Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 95. (Budapest, 2001)
LICHNER, MAGDOLNA: Additional material to establishing the subject of Jacopo Bassano's Sleeping shepherd
tian interpretation of the eclogues. 55 It was David Rosand who, in 1988, 56 made it clear that the types 57 of Byzantine origin and rooted in medieval tradition, The Annunciation to the Shepherds and, later, The Adoration of the Shepherds, may be related with the texts of Virgil's Eclogue I (6-10 and 16-19) and Eclogue IV (4-7). In spite of this, Aikema claims that, by blending biblical and Virgilian elements in their argumentation, the researchers of Jacopo Bassano's works simply try to be trendy, leaving thorough iconographie studies aside. 58 In connection with the Budapest picture we have the opportunity to compare picture and text, mainly for the figure of the shepherd in 'repose'. In a word, we have to return to the title figure, to the attitude of the sleeping shepherd and the way he is depicted. Even Aikema uses the word recumbent, 59 of which the Latin origin is found in the first line of Virgil's Eclogue I as recubans. The half supine, half sitting posture, together with the associations evoked by the verb form med itaris, portray the 'perennial' pastoral state, the state of tranquility, repeated for centuries on illustrations to Virgil. 60 Meliboeus Tityre, tu patulac recubans sub tegmine fagi silvestrcm tenui musam meditaris avena; Tityrus „0 Meliboe, deus nobis haec otia fecit: namque erit illc mihi semper deus; illius aram saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agmts. Hie meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum Ludere quae vcllem calamo permisit agresti Meliboeus Saepe malum hoc nobis, si mens non laeva fuisset, de caelo tactas memini praedicere quercus. Sed tarnen iste deus qui sit. da. Tityre, nobis." (Virgil, Eclogue I, 6-10) The formal precursor of the sleeping shepherd's figure 61 can be perceived in The Adoration of the Shepherds of Galleria Borghese (ca. 1553-54) (fig. 73) Compared to 55 Many think rather of Georgics as having influenced Jacopo Bassano's art, mainly in connection with the Seasons and the Parable of the Sower. See Rearick, loc. cit. (note 6.) 137-159. 5f ' Rosand, D., Giorgione, Venice and the Pastoral Vision, in Places of Delight. The Pastoral Landscape. Washington 1988. 59-67. 57 Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie IL ed. Kirschbaum, E. Wien 1970. 421-422. and Schiller, G., Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst 1. Gütersloh 1966. 95-97. 58 Aikema op. cit. (note 35.) 21. 59 Aikema op. cit. (note 35.) 43. fin Rosand op. cit. (note 56.) 38. Illustrations to Virgil see Patterson op.cit. (note 34.) pict. L, 4., 1114., 18-19., 29-31., 36. 61 The earliest recognizable instance of the gesture in Jacopo Bassano's paintings. Saint John the Baptist has a similar posture in the painting from about 1558 (Bassano del Grappa. Museo Civico), brilliantly analyzed by Berdini op.cit. (note 34.) 40-45., as well as in the picture, also dated at 1558, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, Washington, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection.
