The origin of the symbolism in Caravaggio

www.aboutartonline.com Direttore: Pietro di Loreto Aut. Trib. Roma n. 102/2018 del 22/05/2018 - ISSN: 2611-6294 The origin of the symbolism in Caravaggio’s early works: the meeting with the “Insensati”, precursor of the new Enlightenment (with the support of the young Maffeo Barberini). di Clovis WHITFIELD Nothing so far fully explains the sudden facility that Caravaggio assumed when he started painting the unusual subjects that characterise his early Roman production. No amount of parallels with still-life painters, or theatrical performances that he might have seen, account for the novelty of his choices. We have to live with his claim to work solely ‘dal naturale’ and reconcile ourselves with the realisation that these people and objects that he painted were what he chose (even though others may have put them in front of him, he was unwilling or unable to take ‘inspiration’ from the example of others’ art). Pietro Paolo Pellegrini’s description in July 1597 of this character is a vivid picture that is only missing the pointed ears of Pan, and his ability to represent nature was what struck those who knew him. The reception he got from an innovative society, the Neo Platonist Accademia degli Insensati, has not been much considered but recently it has come out ‘into the open’ despite having been dismissed as bizarre frivolous and irrelevant, linked with. true non-believers like Giulio Mancini who is said to have tolerated eating meat on Fridays. It was as Laura Teza [1] has underlined una confraternità laica di gen0luomini che, a4raverso gli esercizi “virtuosi “ apprendevano l’arte, i rituali, i codici di comportamento di una nobile convivalità sociale, [2] 1 Detail of leaf, Basket of Fruit, Ambrosiana Milan. Caravaggio started with beauty in flowers. and fruit, (fig. 1) then turned to these traits in humans, and most especially the young boys that he found these philosophers of the senses admired, and by great good fortune he had a servitore who gave him what were considered the best years of his appearance, from fifteen to twenty. [3] This was great asset for him as he had at hand the best model he could have found. He didn’t however hire adolescent boys from the street – ragazzi di strada – because he couldn’t afford a professional model, as Roberto Longhi (1968, p. 13) would have us believe, this was because of his clients’ aesthetic preferences. In fact since the fifteenth century in Florence Platonists were at the forefront of an idealistic brand of philosophy in Italy, pursuing a search for perfection and harmony, this certainly was part of the Roman Insensati, meeting in Maffeo Barberini’s Casa Grande of the family in Rione Regola, before he would be appointed Chierico di Camera in 1598. The Roman Insensati were a group of intellectuals, a virtual Academy under his patronage and it was characterised by the absence of orthodox Counter Reformation thinking and religious themes, a broader conversazione. Their literary background meant that they kept up with new editions of classical texts, like Lodovico Castelvetro’s translation of Aristotle’s Poetics (of which another Insensato, Filippo Massimi, speaks in 1580 [4], and Platonist publications, as well as Giordano Bruno’s in the 1580s, but many thought this line of thinking was heretical. They were known as dotti e intendenti and were mostly lawyers, and looked for activity corresponding to their own in classical sources, which obviously included relationships like Hadrian’s with his lover Antinous, but also all manner of natural phenomena they were open to all branches of knowledge, but particularly relating to the senses. This had been particularly the case with Maffeo Barberini’s tutor, Aurelio Orsi, to whom he remained devoted even after his death (c. 1591) and who was the key figure in the Perugian phase of the Insensati. They were addressed as signori leghisti and so we can count on their having been perfectly proper. The role of the Roman members in the scientific curiosity of this generation has always been dismissed, but that was true also for Galileo Galilei, for whom Maffeo originally had great deal of respect. In Rome, Maffeo was a Latin scholar who published his own poetry, both Latin, Greek and Italian, and during vacations in Florence from about 1599 he joined the group of enthusiasts for poetry from the pastoral tradition later known as the Pastori Antellesi in the Villa of Francesco d’Antella (who would come to own the Sleeping Cupid now in the Galleria Pitti see below, notes 50/51). But according to his biographer Andrea Nicoletti (B.A.V. MS Barb. Lat. 4730-38) his palazzo ‘soon became like an Academy of the most refined literary men who then shone in Rome. There gathered learned men for intelligent and noble discourses (conversazioni) … and his cour0ers were the smartest not only in terms of wri0ng, but in every other discipline and science’ [5]. Impresa of the Umoris7 And it is also clear that Maffeo paid a great deal of attention to the furnishing of his residence, which became the address for the successful and learned people in the city. These were evidently the Roman Insensati, and their more formal association with Paolo Mancini’s Humoristi was due to Maffeo’s increasing involvement in affairs of state, which would see him posted to Paris in 1601: his appointment in 1598 as Chierico di camera possibly marks the beginning of his distancing from these purveyors of natural magic, and it coincided with his trip to Ferrara the same year with the Pope and the entire Curia. The increased activities in Rome of the Insensati there led to their outperforming their Perugian colleagues and prompted the setting up of a new outfit independent of the one in distant Umbria. Principe Paolo Mancini (c.1580- 1635) who was himself an Insensato, and had accompanied the Pope (and Maffeo) [6] in the expedition in 1598 to Ferrara, established the Accademia of the Humoristi in his Palazzo in Rome, independent from the Insensati in Perugia but with similar purpose, 7 February 1600, on the occasion of his marriage to Vittoria Capozzi. Their impresa said to have been drawn by Cavalier d’Arpino, was the image of the sun drawing up the vapours of salt water in the sea and transforming it into freshwater as rain, just as the blind Orion in Poussin’s landscape (Metropolitan Museum) finds his blindness cured by the rising Sun that evaporates the clouds that Diana has brought together. It is a narrative like that of Natale Conti, who in his Mythologiae of 1561 (that the Insensati must surely have known) asserts “all the doctrines of Natural and Moral Philosophy were contained in the fables of the ancients”. 6) Detail of rocks, Doria Flight into Egypt This gives an idea of the imagination applied in this Academy to themes in Nature [7], which was so important for this generation. It was the Roman Insensati who immediately recognised a kindred spirit in Caravaggio, while the original Perugian colleagues remained somewhat isolated. This was a strand of prescientific curiosity, not only the the ephemeral character of flowers and fruit, differences in geology (6), psychological expressions of pain and emotion, interpersonal communication, optical phenomena, the mysteries of choice seen in nature, the phenomena of transformation, which we also see in some of the emblems that individual Insensati adopted. There are no documentary connections with Caravaggio’s colleague Ottavio Leoni, but he tried at this period successfully to record his clients’s appearance with the camera obscura [8], a technical improvement like the clock that would keep time that Del Monte would promote, and glass that was clear as crystal. These were part of the dolce pioggia di nobili operazioni of the Roman Accademia degli Humoristi [9], as described by Girolamo Aleandro in his published Discorso (presso Giacomo Mascardi, Roma, 1611) . These images and Imprese and those of both Accademies are generally without Christian symbolism, and Nature was a prime focus. The Crescenzi family were also notable Insensati, and Marchese Giovanni Battista (15771640) had what Baglione called a Scuola di virtù in his palazzo by the Pantheon, [10] and must have experienced first hand the first paintings that Caravaggio did in Rome, and encouraged young painters like Pietro Paolo Bonzi and Bartolomeo Cavarozzi to emulate his example, a continuation of this genre (that Salini also adopted) but without the repetition seen previously. They were students of nature, and there was much to uncover, following reality rather established patterns. Other paintings that Caravaggio painted at this early period, like the Uffizi Bacchus share this paradoxical search for inner beauty through external appearances. The key ingredient that is added to the artist’s known mastery of still-life is the classical references, here of an antique bust, but also the exact imitation of appearance that was sought following Aristotle’s Poetics as interpreted by Lodovico Castelvetro.