Two Illustrated Horoscopes of the Italian Renaissance

Abstract

Abstract Among astral representations in Renaissance paintings and frescoes, a particular and very complex class stands out: that of Illustrated Horoscopes, that is, complete charts disguised under the cover of innocent pastoral landscapes or conventional mythological scenes. Two examples pertaining to this elusive class are proposed and analyzed in this article. The first is a Giorgionesque painting in the Royal Gallery in Dresden, the so-called Horoscope, that probably portrays the casting of a birth-chart for Ercole II d’Este, the son of Lucrezia Borgia, and at the same time a scene from the epic of Orlando and the Paladins. The second is Zucchi’s Assembly of the Gods, a copper panel painted for Ferdinando de Medici’s studiolo in the Roman Villa Medici, which arranges the planetary divinities in correlation to the zodiacal constellations, building the extraordinary nativity of the owner. Both astrological charts, albeit veiled and ambiguous by nature, are substantiated by internal signals, verified on the basis of contemporary horoscopes, and justified by the overall painting narrative.