Imagine di Saturno, del Tempo, & dell'Anno
The Heavens as the central motif, with the Serpent and the Dragon in a secondary part. From Le vere e nove imagini de gli dei delli antichi, 1615.
What is happening
Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “Imagine di Saturno, del Tempo, & dell'Anno, che significa li tristi effetti, che vengono da questo pianeta, & la renouatione dell'anno; con la freddezza, e tardità del pianeta di Saturno.”
Symbolica Cartari's caption, put into English here: Image of Saturn, of Time, and of the Year, which signifies the sad effects that come from this planet, and the renewal of the year; with the coldness and slowness of the planet Saturn.
Key · 2 motifs
Tap a motif on the picture, or a line below. Its note opens under the line, with the reading its author gave it.
- Primary motif
- Secondary motifs · 1
The picture
An old man walks to the left across a field of six pointed stars, his hair and beard long and loose, a veil over his head and a cloak behind him, holding out at arm's length a serpent bent into a ring with its tail at its mouth. By eye
The reading
The picture read whole, in the archive's words, from the sources quoted on the marks. Read on, and the picture follows: the motif under discussion keeps its colour.
Martianus Capella put a serpent in Saturn's right hand and had it bite its own tail. Cartari repeats the description on page 29, and his cutter follows it to the letter.
The god holds the ring out at arm's length, well clear of his body, the way a man shows another man a thing. Cartari supplies the gloss in the same sentence: by the serpent that bites its tail, time is understood.
Then the details, and every one of them has a note attached. He walks with a slow, late step. His hair and beard have gone white. A veil covers his head, and Cartari says the veil is green. Green over white is spring over snow, and the two seasons come round so fast on each other that they look joined, which is the renewal the year makes. The block cannot print green, so a reader who only looks sees cloth.
The slow step has a reason anyone can check against a sky. Cartari refers it to Saturn's own sphere, the widest of the seven, which takes thirty years to finish one circuit. Sad effects come from the planet, he goes on, so they made him old, downcast and shabby, his head wrapped, lazy and slow, his nature cold, dry and all melancholy.
And the stars are not decoration. They put him where the argument puts him, above the other six, out at the cold edge of the sky, in the frozen place Martianus found him, covered with frost and snow.
Decoded: every motif is marked, and each mark carries the reading its author gave it, quoted from the text, or says that it is observed on the picture and not read. The reading above is the archive's own, made from those sources and no others.
The outermost planet of the old order, the metal lead, the black first stage of the work, and an old man with a sickle. One sign does all four jobs, and the books move between them without explaining themselves.
In plain words Three attributes, and Cartari explains all three on the facing page. The step is slow because Saturn's sphere is the widest of the seven and takes thirty years to come round. The hair and beard have gone white with age. The veil over the white hair is green, which the block cannot print: green over white is spring over snow, one season following the other so fast that the two look joined. The stars put him at the height the argument gives him, above the other six, out where Martianus found him frozen and covered with frost.
Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “& hà il capo coperto di vn velo, che verdeggia, le chiome, & la barba sono tutte canute, & benche egli sia così vecchio, pare non dimeno potere anco ritornare fanciullo. Ilche si può dire essere il rinouamento, che fa il tempo di anno in anno”
Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: and he has his head covered with a veil that is green, his hair and his beard are all white, and although he is so old, he seems nonetheless able to turn child again. Which one may call the renewal that time makes from year to year.
Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “La tardità del passo si può riferire al tardo riuolgimento, che fa la spera di Saturno, laquale delle sette de i Pianeti è la maggiore, perche è sopra a tutte le altre; & però più delle altre che è in trenta anni, tarda à compire il suo giro.”
Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: The slowness of the step may be referred to the slow revolution the sphere of Saturn makes, which of the seven of the Planets is the widest, because it stands above all the others; and so it is slower than the others to complete its circuit, which takes thirty years.
Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “che giunta a quello di Saturno trouò lui, che quiui se ne staua in luoco freddo, tutto agghiacciato, & coperto di brina, & di neue”
Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: that having come to Saturn's heaven she found him there, staying in a cold place, all frozen, and covered with frost and snow.
The serpent that eats its own tail. The one thing that feeds on itself and so never ends.
In plain words The god does not wear the ring or stand inside it. He holds it out the way a man holds out a thing for another man to look at, which is what Cartari's source asks for: Martianus gives Saturn the serpent in his right hand, and the biting of the tail is how the reader knows the god means time.
Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “Martiano descriuendo Saturno lo fa che porge con la destra mano vn serpente, quale si morde la coda, mostrando in questa guisa, che per lui s'intende il tempo”
Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: Martianus, describing Saturn, has him hold out in his right hand a serpent which bites its own tail, showing in this way that by him time is understood.
Also carrying the Heavens
53 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.
Where the detail is the subject
This is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about it.
In the same series
Record
One symbol a week, decoded.
This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.
Free, one letter a week, unsubscribe in one click. How the address is used.
Scroll or pinch to zoom · drag to move · double-tap for 1:1 · 1003 by 1400 pixel web copy; the source file is linked under Record