[11]. These considerations seem to point to contact with the dotti e intendenti that he encountered through the Insensati, who belonged to a primarily literary tradition, but also were curious for all sorts of culture.. It was the poets who formed the mainspring of the enthusiasm for this new art, and their passion for nature synchronised with this close view of natural appearance in the Sleeping Cupid, the Shepherd Corydon, the Victorious Cupid, the Fortune Teller, the Medusa., which they will have seen as they were being painted, either in the studio in Palazzo Petrignani, or in Palazzo Barberini, or by courtesy of Prospero Orsi. The outlandish character of these pictures has not been attributed to a realistic original location and this is an important consideration for these revolutionary images clearly not done without a purpose. It was the immediacy of detail that struck the Insensato poets with surprise, a surprise that became Marino’s meraviglia. It was not just the sensuality of living form, but the arresting detail, like the gloves (7) of the bravo in the Fortune Teller (8), 7) Detail of pair of Gloves, Fortune Teller, first version, Paris, Louvre 8) Flask in Doria Flight into Egypt Flask in Doria ‘light into Egypt, the compasses (9), stuck in the trickster’s belt in the Cardsharps, the ripples (10) in the surface of the wine in Bacchus 9) Pair of Compasses, detail from Cardsharps, Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth 10) Glass of wine with ripples Bacchus The observation of an event, the interaction between the players, this was also an unheard of representation of a familiar scene, the terribile meraviglia that was so striking, and this was before Caravaggio made such a public impact – the ‘fama fuora di modo’ that Celio speaks of – with the paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi (1599/1600). Caravaggio appears to have taken on board Castelvetro’s insistence that ‘la rassomiglianza di fuori richiedeva molta più industria dell’invenzione’ and ‘non si può riconoscere alcuna rassomiglianza che non s’impari’ (1576, p. 70). But the Italian literary tradition, from Giacomo Leopardi, Girolamo Tiraboschi, to Francesco de Sanctis , was convinced of the decadence of the Italian tradition, seeing Marino as ‘the most contagious corruptor of good taste in Italy’ (che si dee a ragione considerare come il più contagioso corrompitor del buon gusto in Italia). That this was the guiding attitude is obvious from Ferdinando Bologna’s [12] opinion that the ‘bizarre’ Accademia degli Umoristi was improntata a spiriti libertini. Caravaggio’s paintings have to be viewed in terms of their Christian virtues and meaning, somewhat different from what we know of the artist who did not (for Bellori) even look as though he was an artist. This has diminished his figure as an independent, one who broke the mold, as a Christian interpretation is often difficult read into his imagery. But this Platonist strand can also be associated with the humor peccante or the sinful thoughts attributed to Del Monte, that were even recognised by Vincenzo Giustiniani in the final rearrangement of his sculpture collection. Caravaggio’s encounter with the Insensati at the beginning of his Roman stay was significant, for it was a mainly secular association that was a vital precursor for the new generation of enlightenment, and promoters of ‘nobilissima virtù’[13] such an important current around the turn of the century, and it vaunted a new look at nature. Its members were ‘influencers’ who were much taken with disruptive innovations, and its poets continued to celebrate Caravaggio through the Seicento. It was seen as a Neo Platonic academy ‘renowned for just that sophisticated symbolism which we encounter in certain of Caravaggio’s early works’ [14] This was after all a time when much was being rethought and even categorised, not only Cesare Ripa’s catalogue of subjects in his Iconologia , but a new appreciation of medicine, Del Monte’s alchemy, mathematics, the beginnings of chemistry, of optics, a tremendously important strand in early Seicento thought. The Roman Insensati were obviously more of a presence in the city, but their activity has been less remarked on in the history of the original society in Umbria. It was the contingent in Rome that became predominant, and the Roman poets continued to celebrate the painter through the whole century. This was a moment of re-thinking and classification not only Ripa’s new anthology of subjects, but a new attitude for botany, medicine, Del Monte’s alchemy and chemistry, mathematics and optics. The young Maffeo Barberini was the most important supporter of the Insensati a Roma, always led by his late tutor, Aurelio Orsi, and Galileo congratulated himself when his constellation arrived and he was chosen as Pope in 1623, when he looked to sponsor science and culture and actually put together the largest collection of Caravaggios for what would become the Galleria Nazionale – even more than that of Vincenzo Giustiniani. Others like Giambattista Marino, Cassiano dal Pozzo and Francesco Angeloni were supporters of the painter’s disruptive innovation, and it was the poets who were most vocal. The Umoristi were in reality an extension of the Roman Insensati but independent of the original Perugian academy. It was a prestigious society, founded by Paolo Mancini, a continuous intellectual presence in Roman society for the whole of the Seicento, concerned with the minutiae of nature, starting with Galileo passing his magnifying occhiale to Federico Cesi to enable him to see it in more detail. Whether or not we can identify the origin of the symbolism in Caravaggio’s early works, we can be sure that the Insensati had a part in it, for the work he soon did in Rome was not just reproducing nature, but recording events, and the invention he made people notice was from observation. This was a collaboration with those of the Insensati in Rome at the Casa Grande of Maffeo Barberini rather than the parent society in Perugia. 11). Mullein (Tasso barbasso) in Shepherd Corydon (Capitoline version) Firstly Caravaggio started his career in Rome with his ability to reproduce fruit and flowers, as Van Mander reports he thought che nulla vi può esser di buono e di meglio che di seguire la natura. (fig. 11) There were many [15] more of these than we now know, and many of them were done when he had the commodità d’una stanza from Monsignor Fantino Petrignani (Mancini, Considerazioni I, p. 224) among the ‘many paintings’ that this writer refers to as done there, (and a couple that were bought and sold by the dealer Costantino Spada), and when this patron was disgraced [16], ending his expectations of a cardinal’s hat, they were mainly taken over by Prosperino (apart from those now in the Doria that were. appropriated for Pietro Aldobrandini by his guardaroba, Gerolamo Vittrice) and not seen until after the artist’s death) . 12 Detail of leaves, Basket of Fruit, Ambrosiana Milan. 