill (around 1700-1730)
in a "4 virtues representation"

[Huck]

The elder Brueghel, living in Belgium, also has only one "winged virtue" in his 7 virtues collection from 1560: in his case it's Fortitudo.



http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... titudo.jpg
... at the link one finds also the 6 other virtue pictures.

Belgium had in the long and many wars between Habsburg and France often the role of the battle-field ... perhaps Brueghel felt, that Fortitudo was a special "Belgian virtue", which deserved wings.

***************

The usual Temperance deals with water, so I was interested, if Brueghel indicates anything with water in it. But Brueghel doesn't use the usual Temperantia figure, and water appears at three other virtues:

Fortitudo: a big war-ship at the open sea in the background.
Prudentia: a boat on a river
Spes: a wild stormy sea with a lot of ships in great need

[mikeh]

Another famous bridle representing Temperance is Correggio's Allegory of Virtue, Mantua c. 1528-1530, http://mini-site.louvre.fr/mantegna/acc ... n_8_6.html. It is held in the left hand of the lady at our lower left. The other virtues are represented by snake (prudence), sword (justice), and lionskin (fortitude)

Huck, part of the link to the book with the winged Caritas in it didn't come through when you quoted me. I really think people should look at these pictures, especially the one on p. 127, which shows, in the same picture, the other six virtues unwinged. I'd post it myself, but my image processing program is busted. Here is my full post, with the link intact, copied from the "Alciato" thread.

One thing that might be relevant to Alciato's Temperance is a series of the seven virtues in which only one has wings, namely, Karitas, which is also the highest virtue. See p. 126 and p. 127 at http://books.google.com/books?id=7tIOAA ... &q&f=false. This is in Bartolomeo di Bartoli da Bologna's Canzone delle Virtu e delle Scienze, done, I think Dorez says (p. 71), in Bologna around 1355, dedicated to Bruzio Visconti.

The relevance is that when the three theological virtues were omitted, and Temperance was elevated to the highest position among the virtues (indeed, as Moderation representative of all of them), and even higher than Death, then perhaps Karitas got assimilated with Temperance, so that Temperance's vessels became the symbol of God's mercy in the Eucharist. (I think I am adding this Karitas, with her wings, to something Michael has said.) She would be an "angel of mercy", so to speak. Her vessels would also be the way to Fama, in the sense of Gloria, and to Sol, in the sense of God (who stands behind Karitas on p. 127).

It might also be of interest to know what this particular manuscript was doing, between Italy and France (it is now at Chantilly), in the early 16th century.

[Huck]

Huck, part of the link to the book with the winged Caritas in it didn't come through when you quoted me. I really think people should look at these pictures, especially the one on p. 127, which shows, in the same picture, the other six virtues unwinged. I'd post it myself, but my image processing program is busted. Here is my full post, with the link intact, copied from the "Alciato" thread.

I get with your link only a snippet version, no pictures.

[mikeh]

Thanks for telling me. I will work on getting an image of the page. Fortunately, I happen to have the hard copy on hand from Interlibrary Loan. Meanwhile, here is the part from Michael I am building on (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=71&p=1820&hilit=winged+temperance#p1819; also, his next post down in that thread gives examples of single winged virtues--admittedly, not cardinal virtues--with others unwinged):

Regarding my own view of winged virtues, as usual, it depends on the context. In some works, all the theological virtues are winged and the classical virtues are not. The significance of that should be obvious but, if not, it can be found in Aquinas (and elsewhere). The theological virtues have God as their object and are infused from God rather than being merely practiced habit. The wings suggest that iconographically.

In some works, all the classical virtues are winged, as in the Embriachi boxes. This is little more than an artistic preference, although it can certainly be defended. In some works, however, like the Tarot trumps in Tarot de Marseille, only the highest-ranking virtue is winged. Like Ross, this is an old discussion for me and I'll have to look up some notes to provide examples. As I recall, Giotto provides one such example.

As part of that old discussion, the earliest Italian (ancient Roman) example of winged Temperance is Nike. Seriously. One of her conventional depictions was as wine-bearer to victors, in which capacity she carried one or two vessels. The krater was used specifically to mix water with wine -- to temper it -- before drinking. This is not only a Pagan tradition, not only the literal fact underlying the metaphorical symbolism of Temperance, but also the same practice used in the Eucharist where water is mixed with wine for reasons of Christian symbolism. (The water and blood which poured from Christ's side, symbolizing his human and divine nature, etc.)

