2 3B Attributed to the Saint John Painter. Plate with Hercules and
Cerberus, ca. 1520. Tin-glazed earthenware, Diam: 27.3 cm (10-/ 4 in.).
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, inv. Maj. 4.23 c Attributed to the Master C.I. Plate with Samson in the Temple,
ca. 1520-30. Tin-glazed earthenware. Krakow, Muzeum Narodowe,
inv. XIII-1712.
complains to him of his presumption. In ancient Rome
there was a tradition of maternal prenuptual consulta
tion, and disregard of this tradition would bring dishonor
to the mother.^8 Rather than simply depicting an erudite
passage from an ancient text, this plate may represent
maternal authority and entitlement, possibly in refer
ence to its owner.
The posture of the flying putto in the upper left sug
gests that the artist intended him to represent Cupid
aiming his bow and arrow, attributes the artist may have
simply forgotten to include after the figure had been
painted. In the context of this passage from the Aeneid,
the appearance of Cupid aiming his darts at Turnus
would be appropriate both because Turnus had been
promised to Lavinia in marriage and because Cupid was
Aeneas's brother.
It is also possible that the omission of Cupid's bow
and arrows was not an oversight but, rather, a way to
represent Anteros, Cupid's rival. In classical mythology
Anteros symbolized both reciprocity in amorous rela
tions and terrestrial love (as opposed to Cupid/Eros, who
represented celestial love).^9 According to an interpreta
tion current in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
Anteros symbolized physical love rejected and chastised
and therefore represented amor viitutis, or the castiga-
tor of love.^10 Identification of the coppa's figure with
Anteros instead of Eros might be more appropriate,
since the intended union of Turnus and Lavinia never
came to pass.
A plate in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braun
schweig, depicting Hercules and Cerberus (fig. 23B); an
other depicting Samson in the Temple in the Muzeum
Narodowe, Krakow, Poland (fig. 23c); and a panel in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, depicting the
Deputation of Coriolanus (fig. 23D) display such close
stylistic parallels to the Amata and Turnus plate that the
three must have been produced by the same painter.^11
Such distinctive details as the men's short, curly hair,-
the stiff-legged poses; the delicate facial features, includ
ing eyes composed of dots and small slants for eyebrows,-
the elegant feet and overly large helmets; the deep, short
folds in the drapery,- and the "abdominal" muscles on
the cuirasses, rendered as a curved row of sausagelike
shapes, link the four pieces.^12Dish with Amata and Turnus 13 7