Palazzo Schifanoia - Hall of the Months

BrightEye

I've been searching the internet for information on this place because it serves as an inspiration for Giordano Berti's rendering of the Estensi Tarot. I wonder if anyone can recommend a site where I can study the frescos and/or whether there's a book on the Hall of the Months?
 

JayBee

Palazzo Schifanoia - Hall of the Months (reply)

Hi. I appreciate your taste. I imagine that you're able to find the same webpages that I find via Googling, so I won't go down that road. If you're looking for a site or page that represents "one-stop schopping" (so to speak), I have never found one. Bookwise, your options aren't improved much, and you'll have to spend a little money (unless you live somewhere with access to a good library), but there are a few books I can suggest with portions devoted to Schifanoia.

- Italian Frescoes: The Early Renaissance (ISBN: 978-0-7892-0139-3). Nearly 100 bucks, but the photographs are sumptuous, and highly recommended. See the other books in the series too--a wonderful series.
- The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity (ISBN: 978-0892365371). Google Books has a preview capability for it here: http://books.google.ca/books/about/Collected_Writings.html?id=rWVDLJFs5QkC&redir_esc=y. (see also this article: http://www.educ.fc.ul.pt/hyper/resources/mbruhn/)

You can also try looking for art books featuring the work of Francesco del Cossa and Cosme Tura. (If you haven't looked at the Web Gallery of Art website [www.wga.hu], be sure to go there and search on schifanoia.)

Finally, if you have about a thousand bucks to spare (not kidding), there's a book I would dearly love to see myself and likely never will; see it here: http://www.amazon.ca/Palazzo-Schifa...F8&qid=1368552535&sr=1-1&keywords=schifanoia; in case the link flakes out, just go to any Amazon site and search on schifanoia.

And if any of the people who often post scholarly historical information here and on the Tarot History Forum know of other useful material, I do hope they'll weigh in; I would love to be guided by their expertise.)

Happy journeys!

Jay
 

DoctorArcanus

Hello BrightEye,
you can find online Aby Warburg's 1912 paper "Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoia". In this work, the great art historian solved the mystery of that fresco cycle, correctly identifying the ancient sources on which it is based: Marcus Manilius, Abu Masar and Pietro D'Abano. The paper is 29 pages long, it does not provide a full account of all the frescos, but it does explain the overall meaning of the cycle.
 

BrightEye

Thanks to both of you for the suggestions, especially the Warburg essy. (I saw the book on amazon too! I have research money I can spend... hmmm...). I've come across a book just on the Hall of the Months as well but it's in Italian and I can't read Italian.
 

DoctorArcanus

Hello BrightEye,
I downloaded and read Warburg's great paper as a consequence of your question, so thank you very much for mentioning the Schifanoia Palace!
 

BrightEye

I borrowed Warburg's 'The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity' from our College library. It's a hefty volume (even the librarian commented on it) and it contains all sorts of articles that may be useful for Tarot historians. I guess I'm stating the obvious for serious researchers.
 

DoctorArcanus

I borrowed Warburg's 'The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity' from our College library. It's a hefty volume (even the librarian commented on it) and it contains all sorts of articles that may be useful for Tarot historians. I guess I'm stating the obvious for serious researchers.

Hello BrightEye, I have read very few books about art history, none by Warburg. They were not easy to read, and from what I have seen of Warburg in the Schifanoia paper, the book you borrowed will be a tough one, not only for its size. But I can tell you that I deeply love those few books I have read, and I keep coming back to them. I am sure that books of this kind are useful to everybody, not only Tarot historians, because they are examples of love, respect and attention for culture and antiquity. I hope you will enjoy your study too!
 

Sherryl

Here's a book you can pass up - Cosme Tura in Ferrara by Stephen Campbell. I just took it down from the shelf and was disappointed to find absolutely nothing on the Schifanoia.
 

Teheuti

I saw the frescos a couple of years ago on Arnell Ando's Tarot Tour to Italy - not to be missed by anyone who can possibly manage it!!! There is a small tourist booklet available with quite a few pictures but it is all in Italian. There is a much smaller room adjacent to the grand hall that was the private study of the duke. All that remains of the design are a couple of frescos of the Virtues. However the sense is that this was designed to be a room that would specifically align the duke with the forces he sought. I felt it the minute I stood in the middle of the room. After getting that impression from the room itself I read a placard that said essentially the same thing (helping to affirm that I wasn't just crazy or fanciful).

You have to be in these places to realize the power the images and colors exert on a person standing in the room. We've explored the effects of isolation tanks but, except for grandiose churches, we have forgotten the energies that can be experienced in a carefully designed room that is meant to elevate the soul like those created by these masters of color, symbol and allegory.