A Late Antique Religious Symbol in Works by Holbein and Titian

Author(s): Erwin Panofsky and Fritz Saxl

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 49, No. 283 (Oct., 1926), pp. 177-181
Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/863048 .
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of brushwork in the St. Benedetto Crucifixion,
and from the more rounded forms of the S.
Ranierino one, are nearest to the first period
of Giunta's art, that is to his Assisian period.
Assuming that, is it not quite natural that we
cannot help surmising that our two little panels
may possibly be the stray remnants of that
Crucifixion by Giunta which was ordered by the
Franciscan monk Frate Elia in I236 and was
hanging in the Church of St. Francis at Assisi
in the place of honour, over the entrance to the
choir, until the beginning of the seventeenth
century? Wadding, in his Franciscan annals,
describes the work and says that in 1625 it was
removed to the western wall and attached there
A LATE ANTIQUE RELIGIOUS SYMBOL IN
HOLBEIN AND TITIAN
BY ERWIN PANOFSKY AND FRITZ SAXL
601 N 'OT very long ago D. von Hadeln
published in this magazine1 a
picture ascribed to Titian of delight-
ful quality as a painting, but pro-
vokingly enigmatic in respect of its
iconographical content. It represents-after
the fashion of the Trinity and anti-Trinity as
represented in mediaevalart2-" a kind of triple
Janus-head," consisting of the countenance of a
middle-aged man in full face, the profile to left
of an old man, and the profile to right of a
youth. Underneath we see, in a precisely corre-
sponding order, and evidently connected with
the three human heads, three heads of animals,
that of a dog going with the young man's head,
that of a lion with the head of the man, and
that of a wolf with the old man's head.
Hadeln has explained this picture as a repre-
sentation of the three ages, and assumed that
the animals' heads are " merely a symbolical
expansion " of this idea. "They are meant
to allude to the subtlety of old age, the vigour
of manhood, and probably the frivolity of
youth." But no support is to be found else-
where for such an interpretation of these three
heads of animals,3 and besides it is evident from
1 BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, 1924, p. I79; PI. II B. Our sincere
thanks are due to Mr. Campbell Dodgson for having called
our attention to this picture and to its resemblance to the
metal-cut to be described below.
2 A rather early example of this " Trinite
Satanique"
(I3th century) is reproduced in the " Catalogue raisonne de
l'Architecture," by Viollet-le-Duc s.v. " Trinitd." As a later
one we may cite the celebrated drawing by Griinewald, pre-
served in the Kupferstichkabinett at Berlin. This type seems
derived from a pagan one: cf. some altars preserved at Reims,
to which Mr. Erdmann, Hamburg, calls our attention (ill. in
Espdrandief, Recueil gdndral des Bas-Reliefs de la Gaule
Romaine, I907 s.s., V. No. 3651 s.s.
3 No doubt there are numerous examples both in literature
and art for parallels being drawn between certain animals
and certain ages (an example is given by v. Hadeln himself;
others may be found in F. Boll, " Die Lebensalter," I913,
pp. 9-1o and 22, note), but there is no case in which ther?
so precariously that it fell from a considerable
height and was broken to pieces. Unluckily
Wadding, whilst quoting the long inscription
on that Crucifixion, does not give any details of
the image itself-though he mentions the por-
trait of Frate Elia at the Lord's feet-and so we
are deprived of evidence that might have con-
firmed our hypothesis. However, we know of no
evidence contradicting it and if it proves to be
right, then our own little panels are rarities in
a double sense: not only are they the work of a
great Italian master, standing in the very
threshold of the Italian Renaissance, but they
are actually portions of that achievement of the
artist on which his historical fame is based.
