On Cattle, Animals, and Birds
The Ninth Chapter
(1) We ought to devote not the least care
To portraying various animals well:492*
Lest we linger too long
Over other things, without once endeavoring
At the same time to bring into view493
This rare branch [of art], for fear of playing
The part of Dionisius, who could fashion
To his liking nothing but Human figures.494
(2) He received the epithet Anthropographus
(That is, Painter of Persons) in consequence;
For even if one has the ability to portray
The limbs of the Human Body in a reasonable and comely way,
And considers oneself special in this respect,
Yet is it more praiseworthy to be practiced in all things:*
Thus, to be considered an exceptional
Painter, you must be skillful at everything.
(3) We may commence at this juncture
By teaching about the tame Beasts,*
Amongst which the noblest livestock, of greatest worth,
Are the helpful, valiant horses:**
Noble (I say), because in horses are found
Many characteristics: like Dogs
They are true to their Masters, whom they love,
And their free, lofty spirit cannot be subjugated.495
(4) The Horse contemns fear, nay rather, it goes forth*
To confront armored troops, stout of heart, impetuous,
And rather than fleeing the sword, paws with its hooves,
Smells [imminent] battle when, in character like the hart,
It hears the sweet sound of Trumpets.496
Pleasant recreation entertains it, and it is tractable yet forceful;
Swift as the Wind (as Poets attest),
It learns to honor its Master, bending the knee to him.497
(5) The Horse of Caesar, the Dictator, allowed itself to be ridden*
By no one, other than its Master:498
The Horse of King Nicomedes, in days of old,
Died soon after its master’s death, by starving itself:
Another, having dishonorably bred with its own mother,
Disgraced by the scandal, tormented greatly by compunction,
Once its blindfold was removed,
Sprang aggrieved from a mountaintop, breaking every limb.
(6) Shall I refrain from mentioning the Horse of the King of the Scythians,
That murdered its Master’s murderer?499
Or the Horse of Centeretus, that threw itself with Antiochus
From a clifftop, out of rancorous wrath,
Exacting from him the price of its Master’s death?500
Shall I keep silent about all of this? Or about Bucephalus,
Whose wonderful deeds, one after another,
Caused Alexander to name a Monument and a City after him?501
(7) Yea, I must needs omit many things, lest I stray
From my purpose: for better it were to defer
To Pliny’s own Book about Horse*
Tournaments, wherein (so he says) he described,
Hauling out of locked storage,502
Everything that pertains to the beautiful appearance of a fine, full-grown steed;
Which [Book] the gnawing teeth of ancient time has nullified,
Along with many other Books, whose loss many lament in vain.503
(8) Shall I not then instruct you to draw three circles
Of a certain measure, one for the buttocks,
One for the breast, and the third sufficing
For the body; next, to set upright upon it in a measured way
The bending neck, and without anomaly to assign the right
Proportion to everything?504 Feather-light is the will,
Heavy as lead the ability: Wishing and accomplishing
Inhabit different houses.
(9) Given how difficult this is to accomplish, and since I neither
Much prize [fixed] measurements nor wish you
To accustom yourselves to a plodding manner:
And desiring to reveal the secrets of the arts to you,
Solely by means of what my pen has written, without illustrative images:*
Behold, I shall now provide you
With Circumstantial Details, necessary to know in advance:
Listen first, if you will, to what makes for a beautiful Horse.
(10) Paying close attention to the well-formed Horse:*
Let the horns of the hooves be lustrous jet black,
Raised and running round darkly and smoothly,
Its shanks short, neither too bent nor too straight,
The front legs long, slender in appearance,
Well sinewed, and the knees venous, as if chiseled,
Altogether leanly muscled; indeed, to be concise,
Resembling nothing more closely than the legs of a Hart.505
(11) Make the breast broad and full,
Similarly the shoulders and croup,
The flanks round, the belly trim, the back unbent.
The body large, a channel running along the backbone,
The neck long and wide, the flesh quite creased,
The mane long, falling down the right flank,
The tail hanging down, almost touching the ground,
Or finely braided.
(12) Round and fat, the buttocks should quiver,
But the head shall be small, thin and dry,
The brow we wish to be nothing but bone,
The ears sharp, never still,
The mouth ample, the nostrils large, each eye
Likewise large and convex, and moreover, one must
Endeavor as much as possible to give each hair its proper color,
In keeping with the many examples to be seen in life.
(13) Let us now speak somewhat about color:*
In his Georgics Maro recounts
That the brown-red, the blue-gray, are the most beautiful overall,
The white and sallow yellow, uglier by far:506
But you, Painter, are free to stray whithersoever you wish,
And to fashion whatsoever there is—piebald, white and yellow;
So long as it proves expedient, making your work
Stand out, I shall speak nothing against it.
