626 O. A. Nazarova, R. R.

Gaynullina

УДК: 7.034…6
ББК: 85.14
DOI: 10.18688/aa2111-06-50

O. A. Nazarova, R. R. Gaynullina

On Meaning and Function of the Painting Apparition of

the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus by Paris Bordone
Until now, the painting The Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus by Paris Bordone
(Ill. 137) in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts has been approached mainly from the
standpoint of formal stylistic analysis. [24, pp. 96–99] The painting’s meaning and function
have been addressed only sporadically. D. Ekserdjian linked the choice of the subject to the
city of Augsburg, as the name of the emperor Augustus refers to the Latin name of this city.
The scholar suggests the cardinal of Augsburg as the commissioner, and describes his motives
as a wish to honor the city and underscore its ancient origin [10]. However, the large size of
this painting, the unusual choice of the subject, the grand scale of its architectural decoration
that subordinates and oppresses its small figures still require explanation. This paper provides
another interpretation of the painting’s meaning, and reconsiders the possible commissioners
and the motives behind this commission.
The story of the apparition of the Tiburtine Sibyl to Emperor Augustus goes back to the
Golden Legend by Jacopo da Voragine. In the chapter on the Nativity of Christ, the author draws
the image of the pious emperor Augustus, “that he was much desired of his council and of his
people, that he should do men worship him as God. For never had there been before him so great
a master and lord of the world as he was. Then the Emperor sent for a prophetess named Sibyl, for
to demand of her if there were any so great and like him in the earth, or if any should come after
him. Thus at the hour of mid-day she beheld the heaven, and saw a circle of gold about the sun,
and in the middle of the circle a maid holding a child in her arms. Then she called the Emperor and
shewed it him. When Octavian saw that he marvelled over much, whereof Sibyl said to him: Hie
puer major te est, ipsum adora. This child is greater lord than thou art, worship him. Then when
the Emperor understood that this child was greater lord than he was, he would not be worshipped
as God, but worshipped this child that should be born. Wherefore the Christian men made a
church of the same chamber of the Emperor, and named it Ara coeli” [20, p. 13].
In medieval texts and art on both sides of the Alps, the principal message of this story was
that of the prefiguration of the Immaculate Conception and the Advent of the Savior. As such,
the story accompanied Nativity scenes as in the Bladelin Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden,
or made part of a wide range of Old Testament prophecies of the Savior’s birth, as in Speculum
humanae salvationis altarpiece by Konrad Witz. In late medieval and Renaissance Italy, the
story of the Tiburtine Sibyl had specific Franciscan connotations as the Santa Maria Aracelli
church in Rome, built upon the site where Augustus was shown the vision, was custodied by this
monastic order. This scene thus sometimes accompanied franciscan cycles as in the frescoes by
Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti chapel in Santa Trinita, Florence.
Искусство Ренессанса 627

