Giorgio Vasari’s A Bride with a Rake:A Mythological Pun

Giorgio Vasari’s educational background and association with Renaissance humanists engendered his familiarity with the texts and imagery of classical,emblematic,and mythographic traditions.Vasari’s composition of images as a compendium of iconography for a decorative program was in the vein of the literary practices of Andrea Alciato(1482-1550),Pierio Valeriano(1477-1558),and Vincenzo Cartari(1531-1590),and followed Paolo Giovio’s advice on how to depict an emblematic image or impresa1(Giovio,1559,p.9).For Giovio(1483-1552),an impresa or badge must contain a figure and motto,its meaning should be clear and precise,the imagery must be pleasant to look at,and the motto must be brief,inventive,and unambiguous.But sometimes Vasari did not follow his advice,relying more on the Renaissance Neoplatonic notion of a concept postulated by the Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino(1433-1499).In De vita coelitus comparanda(How Life Should Be Arranged According to the Heavens)2(Ficino,1489;1561-1563;1996,pp.7-19;Kerrigan&Braden,1989,pp.101-115).Ficino discusses the use and the magic potency of images by deliberating on the virtue of imagery,what power pertains to the figure in the Heavens and on Earth,which of the heavenly configurations are impressed on images by the ancients,and how the images are employed in antiquity3(Gombrich,1972,p.172;Chastel,1996,pp.81-89;Moore,1990,p.20,137,181;Bull,2006,pp.7-36).Vasari assimilated these concepts visually in the fresco painting of the Bride with a Rake(1548),located in one of the rooms in his house in Arezzo,the Chamber of Fortune(Chamber of Virtue),where he composed a paradoxical iconographic image-the subject of this essay.This essay is composed of two parts:an introduction to the location of the painting in the Casa Vasari in Arezzo and an iconographical and iconological interpretation of the imagery.

Giorgio Vasari’s Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore:The Eye of God

In previous studies on the iconographical symbolism revealed in Giorgio Vasari’s fresco decoration for the Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore(also known as the Dome of Florence,1572-1574),I discussed three points:(1)the impact of Dante’s Divine Comedy,in particular the Inferno;(2)the influence of Coppo di Marcovaldo’s mosaic decoration on the cupola of the Florentine Baptistery(1300);and(3)the inspiration of Renaissance Neoplatonism in Vasari’s paintings.(Aspects of this study were published in Cheney,2016,pp.488-519;Cheney&Hendrix,2002,pp.177-188;Cheney,1998,pp.35-55;Cheney,1987,pp.1-8).In this essay,I will focus on another iconographical representation:the metaphysical and physical symbolism of the eye(―l’occhio‖)in Vasari’s cupola imagery(Figure 1).This approach will connect with Cosimo Bartoli’s lecture on Dante’s Divine Comedy and,in particular,on Dante’s Purgatorio(Cantos XXX and XXXI)as well as with Vincenzo Borghini’s program for the decoration of the Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore.

Giorgio Vasari’s Saint Michael the Archangel in the Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore: A Neoplatonic Sphere

This essay discusses the manifold depictions of Saint Michael The Archangel in Italian Renaissance art,in particular in Giorgio Vasari’s imagery.It starts with a brief explanation of who Michael The Archangel is,explores his visual iconography in pagan,Judeo-Christian,and Byzantine imagery,and examines the impact of Renaissance Neoplatonism on the interpretation of Saint Michael and his symbolic roles.The Renaissance Neoplatonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino explained the significance of the Platonic celestial ladder as a spiritual vehicle for the human soul to achieve divine love.One step of this ladder is the Angelic Mind.It is here that the sparkling light of the realm of the Angelic Mind reveals the splendor and beauty of God’s grace.This is the realm where Michael,a Seraphim and a messenger of God,resides,delivering God’s messages of grace and love to humanity throughout the world.Giorgio Vasari(1511-1574)visualized these divine messages metaphorically in frescos on two major vaults.The first is in the small cupola of the Pope Pius V Chapel in the Vatican,once called Saint Michael’s Chapel,where between 1560 and 1566 Vasari and his assistants painted al fresco the Saint Michael and the Devils,a depiction of Michael the Archangel combatting vices personified as demons who want to prevent human beings from obtaining the divine grace that will allow their souls to ascend toward heaven(Figure 1).Between 1570 and 1574,Vasari continued his metaphorical visualization of God’s divine message in a large vault,the octagonal cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore,the Dome of the Cathedral of Florence,the major focus in this essay(Figure 2).He and his assistants painted al fresco the Last Judgment,portraying Saint Michael The Archangel residing in a heavenly realm-the divine reign of God,where he mediates and witnesses God’s divine judgment on humankind(Figure 13).Here,celestial trumpeters loudly announce the separation of good and bad souls of the terrestrial realm,Earth.The bad souls rapidly descend into a Dantesque infernal realm where demons capture them and transform them into hybrid forms.In contrast,the good souls quickly emerge from Earth to ascend into Heaven.Their skeletal figures transform into angelic beings,ready to receive divine grace and eternal love.