shall make in the whole chamber, and we shall thus be able to
distinguish each part on every side, all the way round. Dividing it
into five sections, then, the first shall be the 'head'; and this I
presume to be next to the garden. The second, which must be that
opposite to the first, we shall call the 'foot'; the third, on the
right hand, we shall call the 'right'; the fourth, on the left hand,
the 'left'; and the fifth, situated in the midst of the others, shall
be named the 'centre.' Thus, distinguishing all the parts with these
names, we shall speak, for example, of the lunette at the head, the
facade at the foot, the concavity on the left, the horn on the right,
and so with any other part that it may be necessary to name; and to
the spandrels that are at the corners, each between two of these
boundaries, we shall give the name both of the one and of the other.
And thus, also, we shall determine on the pavement below the situation
of the bed, which, in my opinion, must be along the facade at the
foot, with the head turned to the left-hand facade.
"Now, all the parts having received a name, let us turn to give a form
to them all in general, and then to each by itself. First of all, the
concavity of the vaulting, or rather, the oval, shall be
represented--so the Cardinal has judiciously determined--as being all
heaven. The rest of the vaulting, comprising the four spandrels
together with the border that we have already mentioned as enclosing
the oval all around, shall be made to appear as the unbroken surface
within the chamber, and as resting upon the facades, with some
beautiful architectural design of your own devising. The four lunettes
I would have counterfeited as likewise concave; and, whereas the oval
above represents a heaven, these must represent heaven, earth, and
sea, as if without the chamber, in accordance with the various
figures and scenes that shall be there. And since, the vaulting being
very flat, the lunettes are so low that they will not hold any but
little figures, I would divide each lunette into three parts along its
length, and, leaving the ends in a line with the height of the
spandrels, I would deepen the centre part below that line, in such a
manner that it may be like a great high window and show the exterior
of the room, as it were, with figures and scenes proportionate in size
to the others. And the two extremities that remain on either side,
like horns to the lunette--and horns henceforward they will be
called--shall be left low, of the height that they are above that
line, and in each of them must be painted a figure seated or
recumbent, and seeming to be either within or without the room,
whichever you please, for you must choose what looks best; and what I
say of one lunette I say of all four.
"To return to the interior of the chamber as a whole, it appears to me
that it should be in itself all in darkness, save in so far as the
concavities both of the oval above and of the large windows at the
sides may give it a certain degree of light, partly from the heaven,
with its celestial lights, and partly from the earth with fires that
must be painted there, as will be described later. At the same time,
from the centre of the room to the lower end, I would have it that the
nearer one may approach to the foot, where the Night is to be, the
greater shall be the darkness, and that in like manner in the other
half, from the centre to the upper end, in proportion as one
approaches step by step to the head, where Aurora is to be, it shall
grow continually lighter.
"Having thus disposed of the chamber as a whole, let us proceed to
distribute the subjects, giving to each part its own. In the oval that
is in the vaulting, you must paint at the head, as we have said, a
figure of Aurora. This figure, I find, may be made in several ways,
but of all these I shall choose that which in my opinion can be done
with the greatest grace in painting. You must paint, then, a maiden of
such beauty as the poets strive to express with words, composing her
of roses, gold, purple, dew, and other suchlike graces; and so much
for the colours and flesh-tints of her person. As for her dress,
composing out of many one that appears most suitable, we must reflect
that, even as she has three stages and three distinct colours, so she
has three names--Alba, Vermiglia, and Rancia;[23] and for this reason
I would make her down to the girdle a garment delicate in texture, as
it were transparent, and white; from the girdle down to the knees an
outer garment of scarlet, with certain pinkings and tassels in
imitation of the reflections seen on the clouds when she is vermilion,
