The statue scene in The Winter’s Tale is a strange deviation from Robert Greene’s Pandosto. During this scene the author includes a reference to Giulio Romano, a rather obscure Italian artist who would not have been known to very many people in an English audience. Why mention Romano? Is this some sort of a puzzle for readers to solve? If it’s a puzzle, here’s one possible solution: [above is taken from my HLAS post on September 16, 2002 (edited)] Notes: ∆ reference to Giulio Romano:
The Winter’s Tale was written about 1610, and the statue scene, a scene of resurrection, is set in Sicily. Was there a famous Italian artist painting in Sicily in a very realistic way, as opposed to Mannerist, who painted a resurrection scene? Why, lo and behold, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio had painted The Raising of Lazarus in Sicily near the time The Winter’s Tale was written. What a coincidence!! Well, how about another coincidence? Caravaggio copied Giulio Romano’s pose of Patroclus in his painting of Lazarus. This copied pose has been well noted in art literature.° And another coincidence? Both Romano and Caravaggio did artistic work featuring the Knights of Malta. So what? It means nothing because Shakespeare was in England. But, if Marlowe had survived beyond 1593 and then went into exile on Malta—as The Tempest and other plays hint at—then these coincidences start to make sense, at least to me.
The only time Caravaggio signed his name to a painting was when he signed “Michelangelo”, his first name, in a stream of blood depicted in the painting of the beheading of St. John the Baptist on Malta.° And so, going back to the statue scene, we have a statue, a saintly mother and her child as protagonists, a resurrection, and the mention of a Renaissance artist from Italy. Is this reminiscent of any great work of art? How about Michelangelo’s The Pietà? This original, more famous Michelangelo would have been well known to many English audience members. The Pietà was arguably his most famous artistic work. And, could the word “piece” in the statue scene be another way of suggesting “Pietà”? °
Finally, there seem to be subtle suggestions of the legend of Saint Ursula within The Winter’s Tale—for example, a Sicilian queen, a virgin girl making a sea voyage, a storm during the sea voyage, a virgin girl being sacrificed, Bohemian barbarians versus civilized Sicilians, a noble marriage, the stage direction “Exit pursued by a bear [an ursula]”, et cetera. The legend of Saint Ursula was well known in Britain. But, in the case of The Winter’s Tale, it would be a Sicilian Ursula rather than a British Ursula. Even if these subtle suggestions are accepted, so what? Well, it turns out that the last painting Caravaggio did was The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula completed in Naples about May of 1610. The model he used for Ursula was the same Sicilian maiden he used within his painting of Lazarus in Messina, and within his painting of a nativity scene in Palermo.° So, Caravaggio had painted a Sicilian Ursula!! How coincidental once more!!
But, why didn’t Marlowe just mention Caravaggio directly rather than go round about and mention Romano in puzzle form instead? The main reason would be self-protection and protection of the higher-ups, possibly Walsingham and Southampton, who had helped him escape England in 1593. And to go one step further, rather than just mention Caravaggio, Marlowe could have inserted a line that made it very clear he was alive and well and giving the royal authority of England the royal fig. But, this would not have been wise. It would have risked his anonymous condition and safety. Just read about how Caravaggio was hounded from spot to spot by various different “authorities” seeking vengeance and justice.° Did these authorities finally catch up with Caravaggio? Of course not!! Today you can also read about how he died alone on some deserted beach while chasing a ship. Yup, yup, sure, uh-huh. And Marlowe died at Deptford in 1593.
Here is the full quote about Giulio Romano (the capital letter for “piece” and the selective use of bold typeface are my changes):
Note in particular the special emphasis Shakespeare placed on Romano’s extremely realistic style. But, Giulio Romano did not paint so very realistically. He painted in a slightly affected Mannerist style. Also, Giulio Romano is the only Renaissance artist Shakespeare mentioned by name in all of his works. Was Romano that memorable, that great?! Certainly not!! But, Caravaggio? Caravaggio’s art was striking for its realism and rebelliousness. Anyone who saw a Caravaggio painting during his lifetime knew instantly that it was the work of a revolutionary new genius. Caravaggio’s realistic style spawned an entire movement of imitators, the Caravaggisti.
Read more about Shakespeare’s mysterious mention of Giulio Romano in the following sources:
1. Georgianna Ziegler, “Parents, Daughters, and ‘That Rare Italian Master’: A New Source for The Winter’s Tale,” Shakespeare Quarterly 36, no. 2 (1985): 204-12 [available online from JSTOR]. Ziegler attempts to defend the thesis that Shakespeare likely saw Romano’s name in an instruction manual for young English women.
2. Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, in A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, ed. Horace Howard Furness, Fifth Edition (1898), pp. 284-86 n. (96, 97). Especially note the following comments in the Furness edition: Theobald calls Shakespeare’s mention of Romano “a strange absurdity,” Warburton declares “this passage is quite unworthy Shakespeare,” and the German scholar Elze concludes that “either Shakespeare studied Vasari [an art history book written in Italian], or he had been in Mantua and had there seen Romano’s works and read his epitaphs.”
