Piero
di Cosimo’s Discovery of Honey has long been considered a marriage piece commissioned for the
wedding of Giovanni Vespucci and Namiciana di Benedetto Nerli (c.1500). The presence
of bees (wasps?) swirling around the hive on top of the tree was interpreted as
a punning reference to the Vespucci family whose name has the same root of the
modern Italian word vespa (wasp). Set
in a rural landscape, the scene is populated by satyrs and fauns engaging in
different activities. In the foreground Pan stares straight at the beholder
holding up three onions. According to some, onions have all the rights to
appear in a wedding painting due to their well-recognised aphrodisiac qualities
(Geronimous 2006). Personally not aware of the onion-love association, I tried
to investigate this curious aspect further.
Piero di Cosimo, The Discovery of Honey (Worcester Art Museum)
detail
Research has proven that onions - as
well as garlic - were viewed as aphrodisiacs worldwide, from far China to the
Mediterranean. Greeks identified onions as an erotic stimulant more than other
aphrodisiac (Koerper and Kolls 1999) while in Rome it was often included in culinary
recipe books. The writer Martial suggested to eat plenty of onions if “your
wife is old and your member is exhausted” (for citations and other examples
check the Wellness Blog). Love-related features seem to be embodied also in
the round, golden object hold by Venus, goddess of love, in Bronzino’s Allegory (c.1545). Appearing
like an apple, a closer looks reveal it might well be an onion. The artist’s interest
in linking these two elements seems to be confirmed by the poem La Cipolla del Bronzino Pittore (On
Bronzino’s Onion) where the effects of onions are compared to those of love (Cohen
2008).
Bronzino, Allegory (London, National Gallery)
As
the aphrodisiac properties of onions were celebrated since ancient times, it
comes with no surprise that Renaissance Florence - where classical culture was widely
assimilated and reinterpreted - adopted the same attitude. Piero di Cosimo’s panel
therefore present several elements that justify its nature as a wedding
piece: onions; honey (again associated with sweetness and love); and the presence of Pan/the
satyrs, symbols of physical love. Furthermore the tree trunk in the middle of
the panel has been recently seen as the grotesque of a woman in labour (idea advanced in the Boston.com
article “The Discovery of Honey byBacchus revisited”). Arguable point.
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