13) Basket of Fruit, Caravaggio, Supper at Emma’s, Na7onal Gallery London. The description of these paintings from the later Altemps inventories is what remains of Caravaggio’s talent when he arrived in Rome, apart from the Fiscella (fig. 12) and the various pictures where this element has equal importance to a figure subject. Maffeo’s picture must have resembled the basket of fruit in the National Gallery (13) Supper at Emmaus or the bowl of fruit in the Uffizi. (14) Bacchus, or that in the Boy with a Basket of Fruit that belonged to another Insensato, Cesare d’Arpino, who understandably wanted him to continue with this kind of subject. 1 4). Detail of bowl of fruit, Bacchus, Florence, Uffizi. But we should especially take account of the one in the Barberini collection (one of the ritratti per Barbarino that Mancini [17] refers to) Un quadro di p.mo 4 e 3 – rappresentanteDiversi fruN por0 sop’a Un tavolino di Pietra in Una Canestra mano di Michel Angelo da Caravaggio’ (M. Lavin, Barberini Inventories New York, 1975, 1671 inventory, after Cardinal Antonio’s death, no. 354, p. 309). This painting must have been commissioned by perhaps the most famous Insensato, Maffeo Barberini, who hosted the meetings of the Accademia in Rome in the original Casa Grande of the family, in Rione Regola, Via dei Giubbonari. We gather that at first he had applied himself to this speciality, like a typist follows dictation, with a complete attention to detail. This was Caravaggio’s early achievement, that stile che piace molto that Van Mander reports, before he had moved on almost exclusively to figure painting. And although it is fascinating to read of the botanical achievements of the Insensati [18] particularly in Umbria and in the giaredino delle delizie at Castiglion del Lago with the Duca della Corgna, in reality Caravaggio (who was most particular in his observation of flowers) did not get much encouragement from these people for taking the botanical subject much further. His observation was ‘assiduous’ and ‘laborious’ (Van Mander) so much so that he could be regarded as someone who would be totally prepared as a craftsman for the decorations where this unusual technique could be used. The Insensati were not patrons of religious subjects, and more than fruit and flowers they were involved in the meaning of imagery, actually at the same time as Cesare Ripa was preparing the illustrated edition of his Iconologia (1593) that was published in 1603. He collaborated with Cesare d’Arpino for some of the illustrations, and there were more contacts with other Insensati, there were many connections between the author and the Insensati, as Erna Mandowska documented. [19]., and acknowledged his debt to the Accademia in the Preface of the Turin edition (1613) of the Iconologia. The intellectual and ‘scientific‘ nature of Ripa’s patron Cardinal Salviati, (personal counsellor to Clement VIII) who introduced him to Maffeo Barberini, may also have had something to do with the kind of subjects that he would represent. 15). Drop of water on side of carafe,detail Boy bi>en by a Lizard, Florence, Longhi Founda7on The curiosity that inspired the Boy bitten by a Lizard raises the kind of queries that characterised the Insensato approach, not yet scientific but asking questions, and of course Caravaggio ocular gift was perfect for recognising these unexplained effects, like the refraction of light passing through transparent glass and liquid, and the imminent movement of the drop of water. (15) on the surface of the glass (Florence, Longhi Foundation). Caravaggio was also able to fix a variety of expressions on the human face. Contemporary painters were used to learning a repertory of expressions and gestures to ‘tell a story’, but he did not follow this formal arrangement , for his observation was much more revealing. It does not diminish his genius to associate some of these queries with those pertaining to ‘natural magic’ which was ever present. The Insensati were in a privileged position in that they saw some of Caravaggio’s paintings as they were being painted, but the dispersal of the works intended for Palazzo Petrignani had the consequence that few of them surfaced, and many of the works ‘dal naturale’ that the poets admired were warehoused by Prospero Orsi and would only be sold, by this man who was his self-appointed dealer, after it was clear that the artist would not return to the city. But his technique of reproducing what amounted to a ‘mosaic of reality’ was already perfected and complete right from the start, as far as we know. Ripa had access to Salviati’s very important library, and so was an authoritative iconographer, the Insensati were curious about unexplained natural phenomena and imminent action , so the idea of observing the passage of light through glass and liquid, the dew on the flowers, but also facial expressions as they happened. These are things that Caravaggio must have experienced through the Insensati, people like Maffeo Barberini, Giuseppe Cesari, Ottaviano Mascarino, and, lets face it, Mgr Fantino Petrignani. There is no indication that Caravaggio actually belonged to this society of dilettanti that was the Insensati or shared the same sins, mainly because he was not versed in the literary world that they inhabited, he was after all an artisan rather than an intellectual or poet. But he was thick with them, and they were a mainly secular society even though they met in Rome in the Barberini palazzo of a future Pope. In contrast Federico Zuccari made much of his membership and maintained it in Rome , regarding it as ‘an obligatory step in the shaping of an intellectual [20]. It was a lay environment that was exploratory, and interested in the meaning of visual symbols, and their ancient equivalents and its members were aware of the extraordinary translations of seen forms that this new painter was able to achieve. They must have seemed like natural magic, and the cult of Caravaggio continued to see him from the vantage point of these striking pictures, so much so that Del Monte immediately wanted replicas of two of them them as soon as the artist turned up on his doorstep, as the new biography by Celio attesta. Mancini thought this was the best moment of his career, and eventually one of the Fortune Tellers was sold in 1613 for 300 scudi, a far cry from the eight and a half that it had made when the Petrignani pictures were dispersed. Caravaggio’s ability to produce an exact likeness was the basis of his fame, and because these were not religious images it was entirely new territory, without a commercial purpose. This kind of subject was the preserve of artisans who contracted to do rooms with landscapes, floral decoration, ornament, like Prosperino delle Grotttesche, Tarquinio Ligustri, Avanzino Nucci. Caravaggio evidently thought that what was depicted from life was suitable, following ‘il vero’ and the Platonist and Thomist adage pulchritudo splendor veritatis, Paintings with no narrative subject however had (so far) no commercial purpose, and it was not surprising that this decoration, even as it included works like the Ambrosiana Basket of Fruit, would be not immediately acquired by collectors for they had not remained in the interior for which they were intended, nor were they even seen there, as Fantino’s palazzo fell into ruin. But this was where Caravaggio intended these paintings to be seen, the Flight into Egypt, the ‘Magdalene’, the Fortune Teller, its companion the Shepherd Corydon, and the ‘many paintings ‘that Mancini tells us were also painted there, with amazing details. ‘La rassomiglianza è d’allegrezza a tutti, as Castelvetro indicated (op. cit.1576, p. 70), Years of practice had refined Caravaggio’s personal technique of painting from nature ‘ Si avanzò per quattro o cinque anni facendo ritratti’ as Bellori tells us [21], and this was of still-lifes rather than portraiture, for Baglione they were ‘alcuni quadretti da lui nello specchio ritratti. . . . con gran diligenza’ (Vite, 1642, p. 136.) Much confusion has been generated by the ambiguity of this expression, which primarily referred to the exact copying of whatever the artist was trying to reproduce, which came later to be almost exclusively portraits of people. So as Van Mander said ‘he did not make a single stroke without having nature in front of him’, and this he copies as he proceeds’ The aesthetic of the Crescenzi, neighbours to Del Monte and to the Giustiniani, was strongly influenced by that of the Insensati, and in some respects the work that comes out of their Academy with Pietro Paolo Bonzi and Bartolomeo Cavarozzi seems a continuation of what Caravaggio had done in Palazzo Petrignani. 