WORKS BY
the inscription on the picture that the artist's
intention was to symbolize not so much the
three ages of human life as the triple divisions
of time into past, present and future: " ex
praeterito praesens prudenter agit, ni futura
actione deturpet."4 This text not only points
the way to the iconographical exegesis of the
picture, but also gives the first clue to its
historical explanation. It is not by accident
that Titian does not content himself with merely
naming the three divisions of time, but also
views them under the moral aspect of
" prudentia," and makes them as it were, sub-
ordinate to this aspect. The present, learning
from the past, is to act prudently, in order not
by its action to injure the future. This point
of view corresponds to a deeply rooted tradition
of scholastic moral theology, of which countless
examples could be adduced, which perceives in
the three divisions of time-past, present,
future-the specific domain of that virtue, to
which the " prudenter " of the inscription on
the picture plainly alludes. " Tripartita per-
lustrat tempora vita " is said o.f Prudence in
is the slightest resemblance in such parallelism to that repre-
sented by Titian (the dog, for instance, regularly belongs to
old age, not youth). We may add the XVI century reliefs at
Annaberg, in Saxony (Gallery of Church), symbolizing the
ages of males and females by several animals in an almost
satirical way:
Ages Male Animals Female Animals
io years calf quail
20 years he-goat pigeon
30 years bull magpie
40 years lion peahen
50 years fox hen
60 years wolf goose
70 years dog vulture
80 years cat owl
go years donkey bat
death - -
4 The words of the inscription are so distributed that they
serve as mottos for the several heads, while forming never-
theless a connected sentence.
177
 guish three partial forces (memoria, intelli-
gentia, providentia), the business of which it
is to preserve the past, to recognize the present,
and to look forward into the future.6 Prudence
is therefore often represented with three or at
least two heads, the age of the faces, correspond-
ing to the divisions of time towards which they
are respectively directed, being differentiated in
a manner which almost resembles Titian'
mode of representing the subject7 (Fig. I.)
or else she holds a disc with three divisions in
her hand, on which is written "tempus
praeteritum," " tempus praesens," " tempus
futurum,"' or lastly she handles three books, on
the open pages of which we can read the ad-
monition: " intellige praesentia, pertinet ad
intelligentiam "; " praevide futura, pertinet ad
Fig. i. Prudentia. Pavement of Duomo, Siena. (Ann. providentiam "; " memorare pra!terita, pertinet
Archeol, 1856, p. 132 ) ad memoriam "9 (Fig. 2).
Thus the subject painted by Titian can be
connected with the circle of ideas belonging to
mediaeval moral philosophy, from which the
combination " past, present and future as a
system to which prudence applies " is obviously
taken.
This verification, however, suffices only to
explain the upper part of the picture, that is to
6 On the universal validity of those views cf. Leon Dorez,
" La canzone delle virtui e delle scienze," 1904, where the
passage in question of Dante's Convito (Io-27) is also quoted.
In a widely used philosophical-theological lexicon composed in
the i4th century (Petrus Berchorius, Repertorium morale,
1489, 1498, etc.), in which it is said of Prudentia, that she is
of use "in praeteritum recordatione, in praesentium ordinatione
in futurorum meditatione," the origin of this division is re-
ferred to a saying of Seneca's in his "liber de moribus." This
saying, however, is not to be found in the "liber de moribus,"
but in the treatise generally appended to it, " de iv virtutibus
Fig. 2. Prudentia. Cod. Casanat, 1404, cardinalibus" (fol. IIb. in the edition of Joh. Gymnicus,
Cologne 1529), and both writings are not by Seneca, but
belong to the pseudo-epigraphical literature of the middle
ages. The real source seems to be an utterance of Plato's
transmitted to posterity by Diogenes Laertius (to be quoted
below, note 12).
7 Examples of the three-headed Prudentia occur in the
niello, here reproduced on Fig. I, on the Siena pavement
(Annales archdologiques, i856, XVI, p. 132), and in the
Battistero at Bergamo (Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Ital. IV,
fig. 5io). There are other examples on the title-page of
Gregor Reisch, Margarita Philosophica, Strassburg, 1504
(reproduced by Schlosser, l.c. p. 49), in Cod. 87 of the
Innsbruck University Library, and in a picture by Joh.