and from the knees down to the feet of the colour of gold, in order to
represent her when she is orange, taking heed that this dress must be
slit from the thighs downwards, in order to show the bare legs; and
both the under garment and the outer must be blown by the wind, so as
to flutter in folds. The arms, also, must be naked and of a rosy
flesh-tint; on the shoulders you must make her wings of various
colours, and on the head a crown of roses; and in her hands you must
place a lamp or a lighted torch, or rather, there must go before her a
Cupid who is carrying a torch, and after her another who with another
torch awakens Tithonus. She must be seated on a gilded throne in a
chariot likewise gilded, drawn by a winged Pegasus or by two horses,
for she is depicted both in the one way and in the other. As for the
colours of the horses, one must be shining white and the other shining
red, in order to denote them according to the names that Homer gives
them of Lampus and Phaethon. You must make her rising from a tranquil
sea, which should appear rippled, luminous, and glancing. On the wall
behind, upon the right-hand horn, you must paint her husband Tithonus,
and on the left her lover Cephalus. Tithonus should be an old man
white as snow, on an orange-coloured bed, or rather, in a cradle,
according to those who make him, on account of his great age, once
more a child; and he should be shown in the act of holding her back,
or gazing on her with amorous eyes, or sighing after her, as if her
departure grieved him. Cephalus must be a most beautiful young man
dressed in a doublet girt at the waist, with his buskins on his feet,
with the spear, which must have the iron head gilded, in his hand, and
with a dog at his side, in the act of entering into a wood, as if
caring nothing for her by reason of the love that he bears to his
Procris. Between Cephalus and Tithonus, in the space with the great
window, behind the Aurora, there must shoot upwards some few rays of
the sun, of a splendour more vivid than that of the Aurora; but these
must be cut off, so as not to be seen, by a large figure of a woman
who must appear before them. This woman shall be Vigilance, and she
must be so painted that it may appear that she is illumined from
behind by the rising sun, and that, in order to forestall him, she is
entering into the chamber by the great window that has been mentioned.
Let her form be that of a tall, valorous, and splendid woman, with the
eyes well open and the brows well arched; dressed down to the feet in
a transparent veil, which is girt at the waist; leaning with one hand
on a lance, and with the other gathering together a fold of her gown.
Let her stand firmly on the right foot, and, holding the left foot
suspended, appear from one side to be rooted to the ground, and from
the other to be ready to step out. Let her raise her head in order to
gaze at Aurora, and appear to be angry that she has risen before her;
and let her have on the head a helmet with a cock upon it, which shall
be in the act of beating its wings and crowing. All this must be
behind the Aurora; and in front of her, in the heaven of the concave
oval, I would make certain little figures of girls one behind another,
some more bright and some less bright, according as they are more or
less near to the light of the Aurora, in order to represent the Hours
which go before her and the sun. These Hours shall be painted with the
vestments, garlands, and headdresses of virgins, and winged, with the
hands full of flowers, as if they were scattering these about.
[Footnote 23: White, vermilion, and orange.]
"On the opposite side, at the foot of the oval, there shall be Night,
and even as Aurora is rising, Night shall be sinking; as the one shows
her front, the other shall turn her back; as the first is issuing from
a tranquil sea, the second shall be plunging into a sea that is
troubled and dark; the horses of the first come with the breast
forward, those of the second shall show their croups; and so, also,
the person of Night shall be altogether different from that of Aurora.
Her flesh-tint shall be dark, dark her mantle, dark her hair, and dark
her wings; and these shall be open, as if she were flying. She shall
hold her hands on high, and in one a white babe that is sleeping, to
represent Sleep, and in the other a black babe that appears to be
sleeping, to represent Death; for of both these she is said to be the
mother. She shall appear to be sinking with the head downwards and
wrapped in thicker shadow, and the heaven about her shall be of a
deeper blue and dotted with many stars. Her car shall be of bronze,
with the wheels divided into four spaces, to denote her four watches.