(14) ‘Tis true, brown-red is not to be despised:
One may insert it wheresoever one will in one’s work,
In the foreground, to make it stand out powerfully,
Or elsewhere: but I tell you, attend to*
The luster and shine of hide,
As we see this revealed in Sunshine,
As well as on black coats: but you shall specially be thanked,
If you pay attention to the flickering hair of the flanks.
(15) Closely observe various breeds, such as the Horses of Spain,*
Fine in contour; so too, the Turkish, the Barbary,
The Neapolitan, or the horses of the Roman Campagna:507
How the hair of some is brown Chestnut,
And others look as if they have been
Coated in honey; it is nigh impossible to elucidate
How Nature in this respect, too, appears inclined
To cultivate her exceptional variety.
(16) Who could gainsay that a beautiful apple-gray color,508*
In which the hide seems as if partitioned overall into scales,
Is a delight to see: further, Nature will on occasion deceive us
(So it seems) into thinking that a [Horse’s] white hide
Is spread over with little flies,
Amongst many other such effects; but we must keep in mind,
That the mouths and noses of Horses ought to have
Their proper color, and so, too, their tails and manes.
(17) One shall sometimes adorn a brown horse with four white feet,
And a star on its brow;
One must also attend to Actitude,*
Just as applies to a human figure, so that [the Horse] moves
Stands, jumps, and turns in a sweet, well-tempered way.
[Observe,] too, the white froth that they strew**
Upon the field, and all the signs therein that declare
How they passed galloping over it.509
(18) An exceptional painter once found himself much vexed,*
As the great Valerius [Maximus] describes:
He had fashioned a Horse, astonishingly
Beautiful, and when, to make headway in Art,
He wished, amongst other things,
To depict the froth that issued from the Horse’s mouth,
This skillful artisan, though he expended much time and effort,
Did so in vain.510
(19) He could not bring his artful work
To a good end, nor live up to his expectation,
Howsoever he tried; and thus, by such an unworthy
Trifle, a thing of little regard,
He was tormented. It exasperated him so,
That intending to vandalize [his picture], he flung at it
The sponge with which he wiped away his pigments,
But the matter, as it happened, redounded to his pleasure.
(20) For the spatter of the sponge remained
Hanging, by mere chance, upon the Horse’s mouth,
As would natural froth, and thus did his intention
And labor come of a happy end, by dint of luck
And not Art, though in effect it’s all the same:511
To summarize: one discovers here with what zeal
And diligence [Painters] of old, as best they could,
Endeavored to portray every property [of Animals].
(21) In Rome, in the hall of Constantine,*
The froth [of Horses] is judiciously portrayed.512
Protogenes, as Pliny testifies,
Could not fashion, by his own opinion,
The froth of a Dog, and proceeded, on account of such a minor,**
Impracticable thing, to attack his work
With a sponge, in the same manner just recounted;
Here again, the result was so good, that it elicited everyone’s praise.513
(22) For at first, the froth, rather than looking natural,
Says Pliny, instead departed too much
From what is true to life, and appeared diligently painted,
In an artificially contrived way, whereas he wished it to flow
Unbidden from [the Horse’s] mouth, and labored much on it.
Nealcas, too, made a Youth leading
Or holding a Horse, and fondling it,
Wherein his sponge produced a similar miracle [of Art].514*
(23) Therefore, whenever circumstances permit, we, too,
Should attend to the froth of Horses, with diligent persistence,
And howsoever such things be done, whether with the thumbs,
Or with a sponge, or in some other way out of the ordinary,
If the result looks good, I hold it in esteem:*
But we can grasp the great assiduity
Formerly applied to portraying Horses well,
From the Prize that was won thereby.
(24) Apelles, the chief Painter of the Ancients,
And several other Painters of his time,
Herein held amongst themselves a competition:*
But he, fearing that envious men
Might judge him unfavorably,
Showing their bias for the other side,
To the advantage of his competitors in this affair,
Preferred much more to trust to the judgment of the Beasts themselves.515
(25) Accordingly, he had living Horses brought*
Before the coursers painted by his competitors,
But it went amiss for them; for the [Horses]
Passed by, like muzzled Oxen, loosing their voices not a wit:
But when they went by Apelles’s work, upon espying it
They began to snort, and to move about;
Such a judgment passed by unerring Beasts
Came to be esteemed all the more after the fact.
(26) This contest of our Predecessors prompts us to acknowledge,
How they strove to attain mastery of Art,
As [their] existing works also demonstrate:
The four bronze Horses, for example, exceptionally beautiful,*
Above the church portal in Venice,516
And, on show in Rome on the Capitoline Hill,
The Horse cast in bronze, that surpasses Nature,
Wanting only in life, but in Art, flawless.517
(27) In addition, the Horses on Monte Cavallo,
The handiwork of Praxiteles and Phidias,518
By means of all these, without losing one’s way,
One may attain to the knowledge of beauty,
To right understanding, and to a worthy paragon:
For there is nothing I know in any place or Land of the World,
Better suited to vouchsafe to us
The best of life, and the most beautiful.
