Imagine di Saturno, ò del Tempo divoratore de suoi figliuoli

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 Cartari's caption names him twice over, Saturn and Time, and gives the appetite its reason: he consumes everything. Four children get away from him, and the exposition names them on page 29 as the four elements. Time devours what time made, and the elements were not made in time.

Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “da gli elementi in fuori, che sono i quattro figliuoli, Gioue, Giunone, Plutone, e Nettuno, cioè fuoco, aria, terra, & acqua, li quali non passarono per la vorace gola, perche questi durano sempre.” Le vere e nove imagini de gli dei delli antichi, page 29, the exposition of the image.

Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: apart from the elements, which are the four children, Jupiter, Juno, Pluto and Neptune, that is fire, air, earth and water, which did not pass down the greedy throat, because these last for ever.

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In the alchemical pictures a child is the thing being made. In the Apocalypse it is the thing under attack.

In plain words The statue Cartari is working from held no child. It held a certain thing wrapped in a cloth, and two pages later he says what was inside the cloth: the stone Ops handed her husband in place of Jupiter, which he swallowed without looking and brought up again. The block cutter unwrapped it and drew the child instead.

Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “perche le fecero quasi sempre di huomo vecchio, mal vestito, senza nulla in capo, con vna falce nell'vna mano, & nell'altra haueua certa cosa auiluppata in vn panno, quale pareua cacciarsi in gola, come che la volesse diuorare, e quattro piccoli fanciullini gli erano quiui appresso.” Le vere e nove imagini de gli dei delli antichi, page 25, the description of the antique image.

Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: because they made him nearly always as an old man, badly clothed, with nothing on his head, a sickle in one hand, and in the other a certain thing wrapped in a cloth which he seemed to be pushing into his throat as though he wanted to devour it, and four little children stood there beside him.

Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “Ope gli presentò certa pietra auuolta in vn panno, dicendo quello essere il figliuolo, che egli domandaua. Et egli, senza guardare altrimente che fosse, se la cacció in gola, e diuorossela” Le vere e nove imagini de gli dei delli antichi, page 27, the fable of the stone.

Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: Ops presented him with a certain stone wrapped in a cloth, saying that this was the son he was asking for. And he, without looking to see what it was, thrust it down his throat and devoured it.

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A body drawn as growth. Note which way it grows and what is at the root rather than at the top.

In plain words Not scenery. Cartari gives Saturn a second name a few lines above the description of the statue, and the vine is that name drawn: the god who came into Italy and taught the country how to plant a vine, keep it and make wine out of it.

Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “Fu detto anco Saturno, Vitisatore, quasi cultor delle viti, perche dicono, che essendo passato nell'Italia, come s'è detto, & accettato da' Latini, ne hebbe della figlia di vno d'essi Enotria nominata, alcuni figliuoli, trà quali vien connumerato Giano; a chi egli insegnò il modo di piantare, & coltiuar la vite, & di fare il vino” Le vere e nove imagini de gli dei delli antichi, page 25, the names of Saturn.

Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: Saturn was also called Vitisatore, as one might say the cultivator of vines, because they say that having passed into Italy, as has been said, and been received by the Latins, he had by the daughter of one of them, named Enotria, some children, among whom Janus is counted; and it was Janus he taught how to plant and tend the vine, and how to make wine.

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Almost always a composite and almost always subordinate. Note what it is made of and whether it is bound.

In plain words Sea monsters, and their missing halves have a job. Cartari's page says the ancients set a Triton with the trumpet at its mouth on the top of Saturn's temple and buried its tail out of sight, because history begins to be told at Saturn, and before the times were separated it could only be mute. The block cutter gave him three and let the roof do the burying.

Vincenzo Cartari, 1615 “Soleuano gli antichi porre sù la cima del tempio di Saturno vn Tritone con la buccina alla bocca, & sepelir iui sotterra la coda di quello, volendo con ciò mostrare, come dice Macrobio, che da Saturno cominciò la historia a farsi palese, & ad esser conosciuta, perche senza dubio, innanzi che fossero distinti i tempi, ella non poteua essere se non muta, & incognita; il che significaua il nascondere la coda.” Le vere e nove imagini de gli dei delli antichi, page 26, on the temple of Saturn.

Symbolica Cartari's Italian, put into English here: The ancients used to set on the top of Saturn's temple a Triton with the trumpet at its mouth, and to bury its tail underground there, wishing to show by this, as Macrobius says, that history began at Saturn to become plain and to be known, because without doubt, before the times were distinguished, it could only be mute and unknown; which was what the hiding of the tail signified.

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