A Late Antique

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A Late Antique Religious Symbol in Works by Holbein and Titian

Erwin Panofsky; Fritz Saxl

The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs , Vol. 49, No. 283. (Oct., 1926), pp. 177-181.

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say the three human heads. W e have still to con-sider the meaning of the three heads of animals.W e may suppose a p i i o r i , that they also aremeant t o symbolize somehow the for ms of time,past, present and future; for in mediaeval artnot only Prudentia but also T ime personifiedwas represented with three heads.'' W e findthe same feature in the representation of S at urn ,a deity of time, a s well as the demon of a pl anet

(Kronos-Chronos) (Fig. 3), though there is nodifferentiation of a ge in th e only exam plewith which we are acquainted. But here wefind only the human faces, not the heads ofanimals. T o explain the latter we must go backto the obscure an d remote sphere of the lateantique mystery religions again resuscitatedduring the Renaissance.

When opening the " Hieroglyphica " byPierio Valeriano, we find (s.v. " Prudentia " )the following : - '

f f PRUDENTIA. "" Serpens hic prudentiam indicare videbitur . . . Na m

cum prudentia non pr~ se nt ia antum examinet, verum etlapsa et futura meditetur et tanquam e speculo prospectet,medicum exscribere videtur, quem oportet, inquit Hippo-

crates, pensitare diligenter $& T & $ zovTa,& ;. ..Irpd ;$ovTa, Qure sunt, qure fuerint, qua: moxfutura trahantur. Quod quidem hieroglyphice per trici-pitiurn in ApoZlinis etiam simulacro facturn inuenies, cuiuspedibus ingentis vastitatis Serpens subjiciebatur. Capitaea, Canis unurn, Lupi alterurn, tertium Leonis, d e quoalibi disseruimus, et prudent;@ signum esse demonstrau-imus."llIndeed, we discover another passage referring

to this mo nstrous be ing, completed by anillustration (Fig. 4), and suggesting theliterarv source of its con ce ~t io n' ~ the desc r i~ -tion of the st atue of Sar api s, a s given byhlacrobius in the first book of h is "Satu rnali a"(ch. 20 , 13 ss.). Th e god is said to have beenre~resen ted as enthroned, the kalathos on his

he'ad, a sceptre in his left'hand, but conductingwith his right hand a three-headed monster,with a wolf's head growin g out of the body onthe left side, a lion's head in the middle, andon the ri ght the head of a dog , all three en-twined by a snake . Th is monster, however,

10 Molsdorf, Fiihrer durch den symbol. und typolog. Bilder-kreis der christl. Kunst d. Mittelalters, Leipzig, 1920, p. 134,mentions a pen-drawing of the I jth cent ury-on which a wheelheld by " Mother Nature " and representing the course of alifetime is crowned by a representation of Time under thefigure of a woman with wings and three faces. This draw-ing seems to be identical with a drawing published byForrer (Unedierte Miniaturen, Federzeichnungen und Initia-len des Mittelalters, 11, 1907, P1. LX), and it is a strikingfact, that " Time," in spite of the inscription " Tempus," ispersonified by a woman : obviously the type of the three-headed " Prudentia " has been decisive for the representationof " Time."

11 Pierio Valeriano, Hieroglyphica, 1556 (Frankfort editionof 1678, p. 192).

1% Pierio Valeriano LC., p. 384. Pierio substantiates theconnexion between Sarapis (= Sol = Apollo) and the three-headed " signum " of time in the following manner : " Com-petit vero Soli temporis consideratio. Quid vero sibi velitSerpens, ut Deus sit, ut temporis autor, alio commentariosatis explicatum est ; alibique ostendimus eiusmodi tricipitiumprudentiae convenire. "

represents time, whose three forms, representedby the three animals' heads, appear in this" signum strikingly combined in a higherJ

unity, represented by the snak e. Th e raveningwolf denotes the past, which greedily devoursthe memory of all past th in gs ; the lion thepresent, which possesses most fire and force (thelion's head being for this reason bigger than theother two), and the fawning dog the future,

which lulls mankind in agreeable but deceptivehopes.

