Filelfo in Milan: writings, 1451-1477 (review)

Reviews 153 of connoisseurship' is set aside, and the reconstruction of de' Cavalieri's creative procedures controls and takes precedence over the attempt to establish the corpus of his works. One cannot but conclude that the attributions to de' Cavalieri and other followers came first, and this required a reductionist view of the Michelangelo corpus. But although Perrig's method may be flawed, the detail and subtlety of the analyses of particular drawings can make thereaderperceive the drawing in a way he has not perceived it before. Subdety, however, is a two-edged sword. In criticism, whether literary or pictorial, it may be a virtue. But connoisseurship is not a criticism. It is an attempt to resolve a matter of fact by using primarily visual evidence: the identity of the person who made the work. Subtlety is a hindrance if it distorts the relative importance of observations by stressing a nuance, while failing to emphasise die obvious. In the end, connoisseurship is less a matter of discerning subtleties than of deciding whether a drawingfitsbest in the pile marked 'Michelangelo' or in the pile marked 'de' Cavalieri' or 'not Michelangelo'. Consensus does matter because it is a sign that those who have considered the question agree on what goes in which box. The easier things are to sort, the more redundant becomes the need to argue the case for an individual drawing. In Penig's corpus too many weak drawings sit alongside strong drawings in the same box as the work of followers. 'Quatity', in this sense, is a criterion of connoisseurship which cannot be dispensed with. David MarshaU Department of Fine Art Melbourne University Robin, Diana, Filelfo in Milan: writings, 1451-1477, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xvi, 269; 2 maps, 5 illustrations; R.R.P. US$39.50. In the study of any Renaissance author it is an advantage to know the languages normaUy used; namely, Latin and one or more vernacular tongues. Occasionally a knowledge of Greek is also needed, as with Filelfo. Fortunately Diana Robin demonstrates a sound knowledge of Latin and of Italian and her critiques of two Greek poems by Filelfo are scholarly and illuminating. Her selection of texts to illustrate the development of Filelfo's life and thought is judicious and it is refreshing to find the Latin texts included in the appendices. However, EngUsh translations might have been added for Renaissance scholars who knowtittleor no Latin. There is a chronology after the appendices that provides useful backup for the rather haphazard biographical details in the book proper. For a lesser luminary like Filelfo, a short but complete biography in the introduction would have assisted most readers. j54 Reviews The chapters have interesting titles: The scar, Rape, Hunger, Levity, and Being. His scar and hunger were certainly painful memories for Filelfo, although his sense of honour made him conceal their grim reality. His search for a Christian/Classical 'Being' occupied hisfinalyears. However, 'Levity' ill suits the serious Psychagogia. 'Greek poetry' or 'Rome' would have been better. For 'Rape', the wider honor of 'Warfare' or 'Carnage' better suggests Fdelfo's reaction to Piacenza's destruction. Chapter 1 begins with Filelfo in Milan, already aged 53, although the Latin epistles discussed by Robin hark back to 1427, when he was 29 and in Venice. But this suits the book's concentration of Milan. Her discussion of patronage is of special value, ending with Filelfo satirizing its ideals in his Sforziad in order to avenge himself on his crude and deceitful patron. Robin's account of the second attempt on Filelfo's life, and his embroidery of it to bolster his honour, is also of interest as also are the three ideal exempla of perverted patronage that follow: the 'aristocratic book-thief, Giustiniani; the 'gypsy scholar and antimoder, Aurispa; and the sinister 'monk and saboteur', Traversari. Added to the ruthless Sforza, these three well depict the unglamorous reality of clientship during the Renaissance. In chapter 2, Sforza occupies central stage, and becomes the unwitting target of Filelfo's poetic barbs. The sack of the rebellious client-town, Piacenza, provides a gruesome climax to the 'rhetoric of imperialism', as Sforza lets his troops butcher its men...