Calumny

Federico Zuccaro (c. 1542-1609) c. 1569-72

Lucian’s description made the Calumny of Apelles, as it is always called, the world’s most famous lost painting. During the Renaissance it was discussed by Alberti in his De Pittura of 1434 and ‘re-created’ in Botticelli’s famous painting (Uffizi). Federico’s is an adaptation rather than a re-creation, for, as it is ‘the Calumny with the Happy Ending’. In Lucian’s account Calumny drags the young man representing Innocence off by the hair in triumph, accompanied by Envy, Treachery and Deceit and followed by a Repentance and Truth. Federico’s hero, by contrast is, led off, his dignity intact, under the protection of Mercury. A detailed explanation of the allegory here was written by the artist’s son, Ottaviano Zuccaro, though he diplomatically passed over the specific reasons for the painting.

On the left sits King Midas, famous for his bad judgement and shown with ass’s ears. He is being turned against the innocent ‘hero’, being led away on the right by figures of Suspicion and Calumny, the latter holding up a lighted torch in her left hand. Envy lurks in the shadows behind, with emaciated breast and snakes in her hair. Minerva, goddess of wisdom, restrains the king from releasing Rage, blindfolded and manacled. The animals represent the vices that thrive under bad government: a fox (Cruelty), a wolf (Malice), a toad (Avarice), a harpy (Greed) and a leopard (Fraudulence).

The frame is an emblematic cornucopia: each corner bears symbols of Minerva, her aegis emblazoned with a Medusa’s head. Each side has a cartouche in the centre flanked by two fictive stone figures, interspersed with Federico’s own emblem of the sugar-loaf (zucchero). Reading anticlockwise, starting with the left-hand side, the cartouche shows Aeneas holding the Golden Bough he took on his journey to Hades, which symbolised for Ottaviano ‘the desire for virtue’. On the lower edge of the frame the cartouche shows Aeneas prevented from climbing a hill surmounted by a temple of virtue by animals, described by Ottaviano as a wolf (for ignorance), an ass (lasciviousness) and wild boar (lust), although here they are an ass, goat and sheep. A ship in the background is tossed in a storm, symbolising the difficulty of the virtuous life. Two young men sit on either side of this cartouche; the one on the left embraces an ox, representing noble Toil; the one on the right breaks a yoke, signifying base Servitude. On the right-hand side of the frame the cartouche shows Hercules crowned with laurel, holding a palm of Victory and a shield of Minerva (with a Gorgon’s head), while he crushes and impales two monsters. Below the cartouche are putti with trumpets, to signify the fame and glory which should accompany Virtue, although, the two trumpets may represent good and bad fame. On the upper border of the painted frame the cartouche shows Juno riding a chariot drawn by peacocks over a calm, windless sea upon which kingfishers (or halcyons) were said to nest (hence the phrase ‘Halcyon Days’). This scene symbolises the peace achieved by the virtuous. On the left of the cartouche Hercules appears with his club and the skin of the Hydra; on the right a younger man embraces an eagle and a lion, representing high and noble thoughts.

Royal Collection © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II