Preti's Sophonisba: Theatre of the Morose in the Baroque

NOTES

• Vita nuova 23. I would like to thank Dr Robert Gaston and Professor Peter Tomory for their invaluable help and encouragement in the preparation of this article.
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• Ursula Hoff, European Painting and Sculpture Before 1800, Melbourne 1973, pp. 112–13, suggests a date for the work somewhat earlier than Mary Woodall, ‘An unknown version of Mattia Preti's Sophonisba Takes the Poison’, Art Bulletin of Victoria, 1968/69, pp. 12–13, who suggests the late 1640s. I favour the later date, since the Venetian overtones of the work point to Preti's later development c.1660 in a more luxuriously baroque style.
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• Livy, History of Rome 30.12–25, Appian, Roman History 8.5, Dio Cassius 9.11–13 (Zonaras). Dio Cassius is undervalued by Charles Ricci in his early but enchanting study of the Sophonisba material, Sophonisbe dans la tragédie classique italienne et française, Turin 1904, reprinted Geneva 1970; nor does A. Axelrad, Le théme de Sophonisbe, Lille 1956, re-examine the classical sources.
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• No fewer than 11 editions of the play were reprinted before 1630. See M. Herrick, Italian Tragedy in the Renaissance, Urbana 1965, p. 34. The work was long regarded as a prototype of the Renaissance play. Cf. the lines of Pope: ‘When learning, after the long Gothic night / Fair, o'er the Western World renew'd her light, / With arts arising, Sophonisba rose: / The tragic Muse, returning, wept her woes; And the first tears for her were taught to flow, / Her charms the Gallic Muses next inspir'd: / Corneille himself saw, wonder'd, and was fir'd’. Prologue to Thomson's Sophonisba, in Poems of Alexander Pope, London 1973, p. 807.
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• Thyestes 453; see Herrick, op. cit. p. 31.
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• ‘non locuta est ferocius quam acceptum poculum nullo trepidationis signo dato inpauide hausit’, op. cit. 30.15.
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• This is an aspect of the painting which was apparently not felt. Mary Woodall speaks generically of paintings such as the Melbourne Sophonisba celebrating ‘the stoic acceptance of death’, op. cit. p. 12.
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• Sofonisba 5.2, henceforth cited by line: 1572.
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• op. cit. 8.5. The phrase which I have emphasized is not uncommon in Greek literature: cf. the line in Euripides stating that it is better to live badly than to die beautifully (kakos zen kreisson e kalos thanein), Iphigenia in Aulis 1252. An inscription found in Athens actually asks if there is such a thing as dying beautifully (ei to kalos esti thanein) In Her scriptiones graecae 2.3.2724, which I found in Richmond Lattimore, Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs, Urbana 1962, p. 206, who gives a date of some time before 250 B.C.
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• This can be verified by the fact that Appian is the only source to mention the detail of Sophonisba's marriage to Masinissa prior to her marriage to Syphax (Masinissa's foe). The whole moral tragedy of Sophonisba's plight in the play by Trissino depends upon this detail.
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• ‘Udito questo, la Regina porse / la mano e prese arditamente il vaso; / e poscia disse: al tuo signor dirai, / che la sua nuova sposa volontieri / accetta il primo don ch'a lei ne manda’, op. cit. 1585–88.
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• See Derrida's relish in the word in Greek (farmakon), which describes both a poison as well as remedy or drug, ‘La pharmacie de Platon”, La dissémination, Paris 1972, pp. 78 ff. But a deeper philological investigation between the concepts of poison and cure is conducted in É. Benveniste, ‘Don et échange’, Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, Paris 1969, v. 1, pp. 65–79. The common form of our English word ‘gift’ and the German word for poison (Gift) seems to be no coincidence.
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• ‘Poi con la taza in man sopesa alquanto / si stette e disse: non si vuol lasciare / di far onore a Dio per caso alcuno’, ibid. 1592–94.
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• Boiardo's narration is a little novella in ottava rima within the epic: Iroldo and Tisbina both drink poison because their love is to be aborted by a necessary marriage between Tisbina and Prasildo. The significant lines run: ‘Bevette il succo che ivi era rimaso, / insino al fondo del lucente vaso’, Orlando innamorato 12.60.7–8. The last line is almost replicated by Trissino, ‘in fin al fondo del lucente vaso’; see following footnote. Perhaps both lines have a common source.
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• ‘Ne la camera sua fece ritorno / ove senza tardar prese il veneno / e tutto lo beveo sicuramente / in fin al fondo del lucente vaso’, ibid. 1621–24.