Luhn, preserved in the Museum fur Hamburgische
Geschichte at Hamburg, to which Mr. Rover, Hamburg,
has called my attention. Examples with two heads
occur, to give one or two instances, on the Campanile
of Florence (Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, IV, fig. 550),
in Raffaello's Stanza della Segnatura, and in Cesare Ripa's
Iconologia, Roma, 1603, p. 4I6. The text; of this work also,
which is not without interest, follows closely the mediaeval
Fig. 3. Saturn with three heads. Cod. Vindob. 2372, fol. 46 tradition: " le due faccie significano che la prudentia e una
v. Fig. 4. Representation of Sarapis, interpreted as cognitione vera e certa, la quale . . . nasce della considera-
" Sun." (Pierio Valeriano, Hieroglyphica.) Fig. 5. The zione delle cose passate e delle future insieme. L'eccellenza
"Signum triciput " of Sarapis (Hypnerotomachia Polyphili, di questa virti e tanto importante, che per essa si rammen-
I499, fol. y i r). tano le cose passate, si ordinano le presenti, e si prevedono le
future."
the Ambros. MS. published by Schlosser,5 s Schlosser, I.c. Taf. III.
for within it the Schoolmen are wont to distin- 9 Bibl. Casanatense. Cod. 1404, fol o0 and 34
(two approxi-
mately identical representations). On the other hand we find
5 " Jahrbuch der Kuntsammlungen d.Allerh. Kaiserhauses," in the same manuscript (dating from about 1430) a large
XVII, 1896, p. 20. The Prudence by Ambrogio Lorenzetti allegorical representation of " Man " with three heads
(Siena, Pal. Pubblico) holds a burning brazier with three differentiated according to age. Here, of course, they sym-
flames, inscribed: Praeteritum, Praesens, Futurum. bolize in fact old age, manhood and youth.

178
say the three human heads. We have still to con-
sider the meaning of the three heads of animals.
We may suppose a priori, that they also are
meant to symbolize somehow the forms of time,
past, present and future; for in mediaeval art
not only Prudentia but also Time personified
was represented with three heads.10 We find
the same feature in the representationof Saturn,
a deity of time, as well as the demon of a planet
(Kronos-Chronos) (Fig. 3), though there is no
differentiation of age in the only example
with which we are acquainted. But here we
find only the human faces, not the heads of
animals. To explain the latter we must go back
to the obscure and remote sphere of the late
antique mystery religions again resuscitated
during the Renaissance.
When opening the "Hieroglyphica" by
Pierio Valeriano, we find (s.v. " Prudentia " !)
the following passage:-
" PRUDENTIA."
"Serpens hic prudentiam indicare videbitur . . . Nam
cum prudentia non praesentia tantum examinet, verum et
lapsa et futura meditetur et tanquam e speculo prospectet,
medicum exscribere videtur, quem oportet, inquit Hippo-
crates, pensitare diligenter jOS Sr7 ra T eOVTra,7r 7T
aeo't-o.eva 7rpo r ovTra, Qua sunt, quae fuerint, quae mox
futura trahantur. Quod quidem hieroglyphice per trici-
pitium in Apollinis etiam simulacro factum invenies, cuius
pedibus ingentis vastitatis Serpens subjiciebatur. Capita
ea, Canis unum, Lupi alterum, tertium Leonis, de quo
alibi disseruimus, et prudentice signum esse demonstrav-
imus."11
Indeed, we discover another passage referring
to this monstrous being, completed by an
illustration (Fig. 4), and suggesting the
literary source of its conception12: the descrip-
tion of the statue of Sarapis, as given by
Macrobius in the first book of his "Saturnalia"
(ch. 20, 13 ss.). The god is said to have been
represented as enthroned, the kalathos on his
head, a sceptre in his left hand, but conducting
with his right hand a three-headed monster,
with a wolf's head growing out of the body on
the left side, a lion's head in the middle, and
on the right the head of a dog, all three en-
twined by a snake. This monster, however,
10 Molsdorf, Fiihrer durch den symbol. und typolog. Bilder-
kreis der christl. Kunst d. Mittelalters, Leipzig, I920, p. I34,
mentions a pen-drawing of the 15th century on which a wheel
held by " Mother Nature " and representing the course of a
lifetime is crowned by a representation of Time under the
figure of a woman with wings and three faces. This draw-
ing seems to be identical with a drawing published by
Forrer (Unedierte Miniaturen, Federzeichnungen und Initia-
len des Mittelalters, II, 1907, P1. LX), and it is a striking
fact, that " Time," in spite of the inscription " Tempus," is
personified by a woman: obviously the type of the three-
headed " Prudentia " has been decisive for the representation
of " Time."
