'Grammatica': From Martianus Capella to Hogarth

Abstract

of Time, known to Ripa through the interpretation of Macrobius, signifies that "Consiglio" is gained by the contemplation of past, present and future things.' The last strange symbol of Ripa's description, the heart on a chain round the neck of the old man, indicates that 'Good Counsel' springs always from the heart. All these symbols are literally illustrated in the woodcut accompanying Ripa's text (P1. I7b). A comparison with our picture reveals how largely the artist has freed himself from the tyranny of an erudite, intentionally intricate and secret language of symbols in which elements of late antiquity and scholasticism are fused. He leaves out most of the enigmatic and confusing accessories of Ripa's figure, reducing them to two expressive details: the book and the three-headed figure, with the meaning of which educated people of the I7th century were certainly acquainted. He transforms the symbol of the heart in a very personal manner, by showing a boy who listens to 'Good Counsel' coming from the heart of the old man.2 This configuration seems to have been suggested by a motive of Christian iconography, the youthful apostle John leaning on Christ's breast. It alludes to the ideal relation between the master and the disciple who abandons himself entirely to the teachings of supreme wisdom. It is characteristic that the painter drew his inspiration from those passages of Ripa which allowed a realistic approach, and at the same time found a way of alluding to the Christian code. Although he almost completely neglected Ripa's learned and esoteric suggestions, his intention remained didactic and moralising. This is indicated by the peculiar self-consciousness with which the two figures act their scene and address the spectator in order to tell him that they stand for a moral idea which should appeal to everybody's attention.