Livy's Ab Urbe Condita and the Visual Arts of the Early Italian Renaissance

252 Pages·2015·30.63 MB·English

by  Jillian Curry Robbins

Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2004
The Art of History: Livy's Ab Urbe Condita
and the Visual Arts of the Early Italian
Renaissance
Jillian Curry Robbins
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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

THE ART OF HISTORY: LIVY’S AB URBE CONDITA
AND THE VISUAL ARTS OF THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

By
JILLIAN CURRY ROBBINS

A Dissertation submitted to the
Program in the Humanities
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Awarded:
Spring Semester, 2004
The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Jillian Curry Robbins defended on
November 8, 2004.
________________________
Jack Freiberg
Professor Directing Dissertation
________________________
Nancy T. de Grummond
Outside Committee Member
________________________
David H. Darst
Committee Member
The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my husband, Eric, for his patience and support
during the dissertation process. I would also like to thank my mother for her incisive editing and
ready ear. I am also extremely grateful to the staff and fellows of the Center for Hellenic
Studies, who provided endless understanding and encouragement.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the members of my committee for their
assistance, particularly as the project began to take shape.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures.............................................................................................................................v
Abstract.....................................................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................1
Aims of the Present Study.......................................................................................................1
Argument and Methodology....................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 2: LIVY’S AB URBE CONDITA: ANCIENT COMPOSITION AND
RENAISSANCE RECEPTION.................................................................................................10
Formative Influences.............................................................................................................10
Methods of Composition.......................................................................................................13
Structure and Style................................................................................................................16
Reception and Revival of the Text.........................................................................................25
The “Cult of Livy”................................................................................................................33
Livy in Fifteenth-Century Italian Society..............................................................................40
CHAPTER 3: LIVY’S AB URBE CONDITA IN THE VISUAL ARTS OF THE
RENAISSANCE.......................................................................................................................50
Development and Diffusion..................................................................................................50
CHAPTER 4: LIVY, ALBERTI, AND THE RENAISSANCE ISTORIA................................80
Non-Livian Influences on Livian Narratives in the Visual Arts.............................................80
Leon Battista Alberti and the Renaissance Istoria..................................................................95
CHAPTER 5: LIVIAN ART IN ITS BROADER CONTEXT................................................105
Livian Art in the Sixteenth Century.....................................................................................108
Implications of the Present Study........................................................................................113
APPENDIX: CHECKLIST OF EXAMPLES..........................................................................115
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................................219
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH...................................................................................................245
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Engraving, Marcus Curtius. Lucas Cranach, early sixteenth century.........................71
Figure 2. Roman carnelian gem, Mucius Scaevola;..................................................................77
Figure 3. Roman lapis lazuli gem, Mucius Scaevola;................................................................77
Figure 4. Spalliera, The Banquet of Tarquin. Anonymous, Cracow,........................................86
Figure 5. Roman Republican silver denarius. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.........................128
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ABSTRACT
This study assembles the representations of Livy’s Ab urbe condita in the visual arts of the
Italian Renaissance, focusing on the fifteenth century and following the imagery as it developed
in the early part of the sixteenth century. Analysis of these images, presented as a checklist in
the appendix, shows that art based on Livy’s text first became prevalent in the domestic painting
of Tuscany in the second half of the Quattrocento. As painted furnishings fell out of fashion, the
imagery of the Ab urbe condita was taken up by makers of small metal plaquettes and painted
maiolica. These highly portable media and the artistic environment that created them provided a
vehicle for the dissemination of these Livian images throughout central and northern Italy in the
first half of the sixteenth century.
Examination of these images reveals a growing awareness of Livy’s literary text in Italy
during the period from 1450 to 1550. The development of this Livian art in many ways parallels
that of Italian art as a whole. The role of these images in Italian society emphasizes the
importance of the Ab urbe condita not only in the scholarly community, but in the political and
social spheres of the Italian elite as well.
This study further demonstrates that the concept of istoria, or narrative painting, as put forth
by Leon Battista Alberti in the years 1435 and 1436, was both influenced by the Ab urbe condita
and shaped the artistic interpretations of Livy’s history. The distinctive character of Livy’s Latin
narrative helped to shape its depictions in Tuscan domestic painting of the second half of the
fifteenth century, which in turn played an important role in establishing the visual imagery of the
Livian plaquettes and maiolica of the first half of the sixteenth century. Alberti’s definition of
istoria, created with dramatic narratives like Livy’s in mind, was influential in establishing a
visual vocabulary for the depiction of these Livian stories that could then be adapted for use on a
smaller scale in plaquettes and maiolica.
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Aims of the Present Study

History is not a work of philosophy, it is a painting; it is necessary to combine narration with
the representation of the subject, that is, it is necessary simultaneously to design and to
paint…
--François-René Chateaubriand

What chiefly makes the study of history wholesome and profitable is this, that you behold the
lessons of every kind of experience set forth as on a conspicuous monument; from these you
may choose for yourself and for your own state what to imitate, from these mark for
avoidance what is shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.1
--Livy

