Titian allegory of prudence description of the painting. Amazing allegories of Titian painting: Who served as the prototypes for the "strange picture" of the brilliant Italian

I have long been attracted to this philosophical picture of Titian, written in my mature years. I suggest that you get to know it and discuss it.

ALLEGORY OF THE TIME GOVERNED BY REASON.1565-1570

The key to deciphering the allegory of the painting lies in the inscription at the top of it: "Ex praeterito praesens predenter agit, ni futurum actione deturpet" -

"BASED ON THE PAST, THE PRESENT ACTS PRACTICALLY IN ORDER TO HARM THE FUTURE."

Here, the portraits of Titian himself, his son Orazio and nephew Marco are connected with the heads of a wolf, a lion and a dog, which personifies the past, present and future. In Christian symbolism, the three-headed wolf-lion-dog serves as a symbol of Prudence and its three parts: memoria ("memory"), intelligentia ("knowledge"), prudentia ("experience").

In ancient mythology, the language of symbols was used to more accurately designate certain concepts, to enhance the expressiveness of the image.

Titian compares the age of a mature man with a lion - everything is in his power, he rules the world,

and the age of a young man with the trusting readiness of a young dog to serve,

old age gets wisdom, deep knowledge of life, loneliness and physical weakness.

Titian.Self-portrait

The hawkish profile of the old man, personifying the past, is the profile of Titian himself. (Left) This is the same face that we see in the unforgettable self-portrait in the Prado, which dates from the same period as the "Allegory", when Titian was already over 90.

In the center is the devoted son of Orazio, who, being the direct opposite of his vicious brother Pomponio, was his father's faithful assistant throughout his life.

Thus Orazio Vecelli, who was then about forty-five, was officially proclaimed "successor" in 1569: in his person, the "present" inherited the Titian "past".

This, in turn, leads us to the assumption that it is his face that appears in the center of the picture - this is the "embodiment of strength and fervor", as in comparing the present with the past and future.

If the face of Titian himself denotes the past, and the face of Orazio the present, then it is likely that the third, young, denoting the future, belongs to the artist's nephew.

Be that as it may, the appearance of the young man, as well as the face of the old man, is less carnal than the face of the mature man in the center. The future, like the past, is less "real" than the present. But unlike the shadow-immersed past, it shines with an abundance of light.

These are official assumptions and reflections of art historians.

Taking into account the mood of Titian at that time, let's try to express the main idea embodied in this amazing allegory, resorting to the most common poetic form in Titian's times.

Three ages, and in each there is delight.
In the spring, an excess of strength and feelings of fermentation,
And closer to autumn calm,
And even in old age there is a joy.

Youth has courage and bravado -
She often lacks patience.
Over the years, enlightenment overshadows us,
And the elder acquires the wisdom of sight.

Without the past, there would be no today
And the future is not far off with him.
Temporary laws are immutable -
In them the will of the Lord is manifested,
And only He is subject to all living things.
Attempts to prolong our life are insignificant.

Sofonisba Agnisola. Portrait of Titian with his wife Cecilia.

How do you feel about Titian's phrase:

“From the past, Prudence guides the present, so as not to harm the deeds of the future.”?

What can you say about the picture itself and its content?

Did you like the poem? Do you agree with its author?

"Allegory of Time, which is controlled by Prudence." ca. 1565 , Titian (1490 - 1576)
I have long been attracted to this philosophical picture of Titian, written already in his mature years. Three ages of a person (Youth, Maturity, Old age).
The key to deciphering the allegory of the painting lies in the inscription at the top of it: "Ex praeterito praesens predenter agit, ni futurum actione deturpet" -
"BASED ON THE PAST, THE PRESENT ACTS PRACTICALLY IN ORDER TO HARM THE FUTURE."

In ancient mythology, the language of symbols was used to more accurately designate certain concepts, to enhance the expressiveness of the image.
Titian compares the age of a mature man with a lion - everything is in his power, he rules the world,
and the age of a young man with the trusting readiness of a young dog to serve,
old age gets wisdom, deep knowledge of life, loneliness and physical weakness.