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• Cf. the messenger's surprise: ‘Ma quel che più mi par meraviglioso / è ch'ella fece tutte queste cose / senza gittarne lacrima o sospiro / e senza pur cangiarsi di colore’, ibid. 1625–28. constancy is described in less pathological terms by Bandello, as she composed herself on her bed as decorously as she could (quanto più onestamente puote), Novelliere 2.41, in F. Flora ed., Tutte le opere, Verona 1966, v. 1, p. 494.
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• ‘la misera nol seppe se non tardi’, op. cit. 1675; cf. also Masinissa's tragic realization: ‘Tardo sarò giunto’, ibid. 1983.
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• ‘furibonda / corse piangendo, e con le man si straccia / i capelli e le guance ed urla e grida / in modo che farìa pianger i sassi’, ibid. 1678–1681.
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• Africa 5. 702–703.
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• ibid. 5. 701.
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• Mary Woodall has noted that ‘Masinissa, silhouetted dramatically against the sky, contrasts with the passive acceptance implied in the quiet figure of Sophonisba painted in gold and silver tones against the dark background’, op. cit. p. 12; cf. the military context in Trissino: ‘in ogni parte ov'io rivolgo gli occhi, / veggio annitrir cavalli e muover armi; / onde mi sento il cuor farsi ghiaccio’, op. cit. 1139–141, in which the dread of the war imagery is artfully contrasted with the passive female chorus which represents it. Preti is obviously interested in such a universal contrast rather than any specific moral comment on the soldier. Masinissa, according to Appian, slaughtered (katesfaxen) 2,500 prisoners, op. cit. 8.5.
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• loc. cit.
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• See A. Pigler, Barockthemen, Budapest 1974, s.v. ‘Sophonisba’.
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• Similar contrasts can also be found among the Cleopatras and, though less popular, the Senecas, ibid. s.vv. ‘Kleopatra’ and ‘Seneca’.
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• See the lists, ibid.: there are 180 examples of Lucretia, 120 of Cleopatra, 94 of Pyramus and Thisbe, 80 of Sophonisba, 78 of Dido, 39 of Seneca, 35 of Socrates, 24 of Hercules, 16 of Portia, 15 of Samson, 10 of Arrea, 9 of Germanicus and 6 of Ghismonda. Suicide paintings are surpassed in number by the most popular myths such as Europa and the Bull, 228, or Diana and Actæon, 211; but there are plenty of celebrated subjects such as Danæ and the Golden Rain, 129, or Hercules and Omphale, 146.
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• A brief historical survey of the subject is most readily accessible in A. Alvarez, The Savage God, London 1971. The position of the Church has still been vigorously defended in this century. The essential points can therefore be understood from twentieth-century sources: ‘…der Mensch hat sich das Leben nicht gegeben und darf es sich deshalb auch nicht nehmen. Selbstmord is deshalb eine Versündigung gegen Gott und verdient Strafe’, K. Galling, ed., Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Tübingen 1961, p. 1677. Schopenhauer explained the philosophical position in more critical terms: ‘Das Christentum trägt es in seinem Innersten die Wahrheit, daszlig; das Leiden (Kreuz) der eigentliche Zweck der Lebens ist: daher verwirft es, als diesem entegenstehend, den Selbstmord’, Parerga und Paralipomena, Sammelte Werke, Stuttgart and Frankfurt 1965, v. 5, p. 365.
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• This case is argued in my Masters thesis, The Tragic Context of the Suicide Paintings, La Trobe University 1982, supervised by Prof. Peter Tomory.
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• This has been recognized in critical literature for a long time. See De Sanctis, using Marino to characterize baroque sensibility: ‘aveva immaginazione copiosa e veloce, molta facilità di concezione, orecchio musicale, ricchezza inesauribile di modi e di forme, nessuna profondità e serietà di sentimento, nessuna fede in un contenuto qualsiasi”, Storia della letteratura italiana, (1871) Milan 1970, p. 640.