" Eidem Aegypto adiacens ciuitas, quse con-ditorem Alexandrum Macedonem gloriatur,Sarapin atque Isin cultu pEne adtonitse uene-rationis obser uat. Omnem tamen illam uene-rationem soli se sub illius nomine testaturimpendere, uel dum calathum capiti eius infiguntuel dum sirnulacro signum tricipitis animantisadiungunt, quod exprimit medio eodemquemaximo capite leonis effigiem; dextra partecaput canis exoritur mansueta specie blandientis,pars uero lseua ceruicis rapacis lupi capite finitur,easque formas animalium draco conectit uolu-mine suo capite redeunte ad dei dexteram, quaconpescitur monstrum . Ergo leonis capi te mon-s t ra tur pres ens tempus , q u ia condic io e ius in te r$ r a t e r i t u r n f u t u r u m q u e a c t u p r a s e n t i u a l i d aferuensque est , sed et preteri turn ternpus lupicap it e s i gna tu r, quod me m or i a r e rum t ransac -

1 3 As far as printed and illustrated books are concerned,the earliest mention with which we are acquainted seems tooccur in the well known " Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,"Venice, 1499, fol. y.1.r. and y.2.r. He re the signum ofSarapis is represented on the medallion of a standard, carriedby nymphs in front of an " amore trionfante " (perhapsdenoting the rule of love over time); the snake appears as atypical " dragon of time," biting his own tail and includingthe medallion like a frame (see fig. 5). I t was Po~pelreuter,Meister des Poliphilo, Strassburg, 1904, p. 61, who firstascertained the connexion between this woodcut and theHolbein metal-cut which we discuss. Fur the r, compare the

detailed reprint and illustration of the text of Macrobius inVincenzo Cartari, " Imagini delli dei degli antichi " (Veniceedition of 1674, p. .+I) , also C. G . Gyraldus, " Syntagmasextum," in the Leyden edition of his " Opera omnia,"1696, col. 198) and San drar t's " Iconologia deorum," Niirn-berg, 1618, p. 29. Particul arly interesting is the descriptionby G. P. Lomazzo (Tra tt ato della Pittur a, 1584, VI I, 6. =vol. 111, p. 36 in the new edi tion of 1899), in which the" signum triciput " of Sarapis is treated as a representationof Saturn as Time : " ma gli antichissimi Egizi in altro mod0lo (sc. Saturn o) rappresentarono per il tempo," followed bythe description in Macrobius with the addition that " some "attempte d to recognize in the three heads a representation ofthe three sons of Osiris, namely Anubis, Hercules andMakedo-Upuaut, of whom in fact the first was representedwith the head of a dog and the third with the head of awolf (cf. note 15). On the other hand the medi zval ideaof Prudentia persists and penetrates the conception of the lateantique symbol of time, as we have learned from Titian'spainting and from the text of Pierio Valeriano ; Cesare Ripa,

for instance: introduces the"

signum triciput " as an attri-bute of " Consiglio " (see fig. b ) , according to a passage ofDiogenes Laertius, mentioned already in note 6 : "Consiglium(rnP p o v ~ C a ) itidem tripartitum est, aliud quippe a przteri-tis temporibus, aliud a futuro, aliud a przsenti tempore sumi-tur. Prz ter itu m tempus exempla suppeditat . . . Przsensautem rem ipsam, qu a in manibus est, considerare monet . .Futurum prospicere suadet, uti ne quid fiat temere, habendumbone opinionis rationem . . ." (De vit. dogm., et Apoph-tegmath. clar. philos. 111, 71).