The hawkish profile of an old man representing the past is that of Titian himself. (Left) This is the same face we see in the unforgettable self-portrait in the Prado, which dates from the same period as the "Allegory", when Titian was already over 90.
In the center is the devoted son of Orazio, who, being the direct opposite of his vicious brother Pomponio, was his father's faithful assistant throughout his life.

Thus Orazio Vecelli, who was then about forty-five, was officially proclaimed "successor" in 1569: in his person, the "present" inherited the Titian "past".
This, in turn, leads us to the assumption that it is his face that appears in the center of the picture - this is the "embodiment of strength and fervor", as in comparing the present with the past and future.
If the face of Titian himself denotes the past, and the face of Orazio the present, then it is likely that the third, young, denoting the future, belongs to the artist's nephew.

Titian took into the house and carefully instructed in his art a distant relative whom he “especially loved”: Marco Vecelli. born in 1545, who, therefore, by the time the Allegory of Prudence was created, was twenty-odd. He, as it were, closes the three generations of the Vecelli family.
Be that as it may, the appearance of the young man, as well as the face of the old man, is less carnal than the face of the mature man in the center. The future, like the past, is less "real" than the present. But unlike the shadow-immersed past, it shines with an abundance of light.

These are official assumptions and reflections of art historians.
Taking into account the mood of Titian at that time, let's try to express the main idea embodied in this amazing allegory, resorting to the most common poetic form in Titian's times.

Three ages, and in each there is delight.
In the spring, an excess of strength and feelings of fermentation,
And closer to autumn calm,
And even in old age there is a joy.

Youth has courage and bravado -
She often lacks patience.
Over the years, enlightenment overshadows us,
And the elder acquires the wisdom of sight.

How do you feel about Titian's phrase:

“From the past, Prudence guides the present, so as not to harm the deeds of the future.”?

http://maxpark.com/community/5917/content/2259301

Year: 1565–1570.
Type: Oil on canvas.
Dimensions: 76.2*68.6 cm.

Allegory of Prudence

"Allegory of Reason" was painted in oils between 1565 and 1570. Authorship is attributed to the Italian painter Titian(maybe they helped him).

The work depicts three animal heads looking in different directions (from left to right: wolf, lion, dog), under three human heads. In the analysis, the picture is interpreted at several "levels".

Allegory of Prudence

Three ages of man

Human youth, maturity and old age are represented at this level. Perhaps the heads symbolize a broader concept of time itself, depicting the past, present and future. This theme is also repeated in the heads of the beasts, which, according to some traditions, are associated with the corresponding time periods.

Saint Sebastian. Titian.

Experience of the past

Another level by which the painting acquired its current name is based on a barely visible caption (at the top of the painting) that reads: “EX PRAETERITO | PRAESENS PRUDENTER AGIT | NE FUTURA ACTIONE DETURPET" ("From the experience of the past, present actions are prudent so as not to spoil the future"). It suggests that the picture is in a certain way connected with the adventures of Titian's youth, and the moment when the artist thought about paying for rash acts.

Thus, the picture acts as a visual advisor from three generations, calling for prudent and prudent action, passing this experience on to their descendants.

About sin and repentance

However, more recently, the picture has been explained in a completely different way. Instead of an "allegory of prudence", the theme of the work was defined as "sin and repentance". From this point of view, Titian shows the inability to act prudently and prudently in youth and adulthood, which in old age leads to regret and sadness.

In this plane, the picture was interpreted as a statement about prudence, which comes in old age, with experience. This interpretation refutes the view that older people are a danger to the fine arts.

There is a version that the painting depicts Titian and his two assistants (Orazio and Marco). It does not contradict the above interpretations.

Painting "Allegory of Prudence" updated: October 25, 2017 by: Gleb

Duality-8. Allegory of wisdom.

