A medal of pope Paul III from 1549, the year in which he died, which was produced to commemorate the donation of Parma and Piacenza to his son, Pier Luigi Farnese. Interesting that there is some suggestion that the obverse depicts Zeus as an eagle and Ganymede, who pours an amphora of water upon a lily, the symbol of the Farnese family. The legend says, in Greek, "The Peace of Zeus Pours Well."
The subject of Zeus and Ganymede is an interesting choice for a commemorative medal in the renaissance as it is loaded with homosexual overtones. Ganymede was a Trojan prince whose beauty was so great that he was abducted to serve as the gods' cup bearer and, in many sources, as Zeus' male lover.
Having said that, Robert Baldwin - who has worked on depictions of rape in early modern Europe - has suggested that Ganymede and Europa were actually reasonably common symbols of Roman military triumphs that was adapted in the renaissance, and in the Christian tradition it was an allegory for the rapture of the human soul by divine love. Indeed, Alciato used it as an illustration of the adage Joy is Found in God in the first edition of his book of emblems.
No comments:
Post a Comment