The Sign of the Southern Cross: Borghini's Peru in the Maritime Arch of the 1565 Entrata of Johanna of Austria into Florence
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2024
Department 1
Art
Abstract
For Johanna of Austria's Entrata into Florence in 1565, Vincenzo Borghini concocted an extraordinary spectacle of aquatic splendours to mark the procession's fourth stop. Dubbed the "Arch of Maritime Empire" by Randolph Starn and Loren Partidge, this structure featured the likes of Oceanus, Neptune, Proteus, Tethys, and Tyrrhenian Sea along with treasures of the marine world, celebrating Medici and Habsburg control over the seas. It was a luxurious and pagan-infused ensemble that would have stood out in the public streets of this inland city. Youths held gilded festoons of shells, fishes, and corals; narrative scenes spun the tales of ancient heroes like Perseus and Jason and the Argonauts and thirsty on-lookers took swigs of wine from the breast of a siren. It was the kind of fare that, as Philip Gavitt observed, seemed difficult to reconcile with Borghini's roles as a Benedictine monk in charge of an institution dedicated to abandoned children. [excerpt]
ISBN/ISSN
9780772710796
Recommended Citation
Else, Felicia, M. "The Sign of the Southern Cross: Borghini's Peru in the Maritime Arch of the 1565 Entrata of Johanna of Austria into Florence." In Charity, Medicine, and Religion in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy: Essays in Memory of Phillip R. Gavitt, edited by Beth Petitjean and George Dameron, 101-31. Toronto, ON: Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2024.
Required Publisher's Statement
The book containing this chapter is available from the publisher's website.