Guided by logic and taking common sense to help, punctually picking up pebbles in a certain order in order to assemble a mosaic that can be recognized by the mind and moving a little further away to cover it in its entirety, we see that the picture is not the one that was presented earlier when we came to her eyes were closer. Moreover, it changes depending on the angle at which we look at it. Unless she winks, like a girl from a Japanese vario postcard from the end of the last century. Or maybe it really winks, but we don’t notice it? Pebbles in the mosaic come across different, there are multi-layered ones with an optical effect. They look like an onion, where dozens of others lie under one layer.

Dot at the end of the papyrus.

Everything was collected: all kinds of European, Asia Minor and Egyptian stones, including diamonds, sapphires, hematites, emeralds and topazes, gold, silver, lead, copper and tin; - and all this was mixed up on the substance left from the burial of Osiris and Apis.

If you thought that I composed this flowery phrase because there is not enough water in the narrative, this life-giving poetic moisture that nourishes art historians, you were mistaken: there is no poetry in it. All of the above components were part of the composition from which the statue of the Supreme God of the Initiates was carved, whose name was not yet mentioned in WW. And even this flesh-embalming substance was actually taken from the Apis sarcophagus.

The statue, according to the descriptions of Clement of Alexandria, one of the earliest Christian authorities, was of a rare blue color and very strong and hard. In any case, when the Christian soldiers, on the orders of Theodosius, tried to destroy it with axes, they did not succeed for a long time - only sparks were struck. But, to break not to build...

Perhaps no other god has ever had a statue like this. The materials from which they were made were rare and expensive: there is a description of a statue made from a single piece of emerald. Its height was about 4 meters and it was placed in a labyrinth dedicated to God. This was still in doubt in those ancient times, but, according to the Egyptians, the fact that it was a solid mineral was repeatedly verified in antiquity. They also mention a gigantic sculpture that caused general amazement, which was made of metal plates carefully fitted to each other, like the Mukhina monument you know: a worker with a collective farmer. All this was done with a margin of safety and reliability, designed for millennia.

The name of this god was Serapis.

Where he came from in the late antique world, where the minds of people after the death of Pan were owned by Isis, Janus, Anubis, Hermes and Mithra - is unknown. Serapis was considered the lord of the elements and natural phenomena, he was given the functions of a water deity, the lord of floods and the god of the sun. Serapis was also identified with Zeus. Serapis was revered as a savior from misfortunes, a predictor of the future, a healer. The iconography of Serapis resembles the images of Pluto and Zeus.

There are many versions, according to one of which Pharaoh Ptolemy I planned to completely unite Egypt and Greece with monotheism, crossing religions, and invented a syncretic deity. This version is most common among historians, since it is not necessary to strain the convolutions with investigations for a long time, comparing texts and extracting facts from them - something remains on the surface: there are statues, there are documents of that time and the scene is Egypt. The Ptolemies really made Serapis the supreme deity of Egypt and the patron of the pharaohs. A huge temple was built in Alexandria and worshiped in Memphis. The cult of Serapis also spread throughout the Roman Empire under the Flavius, after this god predicted to Vespasian his future imperial greatness. Caracalla himself served Serapis as a priest. The Greeks also had sanctuaries of Serapis - in Delphi and Athens.

The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus mentioned the temple of Serapis in Alexandria thus: “Its splendor is such that in simple words you would be unfair to describe it - its huge halls with columns, a wealth of realistic statues and other works of art put it next to the Capitol, which is a symbol of eternity with time immemorial in Rome, make the most magnificent building in the world. It contains two priceless libraries."

This is Africa. Where is this majestic building that has stood for six centuries now? What do we know about the books of those libraries? Does the name Serapis mean anything to you at all? Oh yes, the Orthodox name Serapion remained, which our ancestors sometimes called children. But now this name is very rare. Unfashionable.

Everything was destroyed, literally wiped off the face of the earth, books were burned, and statues were broken, with the exception of a few samples that went into the storerooms of the Church's museums, with the instructive purpose of showing who the pagans worshipped.

