Dom Pernety, in his Dictionnaire Mytho Hermétique, 1787, told us about the aqua pontica eau pontique, bridge-ish water-Pontus, ponte, and pont in Latin, Italian, and mean French bridge.Ī bridge can suggest a connection, a union between two sides otherwise too far to be reached: in Alchemy, a man and woman can stand for different colors, phases, or operations according to the rule of the multiplicity of meaning. Apparently useless, the bridge divides the scene in the middle of the painting. Now we can analyze the bridge that unites the two main characters. Why is a naked white-mantled woman breastfeeding a baby near two outlandish half-columns? Why do these columns look different from each other? Still, why is the woman breastfeeding in stormy weather? Wherever is the lighted woman receiving irradiation from in such a stormy dark environment? And why does a white-red man holding a long rod seem to guard her and her baby? Why is a bridge arching over a pond and not over a river, as one would commonly expect? Why is another pond, or better, a dark puddle, lying between the man and the woman? Should we make the two ponds a sort of an interrupted river? The incipient storm is so important that it overshadows everything else, which instead deserves an in-depth analysis, given that it is a rather evident alchemical symbolism: However, in a certain sense, the scene is suspended or waiting for some event, which can only come from the sky: the arrival of the storm is awaited (in fact, this is the title of the painting). At first sight, Giorgione’s Tempest might appear as a fine renaissance landscape. At dawn in the sixteenth century, Venice was regarded as a hermetic hotspot Manutius was printing his daring books (thanks to the help of noble and cultured patrons such as Bembo, Barbaro, Barbarigo, the nephew of Pico della Mirandola, and others who deserve a separate article) and would-be alchemists, as confirmed by Salomon Trismosin, were going there to start their Alchemy tour. Painted by Giorgione on an uncertain date, perhaps in 1505, while living in Venice and being patronized by some learned aristocrats. Secondly, I have always regarded the Tempest as my first approach to Alchemy. Mainly for two reasons: Giorgione was born in Castelfranco Veneto, just a few miles from my place. Kicking off my Alchemy blog with the Italian painter Giorgione ( 1477-1510 ) is quite a natural choice for me. Giorgione, Tempesta, 1506-1508, Gallerie Accademia, Venezia
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