16) Hendrick Terbrugghem Denial of St Peter, Private Collec7on, London (Detail) The Insensati philosophy was why this school was ‘tanto osservante del vero’ (Mancini). We still experience this meraviglia as we admire their choice of subject, as also in the Caravaggesque painter Hendrick Terbrugghen (16). Detail of Denial of St Peter, London, Private collection) . It is easy to imagine that the discovery of a real likeness of a person meant a lot to these intellectuals, a fortunate turn of events for someone who had previously only looked intently at fruit and flowers, and he took advantage of his ability to paint likenesses of friends and innkeepers, and the Prior of the hospital where he was a patient, obviously to acknowledge hospitality. He is recorded as having painted the portraits of a number of the Insensati, Melchiorre and Crescenzio Crescenzi, (and, according to Bellori, Virgilio Crescenzi [22]), Bernardino Cesari, Onorio and Caterina Longhi, Giambattista Marino, but unfortunately these paintings have not (so far) surfaced [23]. They were students of nature and the Accademia dei Crescenzi produced painters like Pietro Paolo Bonzi and Bartolomeo Cavarozzi who continued the genre that Caravaggio had started, (and Salini also adopted) instead of repeating models from a pattern book. The art of what Giulio Mancini called the ritratto semplice – in other words the direct replication of appearances, was much appreciated by Del Monte, who recommends a young man ( ? Ottavio Leoni) in a letter of 10 December 1599 to Cristina di Lorena because of his great skill ‘più diligente e più somigliante’ for doing a portrait of her. Marchese Crescenzi must have known at first hand the decorations that Caravaggio did at the early point in his career, those he did at Palazzo Petrignani, and subsequently encouraged young artists like Bonzi and Cavarozzi to imitate them (having seen some of the early works Caravaggio had produced in Rome), and they continued this same genre of painting that was an artisanal production that we now call still-life painting. It is of great significance that Frazzi has underlined [24] the meaning of the subject of the Boy peeling Fruit, (17) which surely corresponds to the Insensati’s concentration on separating the core (of the fruit) from the peel as Michele Frazzi has shown. 17) Boy Peeling Fruit, MondafruYo, Private collec7on. 5) Impresa of the Insensa2 This would have been seen as emblematic of their intellectual aims, pursuing inner truths rather than the outer appearances of things. The emblem of the Insensati (18) was a flock of cranes, each carrying a stone in their talons, so following these ideals regardless of the weight of their senses with which they were burdened, but it also signalled that their interest was in the senses. This was an attempt to detach their personae from the material interests they had. Although there is no formal connection of Caravaggio with the Insensati, there is ample evidence of his association with them. We know that Cesare Crispolti, the Perugian intellectual who was Principe of the Academy, owned one of these Boys peeling Fruit, and we can also surmise that other members also will have bought some of the many other examples that Caravaggio painted. For although in modern scholarship there has always been the idea that there had to have been a single original, most of the known versions share the same technique and it is not evident that they, any of them were so arresting to encourage other artists to imitate, let alone copy. It does seem as though when the artist arrived in Rome he was already a professional artisan and way beyond the apprenticeship it is sometimes assumed he did with Cesare d’Arpino, who was just three years older., while his brother Bernardino was exactly his contemporary (b. 1571). 19 Caravaggio, Boy bi>en by a Lizard, Florence, Longhi Founda7on The skill he demonstrated in the arresting Boy bitten by a Lizard (19) shows an artistic maturity also evident in the Arcadian Shepherd Corydon , painted along with the Fortune Teller when Monsignor Fantino Petrignani allowed him to set up his studio in his grand palazzo, still under construction. The format of the paintings, following the Boy Peeling Fruit (the one in the Royal Collection that I saw at Highgrove, 63 by 53 cm, a quadro da testa) is that of the various paintings he did supposedly ‘per vendere’, including the portrait of Fillide Melandroni, the Borghese Bacchus, the Boy with a Vase of Roses, the Boy bitten by a Lizard, which Luigi Salerno [25] was first to associate with an allegorical meaning, as in the Insensato poet Giovanni Battista Lauri’s De puer et scorpio, followed by Sydney Freedberg in 1993 (loc. cit.) Caravaggio’s association with known Insensati prompts the idea, as we have suggested, that it was other members who bought the numerous versions, perhaps as many as twenty [26], of the Boy peeling Fruit. It is inarguable that this is one of the first of his inventions with a figure, and although even omitted from many of the ‘Complete Works’ with at best a single version representing a ‘lost original’ this design not only corresponds with the invention of the Insensati, it is from a moment when they (and Orsi) were persuading him to paint from a live figure rather than only details from Nature. The figure subjects in fact come out of the blue, there are none that he brought with him from Milan, but his ability to reproduce detail was what was stunning. Nothing indicates that he was familiar with what church patronage would ask for, but the subjects of the Insensati were complex and evidently connected to a different philosophy – the Boy Bitten by a Lizard has been thought to be a representation of the choleric temperament. Certainly the abstruse subject matter of the Boy peeling Fruit points to a parallel thinking behind some of the other secular themes, and one that is new to previous iconography. It has been suggested by Giacomo Berra among others [27] that the Boy with a Vase of Roses is an illustration of the sense of smell, the subject of the Boy bitten by a Lizard that of touch, so standing for the senses, but it is not necessary to look for the multiple precedents as the artist approached all his images from a literal and not a literary point of view. The abstract concepts that informed these works obviously stem from the minds of the dotti e intendenti that the artist found all around him in the Rione of Rome where he found a supportive reception. Absent are signs of conventional iconography, for these people replaced their patron saints with ideas and curiosity about the natural world. There is no need either to seek explanations of why there is so little documentation for these works, many of them were evidently associated with the disgraced Petrignani, and in reality were never seen in the setting for which they were intended. Even Federico Borromeo’s purchase of the Basket of Fruit was not shown in Rome, and the puritanical zeal of Clement VIII meant that the Cupids would have been regarded as ‘lascivi e dishonesti’ He sent a Jesuit priest to talk to Durante Alberti the president of the Academy, and urged the members to paint only cose honeste e laudabili, e fuggire ogni lascivia, o dishonestà, and only their petition dissuaded him from tearing down Michelangelo’s Last Judgement completely, because the modesty fig leaves that had been painted by Daniele da Volterra (and others) were insufficient for his prudery. But Caravaggio’s immodest pictures remained the focus of the Insensato poets, who never had the same enthusiasm for the evangelical paintings Caravaggio would do for Benedetto Giustiniani and Ciriaco and Girolamo Mattei. Some of the Insensati were able also to get their portraits painted (most of which are mentioned in the sources but have not yet surfaced), but they were the groundswell of his fans, among them not only Prospero Orsi, but Maffeo Barberini, the Crescenzi, Giuseppe and Bernardino Cesari, Federico Zuccari, Battista Guarino, Giovanni Battista Marino, Gaspare Murtola, Torquato Tasso, Paolo Mancini (who would go on to found the similar Accademia degli Humoristi in his Roman palazzo in 1600), Filippo Massimi, Filippo Alberti, Bonifazio Bevilacqua Aldobrandini, Carlo Emanuele Pio, Cesare Nebbia, Leandro Bovarini, Marchese Ascanio II Della Corgna., Gaspare Murtola, Federico Zuccari, Torquato Tasso, Cesare Nebbia to name but a few, and not listing the more than forty authors of the Imprese in the Libro delle Imprese dell’ Accademia degli Insensati recently published by Laura Teza [28]. The number of versions amply testifies to the activity of the Academy in Rome, and while Maffeo’s increasing responsibilities must have meant that he could no longer host their meetings, the Humoristi [29] continued in like fashion, considering themselves the most progressive of thinkers spiritosi ingegni who were non-conformists like Caravaggio himself. 