Then, on the facade opposite (namely, at the foot), even as Aurora has
on either side Tithonus and Cephalus, Night shall have Oceanus and
Atlas. Oceanus shall be painted on the right, a great figure of a man
with the beard and hair dripping and dishevelled, and both from the
beard and from the hair there shall issue here and there some heads of
dolphins. He shall be depicted as resting on a car drawn by whales,
with the Tritons all around in front of him, with their trumpets, and
also the Nymphs, and behind him some beasts of the sea; or, if not
with all these things, at least with some of them, according to the
space that you will have, which to me appears little for so much
matter. For Atlas, on the left hand, there shall be painted a mountain
with the breast, arms, and all the upper parts of a robust man,
bearded and muscular, in the act of upholding the heavens, as his
figure is generally shown. Lower down, likewise, over against the
Vigilance that we have placed opposite to Aurora, there should be
placed a figure of Sleep; but, since it appears to me better, for
several reasons, that Sleep should be over the bed, we must place in
his stead a figure of Repose. As for this Repose, I find, indeed, that
she was worshipped, and that temples were dedicated to her; but I can
by no means find how she was figured, unless her figure was that of
Security, which I do not believe, because security is a thing of the
mind and repose of the body. We must therefore figure a Repose of our
own devising, in this manner: a young maiden of pleasing aspect, who,
being weary, yet does not lie down, but sleeps seated with the head
resting on the left arm. She shall have a spear with the head lying
against her shoulder and the foot fixed in the ground, and shall let
one arm hang limply down it, and have one leg crossed over it, in the
attitude of resting for the restoration of her strength, and not from
indolence. She shall have a crown of poppies, and a sceptre laid on
one side, but not so far distant that she cannot readily take it up
again; and whereas Vigilance has upon her head a cock crowing, so to
her we may give a sitting hen, in order to signify that even when
resting she is active.
"Within the same oval, on the right hand, you shall paint a Moon. Her
figure shall be that of a maiden of about eighteen years, tall and
virginal in aspect, after the likeness of Apollo, with long tresses,
thick and somewhat waved, or wearing on the head one of those caps
that are called Phrygian, wide at the foot and pointed and twisted at
the top, like the Doge's hat, with two wings over the brow that must
hang down and cover the ears, and with two little horns jutting from
the head, as of the crescent moon; or, after Apuleius, with a flat
disk, polished and shining in the manner of a mirror, on the centre of
the brow, which must have on either side of it some serpents and over
it some few ears of corn, and on the head a crown of dittany, after
the Greeks, or of various flowers, after Marcian, or of helichrysum,
after certain others. Her dress some would have reaching down to the
feet, others only to the knees, girt under the breasts and crossed
below the navel after the fashion of a nymph, with a little mantle on
the shoulder clasped over the muscle on the right side, and on the
feet buskins wrought in a pleasing pattern. Pausanias, alluding, I
believe, to Diana, makes her dressed in deerskin; Apuleius, taking her
perchance for Isis, gives her a vestment of the finest veiling in
various colours, white, yellow, and red, and another garment all
black, but bright and shining, dotted with many stars and with a moon
in the centre, and all around it a border with ornaments of fruits and
flowers hanging down after the manner of tassels. Of these vestments,
take whichever looks best. The arms you must make bare, with the
sleeves broad; with the right hand she must hold a lighted torch, and
with the left an unbent bow, which, according to Claudian, is of horn,
and, according to Ovid, of gold. Make it as seems best to you, and
attach the quiver to her shoulders. She is found in Pausanias with two
serpents in the left hand, and in Apuleius she has a gilded vase with
a serpent as a handle, which appears as if swollen with poison, the
foot of the vase being adorned with palm leaves; but by this I believe
that he means to indicate Isis, and I have therefore resolved that you
shall represent her with the bow, as described above. She shall ride
on a car drawn by horses, one black and the other white, or, if you
desire variety, by a mule, after Festus Pompeius, or by bullocks,
after Claudian and Ausonius; and if you choose bullocks, they must
have the horns very small and a white patch on the right flank. The
attitude of the Moon must be that of looking down from the heaven in
the oval towards the horn of the facade that looks out over the
garden, where you must place her lover Endymion, and she shall lean
down from the car to kiss him, and, not being able by reason of the
interposition of the border, she shall gaze lovingly upon him and
illumine him with her radiance. For Endymion you must make a beautiful
young shepherd, asleep at the foot of Mount Latmus. In the horn on the
other side there shall be Pan, the God of Shepherds, who was enamoured
of the Moon; his figure is very well known. Round his neck place his
pipes, and with both hands he shall hold out towards the Moon a skein
of white wool, with which he is fabled to have won her love; and with
that present he must appear to be persuading her to come down to live
with him. In the rest of the space of the same great window you must
paint a scene, and that shall be the scene of the sacrifices to the
Lemures, which men used to hold at night in order to drive evil
spirits from their houses. The ritual of these sacrifices was to go
about, with the hands washed and the feet bare, scattering black
beans; first rolling them about in the mouth, and then throwing them
over the shoulder; and among the company were some who made a noise by
sounding basins and suchlike instruments of copper.