Obviously, these narrative contexts are not relevant to the painting by Paris Bordone.
First, its subject is autonomous and self-sufficient. Second, the vision itself, i.e. the image of
the Madonna and Child takes up surprisingly little space; it is barely visible in the clouds at
the top of the picture; preeminence is given to the architectural decoration. The architectural
vista clearly prevails over the painting’s characters, claiming to be the main object of this
painting, this is by no means necessary for a traditional artistic representation of this scene in
its prophetic meaning. The specific iconography and its size and format imply that the painting
was not destined for a church space.
The architectural setting of the painting has been studied by Tatiana Fomicheva [13]. She
discovered that Bordone directly borrowed his architectural details from Book I of the treatise
on architecture by Sebastiano Serlio. The arcaded two-storied building with an arcaded gallery
and a lodge on the left side, and the wooden structure on the top of it, originate from the
Comic Scene, Vol. II of Serlio’s On Perspective, 1545 [33]. From the Tragic Scene he borrowed
the obelisk towering over the space of perspective, and the triumphal arch, which in a slightly
modified form appears in the painting in precisely the same point of the composition, as in
Serlio’s illustration, on the left foreground. The compositional structure of the painting with its
stage grouping of the architectural elements, also follows Serlio’s engraving.
The architectural elements borrowed by Bordone from Serlio for his vista are the distinctive
marks of the triumphal architecture, both in ancient Rome and in Renaissance Italy. Ephemeral
triumphal arches, columns, and obelisks were widely used to decorate solemn processions held
on the occasions of official entries, inaugurations and weddings of the Renaissance rulers [26,
pp. 26–27]. Serlio’s treatise, especially Book III On Roman Monuments, had a significant impact
on this type of the festive architecture [32].
The introduction of ancient Roman triumphal forms to the Renaissance ephemeral
architecture paved the way to establish visual links between modern rulers and Roman
Emperors and to draw parallels between contemporary festivities and the triumphal entries of
ancient emperors [14; 27]. These parallels could be the means to assign power and majesty to
the contemporary sovereigns, and to impose the idea of their succession from ancient authority
[26, pp. 26–27]. All of the above allows us to suggest that the subject of Bordone’s painting is not
purely religious, but alludes to contemporary people and events.
The Renaissance rulers frequently identified themselves with heroes of ancient myths and
history, making this aspect a significant part of their political ideology. Many 16th-century
rulers in Europe identified themselves with the Emperor Octavian Augustus — the protagonist
of Bordone’s painting Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus. Among them the figure of
Charles V of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor, stands out. In a number of poetic and visual
works, certain parallels between the imperial representation of Charles V and the image of
Octavian Augustus can be found. For example, in the Martia terque quater motet composed by
an unknown author on Charles V’s arrival to Augsburg in 1530, after his coronation in Bologna,
Charles is assigned with the mission to restore Octavian Augustus’s Golden Age [12, p. 238].
In the 1532 edition of his Orlando Furioso, Ludovico Ariosto added to Canto 15 a prophetic
speech by Andronica to Astolfo, in which she describes the upcoming Golden Age of prosperity
and justice under the rule of Charles V [1, p. 282–283]. Aristo draws parallels between the two
emperors, and claims the superiority of Charles over Octavian Augustus. [23, pp. 32–35]. The
628 O. A. Nazarova, R. R. Gaynullina

Spanish poet Francisco Núñez de Oria in 1581 praises Charles V as New Augustus in his poem
Lyrae heroycae libri quatordecim [8, pp. 316–318; 30].
The same approach was used in the visual arts. In the fresco cycle of Sala dei Conservatori
in Modena (1546), Nicolò dell’Abate painted the scene of the Second Triumvirate based on Ap-
pian’s Roman History. The choice of the subject was determined by the desire to accentuate the
ancient origins of Modena, as well to present the contemporary events under the disguise of the
ancient ones. The Roman triumvirs in fact represented Charles V as Octavian Augustus with
an eagle next to him, the emblem of the Habsburg; Francis I as Marcus Antonius, as the latter
was the ruler of Gallia, and Pope Paul III as Aemilius Lepidus. As Erika Langmuir explains it,
the frescoes were created to celebrate the three sovereigns who met on the 18th of June 1538 to
sign the Truce of Nice [21, p. 193]. Another example of a similar historiated representation of
a 16th-century ruler is Leone Leoni’s sculpture of Charles V and the Fury (1551–1555, Prado)
(Ill. 138). This triumphant image of the emperor overcoming the Fury, closely follows the tra-
ditional iconography of statues of Roman emperors, and refers to the verses in Virgil’s Aeneid,
in which Augustus is assigned the role of a peacemaker, under whose rule the “gates of War will
be closed”, [36, p. 19]. Leoni’s sculpture thus represents Charles as New Augustus, who restored
peace in Europe [22, p. 28–30] and alludes to his victory over the Protestants at Mühlberg.
Thus, the connection between Emperor Augustus and Emperor Charles V was firmly estab-
lished in the 16th-century culture. At the same time another important connection was obvious
to the contemporaries, that between Emperor Charles V and the Tiburtine Sibyl. Beside the text
of the Legend of Sibyl, known from Jacopo da Voragine, there was another 4th-century escha-
tological text, the Prophecy of the Tiburtine Sibyl, which was widely disseminated during the
Middle Ages. This text describes the nine generations of rules that lead mankind to decline, and
especially emphasizes the role of the Last Emperor, who would come at the end of times to fight
with Antichrist and to bring the Golden Age of peace and prosperity. His main goal would be to
defeat the enemies of Christianity. Despite the invasion of Gog, Magog, and Antichrist, the Last
Emperor would go to Jerusalem, where he would surrender his authority to God. It is not diffi-
cult to see the development of the image of the righteous Emperor Augustus in this prophecy,
which we saw in the main text of the Legend of the Tiburtine Sibyl [34; 19, pp. 21–25]. The
story of the Last Emperor also can be found in the text of Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius (7th
century) [4, pp. 28–50].
Tiburtine Sibyl’s prophecy of the Last Emperor became widely popular in the beginning of
the 16th century in the context of the eschatological expectations, and the 1519 Imperial elec-
tions of Holy Roman Emperor. There were two main candidates, Charles I, Archduke of Austria
and King of Spain (the future Charles V), and Francis I of France. Each candidate exploited the
myth of the Last Emperor in his campaign, representing himself as God’s chosen monarch, and
the ideal Christian ruler. In the first edition of Mirabilis Liber in Paris, composed of various leg-
ends and prophecies with an intent to support the election company of Francis I, the texts of the
prophecy of the Tiburtine Sibyl and of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius were placed next to
each other, as parts of one story, obviously alluding to the French king as the Last Emperor [5,
pp. 126–127]. The supporters of Charles V used the same line of persuasion. Mercurino di Gat-
tinara, the Grand Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire likened Charles to the Last Emperor in
Искусство Ренессанса 629

