They, like poetry, might think themselves fortunate if allegory
could be expressed by a mythological figure--by a figure which
antiquity saved from absurdity--if Mars might stand for war, and Diana
for the love of the chase.
Nevertheless art and poetry had better allegories than these to offer,
and we may assume with regard to such figures of this kind as appeared
in the Italian festivals, that the public required them to be clearly
and vividly characteristic, since its previous training had fitted it
to be a competent critic. Elsewhere, particularly at the Burgundian
court, the most inexpressive figures, and even mere symbols, were
allowed to pass, since to understand, or to seem to understand them,
was a part of aristocratic breeding. On the occasion of the famous
'Oath of the Pheasant' in the year 1454, the beautiful young
horsewoman, who appears as 'Queen of Pleasure,' is the only pleasing
allegory. The huge epergnes, with automatic or even living figures
within them, are either mere curiosities or are intended to convey some
clumsy moral lesson. A naked female statue guarding a live lion was
supposed to represent Constantinople and its future savior, the Duke of
Burgundy. The rest, with the exception of a Pantomime-- Jason in
Colchis--seems either too recondite to be understood or to have no
sense at all.
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