11 Pierio Valeriano, Hieroglyphica, 1556 (Frankfort edition
of 1678, p. 192).
12 Pierio Valeriano l.c., p. 384. Pierio substantiates the
connexion between Sarapis (= Sol = Apollo) and the three-
headed " signum " of time in the following manner: " Com-
petit vero Soli temporis consideratio. Quid vero sibi velit
Serpens, ut Deus sit, ut temporis autor, alio commentario
satis explicatum est; alibique ostendimus eiusmodi tricipitium
prudentia convenire."
represents time, whose three forms, represented
by the three animals' heads, appear in this
" signum " strikingly combined in a higher
unity, represented by the snake. The ravening
wolf denotes the past, which greedily devours
the memory of all past things; the lion the
present, which possesses most fire and force (the
lion's head being for this reason bigger than the
other two), and the fawning dog the future,
which lulls mankind in agreeable but deceptive
hopes.
" Eidem Aegypto adiacens ciuitas, quae con-
ditorem Alexandrum Macedonem gloriatur,
Sarapin atque Isin cultu paene adtonitae uene-
rationis obseruat. Omnem tamen illam uene-
rationem soli se sub illius nomine testatur
impendere, uel dum calathum capiti eius infigunt
uel dum simulacro signum tricipitis animantis
adiungunt, quod exprimit medio eodemque
maximo capite leonis effigiem; dextra parte
caput canis exoritur mansueta specie blandientis,
pars uero laeuaceruicis rapacis lupi capite finitur,
easque formas animalium draco conectit uolu-
mine suo capite redeunte ad dei dexteram, qua
conpescitur monstrum. Ergo leonis capite mon-
stratur prcesens tempus, quia condicio eius inter
prceteritum futurumque actu prcesenti ualida
feruensque est, sed et preteritum tempus lupi
capite signatur, quod memoria rerum transac-
13 As far as printed and illustrated books are concerned,
the earliest mention with which we are acquainted seems to
occur in the well known " Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,"
Venice, 1499, fol. y.i.r. and y.2.r. Here the signum of
Sarapis is represented on the medallion of a standard, carried
by nymphs in front of an "amore trionfante " (perhaps
denoting the rule of love over time); the snake appears as a
typical " dragon of time," biting his own tail and including
the medallion like a frame (see fig. 5). It was Poppelreuter,
Meister des Poliphilo, Strassburg, 1904, p. 6i, who first
ascertained the connexion between this woodcut and the
Holbein metal-cut which we discuss. Further, compare the
detailed reprint and illustration of the text of Macrobius in
Vincenzo Cartari, " Imagini delli dei degli antichi " (Venice
edition of 1674, p. 41), also C. G. Gyraldus, " Syntagma
sextum," in the Leyden edition of his "Opera omnia,"
" Iconologia deorum," Niirn-
1696, col. 198) and Sandrart's
berg, 16x8, p. 29. Particularly interesting is the description
by G. P. Lomazzo (Trattato della Pittura, 1584, VII, 6. =
vol. III, p. 36 in the new edition of 1899), in which the
" signum triciput " of Sarapis is treated as a representation
of Saturn as Time:" ma gli antichissimi Egizi in altro modo
lo (sc. Saturno) rappresentarono per il tempo," followed by
the description in Macrobius with the addition that " some "
attempted to recognize in the three heads a representation of
the three sons of Osiris, namely Anubis, Hercules and
Makedo-Upuaut, of whom in fact the first was represented
with the head of a dog and the third with the head of a
wolf (cf. note 15). On the other hand the mediaval idea
of Prudentia persists and penetrates the conception of the late
antique symbol of time, as we have learned from Titian's
painting and from the text of Pierio Valeriano; Cesare Ripa,
for instance,, introduces the " signum triciput " as an attri-
bute of " Consiglio " (see fig. 6), according to a passage of
Diogenes Laertius, mentioned already in note 6: "Consiglium
(av,u 3ovX\a) itidem tripartitum est, aliud quippe a praeteri-
tis temporibus, aliud a futuro, aliud a presenti tempore sumi-
tur. Praeteritum tempus exempla suppeditat . . . Prmsens
autem rem ipsam, quae in manibus est, considerare monet . .