The Roman historian Titus Livius, writing around the year 27 B.C., recorded his view of
history in the introduction to his own account of the Roman state, entitled Ab urbe condita
(“From the Founding of the City”). Livy’s history reflects this notion that the value of history
lies in the human actions it presents. The chronological narrative of the Ab urbe condita centers
around the deeds and personalities of the men and women who shaped the history of Rome from
its beginnings. This treasure trove of exemplars, both positive and negative, was a central

1 “Hoc illud est praecipue in cognitione rerum salubre ac frugiferum, omnis te exempli
documenta in inlustri posita monumento intueri; inde tibi tuaeque rei publicae quod imitere
capias, inde foedum inceptu, foedum exitu, quod vites.” Livy praef. 10. Translation is by B. O.
Foster, in Livy, with an English translation by B.O. Foster, 14 vols. Loeb Classical Library
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919-59), 1:3.

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element in the rise in awareness of Livy’s history among the elite of fifteenth-century Tuscany.
As the knowledge of and interest in Livy’s text grew, a corresponding rise in the number of
artistic interpretations of the Ab urbe condita began to develop. This study will examine the
seminal role of fifteenth-century Tuscan domestic painting in the establishment of a distinctive
visual vocabulary for the depiction of episodes from Livy’s history, and the subsequent diffusion
of that vocabulary in the small-scale private art of the first quarter of the sixteenth-century.
It will be shown that analysis of these fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century works of art
based on Livy’s history reinforces the role of small, portable works of art in disseminating
themes and motifs drawn from antiquity throughout central and northern Italy. It will be further
argued that the concept of istoria, or narrative painting, as put forth by Leon Battista Alberti in
the years 1435 and 1436, was both influenced by the Ab urbe condita and shaped the artistic
interpretations of Livy’s history. Finally, it will be demonstrated that the distinctive character of
Livy’s literary narrative helped to shape its depictions in Tuscan domestic painting of the second
half of the fifteenth century, which in turn played an important role in establishing the visual
imagery of the Livian plaquettes and maiolica of the first half of the sixteenth century.

Argument and Methodology
Chapter 2: Ancient Composition and Renaissance Reception
Chapter Two introduces the text of Livy’s Ab urbe condita and its composition,
demonstrating the historian’s use of vocabulary and grammatical structure to shape the narrative
and create dramatic and affecting episodes within his broader account of Rome’s history. Next,
the transmission of the text during the Middle Ages is examined, culminating with a discussion
of the role of Petrarch in assembling and emending the text as it was known at that time. Chapter
Two also deals with the “cult of Livy,” examining the interest in Livy’s personality and work
that was inspired by the discovery of his putative tomb in his hometown of Padua in the second
quarter of the fourteenth century. Finally, this chapter explores the awareness of the Ab urbe

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condita in fifteenth century Italy, from the public life of Florence to the court of Alfonso of
Aragon in Naples.
This chapter makes extensive use of the scholarship of the Italian scholar Giuseppe
Billanovich. His work on the medieval transmission of the text of the Ab urbe condita
demonstrates that the different Decades, or groups of ten books, suffered widely varying fates.2
Building on the work of Billanovich, Ronald Witt argues further that the multilingual culture of
the educated classes in the twelfth-century Veneto fostered the interest in classical philology in
general, and in Livy in particular, seen in the work of the Paduan poet and scholar Lovato Lovati
(1240-1309) and his circle.3 Most significantly, Billanovich’s work establishes the centrality of
Petrarch in both the textual tradition of the Ab urbe condita and the recognition of Livy’s account
as a prime source for the history and values of ancient Rome. Along with Pierre de Nolhac,
Billanovich was the first to identify the manuscripts owned and annotated by Petrarch. His work
is also instrumental in defining Petrarch’s pivotal role in the fledgling philological and humanist
movements of northern Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.4

2 Giuseppe Billanovich, “Dal Livio di Raterius (Laur. 63,19) al Livio del Petrarca (B.N.,
Harl. 2493),” Italia medioevale e umanistica 2 (1959): 103-78; Giuseppe Billanovich, “The Role
of the Papal Library in Saving Livy’s Histories,” in The Classics in the Middle Ages, Papers of
the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, ed.
Aldo S. Bernardo and Saul Levin (Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance
Studies, 1990), 79-94.
3 Ronald G. Witt, In the Footsteps of the Ancients: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to
Bruni (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2000), 82-112.
4 Pierre de Nolhac, “Le Tite-Live de Pétrarque,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana
18 (1891): 440; Giuseppe Billanovich, La tradizione del testo di Livio e le origini
dell’umanesimo, 2 vols. Studi sul Petrarcha, no. 9 (Padua: Editrice Antenore, 1981); Giuseppe
Billanovich, “Petrarch and the Textual Tradition of Livy,” Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 14 (1951): 137-208.

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