his speech addressed to the future Emperor as early as 1516. He pointed out that Charles’ goal
as an emperor was to bring the Golden Age, as the Last Emperor’s duty [4, p. 49].
Charles V had additional reasons to regard the prophecy of the Tiburtine Sibyl as referring to
himself. There was a literary tradition that traced the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg
back to Hector, the son of Priam, who allegedly crossed Austrian lands on his way towards the
Rhine. The Tiburtine Sibyl was also called Cassandra, which opened the way to personify her
as the daughter of Priam. Thus, the Austrian Habsburgs and the Tiburtine Sibyl were related by
family ties. These implications laid the foundation for a new, specifically Habsburg reading of
the sibylline legend [28, p. 144]. Just as the pious and mighty Emperor Augustus found himself
on the verge of a new era, proclaimed in the prophecy of the Sibyl and marked by the birth of
the Divine Child, so the Habsburgs, first Emperor Maximilian I, and then Charles V felt them-
selves at a turning point in history. At this point, they were endowed with a special mission to
resist the Antichrist, to act as defenders of the faith, to unite the empire with the church, and to
create the ultimate empire and the church, preparing humanity for the End of days.
Indeed, other Habsburg artworks decorated with the representation of the story of the Sibyl
and Augustus has been known to us. There is an engraving on this subject by Antonio da Trento
based on Parmigianino’s drawing, produced in Bologna around 1530. Maria Faietti links it to
the imperial coronation of Charles V of 1530 in Bologna by the Pope, and considers the en-
graving as a means to present the legitimacy of Charles’s claims to the imperial crown and
mission [11, pp. 457–460]. In the 1560s, for Charles’s son and heir Philipp II, in Milan a bronze
shield was embellished by the depiction of the same story. The meeting of the Sibyl and Au-
gustus is thus used as an emblem of the Habsburg house [28, p. 144]. It can be assumed with all
the probability that the painting by Paris Bordone also alludes to Charles V. It must have been
conceived as an allegory of his historical mission as New Augustus and the Last Emperor. This
interpretation sheds light on the specific representation of the Augustus and the Sibyl in the
painting. The Emperor is shown in modern armor under a brown cloak, kneeling before the
Sibyl as if a vassal is before his lord in dedication. It looks like the Sibyl not only points to the
vision in heavens, but also endows him with the Last Emperor’s mission.
The triumphal rhetoric of the unusually rich architectural decoration of the painting can be
paralleled with the ephemeral architecture of Habsburg’s traditional triumphal entries further
supporting this interpretation. The Habsburgs, and especially Charles V, were among the main
contributors to the development of the Renaissance triumphal ephemera that decorated the
routes of the ruler’s solemn processions through cities. European monarchs eagerly followed
their examples. The vast scholarship on the well documented triumphant entries of Charles V
to various cities across Europe has revealed the wide use of triumphal arches adorned with fic-
tive sculpture, painted facades and interior decoration, and allegorical tableau vivant performed
on the streets and squares [31, pp. 206–207]. The ephemera followed programs composed by
humanists and inspired by political ideology, which were aimed at glorifying Charles as the
universal Emperor, as the defender of Christian faith, and as a just and legitimate ruler [31].
From the very first inaugural entries, Charles used imperial images of antiquity that com-
bined classical forms and themes from the Holy Scripture to express civil and sacred meanings.
In 1515, in Bruges, the triumphal arches and the tableau vivant represented Alexander the
Great, prompted by his father Philip the Great to expand the empire’s possessions [2, p. 80].
630 O. A. Nazarova, R. R. Gaynullina