Futurum prospicere suadet, uti ne quid fiat temere, habendum
bonae opinionis rationem . . ." (De vit. dogm., et Apoph-
tegmath. clar. philos. III, 7i).
I79
 Fig.6. "II Consiglio " (Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, Rome, 1603).
Fig. 6. " II Consiglio" (Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, Rome, I6O3).
from J. Eck De Primatu Petri, libri tres, Paris, 1521. Fig. 8.
veterum sepulchrales iconicce, I702, II, pl. 7. Fig. 9. Mithraic
tarum rapitur et aufertur. Item canis blandientis
effigies futuri tempori designat euentum, de quo
nobis spes, licet incerta, blanditur."
There is no doubt that the motive of the three
animal's heads in Titian's picture was derived
from this thoroughly apposite description of
Macrobius, which we can prove to have been
well known in the Renaissance13 (for an imme-
diate derivation from the extant plastic figures
of Sarapis is equally improbable on formal and
historical grounds alike). The animals' heads
can therefore, as we might have supposed a
priori from the parallel drawn by Titian with
the three human faces designated by inscrip-
tions, be safely interpreted as the symbols of the
Three Forms of Time. It was no doubt the in-
genious and allegorical character of the text of
Macrobius, that made him peculiarly attractive
to that humanistic age,14 especially as the con-
tent of this passage could be connected without
much difficulty with current ideas inherited from
the middle ages.
Thus we can easily conceive that Titian and
Pierio Valeriano could combine the late-antique
symbol of Time with the mediaeval representa-
tion of " Prudentia " (whose female heads, of
course, had to be transformed to male ones);
and by this combination the humanists have
14 On the importance of Egyptian and pseudo-Egyptian
allegory for the humanists of the x5th and x6th century, cf.
especially K. Giehlow, Jahrb. d. Kunstsamml. d. Allerh.
Kaiserhauses, 1915, XXXII, I ff., and the recent work of
Volkmann, Bilderschriften der Renaissance, I923. We can
easily conceive of " Egyptian " and mediaeval allegoresis
coalescing, as we have seen in Titian's picture, both aspiring
to an illustration of abstract ideas by visible forms. On the
other hand, the true aim of mediaval allegory is almost
opposite to that of Renaissance hieroglyphics. For the
medieval author wants to explain what is for the most part a
rather complicated system of ideas by translating it into the
clear and efficacious language of pictures-the humanist wants
to disguise a mostly rather trivial sentence in a " rebus " as
puzzling as possible. In fact L. B. Alberti praises the
hieroglyphics for being understood by every nation, but by
' the initiated " only.
i80
, TTthe
Fig. 7. Holbein ( I') Allegory oftI1he F T s of
Fig. 7. Holbein (?) Allegory of the three Forms of Time,
" Signum triciput " of Sarapis, from L. Bergerus, Lucernce
Chronos, Villa Albani, Rome (Cumont, II, No. 40).
accomplished a most characteristic synthesis
between two different conceptions of time: in
the mediaval treatment of Prudence the three
parts of time signified the object of thoughts
of the intellect, personified by the human form,
and if the three heads of this human form
appeared differentiated according to age (the
middle head being sometimes distinguished by
a crown, corresponding to the supremacy of the
present over past and future), this differentiation
was rather a reflex of what they beheld, than
a token of what they themselves represented.