20) Impresa of Paolo Mancini, from Teza’s Libro delle Imprese, with a revived amaranth in a carafe of water For Giambattista Marino ‘Umorista è colui che …è peccante in qualche humore’ [30], and it was because of the importance for them of the four Humours, they achieved exceptional interpretations like the Impresa of Paolo Mancini himself, a wilted flower – an amaranth – revived in a carafe of water. (20) (Hic reviviscam) [31]. There are no explicit surviving explanations of the original subjects that Caravaggio adopted, like the Insensati, they make observations with implicit queries, but following Crispolti’s dictum ‘non sia bene lo stampare delle compositioni accademiche’ [32] these were things that should not be committed to print. and it was the terribile meraviglia of the likeness from life that struck his audience, well before the public success that he met with what Celio called the fama fuora di modo with the unveiling of the paintings in Cappella Contarelli. Michele Frazzi has also underlined (on these pages, see note 23) that the guiding philosophy of the Insensati was to free thought from the tyranny of the senses ‘liberarsi il più possibile dal peso dell’appetito dei sensi’ so that the ‘cultivated and intelligent’ members – huomini dotti e intendenti could appreciate beauty detached from the influence of their baser instincts [33]. And they were very much in evidence in Rome with members like Maffeo Barberini. Federico Zuccari, the Crescenzi, Giamattista Marino, Emanuele Pio di Savoia, Francesco Angeloni. It was associated with the quest for inner beauty seen through its external evidence, just as the enthusiasm for painting from nature informs all their comments on Caravaggio’s work. Zuccari saw it as a prestigious society to belong to, because of the important members who participated , and he apparently appreciated the ‘conversazione civile’ (intelligent discourse) that he found there, a relatively free exchange of ideas that set it apart from the much less heterogeneous Accademia del Disegno in Florence, not to mention the hegemony of bishops like Paleotti and the blind Paleotti, and other novel aspects that he aimed to match in the Accademia di San Luca that he founded in 1593. [34]. This conversazione was clearly the same as Maffeo’s biographer Nicoletti ( B.A.V. MS Barb. Lat. 4730-38 and see note 7 above) refers to, a free discussion outside of ecclesiastical boundaries. The membership seemed more free thinking than other academies and was certainly not just there to pay lip service to the Church, but to seek parallels with the ancients, who for some had equal authority. It was paradoxical because the Pope himself was anxious to stamp out any challenges to morality., and the new art presented many challenges. Maffeo Barberini, and Del Monte belonged to a new and more inquisitive generation., and the people Caravaggio met through Prospero Orsi realised that this ability to reproduce had more potential than merely decorative features from nature, the ‘grotesques’ for which Orsi was known, and the landscape idiom of colleagues like Tarquinio Ligustri that continued those of Roman decorators. If only because of the important role of the Crescenzi, prominent Insensati, the role of these enthusiasts in the development of a new genre of still-life painting must be revisited, they had seen the paintings from nature that Caravaggio had done. This generation can be characterised by the ‘shock of the new’., which was close to the ‘meraviglia’ of Giambattista Marino. In this cultivation of novelty, it was also possible to make imitations, which is why the artist himself was jealous of his new genre, and owners of Caravaggio originals were so proprietorial, as they realised that imitation or copying dispelled the magic of first sight. If even for Vincenzo Giustiniani these suggestive pastoral paintings had overtones of the humor peccante [35] that was associated with this Platonic taste, which in modern times has been labelled as ‘Homoerotic’ we can comprehend why the pictures themselves that had been painted for a disgraced sexual abuser, were secured (by way of suppression) for Pietro Aldobrandini following the removal [36] of Mgr Fantino Petrignani from the high position in the Church, to which he had appointed him as President of Romagna, and put away for a lifetime. The humor peccante was also an expression of vanity for Giustiniani, who apologised for it [37] when talking, later in life, about his collection. 21). Genio Borghese, Paris, Louvre Thissame sinning tendency was what Fabio Biondi, Patriarch of Jerusalem, attributed to Cardinal Del Monte, when he desperately tried to secure for himself the Winged Cupid (21) that had been found in Biondi’s garden on the Quirinal [38], a statue that, restored by Silla Longhi [39] under the Cardinal’s watchful eye, became the gay icon that is the Genio Borghese now in the Louvre [40] . The restoration of this piece, undertaken by Longhi, a cousin of Caravaggio’s friend Onorio, was evidently the context of the various Cupids and the Angel that Caravaggio painted at this early period in Rome. The wings (22) that he used when he painted the Victorious Cupid are the same as those used to model the (missing) wings of the marble, and were those applied to the Angel in the Flight into Egypt (23) those folded under the Sleeping Cupid, and those of the Victorious Cupid now in Berlin. 22) Pair of goose wings 23). Caravaggio, Rest on the Flight, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Detail of Angel The discovery of the ‘Greek’ marble (in 1594) had been one of the most exciting finds in Rome, and it was made by Petrignani’s friend Biondi in what had been the Baths of Constantine. He hung on to the discovery while the experts debated how to reconstruct it. (25) Genio seen from behind It may well be that Caravaggio made it possible, with the real wings to model from, to design their anatomical attachment to the body, and of missing parts like the penis, judging from the artistic solutions adopted in the reconstruction. 25) . Genio Borghese, Paris Louvre (seen from back) 24) The Amore Alato, as it was found in Fabio Biondi’s garden on the Quirinal Above all it was the classical precedent for the sensuous, androgynous form of the musicking angel in the Flight into Egypt, painted as we know from Mancini, in Palazzo Petrignani.The Biondi Winged Cupid would be considered on a par with the Apollo Belvedere, and the paintings it inspired gave an idea of what was thought to be an erotic trip from the classical world. (Caravaggio, Shepherd Corydon. The Genio Borghese, (26) Paris, Louvre) Because the original marble was only the trunk and head, this was essentially a creative invention reflecting the passions of these enthusiasts. 