Entering Genoa in 1533, Charles V was welcomed by a girl dressed as Victory with a palm
branch in her hand in front of the triumphal arch [17, p. 321]. In Genoa, Charles resided in the
villa of Andrea Doria, his admiral and the main ally in Italy. There, in the Hall of Jupiter, which
served as Charles’s official reception room during his stay, there was a fresco depicting Jupiter,
full of references to Charles’s victory over the Turks. The villa interiors were decorated by tap-
estries based on Virgil’s Aeneid, obviously referring to the dynastic myths of the Habsburgs [16,
pp. 23–27]. The visual and ideological affinity between the Moscow painting and the decora-
tions of Charles V’s triumphal entries can be further supported by the astonishing similarities
of the grisaille reliefs at the base of the arch on the left of the painting to the reliefs in the
drawing by Perino del Vaga (1533, pen and brown ink with brown wash on pale buff laid paper,
Samuel Courtauld Trust, London) (Ill. 139) designed for the entry of Charles V into Genoa in
1533. Both show battle scenes that imitate the ancient victorious battles and triumphs over the
vanquished foes, and similar in proportion and composition.
Although there is no historical evidence of the direct connection between Emperor
Charles V and Bordone’s career, it can be established through the Imperial city of Augsburg,
where the Diets were held. Bordone had many commissioners in this city. Vasari noted in Bor-
done’s vita that “At Augsburg, in the Palace of the Fugger family, he executed many works of the
greatest importance, to the value of three thousand crowns. And in the same city he painted for
the Prineri, great men in that place, a large picture wherein he counterfeited in perspective all the
five Orders of architecture, which was a very beautiful work; and another chamber-picture, which
is in the possession of the Cardinal of Augsburg.” [35, p. 181]. Pietro Aretino in a letter, dated
December 1548, sent from Venice to Paris Bordone in Milan mentions various works by the
painter, seen by Aretino in the house of Christoph Fugger in Augsburg [29, p. 33]. The por-
traits of Augsburg citizens Thomas Stahel (Stachel, 1540, Musée du Louvre, Paris) and Conrad
Pentinger (1543, Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Augsburg) by the painter, confirm a steady de-
mand for Bordone’s art in the Bavarian city in the 1540s. The artist definitely continued to paint
for the citizens of Augsburg in the 1550s. K. Garas suggested that Bordone executed a series
of six mythological paintings (possibly wedding epithalamia) for a room in the palace of one
of his Bavarian patrons around 1550–1560 during his stay in Bavarian city (Venus and Cupid
and its pendant Diana the Huntress with Nymphs, both ex-Gemäldegal., Dresden; Venus, Mars,
Cupid and Victory, and Mars Taking Cupid’s Bow with Venus and Flora, both Vienna, Kunsthis-
torisches Museum; Apollo, Midas and Pan (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie) [15, pp. 74–78].
Many of Bordone’s patrons in Augsburg were closely connected to Charles V. The most sig-
nificant of them is the “Prince of Merchants” Anton Fugger, the head of one of the biggest banks
in Europe. Fuggers financed Charles’ election for Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, and later they
were interconnected by tight economic and political relations [18, pp. 68–98, 149–172]. During
his 1533 Triumphal entry into Augsburg, Charles V stayed in the Fugger’s house. Another
closest associate of Charles V was the cardinal of Augsburg, Otto Truchsess von Waldburg, who
owed Charles V his return to Augsburg and the ranks of bishop and cardinal. Von Waldburg
had connections in Venice, and corresponded with Aretino [29, pp. 31–33]. Both Anton Fugger
and Otto Truchsess von Waldburg can be suggested as possible commissioners for Bordone’s
The Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus.
Искусство Ренессанса 631