When you look at the magnificent examples of two thousand years old Fayum painting, made in the complex encaustic technique, you should not forget that this is part of the cult of Serapis, widespread in the Fayum oasis. Art historians always forget to tell enthusiastic museum goers that these naturalistic portraits were placed on the faces of mummies wrapped in shrouds. Let's look at one of these portraits:

This is an image of the priest Serapis, who can be recognized by the characteristic seven-pointed star on his diadem, as well as three strands of hair under it. The seven-pointed star is one of the symbols of Serapis. Serapis was called Theon Heptaagrammoton- a god with a name of seven letters. This portrait now hangs on the wall of the British Museum.

In order to better imagine that era, the time of change, the moment the matrix was rebooted, I will not refrain from giving one more portrait:

Beautiful woman. And an extraordinary bright mind. The last librarian of the Serapeum temple. Philosopher, mathematician, astronomer. Scholarch of the Alexandrian School of Neoplatonism. Inventor of the astrolabe, with which sailors found their way into the sea, and the planisphere, which was used more than a thousand years later by Copernicus and Tycho Brahe. What, it does not fit too well with our ideas about paganism and scientists?

This is Hypatia, one of her possible images. She was brutally murdered after they burned the library and smashed the university, leaving no stone unturned.

This happened, according to the description of the Christian historian Socrates Scholasticus, as follows: “Because she very often talked with Orestes (prefect, city head), her communication with him gave rise to slander in the church people, as if she did not allow Orestes to enter friendship with Cyril (bishop). Therefore, people with hotheads, under the command of a certain Peter, once conspired and ambushed this woman. When she was returning home from somewhere, they dragged her off a stretcher and dragged her to a church called Caesarion, where, having exposed her, they killed her with shards (oyster shells), tore her to pieces, and the pieces of her body were taken to a place called Kinaron, and burned there. . This caused much disgrace to both Cyril and the Alexandrian church, for murders, strife, and all the like are completely alien to those who think in the spirit of Christ. The mentioned event took place in the fourth year of the bishopric of Cyril, in the tenth year of the consulate of Honorius and the sixth of Theodosius, in the month of March, during fasting.

During fasting (!), in the church (!), they stripped him naked (!), skinned him from his living skin (according to other testimonies), cut him into pieces and burned him. Christians? What was it? An ancient terrorist attack?

Whether anyone was held responsible for this - history is silent. Probably not. But Cyril was canonized by the Church as a saint. Some blame him for instigation, but the Church's official position is that he was not responsible for Hypatia's death.

I am also inclined to this opinion. Cyril, as they say, himself attended her lectures on philosophy and rhetoric with pleasure. But the fact remains.

Professor P.F. Preobrazhensky, a Russian historian and ethnographer (he was shot by “Chekists” while serving his sentence in Ukhtizhemlag), wrote about this in the introduction to the book “Hypatia”: “... The Christian Church felt some embarrassment for the massacre of Hypatia. Cyril of Alexandria had to be carefully defended in order to remove the stigma of a pogromist from this recognized authority ... By a strange irony of fate, Cyril, this zealous and tireless fighter for the dignity of the Christian Mother of God, as a virgin and mother not of a person, but of God, turned out to be the ideological inspirer of the vile tearing apart of a girl ... "

S.S. Averintsev, trying to justify the actions " superstitious contemporaries”, wrote that, they say, Alexandrian scientists cannot be considered as such in the eyes of Christians, since with a deep inner conviction they themselves pretended to be magicians. “What they were not was the martyrs of science. At best, they were martyrs of the pagan religion."

We can agree with this. On the other hand, it’s weak to invent something simple, an astrolabe there ... or some kind of hydrometer. How did Hypatia do it? And what will it be in the end, magic or science? Here's a flute for you - play something ... "Any truly advanced technology or science is little different from magic." The phrase is attributed to A. Clark, but its author S. Lem. In general, authorship is not so important here. It is important that this statement is true.