The significance of this for Tarot is not merely the existence of an ancient Pagan example, but the appropriateness of Nike triumphing over Death. This too was an ancient topos, but an ancient Christian one. Nike was used as a Christian psychopomp in funerary art, based on a passage from St. Paul: In 1 Corinthians he quotes Isaiah: "Death has been swallowed up in victory", and that was a well-known motif. Of course, the winged figure naturally suggests a psychopomp, by analogy with both Mercury and angels, as well as Nike -- Victory.

So the analogy between Tarot de Marseille's Temperance and Nike resonates in terms of the literal meaning, mixing water with wine, and also in terms of the triumph over Death. That latter connection derives from the generic psychopomp motif, the specific Nike "Death has been swallowed up" motif, and the specific fact that the sacraments are the orthodox Christian means by which triumph over Death is achieved.

Well, that's the short version, anyway.

.Notice that Michael is not saying that Temperance is a "guardian angel" as usually understood--a protector--but rather one that offers the antidote to death. My only question about this is that I can't find where the 16th or even the 17th century knew about Nike as cup-bearer. They didn't have access to the Greek pottery that he shows us (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=71&p=1821&hilit=Nike#p1821), unless some of it was Italian--it mostly didn't enter Europe until the late 18th century at best, I think. In Greek and Latin literature, it was Hebe, along with Ganymede, who was cupbearer, and she didn't have wings. I wrote on this subject at http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=28 and http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=74, in the latter on her power to forgive sins). I ended up, in the first post, proposing a kind of synthesis of goddesses, Hebe with Iris (whom I would remove from consideration now)) or Nike.

This Karitas from Bologna is my current solution to the problem, another synthesis, but with just one other figure, with which they would have been well familiar in Renaissance Italy.

[mikeh]

I have taken some photos of two pages, 126 and 127, of the c. 1355 Bologna Ms. (now at Chantilly) that I have been talking about, as reproduced in Canzone delle Virtu e Delle Scienze di Bartolomeo di Bartoli da Bologna: Texto Inedito del Seolo XIV Tratto dal Ms. Originale dei Museo Condé ed illustrato a cura di Leone Dorez. Beaneath that on the title page comes a photo of a coin with the Visconti viper on it. Below that we have: Bergamo, Instituto Italiano d"Arte Grafiche Editore, MDCCCCIIII.

Here are links to three photos taken with a very cheap camera that I don't know how to use. They are way too many pixels, of course. On the right in the first photo is Karitas, winged, the seventh of the seven virtues, shown with her opponent, Herodes impius, beneath her feet: The other six, without wings, are in the same style, each with a foe beneath her feet: in reverse order, Fides has Arius heriticus, Spes has Judas disperatus, Giustizia has Nero iniquis, Temperanza has Epicurus voluptuosus, Fortezza has Ollofernes, and Prudenza has Sardanapolus (pp. 120-125). Then on p. 127, right, the seven form the upper part of a tree, with Karitas on top and Deus behind her. Again she is the only one winged. In case it is too hard to make out the details on p. 127, I have taken two more photos, one of the top of the page and one of the bottom. The page numbers are artificial, as all that are on the page are reproduction of the actual manuscript pages. They are the page numbers as they would have been had the page numbers continued. And they correspond to the pages of Google Books version that I am able to get all of online in the US, although Huck in Germany can't.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nvnWxicgifc/U ... G_0448.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VRUCT8QRJl8/U ... G_0449.JPG

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gJ3-gNmw4tk/U ... G_0450.JPG

Incidentally, I wonder if the seven headed monster at the bottom of this last image is the original of the Visconti viper.

Some of the other illuminations are interesting, too, such as Saturn as an old man holding what appears to be a lantern, as well as his scythe. But later for those, probably on other threads.

[Huck]

Thanks for telling me. I will work on getting an image of the page. Fortunately, I happen to have the hard copy on hand from Interlibrary Loan. Meanwhile, here is the part from Michael I am building on (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=71&p=1820&hilit=winged+temperance#p1819; also, his next post down in that thread gives examples of single winged virtues--admittedly, not cardinal virtues--with others unwinged):

....