"On the left side of the oval you must paint Mercury in the ordinary
manner, with the little winged cap, with the winged sandals on the
feet, with the Caduceus in the left hand, and with the purse in the
right; altogether nude, save for his little mantle on the shoulder; a
most beautiful youth, but with a natural beauty, without any artifice;
of a cheerful countenance, spirited eyes, beardless, or with the first
down, with reddish hair, and narrow in the shoulders. Some place wings
over his ears, and make certain golden feathers coming out of his
hair. The attitude you may make as you please, provided only that it
shows him gliding down from Heaven in order to infuse sleep, and,
turning towards the side of the bed, about to touch the tester with
his wand. On the left-hand facade, in the horn next to the facade at
the foot, we might have the Lares, his two sons, who were the tutelary
spirits of private houses; namely, two young men dressed in the skins
of dogs, with certain garments girt up and thrown over the left
shoulder in such a way that they may come out under the right, in
order to signify that they are unencumbered and ready to guard the
house. They shall sit one beside the other, each holding a spear in
the right hand, and between them, in the centre, there shall be a dog,
and above them a small head of Vulcan, wearing a little cap, with a
smith's pincers beside it. In the other horn, next to the facade at
the head, you must paint a Battus being converted into stone for
having revealed the cattle stolen by Mercury. Let him be an old
shepherd seated, showing with the forefinger of the right arm the
place where the cattle were hidden, and leaning with the left arm on a
stick or rod, the herdsman's staff; and from the waist downwards he
must be of black stone of the colour of basanite, into which stone he
was converted. Then in the rest of the great window you must paint the
scene of the sacrifice that the ancients used to offer to Mercury to
the end that their sleep might not be interrupted; and to represent
this it is necessary to make an altar with his statue upon it, at the
foot of that a fire, and all around persons who are throwing into it
pieces of wood for burning, and who, having in their hands cups full
of wine, are sprinkling part of the wine and drinking the rest.
"In the centre of the oval, in order to fill up all the space of the
heaven, I would paint Twilight, as being the mean between Aurora and
Night. To represent him, I find that one must paint a young man wholly
naked, sometimes with wings and sometimes without, and with two
lighted torches, one of which we must show being kindled at that of
Aurora, and the other held out towards Night. Some represent this
young man, with the same two torches, as riding on one of the horses
of the Sun or of Aurora, but this would not be a composition suitable
for our purpose; wherefore we shall make him as described above,
turned towards Night, and place behind him, between his legs, a great
star, which shall be that of Venus, because Venus, Phosphorus,
Hesperus, and Twilight seem to be regarded as one and the same thing.
And with the exception of this star, see to it that all the lesser
stars near the Aurora shall have disappeared.
"Now, having by this time filled up all the exterior of the chamber
both above in the oval and on the sides and facades, it remains for us
to come to the interior, the four spandrels of the vaulting. Beginning
with that over the bed, which is between the left-hand facade and that
at the foot, you must paint Sleep there; and in order to figure him,
you must first figure his home. Ovid places it in Lemnos and among the
Cimmerii, Homer in the AEgean Sea, Statius among the Ethiopians, and
Ariosto in Arabia. Wherever it may be, it is enough to depict a
mountain, such an one as may be imagined where there is always
darkness and never any sun; at the foot of it a deep hollow, through
which water shall pass, as still as death, in order to signify that it
makes no murmur, and this water must be of a sombre hue, because they
make it a branch of Lethe. Within this hollow shall be a bed, which,
being fabled to be of ebony, shall be black in colour and covered with
black draperies. In this bed shall be placed Sleep, a young man of
perfect beauty, for they make him surpassing beautiful and serene;
nude, according to some, and according to others clothed in two
garments, one black below and another white over it, with wings on the
shoulders, and, according to Statius, also at the top of the head.
