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Some Antique Motifs in Trecento Art

1964; College Art Association; Volume: 46; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00043079.1964.10788769

1559-6478

Anne Markham Telpaz,

Renaissance Literature and Culture

should shine through, lux in tenebris, at the moment of the highest devotion, martyrdom. The schema of the seven vices turns, therefore, on a literal sense: la lettera de le parole fittizie, si come sono le favole de li poeti, that is, the pagan figures; and an allegorical sense: la sentenza vera, the vices and the implied virtues. The fresco pays homage to the martyrdom of the Franciscan monks by extolling the charisma and the very nature of martyrdom as it also extols the Rule-and all this by dispelling the deadly sins of the heathen with the indefeasible virtues of the Christian. It is part of the drama of Ambrogio's painting that the action shows a revolting scene of brutality in a composition that is balanced and formal. Another part of the drama lies in the symbolism of the vices that speaks to us of a Divine Mystery.