As part of that old discussion, the earliest Italian (ancient Roman) example of winged Temperance is Nike. Seriously. One of her conventional depictions was as wine-bearer to victors, in which capacity she carried one or two vessels. The krater was used specifically to mix water with wine -- to temper it -- before drinking. This is not only a Pagan tradition, not only the literal fact underlying the metaphorical symbolism of Temperance, but also the same practice used in the Eucharist where water is mixed with wine for reasons of Christian symbolism. (The water and blood which poured from Christ's side, symbolizing his human and divine nature, etc.)

The significance of this for Tarot is not merely the existence of an ancient Pagan example, but the appropriateness of Nike triumphing over Death. This too was an ancient topos, but an ancient Christian one. Nike was used as a Christian psychopomp in funerary art, based on a passage from St. Paul: In 1 Corinthians he quotes Isaiah: "Death has been swallowed up in victory", and that was a well-known motif. Of course, the winged figure naturally suggests a psychopomp, by analogy with both Mercury and angels, as well as Nike -- Victory.

So the analogy between Tarot de Marseille's Temperance and Nike resonates in terms of the literal meaning, mixing water with wine, and also in terms of the triumph over Death. That latter connection derives from the generic psychopomp motif, the specific Nike "Death has been swallowed up" motif, and the specific fact that the sacraments are the orthodox Christian means by which triumph over Death is achieved.

...

.Notice that Michael is not saying that Temperance is a "guardian angel" as usually understood--a protector--but rather one that offers the antidote to death. My only question about this is that I can't find where the 16th or even the 17th century knew about Nike as cup-bearer. They didn't have access to the Greek pottery that he shows us (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=71&p=1821&hilit=Nike#p1821), unless some of it was Italian--it mostly didn't enter Europe until the late 18th century at best, I think. In Greek and Latin literature, it was Hebe, along with Ganymede, who was cupbearer, and she didn't have wings. I wrote on this subject at http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=28 and http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=74, in the latter on her power to forgive sins). I ended up, in the first post, proposing a kind of synthesis of goddesses, Hebe with Iris (whom I would remove from consideration now)) or Nike.

This Karitas from Bologna is my current solution to the problem, another synthesis, but with just one other figure, with which they would have been well familiar in Renaissance Italy.

Well ... nice. The jungle of the Greek mythology, right at the Olympic games with all its gold medals and triumphal moments.

For Nike one likely has to understand Pallas, her father, who got from Styx, river of the underworld, 4 children, 2 sons and two daughters.

Pallas (Πάλλας) is a Titan, associated with war, killed by Athena in the contest to fight for Zeus. Most sources indicate that he was the son of Crius and Eurybia, the brother of Astraeus and Perses, and the husband of Styx. He was the father of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia.[1] In addition, he has been named as the father of Scylla, Fontes, and Lacus.[2] Alternatively, he was the son of Megamedes, and father of Selene,[3] and is also recorded as the father of Eos.[4]

The city Pellene, in Achaea, was named after Pallas.[5]

"Pallas" was so common as a title for Athena that Edgar Allan Poe's raven (of 'The Raven') sits forever on a pallid bust of "Pallas", which, here, refers to Pallas Athena.

********
1. Hesiod. Theogony, 375-383.
2. Hyginus.
3. Homeric Hymn IV To Hermes, Line 100.
4. Ovid. Fasti, 4.373.
5. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 7.26.12.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallas_%28son_of_Crius%29

Uranos (heaven) married Gaia (Earth). They got 18 children:

3 Centaurs with one eye. 3 strange guys with 100-arms (= 50 bodies). 12 Titans, 6 male and 6 female.

6 male Titans might have married 6 female Titans, but Zeus had an own idea ... and made children with Themis (3 daughters) and made children with Mnemosyne (9 daughters, the Muses) and then even children with his mother Rhea (10 children, 5 male, 5 female).
This naturally was part of the "conflict". So only 4 of the 6 male Titans got a female Titan.

Kronos - Rhea: Hestia - Demeter - Hera / Hades - Poseidon - Zeus
Hyperion - Theia: Helios - Selene - Eos
Crios ... Themis was taken by Zeus
Iapetos ... Mnemosyne was taken by Zeus
Coios - Phoibe: Leto - Aristea
Oceanus - Tethys: 3000 rivers

So Crios and Iapetos had to look for a girl "from elsewhere" (this was naturally also part of the "conflict").