(28) That the ancients availed themselves of flayed bodies,*
Will brook no doubt, and so, too, of [flayed] Animals,
Whereby they amply investigated all things:
Now I would wish
To introduce you, O eager spirits,
To the properties of other Creatures, and proceed,**
As follows, exhaustively to describe the greater part of Cattle,
Such as Bulls, Oxen, and Cows.
(29) Although Heifers, Cows, Oxen, and Bulls,
Share a similar form, and are readily graced
With similar characteristics,
Yet are the Bulls less good-natured
In the cast of their eyes, but more forbidding
In the way they stare, and the hair of their ears
Is as thick at that of Oxen, though usually,
Their horns are much shorter and smaller.519*
(30) The Mantuan, giving instruction to Peasants,
Considers it worthy of note and praiseworthy,
To cultivate a breed of cow, good in form,*
That resembles a Bull, its face fearsome,
That takes aim with its horns, and is loath to pull the plough,
Marked with many colors, flecked with white,
Its neck long, its feet and limbs large,
Its long tail grazing the ground.520
(31) The flanks must be long, not sunken,
The horns bent above a pair of roughly tufted ears,
The dewlap hanging down from the chin,
Almost reaching the shins:
This lesson Maro delivered to the Peasants.
But as I have said above,
Neither Cows nor Heifers should be painted to appear
As forbidding or rough as Bulls and Oxen.
(32) For usually or commonly, the Female sex*
Of all Creatures is found to be
More slender, sleek, delicate,
And agreeable in disposition, as one observes
Amongst Persons, as well as Cats and Dogs.521
One shall encircle the horns**
Of Bulls or Oxen with locks of hair, and with curls,
Rolling down from the forehead to the nose.
(33) You shall refrain from giving Cows and Heifers
Shaggy coats of overly rough fur,
But shall instead let their graceful limbs cut a fine figure:*
In particular (pay close attention to this),
Distributed amongst their fellows,
Let some heifers be found, fattened up [beforehand] in their stalls,
Nicely muscled, with full haunches,
Such that your eyes will be grateful for the sight of them.
(34) As for the contemplation of great beauty:522
Go and make an effort everywhere to practice
After this living thing and that.
And pay close attention, too, to the coloring*
Of Oxen and Cows, red, gray, and sallow yellow,
Wonderfully spotted all over,
With paired ears always similar in appearance,**
The one ear differing from the other not even in one flecked hair.
(35) This you may verify by paying heed to the Cows
You see grazing on the green:
But above all, I advise you not
To fashion Cows with deplorably long heads,*
As others are wont to make them after the life:
And take advantage of good, powerful colors,
And in coloring any Creature after the life, you shall
Confer on it a pleasing grace.523
(36) What profit is there in constantly advising you
To work after stone and bronze,
When Bassano, rich in art, whose dignity herein*
None can match, holds a singular advantage
In [the depiction of] Beasts?524
Curly-haired sheep, and rough-haired goats,
Birds, Fish, Fruits, stuffs,
He portrayed after the life; for from here they may be extracted.
(37) But to demonstrate that amongst the Ancients
There were many fine souls
Who painted and sculpted such things,
Letting their industry shine forth, Pausias may be held out*
For an example, who was the first, many years ago,
To paint a Sacrifice at an Altar,
The sacrificial Ox standing foreshortened:
Into this [Ox] he infused his lively Art.525
(38) Whereas others would have positioned it sideways,
And modeled it with highlights, he readily placed it
Head first, applying few or no*
Highlights, but with forceful shading
Made it both project and recede, so that it appeared beguiling,
And though produced without much effort,
More subtle than any other. Nicias of Athens**
Was likewise exceptionally gifted in olden days
(39) [He excelled] at painting Beasts, especially
Dogs, and he fashioned a very fine Diana,
Also the metamorphosis of Calisto into a Bear,
And of Io into a Cow: but there is
No need to adduce here his other works.
Let it suffice to acknowledge
The wonderful art with which he painted
Four-footed Creatures well in multiple manners.526
(40) Now we may proceed further by talking about*
Two artful brothers from Rhodes,
Apollonius and Tauriscus, sculptors
Of Figures, whose bounding Bull
All eyes can see in Rome, untrammeled by time;
There, too, is Dirce (who, fancied by the Gods, was afterward
Turned into a Stream of Water)
And with her, Zetus and Amphion, beautiful nudes.527
(41) These Figures, the Bull, and even the ropes
With which Dirce was bound to her shame,
Were skillfully wrought, and not assembled
Piece by piece, but expertly carved from a single
White Marble block:
And transported by Ship from Rhodes,
Over the billowing sea and across sandbanks,
To Rome, where it still stands, housed in a wooden pavilion.