Under his arm he shall hold a horn, which shall appear to be spilling
a liquid of a livid hue over the bed, in order to denote Oblivion;
although others make the horn full of fruits. In one hand he shall
hold the wand, and in the other three poppy-heads. He shall be
sleeping like one sick, with the head and the limbs hanging limp, as
if wholly relaxed in slumber. About his head shall be seen Morpheus,
Icelus, and Phantasus, and a great number of Dreams, all which are his
children. The Dreams shall be little figures, some of a beautiful
aspect and others hideous, as being things that partly please and
partly terrify. Let them, likewise, have wings, and also twisted feet,
as being unstable and uncertain things, and let them hover and whirl
about him, making a kind of dramatic spectacle by transforming
themselves into things possible and impossible. Morpheus is called by
Ovid the creator and fashioner of figures, and I would therefore make
him in the act of fashioning various masks with grotesque faces and
placing some of them on feet. Icelus, they say, transforms himself
into many shapes, and him I would figure in such a way that as a
whole he may have the appearance of a man, and yet may have parts of a
wild beast, of a bird, and of a serpent, as the same Ovid describes
him. Phantasus, they have it, transforms himself into various
inanimate things, and him, also, we may represent, after the words of
Ovid, partly of stone, partly of water, and partly of wood. You must
feign that in this place there are two gates, one of ivory, whence
there issue the false dreams, and one of horn, whence the true dreams
come; the true shall be more distinct in colour, more luminous, and
better executed, and the false shall be confused, sombre, and
imperfect.
"In the next spandrel, between the facade at the foot and that on the
right hand, you shall place Brizo, the Goddess of prophecy and the
interpretress of dreams. For her I cannot find the vestments, but I
would make her in the manner of a Sibyl, seated at the foot of the elm
described by Virgil, under the branches of which are placed
innumerable images, which, falling from those branches, must be shown
flying about her in the forms that we have given them; as has been
related, some lighter and some darker, some broken and some
indistinct, and others almost wholly invisible; in order to represent
by these the dreams, the visions, the oracles, the phantasms, and the
vain things that are seen in sleep (for into these five kinds
Macrobius appears to divide them); and she shall be as it were lost in
thought, interpreting them, and shall have about her persons offering
to her baskets filled with all manner of things, excepting only
fishes.
"In the spandrel between the right-hand facade and that at the head it
will be well to place Harpocrates, the God of Silence, because this,
presenting itself at the first glance before those who enter by the
door that leads from the great painted chamber, will warn them as they
enter that they must not make any noise. His figure is that of a young
man, or rather, of a boy, black in colour, from his being God of the
Egyptians, and with his finger to his mouth in the act of commanding
silence. He shall carry in his hand a branch of a peach-tree, and, if
you think it well, a garland of the leaves of the same tree. They
feign that he was born weak in the legs, and that, having been killed,
his mother Isis restored him to life; and for this reason some make
him stretched out on the ground, and others in the lap of his mother,
with the feet joined together. But, for the sake of harmony with the
other figures, I would make him standing, supported in some way, or
rather, seated, like that of the most illustrious Cardinal
Sant'Agnolo, which is likewise winged and holds a horn of plenty. He
shall have about him persons offering to him, as was the custom,
first-fruits of lentils and other vegetables, and also of peaches, as
mentioned above. Others used to make for this same God a figure
without a face, with a little cap on the head, and about him a wolf's
skin, all covered with eyes and ears. Take which of these two you
please.
"In the last spandrel, between the facade at the head and that on the
left, it will be well to place Angerona, the Goddess of Secrecy, which
figure, coming within the same door of entrance, will admonish those
who come out of the chamber to keep secret all that they have seen and
heard, as is the duty of the servants of noblemen. The figure is that
of a woman placed upon an altar, with the mouth bound and sealed. I
know not with what vestments she used to be depicted, but I would
envelop her in a long gown covering her whole person, and would
represent her as shrugging her shoulders. Around her there must be
painted some priests, by whom sacrifices used to be offered to her
before the gate in the Curia, to the end that it might be unlawful for
any person to reveal to the prejudice of the Republic any matter that
might be discussed there.