OnePotato wrote:Allegory On The Meeting Of Pope Paul II and Emperor Frederick III
OP Note:
So there is no mention of the scale that the Pope holds, or the bag.
Thanks OP : given the title I was able to find a couple of references online:
http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/invt/cda00158141
Allegory of Pope Paul II and the Emperor Frederick III; the Pope, with a triple tiara and the neck attacked by a serpent, and the Emperor, with a crown and a money-bag suspended from his neck, grasping each other by the waist, resting on the mast of a ship, on a wheel and on a lion; the Pope holds in his l hand a balance and above this an escutcheon with the three fleur-de-lis and an eagle; the Emperor holds in his r hand a broken spindle attached to the wheel; a comet at the upper l and below a bare trunk of a tree with an escutcheon hanging from a branch; with several inscribed scrolls. c.1470 Engraving"
...the scales I think probably relate to the Pope's (with his alliances) holding the balance of power; the 'comet' (?) is labeled 'Sub saturno i domo ifirmitatis' (an infirm house beneath Saturn?). It is clearly here a two headed eagle here rather than the two headed cockeral looking bird in our example:P Is the text in Italian below, can anyone translate it? (something about a sybil as below - use the site zoom funtion to enlarge any section). According the site below the purse signifies the Emperor's 'self-seeking policy' ...
1470. Satirical allegory of the meeting of Pope
Paul II with the Emperor Frederick III during
the winter of 1468-69. According to the 'inscription,
the reference is to a prophecy by the Roman
Sibyl 'found on a great stone' and dating from
the year 19 B.C. The King of Bohemia's broken
staff, caught in the wheel of the Roman Patriarch,
is an allusion to the recent excommunication of
George Podebrad, one of the matters discussed at
the meeting. The purse hung round the Emperor's
neck symbolises his self-seeking policy.
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97884081