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• Jean-Marie Domenach explains: ‘«C'est comique,» on ne désigne qu'un aspect extérieur d'un événement ou d'une situation dont la nature essentielle demeure hors de cause. «C'est comique» signifie simplement qu'on rit et ne nous livre aucune explication sur les raisons de ce rire, qui peuvent ˆtre extrˆmement diverses. Il y a des comiques de toute espèce et de toute nuance; il n'y a qu'un tragique, et il nous renvoie à une essence unique, mˆme si elle est la plus difficile à saisir. En disant: «C'est tragique, » fut-ce à propos d'un incident anodin, je mets en branle une métaphysique: la manière dont les événements arrivent, dont l'homme conçoit son existence et son rapport avec les autres, avec lui-mˆme, avec Dieu—une sagesse, folle peut-ˆtre, mais une sagesse.’ Le retour du tragique, Paris 1967, p, 21. Tragedy is always destructive. Scheler writes: ‘Ein Wert muß auf alle Fälle vernichtet werden, wenn es zum Phänomen des Tragischen kommen soll.’ Zum Phänomen des Tragischen, Collected Works, Bern 1954, v. 3, p. 154.
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• See the remarks of Sancho to the Don: ‘tome mi consejo, que es que nunca se tome con farsantes, que es gente favorecida… Sepa vuestra merced que, como son gentes alegres y de placer, todos los favorecen, todos los amparan, ayudan y estiman, y mas siendo de aquellos de las companías reales y de título, que todos, o los mas, en sus trajes y composturas parecen unos príncipes’. Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1.10, Aguillar ed., Madrid 1975, v. 2, p. 618.
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• cf. Schiller: ‘wer von uns will der erste sein, der über dem beweinenswürdigen Schlachtopfer einer verruchten Maxime den Stab bricht?’ ‘Schaubühne als moralische Anstalt’, Philosophische Schriften, Munich 1975, p. 98. When Trissino's Sophonisba does obeisance before the altars, she exercises her right as a pagan heroine to have pietas and religio but not to submit to dogma of a Christian kind. She thus has spiritual virtue and cannot be accused of atheism and remains noble in the un-Christian act of suicide.
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• See E. Auerbach on the recipes of the grand siècle: ‘die klassische Tragödie, die von dem Publikum ihrer Zeit getragen wurde, ist der vollkommenste Ausdrück der gedachten Entchristung, des Entstehens einer neuen idealen Wertwelt; sie war für das christliche Leben um so gefährlicher, je idealer und erhabener sie war, und je breiter die Schicht von Menschen wurde, die sich von ihr ergreifen ließ. Das haben einige geistliche Schriftsteller der Zeit, besonders Nicole und später Bossuet erkannt und ausgedrückt. Daß die grosse französische Tragödie das Publikum gewann und von ihm getragen wurde, weil sie die grossen Leidenschaften in einer bis dahin unerhörten Weise zum Gegenstand glühendster Bewunderung für jeden empfindenden Zuhörer machte, weil sie eine neue, von allen christlichen Gedanken unabhängige Welt des erhabenen Lebens schuf, das haben ihre geistlichen Gegner sogleich gefühlt.’ Das französische Publikum des 17. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1965, p. 50.
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• This is especially true of Euripides, as R. Hirzel has noted: ‘von diesem Dichter wird die Billigung des Selbstmordes bis zur Glorifizierung…es war sein Lieblingsmotiv’, ‘Der Selbstmord’, Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, v. 11, 1908, pp. 95–98.
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• See the monumental study of the theme by A. Bayet: ‘Je ne connais pas un seul cas dans lequel le suicide d'un personnage le rend odieu. Par contre ceux qui se tuent pour sauver leur honneur, par remords ou par amour sont invariablement sympathiques’, Le suicide et le morale, Paris 1922, p. 521.
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• To appreciate artistic consciousness of the abstract idea of tragedy, see Ripa's dagger-brandishing personification: ‘il pugnale insanguinato che non le morti simplicimente, ma le morti violenti de’ Prencipi ingiusti sono il soggetto della tragedia’, Iconologia, Padua 1611, New York reprint 1976, sv. tragedia. It is a prescription for comedy rather than tragedy. The demise of cruel tyrants is not in itself a tragic theme.
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• Werther, 1774, was considered responsible for a spate of suicides. See also Georg Siegmund on the influence of the text: ‘haben die Philosophen der Neuzeit mit ihrer Neubewertung des Selbstmordes der grossen Wandlung vorgearbeitet, so ist es doch die Dichtung gewesen, die den Stimmungumschwung zuwege gebracht hat; insbesondere ist es Goethe gewesen, der mit seiner Dichtung «Die Leiden des jungen Werther» die Stimmung der Zeit aufs nachhaltigste beeinflußt und eine allgemeine Umwertung des Selbstmordes angebahnt hat’, Sein und Nichtsein, Trier 1961, p. 47.
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• cf. Foscolo's Ultime lettere di Iacopo Ortis of 1802, Milan 1988 ed., p. 135.
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