In the literature, Bordone’s painting is dated back either to the 1540s [6, p. 148], or to the
1550s [25, pp. 96–99]. Two Imperial Diets, those of 1548, held after the Battle of Mühlberg, and
that of 1555 correspond to these dates. However, Charles V was not present at the 1555 Diet,
preparing for his abdication, and the atmosphere of that period was not consonant with the
triumphant spirit of Bordone’s canvas. The painting fits much better to the circumstances and
spirit of the years around the victorious 1548, and finds parallels in the imagery created in this
period, i.e. Leone Leoni’s sculpture of Charles V and the Fury [22, p. 28].
It can be suggested that the painting by Paris Bordone was created for Augsburg, and, most
likely, was part of a complex palace decoration, commissioned by the supporters of Charles V
on the occasion of his triumphal entry to Augsburg after the victory at Mühlberg. The choice
of the subject The Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus, and its architectural setting were
aimed to glorify him allegorically as New Augustus and the Last Emperor, the Defender of the
Faith and the peacemaker, and finally as the fulfillment of the Sibylline prophecy.
Curiously enough, a connection between Charles V and the painting by Paris Bordone, has
been suggested, though on quite a different basis. Sir Robert Walpole, who owned the painting
in the 18th century, claimed in his description that the central figure depicts Charles V “who is
prompted by Religion to ask Pardon of the Virgin (above in the Clouds) for having so ill treated
the Pope’’, the figure sitting on the steps is “certainly Aretine” (Pietro Aretino), while the man
behind the prison bars is Marc Antonio (Raimondi) [25, p. 98]. According to Sir Walpole, Bor-
done depicted in this painting those who had committed offences against the Pope. Charles V
did so by the Sack of Rome in 1527, whereas Aretino and Raimondi by publishing Putana Er-
rante with erotic engravings. Though this ingenious and attractive hypothesis cannot be taken
as plausible any more, it probably reflects once existing awareness about the relations between
the painting, and the figure of Emperor Charles V, awareness that inspired Walpole’s interpre-
tation.
If the suggested interpretation of The Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus is correct,
the painting falls into a very specific and yet understudied genre of political allegory popular
at the 16th-century European courts. The characteristic features of this genre are the relatively
large scale of panels depicting scenes from the Bible or from the history of ancient Rome; the
elaborate and extended vedutas on their backgrounds that prevail over the small foreground
figures; the architecture of the vedutas composed in large part of the triumphal forms, i.e. of
vocabulary of ephemeral architecture. The contextual research of some of these paintings has
revealed that they were intended to commemorate contemporary political events, or to cele-
brate contemporary sovereigns.
Another representation of the The Tiburtine Sibyl and Emperor Augustus, by French court
painter Antoine Caron (Musée du Louvre, Paris), was created, as F. Yates convincingly argues, on
the occasion of the wedding of the French king, Charles IX, and Elisabeth of Austria, daughter
of Emperor Maximilian II Habsburg, in 1571. The painting includes precise quotations of the
architectural forms that decorated the triumphal entry held on that occasion of Elisabeth’s cor-
onation, and preserved in the Festival Book (British Library), which was published in Paris
in 1572. According to Yates, Charles IX is represented here allegorically in the guise of Emperor
Augustus [37]. According to F. Beemon, Lucas de Heere’s painting King Solomon and the Queen
of Sheba (St. Bavo cathedral, Ghent), where Solomon’s throne appears against the triumphal
632 O. A. Nazarova, R. R. Gaynullina

arch, was commissioned on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Order of the Golden
Fleece in 1559 in Ghent. The figure of Solomon here alludes to Philip II of Habsburg, bearing
his portrait features, while the figure of the Queen of Sheba should be taken as an allegory of
the Netherlands, willingly submitting herself to the power of the King. The Latin inscription on
the frame clearly announces these identifications of the Bible characters. The ultimate meaning
of this painting is to serve as propaganda presenting Philip II as the wise, legitimate and God-
given ruler of the Netherlands during the period of utmost discontent with the Habsburg pol-
icies in the Netherlands [3].
The same approach to historical subjects can be seen in the group of paintings created in
France in the second half of the 16th century, where scenes of the so-called Massacre of the
Triumvirate, originating from Appian’s Roman Wars, became widely popular in panel paint-
ings and prints, where they were presented against the background of ancient architectural
decorations. According to J. Ehrmman, this story was perceived as an allegory of the cruel re-
ligious policy approved by Henry II against the Protestants. Ehrmman found documentation
confirming that the roles of triumvirs were assigned to Henry II’s associates, Anne de Montmo-
rency, Jacques d’Albon, Senor de Saint-Andre, and the Francois Duke de Guise [7; 9].
This list of examples, which could be further extended, provides a new and valid context for
the Bordone’s The Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus, thus reconfirming its function
as a political allegory.

