The Ugly Renaissance (83 page)

Fig. 9. Sandro Botticelli,
Return of Judith
. A biblical tale transformed into a statement of female independence.
(illustration credit 9)

Fig. 10. Domenico Ghirlandaio,
Birth of Mary
. A Renaissance palazzo usually comprised about a dozen habitable rooms, each of which was on a monumental scale.
(illustration credit 10)

Fig. 11. Sandro Botticelli,
Portrait of a Youth
. The sitter’s unusual hand gesture suggests early-onset arthritis.
(illustration credit 11)

Fig. 12. Francesco del Cossa,
April
(detail). Prostitutes were not just sexual companions but also friends and muses.
(illustration credit 12)

Fig. 13. Michelangelo,
The Fall of Phaethon
. A mythological metaphor for the artist’s tortured feelings for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri.
(illustration credit 13)

Fig. 14. Michelangelo,
The Punishment of Tityus
. In this dramatization of a mythological tale of divine retribution, Michelangelo not only showed that he harbored an irrational physical passion for Tommaso but also demonstrated his belief that he would be punished for all eternity for his lust.
(illustration credit 14)

Fig. 15. Antonio del Pollaiuolo,
Apollo and Daphne
. Like Apollo, Petrarch could not prevent his beloved from fleeing from his passion.
(illustration credit 15)

Fig. 16. Gherardo di Giovanni del Fora,
The Combat of Love and Chastity
. Petrarch’s solution: the arrows of desire should break against chastity’s shield.
(illustration credit 16)

Fig. 17. Michelangelo,
The Rape of Ganymede
. Picturing himself as both Zeus and Ganymede, Michelangelo showed that he was carried away by an irresistible passion and longed to snatch Tommaso away for an eternity of pleasure.
(illustration credit 17)

Fig. 18. Benozzo Gozzoli,
Journey of the Magi to Bethlehem
(east wall). In the role of Caspar, Lorenzo de’ Medici leads the procession, followed by his father, Piero, and his grandfather Cosimo. Behind them, Gozzoli painted a host of cultural and political figures designed to show off the family’s power. To the left of the painting are equestrian portraits of the condottiere Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (left) and Galeazzo Maria Sforza, heir to the duchy of Milan (right). In the third row of the crowd, just above a portrait of Gozzoli himself, can be seen the glum-looking figure of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, later to become Pope Pius II.
(illustration credit 18)

Fig. 19. Marinus van Reymerswaele,
The Moneychanger and His Wife
. The money-changing business set up by Ardigno de’ Medici and his siblings would have looked similar.
(illustration credit 19)

Fig. 20. Filippino Lippi,
Raising of the Son of Theophilus and Saint Peter Enthroned
. A veritable Who’s Who of early-fifteenth-century Florentine political life.
(illustration credit 20)