Calumny of Apelles (Botticelli)
Encyclopedia
The Calumny of Apelles is a tempera
painting by Italian Renaissance
painter Sandro Botticelli
. Based on the description of a painting by Apelles
, the work was completed in approximately 1494. It is on display in the Uffizi
in Florence
.
. Though Apelles' works have not survived, Lucian
recorded details of one in his On Calumny:
Botticelli reproduced this quite closely, down to the donkey ears of the seated man, into which the women that flank him speak. A richly gowned Slander (or Calumny), with her hair being dressed by her attendants, is being led by her slender, robed companion. The man she is dragging, nearly nude and with his ankles crossed as if to be crucified, raises his hands in prayer. The woman behind him turns her head to regard the stately pale nude pointing to the heavens.
Without description of the setting, Botticelli has presented a throne room elaborately decorated with sculptures and relief
s of Classical heroes and battle scenes.
, in 1921, relates that Apelles had himself been slandered, accused by a rival of helping Theodotus of Aetolia
to foster revolt in Tyre. (Altrocchi assures readers that the story cannot be true, as Apelles had been long dead before the revolt of which he is accused.) Ptolemy
was on the verge of executing Apelles for the deed, so the story goes, when a friend revealed the truth and the slanderer himself was sold into slavery. Nevertheless, Apelles expressed his resentment for Ptolemy and the peril in which he found himself in his painting.
The story of Apelles' painting became popular in Renaissance Italy, and Botticelli was not the first Italian Renaissance artist to paint it. This work, completed in 1494, was the last secular painting he would produce. It may have been undertaken as a commission of the Florentian banker who oversaw the Papal Mint
. It is often assumed that Botticelli had a specific slandered individual in mind, perhaps even himself, as an anonymous person had accused him of sodomy
.
Tempera
Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium . Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and examples from the 1st centuries AD still exist...
painting by Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
painter Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance...
. Based on the description of a painting by Apelles
Apelles
Apelles of Kos was a renowned painter of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of this artist rated him superior to preceding and subsequent artists...
, the work was completed in approximately 1494. It is on display in the Uffizi
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...
in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
.
Theme
In The Calumny of Apelles, Botticelli drew on the description of a painting by Apelles, a Greek painter of the Classical periodClassical Greece
Classical Greece was a 200 year period in Greek culture lasting from the 5th through 4th centuries BC. This classical period had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and greatly influenced the foundation of Western civilizations. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, such as...
. Though Apelles' works have not survived, Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
recorded details of one in his On Calumny:
On the right of it sits a man with very large ears, almost like those of MidasMidasFor the legend of Gordias, a person who was taken by the people and made King, in obedience to the command of the oracle, see Gordias.Midas or King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This was called the Golden touch, or the...
, extending his hand to Slander while she is still at some distance from him. Near him, on one side, stand two women—Ignorance and Suspicion. On the other side, Slander is coming up, a woman beautiful beyond measure, but full of malignant passion and excitement, evincing as she does fury and wrath by carrying in her left hand a blazing torch and with the other dragging by the hair a young man who stretches out his hands to heaven and calls the gods to witness his innocence. She is conducted by a pale ugly man who has piercing eye and looks as if he had wasted away in long illness; he represents envy. There are two women in attendance to Slander, one is Fraud and the other Conspiracy. They are followed by a woman dressed in deep mourning, with black clothes all in tatters—she is Repentance. At all events, she is turning back with tears in her eyes and casting a stealthy glance, full of shame, at Truth, who is slowly approaching .
Botticelli reproduced this quite closely, down to the donkey ears of the seated man, into which the women that flank him speak. A richly gowned Slander (or Calumny), with her hair being dressed by her attendants, is being led by her slender, robed companion. The man she is dragging, nearly nude and with his ankles crossed as if to be crucified, raises his hands in prayer. The woman behind him turns her head to regard the stately pale nude pointing to the heavens.
Without description of the setting, Botticelli has presented a throne room elaborately decorated with sculptures and relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
s of Classical heroes and battle scenes.
History
An apocryphal story is connected to the painting. Rudolph AltrocchiRudolph Altrocchi
Rudolph Altrocchi was a scholar of Italian language and literature and a university professor.-Life and work:...
, in 1921, relates that Apelles had himself been slandered, accused by a rival of helping Theodotus of Aetolia
Theodotus of Aetolia
Theodotus was an Aetolian, who at the accession of Antiochus III the Great held the command of the important province of Coele-Syria for Ptolemy Philopator , king of Egypt...
to foster revolt in Tyre. (Altrocchi assures readers that the story cannot be true, as Apelles had been long dead before the revolt of which he is accused.) Ptolemy
Ptolemy IV Philopator
Ptolemy IV Philopator , son of Ptolemy III and Berenice II of Egypt was the fourth Pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt...
was on the verge of executing Apelles for the deed, so the story goes, when a friend revealed the truth and the slanderer himself was sold into slavery. Nevertheless, Apelles expressed his resentment for Ptolemy and the peril in which he found himself in his painting.
The story of Apelles' painting became popular in Renaissance Italy, and Botticelli was not the first Italian Renaissance artist to paint it. This work, completed in 1494, was the last secular painting he would produce. It may have been undertaken as a commission of the Florentian banker who oversaw the Papal Mint
Papal mint
The Papal Mint is the pope's institute for the production of hard cash. Papal Mint also refers to the buildings in Avignon, Rome, and elsewhere that used to house the mint...
. It is often assumed that Botticelli had a specific slandered individual in mind, perhaps even himself, as an anonymous person had accused him of sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
.