The three-headed monster of Sarapis, on the
contrary, was symbolical of time as a mythical
force; and our picture, joining the human heads
with the heads of animals (although omitting
the serpent, and representing the whole in a
purely naturalistic manner, gives back to
time its antique demoniac quality, and never-
theless subordinates it to the moral conception
of the middle ages. Thereby the artist realizes
an entirely new idea of time, concretizing and
individualizing the abstract notions, and at the
same time spiritualizing the concrete and in-
dividual forms. Neither the three-headed
prodigy represented by late antique sculpture,
nor the almost metaphorical " tripartita
Prudentia " represented in mediaeval art pro-
duces the impression of a phantastical "vision."
There we stand before a monstrous, but not
particularly visionary phenomenon-here we
stand before a mere allegory. The real "vision"
(and this is valid also for apocalyptical and
mystical representations) always requires the
coincidence of natural conditions and super-
natural conceptions.
It is a striking fact that German art, most
probably at the instigation of the Italian
Renaissance, was also inspired by Macrobius.
For in an emblematical metal-cut, presumably
by Hans Holbein,"5 obviously the same monster
is represented (Fig. 7). The German print
approaches even nearer to the texts than does
the Venetian painting. Holbein has contented
himself with imitating the monster described by
Macrobius, without adding the human faces and
without omitting the serpent, as Titian had
done. The heads are made to grow out of a
common conical body, round which, completely
hiding it, the snake is twined, and the whole
image is grasped, like a gigantic bouquet, by a
divine hand thrust out from clouds. This repre-
sentation also shows how the idea of time
came to life in a new sense under the influence
of a late antique writing which, it is true, in
an already somewhat inanimate and allegorical
form, conjured up the shades of a dark world
of demons in a curious mixture of Greek,
Egyptian and Persian elements.16 And yet this
pagan idea of time was not simply taken over,
either in Italy or in Germany, but it appears,
both in Titian's picture and in Holbein's metal-
15 The metal-cut occurs from 1521 onwards in several books,
printed at Paris, and is regarded by H. Koegler (Monatshefte
fiir Kunstwissenschaft, 1916, III, x6), as an unquestionably
Whether this is correct, or
original work of Holbein's.
whether it is the work of a mere associate of the artist must
be left to the judgment of authorities better informed. (Mr.
Campbell Dodgson, independently of Koegler, expressed the
opinion that Holbein himself designed the metal-cut). This
opinion is shared by H. A. Schmid and P. Kristeller, who
believe it to be executed by I. F., after a design of Holbein's.
v. Poppelreuter, at the place quoted above.
16 The romance of Alexander by Pseudo-Callisthenes places
by the side of the cult image of the Serapeion at Alexandria
(alleged to be the work of Bryaxis) a wov 7roXvufopfrov the
nature of which no one is able to explain (cf. R. Reitzenstein,
" Das iranische Erlisungsmysterium," 1921, p. I90; Plutarch,
De Is. et Osir., cap. 78, denotes " the serpent and the Cerbe-
rus " as an attribute of Sarapis, whom he identifies with
Pluto), and numerous sculptured representations are extant
which correspond exactly to the description by Macrobius (see
Reinach, Rep. de l'Art Statuaire," II. I p. 19, 20 and II,
2 p. 89; cf. also Roschers " Ausfiihrliches Lexikon der
griechischen und romischen Mythologie," sub voce Sarapis,
Hades, Kerberos; Paully-Wissowa, "Real-Encyklopiidie des
klassischen Altertums," s.v. Sarapis; Thieme-Becker's "Kiinst-
lerlexikon," s.v. Bryaxis; Michaelis in "Journal of !Hellenic
Studies," x885, VI. p. 287 ff.-very thorough); Our fig. 8
is taken from L. Bergerus, Lucerna veterum sepulchrales
iconic;e, Berlin, 1702, II, pl. 7; Dehn in "Jahrbuch. d.