--Fig. 6. " I1 Consiglio " (Cesare Ripa, Iconologia , Rome, 1603). Fig. 7. I3olbein (? ) A l l e g o r y of t h e t h r e e F o r n z s of T i m e ,from J. Ec k D e P r i m a t u P e t r i , libri tres, Pari s, 1521. Fig. 8. " Signum triciput

"

of Sarapis, from L. Bergerus, L u c e r n ezeterum sepulchra les iconicce , 1702, TI, pl. 7. F ig . 9. hfithraic ( :hronos, Villa Aibani, Rome (Cum ont, 11, No. 40).

t a r u m r a p i t ur e t a u f e r tu r. I t e m c a n i s bl a n d i e nt i se f fi g ie s f u tu r i t e m p o r i d e s i g n a t e u e n t u m , d equonobis spes , l i ce t incer ta , b landi tw."

There is n o doubt that the motive of the threeanimal's heads in Titian's oicture was derivedfrom this thoroughly apposite description ofMacrobius, which we can prove to have beenwell known in the Renais sance13 (for an imme-diate derivation from the extant plastic figuresof Sar api s is equally improbable on formal an dhistorical grounds alike). Th e animals' headscan therefore, a s we migh t have supposed a

priori from the parallel drawn by Titian withthe three human faces designated by inscrip-tions, be safely interpreted a s the symbols of t heThree Forms of Time. I t was no doubt the in-genious and allegorical character of the text ofhiacrobius, that made him peculiarly attractive

to that humanistic age,14 especially as th e con-tent of this passage could be connected withoutmuch difficulty with curre nt ideas inherited fromthe middle ages.

Thus we can easily conceive that Titian andPierio Valeriano could combine the late-antiquesymbol of Time with the medizval representa-tion of " Prudentia

"

(whose female heads, ofcourse, had to be transformed to male ones);and by this combination the humanists have

14 On th e importance of Egyptian and pseudo-Egyptianallegory for the hum anists of the 15th and 16th century, cf.especially K . Gie hlou~, Jahrb. d. Kuns tsamml. d. Allerh.Kaiserhauses, 1915, X X X I I , I ff., and the recent work ofVolkmann, Bilderschriften der Renaissance, 1 q z 3 . We c a neasily conceive of

"

Egyptian"

and medizeval allegoresis

coalescing, as we have seen in Titian's picture, both aspiringto an illustiption of abst ract ideas by visible forms. On theother hand, the true aim of mediaeval allegory is almostopposite to that of Renaissance hieroglyphics. Fo r themedi;ei~al author want s to explain what is for the most p art arather complicated system of ideas by translating it into theclear and efficacious lang uag e of pictures-the hum ani st wantsto disguise a mostly rather trivial sentence in a " rebus

"

aspuzzling a s possible. In fact L. B. Aiberti praises thehieroglyphics for being understood by every nation, but by" +h a initiated

"

only.

accomplished a most characteristic synthesisbetween two different conceptions of t im e: inthe medizval treatment of Prudence the threeparts of time signified the object of thoughtsof the intellect, personified by the human form,and if the three heads of thi s human formappeared differentiated according to age (themiddle head being sometimes distinguished bya crown, corresponding to the supre macy of t hepresent over past and future), this differentiationwas rather a reflex of what they beheld, thana token of what they themselves represented.Th e three-headed monster of Sarapis, on thecontrary, was s~m bol ic al f time as a mythicalforce ; and ou r picture, joining the human headswith the heads of a nimals (although omittingthe serpent, and representing the whole in apurely naturalistic manner, gives back to

time its antique demoniac quality, and never-theless subordinates it to the moral conceptionof the middle ages. Ther eby the artist realizesan entirely new idea of time, concretizing andindividualizing the abstract notions, and at thesame time spiritualizing the concrete and in -dividual forms. Neither the three-headedprodigy represented by late antique sculpture,nor the almost metaphorical

"

tripartitaPrudentia

"

represented in medizval art pro-duces the impression of a phantastical "vision."There we stand before a monstrous, but notpart icula rly visionary phenomenon-here westand before a mere allegory. Th e real "vision"(and this is valid also for apocalyptical and

mystical representations) always requires thecoincidence of natura l conditions and super -natural conceptions.