Be that as it may, this martyrdom, like a red dot, marked the end of the university Alexandria, as a scientific center. If they write somewhere that these temples “burned down in a fire” or “destroyed from earthquakes” - they are disingenuous. The assault on the Alexandrian Serapeum by an armed crowd was perceived as a symbol of the final victory of Christianity (and to be consistent, taking into account Islam - of the Abrahamic religions) over paganism. At one point, two projects were closed: "Egypt" and "Antiquity". And you say you can't kill two birds with one stone at the same time.

Immediately after that, the time of the so-called "Dark Ages" came.

Master of the Depths.

The idea that the worship of Serapis was artificial, connected with the political ambitions of the Egyptian pharaohs, including Alexander the Great, is also quite artificial, since there is no consensus about his origin. Let's stop at a few.

The Egyptian, more precisely Memphis, version explains his name as a synthesis of Osiris and Apis, the sacred bull. Although the exact nature of the signs that are taken from Osiris and Apis is not clear, it is suggested that Serapis is the form that Apis assumed after death. Apis is "Ka" both literally and figuratively.

Serapis was considered one of the incarnations of Mithra and his name is erected to the Iranian epithet khshatrapati - "Lord of the Kingdom". I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that Serapis and Khshatrapati are too different in sounding words. The meaning may be true.

Tacitus wrote in the "History" that in the village of Rakotis, on the site of the future Alexandria, there had long been a temple of Serapis and Isis, and then it is natural to assume that the god is much older than it is believed. Interesting images of Serapis and Isis came from there.

Yes, that is how Serapis was portrayed in some cases. In the form of a snake. He was called the "Dragon of Wisdom" or the "Sacred Serpent". The Egyptian secret school of philosophy was divided into the Lesser and Greater Mysteries. Small ones were dedicated to Isis, Great ones - to Serapis. Only priests were allowed to participate in the Great Mysteries. As one of the first Egyptologists D.G. Wilkinson in the book "The behavior and habits of the Egyptians" - even the heir to the throne was not made an exception; only after he reached the position of pharaoh, when he automatically became a priest and temporary head of the state religion, he was admitted to them. The secrets of the mysteries were strictly guarded - strangers were not present at them.

The snake is always present in his images. Sometimes Serapis holds a snake, sometimes it wraps around him completely or is present on his left leg, as in the images of Patsutsu. Sometimes Serapis stands on a snake, dragon or other reptile like a crocodile, using it as a plinth, a base. A distinctive feature of the images of God is a crown-cylinder, similar to a monastic hood, in the form of a "modius" - a measure of grain. At least (I apologize for the tautology), they think so - that there is a bucket of grain on the head of God. They say it is a symbol of fertility. So they write in encyclopedias - Serapis is the ancient Egyptian god of fertility.

Bread may be associated with fertility, but how is the snake associated with it?

Plutarch's version, set out in "On Isis and Osiris":

“Ptolemy Soter saw in a dream a colossal statue of Pluto in Sinop, not knowing what it looks like and never having seen it in nature, but in a dream the statue asked him to transfer it to Alexandria as soon as possible. He had neither information nor the opportunity to find out where this statue was, but, having told his friends about his vision, he learned from Sosibius, who traveled a lot, that he saw in Sinop exactly the same statue as the one that the king, according to he thought he saw in a dream. Therefore, Ptolemy sent Sotelus and Dionysius to Sinop, who after a long time, with great difficulty and not without divine help, managed to steal the statue and take it away. When they brought it to Egypt and showed it to Timothy, the interpreter of the sacred laws, Manetho the Sibennites and their collaborators assumed that it was a statue of Pluto, basing their opinion on Cerberus and the serpent associated with it, and convinced Ptolemy that this statue was none other of the gods. than Serapis. He certainly did not bear this name when he arrived from Sinop, but after his appearance in Alexandria, he took on the name that Pluto bears among the Egyptians, namely, Serapis.

Thus, according to Plutarch, Serapis is Pluto, the god of the underworld. Hades, speaking in Greek, with his gloomy kingdom and power over the shadows of the dead.