Deutschen arch. Instituts," 1913, XXVIII, 400. The only
question is whether it can be proved through the history of
religion that there is a real kernel of truth in the interpre-
tation of the " Cerberus " handed down by Macrobius in the
sense of an allegory of time, or whether it is nothing but an
arbitrary explanation of the visible data which, as is some-
times really the case, may be considered devoid of importance
so far as the actual signification of the " signum " is con-
cerned. But even if no one will really believe that the lion
was actually meant to represent the present, the dog the
future, and the wolf the past (the wolf's head may rather be
derived from Egyptian tradition: the god of the dead Up-
uaut, in Greek Makedon-for Sarapis is also a god of the
dead and was represented with a snake's body and wolf's
head (See Expedition Ernst Sieglin, Vol. I, pl. 25), yet it is
certainly possible that the sophistic exegesis of Macrobius is
based on perfectly genuine tradition. For the latest investi-
gations (especially R. Reitzenstein, l.c.), have demonstrated
that Sarapis, who had originally the form of a serpent, was
identified not only with Zeus, Hades and Askiepios, but also
with the lion-headed Helios and especially with the Persian
god of time " Aion," who was confused with Helios and
therefore also represented with the head of a lion, and
that he possessed a peculiarly far-reaching significance
in this last mentioned character. It is therefore not
cut, fused to a certain extent with the Christian-
mediaevalworld of ideas. Both representations
have in common, in the first place, the omission
of the actual idol, the conscious independent
treatment of the symbol of time, which had been
assigned to him merely as an attribute; and
we have already seen how Titian sought to
amalgamate the pagan and the antique with the
mediaeval idea of prudence. The three animals'
heads of the pagan monster were combined
with the correspondingly altered human heads
of the Christian personification of Prudentia
(so that the mediaeval-scholasticelements in the
representation and the humanistic elements,
imitating the antique, stand one over the other
as in two storeys, plainly separated and yet con-
nected), and the inscription makes the whole
appear firmly rooted in scholastic thought. But
Holbein also, who keeps much more literally to
the text of Macrobius, seems to have altered the
motive to a certain extent by placing the whole
monstrous formation in the hand of God
issuing from clouds,17 and holding it in sus-
pense over a wide landscape, thus deliberately
changing the significance of the right hand of
Sarapis, which according to Macrobius grasped
the three-headed monster. By this modification
he also christianizes the subject and transforms
it to a kind of " vision," and leaves us to choose
between interpreting it as an allegory of Time
or of Prudence (but as we have seen, from an
historical point of view the difference between
those interpretations can almost be neglected).
Either the emblem means: (a) all which takes
place in time (past, present and future), how-
ever much occasioned and controlled by the
three demons of these forms of time, nevertheless
really " lies in the hand of God "; or (b) Pru-
dence, ruler over past, present and future, is
based on the Divine omnipotence.
at all impossible that that three-headed monster, which
was at least not an ordinary Cerberus, was intended
to insist particularly on the character of Sarapis as
a god of time; and there is actually a very remarkable
" of Sarapis and
agreement between the " signum triciput
the numerous extant examples of the Persian-Mithraic Aion-
Chronos, with which it has in common not merely the lion's
head, but also the coils of a serpent, while the Persian divin-
ity is beyond all doubt a god of time (numerous illustrations
in C. Curxont, Textes et monuments relatifs au culte de
Mithra, I896, II, whence we take our fig. 9). Our Holbein
cut especially looks so like this Mithraic Chronos, that if we
did not possess the passage in Macrobius, we might think of
bringing the two representations in to immediate connexion.
It is very probable, however, that this resemblance is acci-
dental, the artist, in endeavouring to follow as exactly as
possible the indications of the text and to unite them with
the motive of the all-grasping divine hand, having been
naturally led to the solution of the problem, which he found.
17 The fact must not be ignored, that the grasping hand
issuing from clouds in emblematical designs is not always to
be interpreted as God's hand (cf. e.g. Froben's device). But
in our case, when the text expressly connects the monster
with the hand of Sarapis, and when the print as a whole is
not treated in a purely ornamental fashion, but shows the
monster poised in air over a wide landscape, the interpreta-
tion of the hand here proposed as a hand of the Christian
God substituted for that of a pagan god, if not absolutely
certain, is still fairly probable.
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