(42) How, O Myron, shall I let languish*
In dark obscurity, the Heifer you cast [in bronze],
More artful than any other such work,
Whose living likeness, the Greek Poets went on to praise
In many Epigrams?528**
From a full complement of twelve, the first runs as follows:
Herdsman, drive all your cows elsewhere,***
Lest this [Heifer] go to stall with yours.
(43) No image of a Cow am I, but rather, by Myron*
Was I set upon this stone, the cause being [his] rancorous indignation
At my having grazed upon the grass of his field.
What’s worthy of note is that I’m Myron the Cowherd’s Cow,**
And no concocted image: thus will you set to,
Prick my flanks and lead me to go ploughing.
Why, Myron, have you left me here waiting?***
When will you set me free and drive me to my stall?
(44) Upon seeing me, the Calf must low, and the Bull must needs go courting,*
And the young herdsman
Shall drive me to pasture in green fields.
Even though Myron did cast me in bronze,**
And set me up here, still would I bellow and sough
Like a Bull, if only he had given me a tongue.
A wasp, seeing this Cow, was deceived:***
Never have I stung, said the wasp, any Cowhide this hard.
(45) Here Myron holds me fast, and Herders prod*
And strike me, for they think that, hopeful in love,
I’m lingering behind for the Bulls.
Why, Calf, do you creep up to my teats?**
It pleased Art to endow my udder with no milk.
Why, Myron, do you hold me fast upon this stony***
Base? Had you seen fit to harness me to a yoke,
I would have pulled the plough through your fields.
(46) Unless a person were to touch my back*
With his hands, he might look at me however he wished,
From far or from near, and still not hold me to account
For being cast in hard bronze.
If Myron does not quickly dislodge my feet**
From this pillar, then I’ll not elude
Death, but were he to set me loose,
Then I’d wander through the flowers like other Cows.
(47) Who could satisfy your hungry desire,
O Youth, by here portraying [for you] every Animal,
Not only Lions, but also Monsters and Dragons,
Fit to instill terror? To prevent you from straying,*
I can do nothing better than direct you to Nature,
Where you shall discover a singular model.
Notice how each [Animal] lies, lopes, steps, and ambles,
But fashion them so that all are subtly rendered.
End of the Animals.
Footnotes
*
To fashion well-beseeming Animals is a worthy task.
*
Let one strive to be universal.
*
On tame Beasts.
**
On the Horse.
*
Characteristics of the Horse.
*
Examples of the nature of the Horse.
*
Pliny had himself written a Book on Horses. Pliny, book 8, chapter 42.
*
My intention is to demonstrate in writing, not by means of pictorial images.
*
The form of a Horse, and its beauty.
*
The Painter shall find favor through the coloring of Horses, or other Beasts.
*
Attend to the luster of fur, and the direction in which the hair grows.
*
Diverse Nations of Horses.
*
More on the coloring of Horses.
*
Attitude of Horses.
**
On the froth of Horses.
*
Example of a Painter who fashioned the froth [of a Horse] by chance.
*
Example of a Horse’s froth, in the Battle of Constantine in the Belvedere.
**
Example of a Dog’s froth.
*
Another Example of froth.
*
Whatever turns out well is good.
*
Men formerly expended much effort on Horses, for thereby was a Prize to be won.
*
Apelles desired to have the judgment of Beasts: Horses snort at his painted Horses.
*
Examples of very beautiful Antique Horses, in Venice, in Rome.
*
The Ancients availed themselves of flayed Horses.
**
On other Creatures.
*
Bulls have shorter horns than Oxen.
*
On the form of Cows.
*
Amongst many creatures, the females, or the she-animals, are softer and smoother than the males, or the he-animals.
**
On Bulls.
*
Some graceful young Cows, or Heifers.
*
The coloring of Cows.
**
Cows and Oxen, etc., their [paired] ears always colored alike.
*
Long heads are deplorable.
*
The Animal-painter of Bassano prized as an Example.
*
Example of the ancient [painter] Pausias.
*
Example of the foreshortening of Beasts.
**
Example of Nicias.
*
Example of the Bull, to be seen in Rome, in the Palazzo Farnese.
*
Example of the young Cow, or Heifer, in cast bronze, by Myron.
**
Epigrams by the Ancients, in praise of the Heifer [of Myron].
***
The first Epigram.
*
The second Epigram.
**
The third Epigram.
***
The fourth Epigram.
*
The fifth Epigram.
**
The sixth Epigram.
***
The Seventh Epigram.
*
The eighth Epigram.
**
The ninth Epigram.
***
The tenth Epigram.
*
The eleventh Epigram.
**
The twelfth Epigram.
*
There’s nothing better than to paint all things after the life, and above all, to render everything subtly.