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634 O. A. Nazarova, R. R. Gaynullina

Title. On Meaning and Function of the Painting Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus by Paris Bor-
done
Authors. Nazarova, Olga Alekseevna — Ph. D., associate professor. National Research University Higher
School of Economics, Myasnitskaya ul., 20, 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0003-1143-0463
Gaynullina, Regina Ravilevna — postgraduate student. National Research University Higher School of
Economics, Myasnitskaya ul., 20, 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. [email protected] ORCID: 0000-
0002-1127-0351
Abstract. This paper reconsiders the meaning and function of the painting The Apparition of the Sibyl to
Emperor Augustus by Paris Bordone by examining its subject in the light of the medieval interpretations of
Tiburtine Sibyl’s prophecy to Octavian Augustus. These interpretations expressed in an array of texts, have been
molded by the world view at the beginning of the 16th century into an eschatologicaly endowed concept of the
Last Emperor, a spiritual and political leader, who, like Emperor Augustus, stands at the turn of the era, and is
supposed to prepare mankind for the end of the world. This concept influenced the political ideology of the time
in that European sovereigns were identified with the Last Emperor. Among them Emperor Charles V Habsburg
stands out, who was addressed by his contemporaries both as New Augustus, and as the Last Emperor, espe-
cially after his victory over the Protestants at Mühlberg. The striking visual affinity between the architectural
setting of the painting and the decorations of Charles V’s triumphal entries, the multiple historical connections
between Charles V, the city of Augsburg, and Paris Bordone’s career support the hypothesis, that the painting is
an allegorical representation of Charles V as New Augustus, and the Last Emperor, and was commissioned in
Augsburg to celebrate his triumphal arrival to the 1548 Imperial Diet of Augsburg.
Keywords: Paris Bordone, social history of art, Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus, renaissance
architectural perspective, imperial iconography, representation of power, triumphal entries, Charles V

Название статьи. О смысле и назначении картины Париса Бордоне «Явление Сивиллы императору
Августу»
Сведения об авторах. Назарова Ольга Алексеевна — кандидат искусствоведения, доцент. Нацио-
нальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики», Москва, ул. Мясницкая, 20, Рос-
сийская Федерация, 101000. [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0003-1143-0463
Гайнуллина Регина Равильевна — студент магистратуры. Национальный исследовательский уни-
верситет «Высшая школа экономики», Москва, ул. Мясницкая, 20, Российская Федерация, 101000.
[email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-1127-0351
Аннотация. В статье предлагается новая интерпретация смыслового содержания картины Париса
Бордоне «Явление Сивиллы императору Августу» из ГМИИ имени А. С. Пушкина и выдвигается гипо-
теза об обстоятельствах её создания. Сюжет картины рассматривается в свете средневекового пророче-
ства Тибуртинской Сивиллы о Последнем Императоре, духовном и политическом лидере, который по-
добно Императору Августу принесет мир и процветание человечеству, а также подготовит его к концу
времен. В начале XVI в. на фоне эсхатологических ожиданий эпохи, образ Последнего Императора при-
обрёл особую актуальность в европейской политической идеологии. С ним отождествляли себя мно-
гие правители и, в первую очередь, Карл V Габсбург, в котором современники видели Нового Августа
и воплощение пророчества о Последнем Императоре. Особенно часто эта параллель проводилась после
победы Карла V над протестантами при Мюльберге. Поразительное сходство богатой архитектурной
декорации московской картины с эфемерной архитектурой Габсбургских триумфальных въездов, мно-
гочисленные исторические связи между Карлом V, имперским городом Аугсбургом и карьерой Париса
Бордоне подтверждают гипотезу о том, что полотно Бордоне является аллегорической репрезентацией
Карла V. Картина представляет императора Карла V как Нового Августа и Последнего Императора, и,
вероятно, была заказана аугсбургскими сторонниками императора по случаю его триумфального въез-
да в город в 1548 г. после победы при Мюльберге.
Ключевые слова: Парис Бордоне, социальная история искусства, Явление Сивиллы императору
Августу, архитектурная перспектива Возрождения, имперская иконография Возрождения, репрезента-
ция власти, триумфальные въезды, Карл V
Иллюстрации 985

Ill. 137. Paris Bordone. The Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus. Oil on canvas, 165 × 230 cm. The Pushkin State
Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_Bordon_-_Sibilla_davanti_ad_
Augusto_-_Museo_Puskin_-_Mosca.jpg
986 Иллюстрации

Ill. 138. Leone Leoni. Emperor Carlos V and the Fury. 1551–1555.
Bronze. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Available at:
museodelprado.es

Ill. 139. Perino del Vaga. Design for a Triumphal arch in

via San Benedetto built for the entry of Charles V into
Genoa in 1533. 1533. Pen and brown ink with brown
wash on pale buff laid paper, 42,8 × 30,3 cm. Samuel
Courtauld Trust, London © The Samuel Courtauld Trust,
The Courtauld Gallery, London