The Middle Ages were
essentially the ages of allegory. Theology and philosophy treated their
categories as independent beings, and poetry and art had but little to
add, in order to give them personality. Here all the countries of the
West were on the same level.
Their world of ideas was rich enough in types and figures, but when
these were put into concrete shape, the costume and attributes were
likely to be unintelligible and unsuited to the popular taste. This,
even in Italy, was often the case, and not only so during the whole
period of the Renaissance, but down to a still later time. To produce
the confusion, it was enough if a predicate of the allegorical figures
was wrongly translated by an attribute. Even Dante is not wholly free
from such errors, and, indeed, he prides himself on the obscurity of
his allegories in general. Petrarch, in his 'Trionfi,' attempts to give
clear, if short, descriptions of at all events the figures of Love, of
Chastity, of Death, and of Fame. Others again load their allegories
with inappropriate attributes. In the Satires of Vinciguerra, for
example, Envy is depicted with rough, iron teeth, Gluttony as biting
its own lips, and with a shock of tangled hair, the latter probably to
show its indifference to all that is not meat and drink. We cannot here
discuss the bad influence of these misunderstandings on the plastic
arts.
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