26). Genio Borghese, Paris, Louvre We have to account for the occurrence of this kind of of subject with an artist who was so attached to painting from life, it was this discovery of a classical counterpart of the erotic fantasies that the Insensati had, that formed the inspiration for Caravaggio’s group of ‘homoerotic’ pictures. It is simply not realistic to think that the artist even had the means for the materials to create these pictures ‘per vendere’, to try to sell. Del Monte’s letter to Biondi pleading for the gift of the Cupid is dated 8 May 1596 [41] so this was very much on his mind as he sent Prospero Orsi off to find the artist in the streets of Rome. The marble matched the Platonic ideals of the Insensati and was exactly what they were looking for. Giustiniani too felt a regret about his humor peccante and this resulted in altering the arrangement of the classical statues in the Gallery he had set up. Marchese Vincenzo’s original intention was for the visitor to enter and view the classical collection, in serried ranks in the large Galleria, where the Caprone , (27) a magnificent 1st century AD Roman marble of a goat, was the first sculpture that visitors saw, and if this emphasis on the sexual nature of this piece was not enough, as a reference to the fun and games had by the ancients, it was surrounded by a sculpture of a Bacchante on one side, and Leda and the Swan on the other. 27) Caprone, Ist century AD, Torlonia Collec7on, Rome 28). Caprone, detail of head (aYributed to Gianlorenzo Bernini) This Caprone marble of a billy goat, a Roman piece of the 1st century AD, had also presented a superb opportunity for restoration, as it was missing the head, (28) which it is said was created for the Marchese by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. at the outset of his career. There was no mistaking the significance of the choice, and this was using the animal as a basic symbol, much as he could have used a snake or an owl, or indeed a lamb, to convey a different nature and meaning. From the imprese of the Accademia degli Insensati, [42], we read how much importance members attached to the nature of the animal they adopted as their emblem, and ingeniously matched their own qualities in the mythical characteristics they shared with it. Vincenzo Giustiniani had not embraced the Church (as opposed to his brother Benedetto) for his role was to raise a family, and he in fact removed the series of large (three meters high) Caravaggesque religious paintings, illustrating scenes from the gospels (done like Caravaggio ‘from life’) , from the walls of the Galleria (a space measuring seventeen by seven metres) that his brother had commissioned from the main successors to Caravaggio, artists like Honthorst, Baburen and Terbrugghen [43] replacing them with classical statues. His own classical fantasy was the room in his Villa at Bassano Romano with episodes from the story of Diana the Huntress (by Bolognese painters like Domenichino, Viola and Albani, fitting for his hunting lodge in the Castelli Romani). He was a family man, with a passion for hunting, and not yet as taken with Caravaggio as later, when he inherited the collection formed mainly by his brother. But Vincenzo Giustiniani had a guilty conscience (see C. Strunck, loc. cit) in concentrating on the secular in the Classical world, for he had enjoyed the theatrical nature of the tour round his collection, ending finally with Caravaggio’s Victorious Cupid. His curator Joachim von Sandrart, however, had a more ordered view of the antiquities, giving them an historical sequence, and Caravaggio’s shocking masterpiece was concealed by his curator behind a modesty curtain, and the Caprone and its two foils were eventually not included in the lavish publication that he contributed to – the Galleria Giustiniani [44] – and the Caprone would eventually be acquired in the nineteenth century by Principe Alessandro Torlonia, (MT 441) and so it was recently included in the exhibition held of their family antiquities in the Capitoline Museums. 29) Caravaggio Shepherd Corydon, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Detail of heads Out of context, it is not immediately obvious that this superb example of a classical animal was completely identified with the human instincts of lust, which had of course also been the case with the Arcadian Shepherd Corydon (29) that Caravaggio had painted at Palazzo Petrignani, now at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj. It was always difficult to square this symbol of a Ram in this subject by Caravaggio with a Christian interpretation, as when Denis Mahon supposed the Capitoline replica [45] it to be of the young St John the Baptist. In fact Wilhelm von Ramdohr (1787) was not far off when he described the Doria painting as of ‘Lust and Innocence’ [46] as this coincides with the kind of musing present in the Boy bitten by a Lizard. This is equally an arresting observation of something really curious, a question about what the meaning is of an observed phenomenon. There was no suggestion that the boy who was so affectionate towards this emblem of male lust had anything to do with these country matters, nor was it proper to comment on why the artist had concentrated on the physical attraction of his shapely limbs, that as Scannelli said, could not appear more lifelike if it were to be real flesh and blood. These are ideas that do not seem party to the decisions of the Council of Trent, but are in tune with an Insensato philosophy of noting unexplained aspects of Nature. It was more aligned with the thinking of Giordano Bruno, who thought getting to know it – natura naturans – was the highest task man could accomplish. 30) Caravaggio, Shepherd Corydon, Capitoline Museums, Detail of Corydon and Goat. The Capitoline version of the original Corydon (30) was evidently done by the artist for Del Monte as soon as he recruited him, (Orsi will have asked his Insensato friends, among the philosophanti at Palazzo Madama) along with the second version of the Fortune Teller. The subject however remained problematic during the many years following Mahon’s ‘rediscovery’ in 1951. Roberto Longhi did not take part, perhaps because he was offended by the suggestion, made (according to him) by Berenson, that Caravaggio was gay. But in 1968 he finally published the Doria (original) as a copy [47] , but without referring to what was at the time considered the original, in the Capitoline Museums, perhaps because of the rivalries that existed between him and his younger colleague. One of the aspects about Caravaggio’s attitude is that he seems to do everything to satisfy the requirements of his patron, as long as these were in line with his accomplishing the commission according to the faithful reproduction of the model or object. The idea that he would have used another work, whether it was a painting or a sculpture, as a point of departure, was unimaginable [48], and his few statements that he made in this regard completely confirm his insistence. The ‘inventions’ of the years just after his arrival, as in later years when the mistakes of iconography are gradually corrected (they still occurred) must have been the result of conversations with his clients, and these were frequently from among the Insensati. But it is interesting that there was not a ‘stylistic’ progress, his method of work was objective and so we do not register a skill that increases according to experience. And we do not have the impression that the artist was well versed in Catholic dogma; just as he arrived in Rome without any sponsorship let alone that of the Church; Susinno reports his reaction on being invited to take confession, has him reply tutti i miei peccati sono mortali – all my sins are mortal ones. The extension of Caravaggio’s extraordinary ability representing fruit and flowers, evidently prepared for decorative purposes, to meaning in the imagery he adopted, must certainly be the result of his association with the Neo Platonic philosophy of the Academy whose members he met through Orsi, Maffeo Barberini, Giuseppe Cesari, Ottaviano Mascherino, and lets face it, Fantino Petrignani. (Sleeping Cupid, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Clowes Foundation) And as this was consistently a pattern of collaboration with patrons, we have to look for a variety of sources of inspiration. But his technique of reproducing what was effectively