∆ Caravaggio copied Giulio Romano’s pose:
Howard Hibbard, Caravaggio (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), pp. 242-43. See illustrations [163] and [164]. Hibbard comments: “The body held by a standing man behind could be based on an antique relief representing Achilles with the body of the dead Patroclus, a subject that had been painted by Giulio Romano and engraved.” The apparent influence of Romano is also noted in the Wikipedia article on The Raising of Lazarus. The Romano painting, a fresco, is located in the Sala di Troia of the Palazzo Ducale (the Troy Apartment of the Ducal Palace) in Mantua, Italy. The pose of dead Patroclus is in the upper right-hand corner of the photo displayed at the “Sala di Troia” link above. Did Marlowe visit the Duke’s palace in the summer or fall of 1593 on his journey from England to Malta?
∆ artistic work featuring the Knights of Malta:
Elizabeth Wheeler Schermerhorn, Malta of the Knights (London: W. Heinemann, 1929; reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1978), p. 30. See the illustration of Romano’s painting with the caption: “L’isle-Adam and his Knights guard the Cardinals’ Conclave; Fresco by Giulio Romano in the Raphael Stanza at the Vatican”. Caravaggio completed at least two paintings featuring the Knights during his residence on the island of Malta. See, for example, the Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page, or the Portrait of Fra Antonio Martelli.
∆ Caravaggio signed his name … in a stream of blood:
David M. Stone, “The Context of Caravaggio’s ‘Beheading of St. John’ in Malta,” The Burlington Magazine 139, no. 1128 (1997): 169 [available online from JSTOR]. Stone writes of Caravaggio’s signature on the painting: “the blood pooling beneath John’s partially severed head, fresh enough to serve for Caravaggio’s brotherhood-affirming signature ‘Fra Michelangelo’ (Fig. 16), would have echoed the blood of the Saviour on the altar directly below.” The actual signature in blood from Stone’s close-up illustration in the article appears more as “fmichelA …” with the ellipsis indicating a fading-off of letters into a pool of blood. This aspect of the signature is mentioned in Wikipedia’s article on Caravaggio’s painting The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. That Caravaggio signed no other painting is commonly mentioned—for example, see the website for St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Malta where the signed painting is located.
The significance of the signature is twofold: (1)—Caravaggio thought of himself not as “Caravaggio” but as “Michelangelo”, and (2)—if Marlowe was in exile on the island of Malta, as I believe he was, then Marlowe likely met Caravaggio, admired Caravaggio’s painting of John the Baptist in St. John’s Co-Cathedral, and saw Caravaggio’s signature of “Michelangelo” in blood. So, when The Winter’s Tale hints at a sculptor on Sicily in a Pietà-like statue scene, why then it must be Michelangelo on Sicily, right? Ah yes, but the “other Michelangelo”, the “Michelangelo” Marlowe met and knew on Malta—Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the world-class painter and rebel.
∆ the word “piece” … suggesting “Pietà”:
See the alignment of words in the First Folio version of The Winter’s Tale. Note that “piece” is actually spelled “Peece” (in a search of the First Folio of 1623 over all plays: peece or peeces is used 116 times, piece or pieces is used 19 times). Also, note that “Peece” is directly above a sequence of three closely spaced groupings of the letters “t” followed by “a”, i.e. “that rare Italian”. The author could not predict the exact alignment of words, so that may be why “Statue” precedes “Peece” by about a line’s worth, and “that rare Italian” follows by about a line’s worth. Compare this First Folio alignment to The Oxford Shakespeare quote with red-letter changes in the note above entitled “reference to Giulio Romano”. But, the idea that the word “piece” was used intentionally by the author to suggest “Pietà” is just a hunch. I may indeed be wrong.
∆ model he used for Ursula was … Sicilian maiden:
Peter Robb, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2000), pp. 467-68. Robb comments twice about the Sicilian model Caravaggio used for Ursula in his painting Ursula Transfixed [Naples, 1610]: (1)—“Ursula was instantly recognizable as the taller sister of Lazarus and the mother of the Palermo Nativity—she had the same sharp features and pinned up hair.” and (2)—“Some thought Ursula was a woman he’d brought back from Sicily. Maybe. Maybe he’d only brought her image.”
∆ Caravaggio was hounded from spot to spot:
Peter Robb, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2000), pp. 469-96. Also, Robb offers a few more details than given in his book about Caravaggio’s possible murder and its subsequent cover-up in an interview transcribed online. Scroll down to the interviewer’s question: “You discard the generally held belief that M [Caravaggio] died of a fever, suggesting a much more sinister death. Can you tell us about that?” I highly recommend reading through the entire interview with Robb that deals with Caravaggio.
“that rare Italian master, Julio Romano”
Third Gent. No; the princess hearing of her mother’s statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina—a Piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity and could put breath into his work, would beguile Nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione that they say one would speak to her and stand in hope of answer: thither with all greediness of affection are they gone, and there they intend to sup.
Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (5.2.105-116)