It is a st riking fact that German ar t, mostprobably at the instigation of the ItalianRenaissance, was also inspired by Macrobius.For in an emblernatical metal-cut, presumablyb y Ha ns Holbein,'' obviously the same monster



i s represented (Fig . 7). T h e G e r m a n p r i ntapp roaches even nea re r t o t he t ex t s t han doesthe Venet ian pain t ing . Holbein has contentedhimsel f wi th im i ta t ing the m onster descr ibed byMacrobius , wi thout adding the human faces andwi thout omi t t i ng the s e rpen t , a s Ti t i an h addone. T h e h e a d s a r e m a d e t o g r o w o u t of acommon conical body, round which, completelyhidin g it , the snak e i s twined, an d the whole

image is grasped, l ike a g igant ic bouquet , by adivine han d thrus t out f rom clouds . T hi s repre-senta t ion a lso shows how the idea of t ' lmecam e to l ife in a new sen se under the influenceof a late antique w rit ing wh ich, i t is true, inan a l ready som ewhat inanimate an d a l legor ica lform, conjured u p the shad es of a dark wor ldof de mo ns in a curious mixture of Greek,Egy pt ian an d Pers ian e lements ." An d yet th ispag an idea of time was not s imply taken over,e i ther in I ta ly or in Germany, but i t appears ,both in Ti t ian ' s p ic ture an d in Holbein ' s metal -

15 The metal-cut occurs from 1521 onward s in several books,printed at Paris, and is regarded by H. Koegler (Monatsheftefiir Kunstwissenschaft, 19x6, 111, 16), as an unquestionably

original work of Holbein's. Whethe r this is correct, orwhether it is the work of a mere associate of the artist mustbe left to the judgment of authorities bett er informed. (Mr.Campbell Dodgson, independently of Koegler, expressed theopinion tha t Holbein himself designed the metal-cut). Thisopinion is share d by H. A. Schmid and P. Kristeller, whobelieve it to be executed by I. F., after a design of Holbein's.v. Poppelreuter, a t the place quoted above.

16 The romance of Alexander by Pseudo-Callisthenes placesby the side of the cult image of t he Serapeion a t Alexandria(alleged to be the work of Bryaxis) a @ovrroh;pop$ov thenatur e of which no one is able to explain (cf. R. Reitz enstein," Das iranische Erlosungsmysterium, " 192 I , p. 190 ; Plutarch,De Is. et Odr., cap. 78, denotes " the serpent and the Cerbe-ru s " as an attribute of Sarapis, whom he identifies withPluto), and numerous sculptured representations are extantwhich correspond exactly to the description by Macrobius (seeReinach, Rep. de 1'Art Statuaire," 11. I p. 19, 20 and 11,2 p. 89; cf. also Roschers " Ausfiihrliches Lexikon dergriechischen und romischen Mythologie," sub voce Sarapis ,Hades, Kerberos ; Paully-Wissowa, " Real-Encyklopadie desklassischen Altertums, " s.v. Sarapis ; ThiemeBecker's "Kiinst-lerlexikon," s.v. Br yaxi s; Michaelis in " Journal of /HellenicStudi es," 1885, VI. p. 287 ff.--very tho rou gh) ; Ou r fig. 8is taken from L. Bergerus, I.ucerna: veterum sepulchralesiconic=, Berl in, 1702, 11, pl. 7 ; Dehn in " Jahrbuch. d.Deutschen arch. Instituts," 1913, XXV II I, 400. Th e onlyquestion is whether it can be proved through the history ofreligion that there is a real kernel of truth in the interpre-tation of the " Cerberus " handed down by Macrobius in thesense of an allegory of time, or whether it is nothing but anarbit rary explana tion of th e visible data which, a s is some-times really the case, may be considered devoid of importanceso far as the actual signification of the " signum " is con-cerned. But even if no one will really believe that the lionwas actually meant to represent the present, the dog thefuture, and the wolf the past (the wolf's head may rather bederived from Egyptian tradition : the god of the dead Up-uaut, in Greek Makedon-for Sara pis is also a god of thedead and was represented with a snake's body and wolf's