a ‘mosaic of reality’ was complete, and perfect, from the start. Because of the secular interests of many of these individuals it is noticeable that the subjects he was painting had little to do with the heroes of the Church, and he did not enjoy any ecclesiastical patronage. And when he did introduce a scene from a biblical text, like the Supper at Emmaus (National Gallery) his inexperience with the subject meant that he showed Christ as beardless, as Bellori later noted, and introduced other inappropriate features. But he could not resist framing the scene with his virtuoso still-life, which is one of the glories of this representation of the passage from the Bible. One of the Insensati most impressed with Caravaggio’s paintings was the poet Gaspare Murtola (Genoa, c. 1570 – Rome, 1624). This time frame suggests that he did not originate the imagery that dominates this taste, for he joined the Academy, in Perugia, only in 1598, but he obviously was a convert and convinced supporter of this aesthetic. He devoted four madrigals to the theme of the Sleeping Cupid, where he avoided describing actual paintings but clearly was also prompted by the other examples of this taste that he knew. It found a fertile territory in Florence, where there was a group of nobili ingegni who were keen on il pargoletto e vago Giulietto that Murtola celebrated, the Sleeping Cupid, in the possession of Cavaliere Francesco d’Antella, who was ‘animatore di un’allegra brigata di nobili scri4ori, i Pastori Antellesi, i quali volevano far rivivere l’Arcadia, ricercando la vita pastorale, declamando versi e facendo cerimonie’[49]. Caravaggio, Sleeping Cupid , Clowes Fund Collec7on , Indianapolis Museum of Art hey included, around the turn of the century, Maffeo Barberini and Michelangelo Buonarotti il giovane.[50] But the work that they salivated over cannot be the original [51], which dated from before Murtola’s madrigals (1603/04) , and belonged with the group of ‘gay’ paintings that Caravaggio had done when he first encountered the Insensati. The picture the Pastori Antellesi made a song and dance about was in reality only a version of Caravaggio’s original, but this only shows how his realism was so compelling that even a copy could be just as effective as the original. The version in Indianapolis seems to be good, but these paintings were ever subject to censure and an original may have been suppressed, as seems to be the case with the Castigo di Marte (that Manfredi imitated in 1613 in the picture now in Chicago). The Insensati were thought of as Platonists, and so suspect, as amor platonicus was often a synonym for amor socraticus that stood for the interest Socrates had for young men. So there are no literary articulations of the original subjects that Caravaggio produced, and they were later frequently assigned different titles, as he was always regarded in sospetto d’eresia. The laws against homosexuality were characterised by being sidestepped rather than with a continuation of the enthusiastic prohibition by the ascetic Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) which was actually followed by the abolition of the Office of the Night (1502) [52] and their morality police. The official view of sex was that it was for procreation, so was never a subject taken lightly, but the willing co-operation of young boys was a substitute that was adopted by a wide section of society, and although viewed as contra naturam, in fact involved mainly the service of young boys who ceased the habit as they became of age, around 18/20. This was the fertile territory that led to the titillating imagery that the audience found Caravaggio for. Whether this was all for the notorious offender Mgr Fantino Petrignani or for a broader selection of those who participated in the humor peccante, it was a phase of Caravaggio’s activity that produced a series of surprising masterpieces. It would be useful to look at Murtola’s language for the hidden references Jean Toscan saw in this line of poetry [53]. Murtola was unabashed in praising ‘il pargoletto, e vago Giulietto … che in dolci forme languidetto dorme’ and in Florence there was a well-established culture for this practice. The analysis from the legal records of the Florentine Office of the Night shows that sodomy was a widespread practice not only for birth control, but an accepted behaviour exploiting a willing prepubescent profession, of boys, from a very young age to eighteen to twenty. It does seem that some of the pictures were done deliberately for amateurs for whom [54] l’amor maschio è fanciullo (male love is with boys) and although this seems a distant consideration in the august world of ekphrasis[55], even Pope Julius III (1550-1555) shared his bed with his toy boy, and evidently Fantino Petrignani, who gave Caravaggio the use of a studio in his vast palazzo as it was being built, was such a nuisance – me-too- that he was cancelled by his successor Clement VIII, and lost the expected advancement to a Cardinal’s hat. It was a social norm and classical texts – and sculptures – were also seen as confirming the behaviour, despite official disapproval. We should not be continuing to censor, for the process of articulating what was the temptation that most affected his patrons is a fascinating illustration of his willingness to accommodate the patrons’s demands and he had an obliging child servitore, young Mario Minniti, who was his model. But it is the sequence of Caravaggio’s working progress that was the principal casualty of Mahon’s mistake, giving the idea that this genius was able to return to previous successes at any moment in his short career. The Insensati were there for him at the beginning and saw the potential of his work and his unusual perception, at first illustrating ideas from their literary experience and their curiosity for natural phenomena. It does seem as though these people, thought of as Platonists, also encouraged him to paint the most engaging images of young boys whose charms they admired. t was a metamorphosis that saw him pass from being a suspected heretic to being in odore di santità, revered (in modern times) like a saint. Fortunately unlike Giordano Bruno he was not burnt in the Campo dei Fiori. These were astonishing pictures, some too ‘hot’ to last for ever, but they formed the basis of his fame among the poets and intellectuals of his time. We should resist the temptation to view them according to prejudices that have come to prevail in modern times (or those from the past) but take a closer look at the interest his friends had for nature, because they were reaching out for a scientific understanding just as ‘modern’ as the objective observation that was the trademark of Caravaggio’s art. Clovis WHITFIELD Umbria 17 Settembre 2023 Notes [1] l. Teza, Il Libro delle Imprese dell’ Accademia degli Insensa0 Roma, 2018. L. Sacchini.’Verso le virtù celesF, la leGerata conversazione dell’ Accademia degli InsensaF di Perugia, Durham University thesis, 2013, and idem, ‘ScriN inediF dell’ Accademia degli InsensaF nella Perugia del secondo Cinquecento, Le4ere italiane, 2013. [3] C. WhiRield hGps://www.aboutartonline.com/per-mario-minniF-the-model-of-caravaggio-a-repeatedappearance-but-sFll-liGle-studied-original-english-text/, July 9 2023) [4] L, Sacchini, loc. cit, 2013, p. 107 [2] [5] see H. Langdon, from a passage published by C. d’Onofrio, in Roma vista da Roma, Rome 1967, p. 56-58 (in Caravaggio, A Life, 1998, p. 195) [6] See Z. Wazbinski, Il Cardinale Francesco Maria Del Monte,,Firenze, 1994, p. 159, n. 75, This involved 3,000 from the Curia and twenty-five thousand soldiers. . [7] Francis W. Gravit, “The Accademia degli UmorisF and Its French RelaFonships,” Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and LeGers 20 (1935): 505–21 [8] C. WhiRield ‘AutomaFc Drawing, Valori TaNli, 00, 2011, p. 35-47 [9] Michele Frazzi hGps://www.aboutartonline.com/laccademia-degli-humorisF-una-illustre-isFtuzione-nellaroma-del-600-con-numerosi-sodali-di-caravaggio/ [10] G. Baglione, Vite dei pi4ori, Rome 1642, p. 364/5 [11] C. WhiRield