mastery and inventive talent. His grotesque oil paintings
of symbolic figures composed of such objects as pieces of
fruit, vegetables, and birds are said to have influenced
20th-century surrealist painters; his depictions of Summer
and Winter (1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
are typical examples, as is his famous portrait of Rudolf as
Vertemnus (c. 1591; Skoklosters Slott, Sweden). He was
made a count palatine by Rudolf in 1592, a year before his
death in Milan.
Further reading: Giancarlo Maiorino, The Portrait of
Eccentricity: Arcimboldo and the Mannerist Grotesque (Uni-
versity Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press,
1991).
Arena Chapel (Scrovegni Chapel) The chapel built
(1303–05) for Enrico Scrovegni on the site of a first-
century Roman amphitheater (arena) in Padua. The
interior is decorated with frescoes by GIOTTOand his fol-
lowers. The main decorative scheme, in three zones along
the side walls, depicts the history of the Redemption in
scenes from the lives of Mary and Jesus Christ. A fourth
zone, below these, has monochrome allegorical figures of
the virtues and vices. The Arena frescoes are a significant
move away from the Byzantine style that then dominated
Italian art, but not yet a definitive break with it. In the de-
piction of the Kiss of Judas, for example, there is an in-
tense stillness in the central figure of Christ amid a throng
of agitated figures and brandished weapons as the
hunched figure of Judas approaches him; the drama and
emotion of this scene are quite alien to the hieratic, es-
sentially static forms of the Byzantine tradition.
Further reading: Bruce Cole, Giotto: The Scrovegni
Chapel, Padua (New York: George Braziller, 1993).
Areopagus A shadowy, perhaps fictitious, literary society
of poets who aimed to reform English poetry along classi-
cal lines in the late 1570s. Chief among them were
SPENSER, SIDNEY, and Sir Edward Dyer (1543–1607), all
protégés of the earl of Leicester, at whose house they could
have met. The name derives from the hill northwest of the
Athenian Acropolis, on which the tribunal of the ancient
city used to meet.
Aretino, Francesco See ACCOLTI FAMILY
Aretino, Leonardo See BRUNI, LEONARDO
Aretino, Pietro (1492–1556) Italian poet and dramatist
The son of a shoemaker in Arezzo (the town from which
he took his name), Aretino probably received little formal
education. However, in 1510 he went to Perugia where he
was soon welcomed into the company of cultivated men
and was able to develop his interest in painting and poetry.
In 1517 he moved to Rome, eventually joining the literary
circle around Pope LEO X. Here his lifelong love of politi-
cal and ecclesiastical gossip surfaced in a series of vicious
pasquinades that found favor with Cardinal Giulio de’
Medici, whose rivals for the papacy Aretino lampooned
(see CLEMENT VII). Predictably, Aretino soon went too far
with his pornographic illustrated collection of Sonnetti
lussuriosi (Lewd Sonnets; 1524); he was eventually forced
to retreat to Venice (1527) where he lived out his life in
grand, if dissolute, style, surrounded by many of the great
artists of the day.
Aretino continued his satirical campaigns, transform-
ing Venice’s somewhat unsophisticated broadsheets by his
acute political comments. His six volumes of letters
(1537–57) also demonstrate the great force and versatility
of his writing. Known, in a phrase of ARIOSTO’s, as “il fla-
gello dei principe” (the scourge of princes), Aretino never
moderated his attacks on the powerful, many of whom
placated him with gifts which became the chief source of
his income. Ragionamenti (1534–36), in which Roman
prostitutes discuss their eminent clients, shows him at his
most venomous in his condemnation of moral and politi-
cal corruption in Rome. His plays, on the other hand, lack
the obsessively satirical intent of his prose works. The
tragedy Orazia (1546) and his five comedies written be-
tween 1524 and 1544 are often considered to be some of
the greatest works of the period. The comedies, which
deal mainly with lower-middle-class life, are noticeably
free from the conventions that dogged most other dramas
of the time. Best known among them is La cortigiana (Life
at court), which was first performed in 1537. Aretino, who
also tried his hand at the genres of poetry, devotional writ-
ing, and romantic epic, was one of the most vigorous and
inventive writers of the 16th century.Aretino, Unico See ACCOLTI FAMILYArgyropoulos, John (c. 1415–1487) Byzantine scholar
He was born into a noble family in Constantinople, where
he became a priest. His first visit to Italy was before 1434;
in that year he was lecturing at Padua on the works of
Aristotle. In 1439 he attended Emperor John Palaeologus
at the Council of FLORENCE. By 1441 he was back in Con-
stantinople, but he returned to Italy in 1442, when he be-
came rector of Padua university. Cosimo de’ MEDICIwas
one of his patrons and he was tutor to Piero, Cosimo’s son,
and to Lorenzo de’ MEDICI. When Lorenzo assumed power
in Florence, Argyropoulos became a leading member of
his PLATONIC ACADEMY, where he taught POLITIAN and
other humanists. In 1456 he visited France, then returned
to Florence, and eventually settled in Rome some time be-
fore 1471. He continued to expound the works of Aristo-
tle and other Greek authors. The German scholar
REUCHLINwas among his pupils. He wrote many original
commentaries on Aristotle and translated a number of his
works into Latin; much of Argyropoulos’ original work re-
mains unprinted. He was an important member of the first2288 AArreennaa CChhaappeell