_Botticelli_ (Florentine: 1447-1510). _See 1034._
_See also_ (p. xx)
A picture with an interesting history. It was painted by
Botticelli[217] when he was a young man, for Matteo Palmieri (a
prominent Florentine citizen). This Matteo and his wife are here
represented on either side of the tomb in the foreground. The patron
assisted Botticelli in working out the design; and between them
they made some modifications in theology, which brought them into
trouble--so early did Sandro's reforming work begin. The story is thus
told, and the picture described, by Vasari:--
"In the church of San Pietro (Florence) the master painted
a picture for Matteo Palmieri with a very large number
of figures. The subject of this work, which is near the
side-door, is the Assumption of Our Lady, and the zones or
circles of heaven are there painted in their order. The
Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Evangelists, the
Martyrs, the Confessors, the Doctors, the Virgins, and the
Hierarchies; all which was executed by Sandro according to
the design furnished to him by Matteo, who was a very learned
and able man. The whole work was conducted and finished with
the most admirable skill and care; at the foot of it was
the portrait of Matteo kneeling, with that of his wife. But
although the picture is exceedingly beautiful and ought to have
put envy to shame, yet there were found certain malevolent
and censorious persons who, not being able to affix any other
blame to the work, declared that Matteo and Sandro had erred
gravely in that matter, and had fallen into grievous heresy.
Now, whether this be true or not, let none expect the judgment
of that question from me; it shall suffice me to note that the
figures executed by Sandro in that work are entirely worthy of
praise, and that the pains he took in depicting those circles
of the heavens must have been very great, to say nothing of
the angels mingled with the other figures, or of the various
foreshortenings, all which are designed in a very good manner"
(ii. 233).
Matteo Palmieri was the author of a poem called "The City of
Life,"[218] in which he adopted Origen's thesis that the human race
was an incarnation of those angels who in the revolt of Lucifer were
neither for God nor for his enemies, and explained how the soul of
man could work its way back through the spheres to the very seat
of deity. This "heresy" interprets (says Mr. Pater) much of the
peculiar sentiment with which Botticelli infuses his profane and
sacred persons,--neither all human, nor all divine (see above under
275). It was ingeniously suggested, as we shall see, in this picture,
and was entirely in accord with those "Neo-Platonic" ideas in which
Botticelli, as a member of the Medici circle, was well versed. Matteo
seems to have been afraid that his poem might bring him into trouble
owing to its heretical views on the nature of angels, for he presented
his MS. to the Art of the Notaries in Florence, sealed and under the
express condition that it should not be opened, "so long as he lived
imprisoned in this body." He died in 1478, and his poem fell under the
expected censure. Botticelli's picture, as Vasari says, shared this
fate. The painting bears evidence of intentional injury, the faces
of the donor and his wife having been scored through; nor did some
of the apostles escape the wrath of these iconoclasts. Attempts at
restoration were made at some subsequent period. As the portrait of a
heretic might not be exhibited in a Roman Catholic church, the picture
was covered up, and the chapel in which it stood was closed to public
worship. Ultimately the book was declared innocuous, and the chapel was
re-opened. The picture, however, had already been, or was afterwards,
removed from the family chapel of the Palmieri to their villa. On
the death of the last heir, it passed into the hands of a Florentine
dealer who sold it to the 11th Duke of Hamilton. At the disposal of the
Hamilton Collection in 1882 it was bought for the National Gallery.
The picture was doubtless designed as an illustration of the closing
canto of "The City of Life," in which Matteo supposes himself
conducted by the Cumæan Sibyl through the Elysian Fields to Heaven.
The ostensible subject is the Assumption into Heaven of the Virgin.
On earth the apostles are represented gathered around the Virgin's
tomb, from which "annunciation lilies" are growing; while she is in
heaven kneeling in adoration before the Saviour, who has an open
book inscribed with the mystic letters Α and Ω: "I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end." Around the Virgin and Christ are
all the hierarchies of heaven, arranged, according to the scheme of
the theologians, in three separate tiers. Nearest to Christ are the
seraphs (red), cherubs (blue), and thrones (gold); these are conceived
as absorbed in perpetual love and adoration round the throne of God,
and are represented therefore as with heads only (the attribute of
spirit) and wings ("swift as thought"). In relation with mankind come
the remaining orders--the dominations, virtues, powers (these last
with sceptres in their hands), and in the lowest of the three, tiers,
archangels, princedoms, and angels (with their wands). "The black vases
with golden borders in the hands of some of the angels are probably
meant for the 'golden vials full of the wrath of God' (Revelations
xv. 7). Near them there are other angels, who in the attitude of
expectation point upward with their sticks; while those in the lowest
circle point down, and at the same time seem to invite those who hold
vials to pour them out upon the city of Florence" (Richter's _Italian
Art in the National Gallery_, p. 28). Everywhere amongst the angelic
host are the blessed dead, and it is here that the views of Matteo's
poem found expression. We have seen in Botticelli's "Nativity" (1034)
the same intercourse of men and angels, with reference there to the
reconciling power of the "Logos." Among the cherubs, we may decipher
St. James with the pilgrim staff, St. Andrew with his cross, St.
Peter with the key, and St. Mary Magdalen with the casket. It is
interesting to note Botticelli's estimate of degrees in the scale
of spiritual excellence. For instance, St. Catherine of Siena is in
the lowest ring among the Angels, but St. Bernard is in the third
with Principalities; Moses is among Powers, so are St. Lawrence, St.
Stephen, and St. Catherine of Alexandria; Virtues hold St. Bonaventura,
St. Dominic, and St. Paul; St. Francis with the Evangelists is higher,
in Dominations; in the highest _Triplicitie_, as Spenser puts it, there
are men--including the Baptist--mingled with the Cherubim. The angels
are represented throughout as ministering spirits; and nothing in the
picture is prettier than the way in which the angels are calling upon
the saints to "enter into the joy of their Lord"; note, for instance,
the white angel on the right in the lowest tier, and the saint in black
and red. She will teach to him
The songs I sing here; which his voice
Shall pause in, hushed and slow,
And find some knowledge at each pause,
Or some new thing to know.