hGps://www.aboutartonline.com/dal-verisimile-a-il-vero-come-la-tecnica-reale-di-caravaggioabbia-cambiato-la-percezione-di-tuGo-original-text-and-italian-translaFon-by-c-lollobrigida/ [12] F. Bologna, L’Incredulità di Caravaggio, 2006, p. 386. No menFon of the InsensaF. [13] L. Teza, Il libro delle imprese dell’ Accademia degli Insensa0, Roma, 2020, p. 10 [14] Sydney J Freedberg, PainFng in Italy, 1500-1600, p. 306, L. Salerno, ‘Poesia e simboli nel Caravaggio, i temi religiosi,’ in Pala0no, X 1966, p. 108 f. [15] C. WhiRield, Caravaggio’s Pain0ngs of Fruit and Flowers, Aboutartoniine 2022, and Academia.edu. These painFngs are described in the Altemps Inventories as by Caravaggio, and were probably from the aborted decoraFons of Palazzo Petrignani. Un quadro d-un pastore che sona un flauto Un quadreGo di p.m 3 1/2 di fiori e fruN Un quadro di fruN del Caravaggio dov’è la caraffa Un contadino del Caravaggio e una tavola di fruN Doi quadri de fruN uno del Caravaggio e l’altro di Bartolomeo Un quadro con diversi fruN del medesimo (Caravaggio). Un quadro con fruN e fiori dipinF del Caravaggio Un quadro de fruN del Caravaggio dov’è la caraffa. Many of these painFngs must have been rescued by Prospero Orsi when Petrignani was disgraced in 1596/97, and were held by him unFl he eventually offered them to Duke Altemps in 1611/13. [16] His Fme was up, he had been one of those favoured by Gregorio XIII but this patronage was over. This was also the Fme when Federico Borromeo managed to acquire the Basket of Fruit. [17] G. Mancini, Considerazioni, I., p. 226/27, annotaFon in margin f. 59-61 ‘Fece ritraN per Barbarino’ This reference is the only contemporary suggesFon that Caravaggio did a ‘portrait’ of Maffeo, and was probably the source of Bellori’s later reference (1672). [18] L. Teza, ‘L’Accademia degli InsensaF e l’universo naturalisFco dei Della Corgna’, in Caravaggio e i le4era0, ed S. Ebert-Schifferer, Laura Teza, [2018] Rome 2020 [19] E Mandowska, ‘Ricerche intorno alla Iconologia di Cesare Ripa, La Bibliofilia v. 41 Marzo 1939 p. 112/114. [20] See L. Teza, ‘The Impresa of Federico Zuccari and the Accademia degli InsensaF of Perugia’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Ins0tutes, Vol. 80 (2017). p. 127-159. [21] Vite, 1672, p. 202: ‘Perciò elli non traccia un solo traGo senza star dietro alla natura, e questa copia dipingendo (Van Mander) [22] G.P. Bellori, Vite dei piGori, 1672 p. 205, but Virgilio died in 1592. See M. Pupillo, Intrecci virtuosi, alla ricerca dell’ Accademia dei Crescenzi, in C. Chiummo, A Geremia, P. Tosini, Le4era0 ar0s0 e accademie tra Cinque e Seicento, Roma, 2017 [23] For a list of the portraits, , see E. Negro, N. Roio, Caravaggio e il ritra4o, Roma 2017, p. 1-37-141 This is also the Fme when OGavio Leoni developed a system of taking an opFcal likeness of his siGers, see C. WhiRield . [24] . M Frazzi, hGps://www.aboutartonline.com/laccademia-degli-insensaF-e-gli-inizi-del-giovane-caravaggioa-roma-il-milieu-culturale-e-sociale-di-una-rivoluzione-arFsFca/, July 2020 [25] L. Salerno, ‘Poesia e simboli nel Caravaggio, I dipinF emblemaFci, Pala0no, 10, 1966, p. 106- 112. On the invenFon, see E. Fumagalli, ‘Precoci citazioni di opere del Caravaggio in alcuni documenF inediF’ in. Come dipingeva Caravaggio. AN della giornata di studi, Milano, 1996, p. 151-153 [26] [27] Giacomo Berra, Il ragazzo morso dal ramarro del Caravaggio, l’enigma di un morso improvviso, San Casciano in Val di Pesa, 2016 [28] L. Teza, Il libro delle imprese dell’Accademia degli Insensa0, RitraN figura0 e parlan0 Roma, 2018. Plate 10.& p. 142-145. In 1601 Maffeo was posted to Paris. [29] See M. Frazzi , ‘L’Accademia degli HumorisF, una illustre isFtuzione nella Roma del Seicento con numerosi sodali del Caravaggio, Aboutartonline,luglio 2020 [30] Dicerie sacre, Torino, 1614, p. 20/21. L. Teza, Il Libro delle imprese…, scheda 10, e p. 142-148 [32] See: InueNua del Sommerso Insensato a gli Academici InsensaF di Perugia. Recitata per dimostrare che non sia bene lo stampar le composiFoni academiche. SoGo il felice princip. dell’ill. sig. Cesare CrispolF (1597). [33] M. Frazzi, ibidem 2020 [31] [34] . M.M. Ortega, ‘Federico Zuccari e la sua scuola in Umbria’, in BolleNno della deputazione di storia patria per l’Umbria, CXI (2014) fasc. 1-2, p. 788-91. [35] C. Strunck, ‘L’humor peccante’ di Vincenzo GiusFniani, L’innovaFva presentazione dell’ AnFco nelle due Gallerie di Palazzo GiusFniani a Roma (c, 1630-1830)’ , in exh. cat. Caravaggio e i Gius0niani, Rome/ Berlin, 2001, p. 105-114. [36] At the same Fme as he was composing the leGer (dated April 4 1597) dismissing FanFno, so terminaFng his path towards a Cardinal’s hat, he made Maffeo Barberini Chierico di Camera, so puNng him on this path instead. [37] G. Algeri, Le Incisioni della Galleria GiusFniani, in Xenia, 9, 1985 quoFng the Marchese’s words from a leGer of early 1637 to Camillo Massimi, p. 87, [38] Yves Loskoutoff, ‘The Cupid Affair, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte as a Collector of AnFquiFes’, Journal of the History of Collec0ons, vol. 25, No. 1., 2013, p. 19-27 [39] Silla Longhi, the sculptor and anFquarian restorer, was uniquely qualified for this important and creaFve task; he came from the workshop of Guglielmo della Porta (died 1577) he had recently restored the most important ‘Greek’ statues in Rome, the Dioscuri on the Quirinal, was himself one of the Virtuosi al Pantheon, and had the most important roles in the Università dei Marmorai and the Compagnia dei Ss QuaGro CoronaF. [40] hGps://www.aboutartonline.com/from-caravaggio-to-petrignani-for-a-correct-reading-of-an-employmentrelaFonship-original-english-text-n-authors-translaFon/ See also exh. catalogue, I Borghese e lì an0co, ed. Anna Coliva, Galleria Borghese, Rome, 2011/12, Cat. no. 37 [41] [42] Loskoutoff, loc. cit., p. 26, note 41. L. Teza, Il libro delle imprese dell’Accademia degli Insensa0, Rome 2018 [43] See C. WhiRield, hGps://news-art.it/news/hendrick-ter-brugghen-e-benedeGo-giusFniani–una-nuovatr.htm [44] The Galleria GiusFniani dates from 1631, from the Ftle page with Vincenzo’s engraved portrait) but it was sFll in producFon in 1636. [45] D. Mahon, ‘Contrasts in Art-Historical Methods, Two recent approaches to Caravaggio, in Burlington Magazine, XCV no. 603, 1953, p. 212-220 [46] . Friedrich Wilhelm Basilius von Ramdohr, Ueber Mahlerei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom (“On Pain0ng and Architecture in Rome”, 3 volumes, Leipzig, 1787), I, p 265 [47] R. Longhi, Caravaggio, Rome/Dresden, 1968,, 1999 Studi Caravaggeschi, p. 265, Fig 213. Longhi maintained that the figure was based on one of the Nudi in Michelangelo’s SisFne ceiling, but this is just a chance (parFal coincidence of pose) Caravaggio was not doing this kind of scouFng. [48] So visits to the SisFne Chapel, or recollecFons of Peterzano’s drawings, are out of place for Caravaggio. M. Caprini, I dell’Antella, Cinquecento anni di storia di una grande famiglia fioren0na Sec. XII- XVII, Firenze, 2000. [49] [50] J. Cole, ‘Se di fuori è dorata, dentro è d’oro, Maffeo Barberini, Michelangelo BuonaroGF il Giovane e Galileo, in Belfagor, v. 60, No. 1, (31 January 2005,) p. 1-26. [51] Since Murtola had celebrated it in 1603/04, it was an earlier work, and he would have been unable to replicate it in Malta, as is claimed by the 1608 inscripFon on the back. The Indianapolis version should be taken more seriously, but these painFngs though much admired were liable to replicaFon but also condemnaFon and even destrucFon. Although Caravaggio was perfectly capable of repeaFng a subject, as with the Boy bi4en by a Lizard, he needed the original to replicate [52] . M. Rocke, Forbidden Friendships, Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence, Oxford, 1996. [53] J. Toscan, Le Carnaval du langage: Le lexique éro0que des poètes de I’équivoque de Burchiello à Marino (XVXVII siecle (Lille, 1981) [54] See M. Rocke, op. cit.. p- 94/95 For an hallowed account, with the previous literature, see G. CaprioN, ‘Dall’ekphrasis all’ interpretazione dell’ immagine, Gaspare Murtola, Giovanni BaNsta Marino e i dipinF mitologici di Caravaggio’, 2019, Academia.edu [55]