head (See Expedition Ernst Sieglin, Vol. I, pl. 25), yet it iscertainly possible that the sophistic exegesis of Macrobius isbased on perfectly genuine tradition. For the latest investi-gations (especially R. Reitzenstch, I.c.), have demonstratedthat Sarapis, who bad originally the form of a serpent, wasidentified not only with Zeus, Hades and Askiepios, but alsowith the lion-headed Helios and especially with the Persiangod of time " ..lion," who was confused with Helios andtherefore also represented with the head of a lion, andthat he possessed a peculiarly far-reaching significancein this last mentioned character . It is therefore not

cut , fused to a cer ta in e xtent wi th the Chr is t ian-me diz va l world of ideas. Both represe ntationshave in co mm on, in the f i rs t p lace , the omiss ionof th e actual idol, the conscious independe nttreatment of the symbol of t ime, which had beenass igned to h im mere ly a s an a t t r i bu t e ; andwe have a l ready seen how Ti t ian sought toama lgama te t he pagan and the an t ique wi th t heme dizv al idea of prudence . T h e three animals '

heads of the pagan monster were combinedwith the correspondingly a l tered human headsof the Christ ian personification of Pru de nti a(so that th e mediaeval-scholastic eleme nts in therepresenta t ion and the humanis t ic e lements ,imi ta t ing the ant ique , s tand one over the o theras in two s toreys , p la in ly separa ted and yet con-nected), and the inscription makes the wholeappea r f i rmly rooted in scholast ic thought . ButHolbein a lso , wh o keeps much more l i te ral ly tothe text of Macrobius, seems to ha ve a l tered themot ive to a cer ta in extent by p lac ing the wholemon st rous format ion in the hand of G odissuing f rom cloud^,^' and ho ld ing i t i n sus -pense over a wide landscape , thus del ibera te ly

changing the s igni f icance of t he r i gh t hand ofSarapis , which according to Macrobius graspedthe three-headed monster. By t h ~ smodificationhe a lso chr is t ianizes the subjec t and t ransformsir. to a ki nd of " vis ion," an d leaves us to choosebetween in terpre t ing i t as an a l legory of T imeor of Prr ldence (but as we have seen, f rom anhistorical point of view the difference betweenthose interpretations can almost be neglected).E i the r t he emblem m eans : (a) all which takesplace in t ime (pas t , present a nd fu ture) , how-ever much occas ioned and contro l led by thethree demon s of the se formsof t ime, neverthelessreally " l ies in the hand of God " ; o r ( b ) P r u -dence , ru ler over pas t , p resent an d fu ture , i sbased on the Divine omnipotence .at all impossible that that three-headed monster, whichwas at least not an ordinary Cerberus, was intendedto insist particularly on the character of Sarapis asa god of time; and there is actually a very remarkableagreement between the " signum triciput " of Sarapis andthe numerous extant examples of the Persian-Mithraic Aion-Chronos, with which it has in common not merely the lion'shead, but also the coils of a serpent, while the Persian divin-ity is beyond all doubt a god of time (numerous illustrationsin C. Cunront, Testes et monuments relatifs au culte deMithra, 1896, 11, whence we take our fig. 9). Our Holbeincut especially looks so like this Mithraic Chronos, that if wedid not possess the passage in Macrobius, we might think ofbringing the two representations in to immediate connexion.It is very probable, however, that this resemblance is acci-dental, the artist, in endeavouring to follow as exactly aspossible the indications of the text and to unite them withthe motive of the all-grasping divine hand, having been

naturally led to the solution of the problem, which he found.1 7 The fact must not be ignored, that the grasping handissuing from clouds in emblematical designs is not always tobe interpreted as God's hand (cf. e.g. Froben's device). Butin our case, when the text expressly connects the monsterwith the hand of Sarapis, and when the print as a whole isnot treated in a purely ornamental fashion, but shows themonster poised in air over a wide landscape, the interpreta-tion of the hand here proposed as a hand of the ChristianGod substituted for that of a pagan god, if not absolutelycertain, is still fairly probable.

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A Late Antique