Iapetos married "Asia", this must have been somewhere, where the world wasn't called "Greece". They got 4 sons, which were especially interested in the destiny of mankind: Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Menoitios. Atlas got then a mythology very near to the biblical Adam. Iapetos was compared to Japhed, a son of Noah. Prometheus found a living location at the Caucasus. So one has to conclude: Behind the Caucasus starts "Asia".

Crios married Eurybia ... and to explain the context of Eurybia, one has to explain the conflict: Gaia had enough children from Uranos. So son Kronus was mobilized to change the conditions. It's well known, how he did this.

And Gaia had a second marriage with Pontos (the sea). They got:
Nereus (a god of the water) ... he got 50 daughters, the Nereids
Thaumas (a god of the air) ... he got daughters with WINGS, Iris (good, served Hera), Arce (bad), was thrown to earth (at Arcadia likely) and the Harpies. Iris was (in the conflict) messenger of the Olympians, Arce became messenger of the Titans, and Zeus took the wings from Arce.
Phorkys and Keto (? Fire and Aither), who married each other and got mainly monsters
Eurybia (? Earth), who married Crios

So there we have Eurybia, the mother of Pallas. Gaia had by her two marriages two different families with some conflict to each other, and likely the marriage between Crios (family 1 = Uranos-kids) and Eurybia (family 2 = Pontus kids) had the idea to create some peace. But naturally such a marriage has its difficulties.

They got 3 sons:

PALLAS - the man, whose mythological content we try to understand. He married Styx, river of the underworld, an Oceanos daughter, and they had 4 children, 2 sons and 2 girls, and one of them is NIKE with WINGS. The other 3 are said to have had also WINGS.

Astraeus: He married, Eos, daughter of Hyperion, the goddess of dawn, and so he's associated to the dusk. They got the 4 winds and the stars (or morning and evening star) and possibly he got of another partner the Astraea, a virgin of the stars. So he's related to a sort of astrology (which actually didn't really exist in this early time). At least the winds are commonly presented with WINGS.

Perses: He married Asteria, daughter of Coios, from whom he got a daughter, the mighty Hecate, presented with NO WINGS.

On his way to discover nice women Zeus crossed the two daughters of Coios. Leto got Apollo and Artemis. Zeus also wanted her sister Asteria (married to Perses, and already with a daughter Hecate ... see above), but Asteria escaped, jumped in the sea and transmuted to an island named Delos, a swimming island. The island became the birth location for Artemis (if she wasn't born at the small island Ortygia, which nowadays is part of Syrakus at Sicily) and Apollon ... and an important place for the oracle cult of Apollo. A small island with 3.5 qkm and a lot of stones, inhabited only by the assistants of the museum.
In the antique world it had an important state as neutral territory with a lot of temples, free trade and a lot of money through pilgrims, somehow comparable to Vatican city and Jerusalem.

****************

As we see, some of the Crius-Eurybia descend has wings.
Further I remember from the analysis of the strange German lot book ("pope with donkey") , which was connected to an old astrological Greek model, that "planets" were connected to "birds". If we analyze the Olypic titanic model, we get ...

Kronos ---> Olympians, high in the mountains
Hyperion ---> Sun and Moon and day and night
Crius ---> "flying objects", beside Hecate ----------- related to Themis (taken by Zeus) = Justice
Iapetos ---> mankind ----------- related to Mnemosyne (taken by Zeus) = Muses
Coios ---> Apollo's birth place, swimming island in the water
Oceanos ---> Ocean

Well, we discussed recently ...


viewtopic.php?f=12&t=826&start=20

... questions like "Who is the mother of the virtues?"

I wrote this, I remember ...

From my personal view, I would assume, that Justice is the mother ...

Prudence as virtue of the spirit, Strength as the virtue of the soul, Temperance as the virtue of the body. Justice is the balance within the three.
Minerva-Athena isn't really the mother-type ... and she jumps out of the head.
Themis has usually 3 daughters.

And Justice is the highest cardinal virtue in the Mantegna Tarocchi. And the middle between the theological virtues and the three other cardinal virtues.

But this is just my personal opinion. I doubt, that those people in 15th century had all the same opinion in the virtue question.

My presented concept "Justice is the mother" for the 4 virtues is a trivial mathematical concept ... not really complicated.