Something with "fertility" does not quite fit in, don't you think? Then what's on his head? A bucket or a basket is a mysterious thing. Apparently, by the number of various forms, the sculptors themselves did not always understand its utilitarian meaning. Perhaps the priests did not consider it necessary to condescend to explanations to the masters, but simply said - "do it." In all seriousness, some researchers claim that this item covers the horns. They say that the Hittites had a ritual text known as the "Chronicle of Pukhanu" in which a basket was mentioned on the head of a man who turned into a huge bull and, moving the mountain, broke the horn. This mutilation was covered with a basket. The basket and the bull are thought to be a clear connection with the Memphis myth of Apis. This means that Serapis is of Hittite origin.

And one more version, chronologically the earliest in the sources, and the most similar to the truth. In any case, accurately explaining the origin of the name of God.

According to Arrian, when Alexander the Great was already mortally ill, his friends decided to spend the night in the temple of Serapis in order to receive an oracle in a dream about the possibility of saving the king. The action took place in Babylon and was recorded in the Ephemeris, the official diary kept at Alexander's court. Some researchers point out that the "temple of Serapis", so named by Arrian, could actually be the temple of the god Ea (Enki), whose epithet was Sarapsi - "King of the Deep". "King of the Abyss". Or "King of the Ocean", "Lord of fresh waters" - it depends on how you understand the word "apsu". We have already analyzed the etymology of the words SAR-SER. And SAR here can be interpreted as "king", "ruler", and the word "serpent" is also appropriate.

Serapis - Enki? If so, then this time he did not manage to win back Enlil's revenge.

All the ends came together, except for the basket on the head. We will return to it (the basket) later, because we will not get too far away from a specific topic.

Do you remember how the previous chapter ended? Look again at the diagram. The model of the world order, the synthesis of the World of Being, presented in Arcana No. 10, is expressed by the interaction of two opposite forces: Seth-Typhon, who is presented as a reptilian being, and Hermes-Anubis, in the form of a cynocephalus. Keeps the system in balance Leo-Kerub - Sphinx, armed with a sword. This whole assembly is a mechanism that is combined (or powered?) by two intertwined snakes. Otherwise, this idea is expressed by the symbol of Serapis, which is placed near his feet. And sometimes they are directly associated with it.

The wolf, lion and dog are intertwined with two snakes, like a caduceus and represents a single whole.

You can interpret the symbol in any way, which they have done countless times, trying to solve this riddle with the help of a universal label recognition system, when the attitude to ongoing events or the subject of study is developed by comparing them with internal beliefs based on subjective experience. This is when the word “represents” connects several concepts like “fertility”, “wisdom”, “sides of the world” and evokes other poetic associations, like “wisdom of the snake”. Let's take a look at one of the examples.

Titian, judging by this work, somewhere in the Vatican clearly saw a statue of Serapis, or visited the ruins of his temple, which, by the way, were preserved by the Italians and survived to our time. You can see them. But here is what art historians write about the painting.

“The painting “Allegory of Time” has a deep philosophical meaning. In ancient mythology, the language of symbols was used to more accurately designate certain concepts, to enhance the expressiveness of the image. Titian compares the age of a mature man with a lion - everything is in his power, he rules the world, and the age of a young man with the trusting readiness of a young dog to serve, old age gets wisdom, a deep knowledge of life, loneliness and physical weakness.

Well, why ... - poetic. Although it is very debatable - very often it is the weak elders who rule the world. In fact, the painting is called "Allegory of Prudence" and is equipped with letters in the upper part, which form the words "EX PRAETERITO / PRAESENS PRUDENTER AGIT / NE FUTURA ACTIONẼ DETURPET". Which means sublinearly - the past / present acts prudently so as not to spoil future actions. In other words: Prudence is the memory of the past, organized in the present in order to contemplate the future.

Isn't it a slightly different meaning? If we also take into account that the combined symbol of Osiris, Set, Anubis, Serapis, Pluto and Enki served as the artist's model. Gods, one way or another, representing the underworld.