The Greek had the goddess Hecate Trivia - Hecate of the three ways. She was presented as a three-fold goddess.



In some myths she was connected to a dog, a viper and a horse.

We see Prudentia (virtue 1) usually shown with a viper.
We see Temperance (virtue 2) occasionally signified with a bridle (good to tame horses).
We see Fortitudo (virtue 2) usually with a lion ... possibly a mutated dog

The world of Crius (flying objects) is somehow governed by Themis, somehow (4th virtue) Justice, and given to her are 3 daughters (by Zeus). The "flying objects" are usually winged, but one figure, Hecate Trivia, is "not winged".

Virtues in the medieval world are usually also "not winged" ... like Hecate.

***************

Hesiod had a positive picture of Hecate, but other times not.

The wikipedia article ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate
... presents the view, that early Hecate wasn't three-fold, but three-fold-god or goddesses concepts had been likely not rare and wandered through the different cultures. Christians also got their trinity.

[Lorredan]

Are you talking about Bartoli's manuscripts called 'The Song of Virtue and Science'?
I thought that was a book about how to illustrate music?
It seems to me you have hit the jackpot as far as Tarot goes.
It was dedicated to a Visconti- I do not know which one.
Congratulations!
I have seen a copy of the manuscripts- made into a book- some years ago- and I did not make a connection.
It formed a sort of model book like Mategna cards. It has quotes of Saint Augustine and how Vitues are made, for a healthy life.
The one I saw is in Italian.
I have just ordered one...
http://www.borders.com.au/book/la-canzo ... a/8492461/
~Lorredan

[mikeh]

Yes, that's the book. The "Song" is the poetry that goes with the pictures, which Dorez transcribed. It's dedicated to Bruzio Visconti, who apparently was in Bologna 1454-1455 (added later: I meant 1354-1355, as I said in an earlier post). It's unfortunate if people can't see it online outside the US. Besides the virtues, it has the liberal arts and sciences and a few of the planets. I had no idea it was a model book, Lorredan. How do you know that?

Added later: Gallica has a few other pages from the book, from its liberal arts section, at http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?ArianeWire ... da+Bologna. This artist is not to be confused with the 15th century music composer Bartolomeo da Bologna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeo_da_Bologna

I see at http://books.google.com/books?id=fOq28a ... ti&f=false (The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass, by Julia Haig Gaesser) that Bruzio Visconti was the natural son of Lucino Visconti, duke of Milan (p. 82). Gaesser gives 1339-1349 as the dating of the Canzone. Bartolomeo also did a Golden Ass for Bruzio, which apparently also has an illumination of the seven virtues, in which all the theological virtues are winged (p. 84), and Charitas stands between the cardinals and the other theologicals.

Bruzio was a poet as well as condottiere. He had a poetic exchange with Petrarch (http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bruzio-visconti/). This last source says he conspired against his then-master, Giovanni Visconti, ruler of Bologna, and was banished by him. That happened in July of 1356, according to http://www.condottieridiventura.it/cond ... 20Lodi.htm. Before that, he had fought for his father, Lucino, until the latter's death in 1349. He died in poverty in the Veneto, 1360.

[Huck]

Yes, that's the book. The "Song" is the poetry that goes with the pictures, which Dorez transcribed. It's dedicated to Bruzio Visconti, who apparently was in Bologna 1454-1455. It's unfortunate if people can't see it online outside the US. Besides the virtues, it has the liberal arts and sciences and a few of the planets. I had no idea it was a model book, Lorredan. How do you know that?

Seems to be this person, a natural son of Luchino Visconti. Likely you mean 1354-55 instead of 1454-55.

http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bruzio-visconti/

Viscónti, Bruzio (o Brizio). - Uomo politico (m. 1356), figlio naturale di Luchino che lo fece (1336) podestà di Lodi. Rifugiatosi a Bologna presso Giovanni Visconti da Oleggio, cospirò contro di lui e ne fu bandito. Amante della poesia e buon poeta egli stesso, nel 1344 scrisse (sotto altro nome) un violento carme contro il Petrarca, che rispose con due delle sue Epystole metrice (libro II, 11 e 18). Morì povero, in esilio nel Veneto.

Some other dates:
http://www.condottieridiventura.it/cond ... 20Lodi.htm

It seems, that the book has various of these pictures:
http://www.allposters.fr/gallery.asp?st ... 1-23934896