Marchetto of Padua's Pomerium (1318/19), a widely read treatise that laid the groundwork for notational practice in Italy, contains a passage suggesting the author's knowledge of the latest developments in Trecento painting. He writes:

Art imitates nature as far as it can (as Aristotle said in Book II of the Physics). I shall prove this with an example: he who paints a lily or a horse strives as far as he can to paint it so as to resemble a horse or a lily in nature.

Marchetto's use of the phrase "in nature" epitomizes the "new," naturalistic painting style that emerged during the first decades of the fourteenth century. The Florentine Giotto, who decorated the Arena Chapel in Padua, was the innovator of this style and his fame in this regard was widely acknowledged by his contemporaries.

In explaining the Italian notational system, Marchetto compares the artist's ability to capture nature in painting and the use of specific notational devices, such as the addition of "tails to the notes." He writes:

Since, therefore, the written notes pertain to the art of music, although music is in itself an accepted science, it was right that the tails added to the notes, which were written because of the need to hand down the music, should be added to them in accordance with the perfections found in man himself, who instituted this art; for in man is found, in origin, the right and the left.[...] Therefore the tails added to the written notes are rightly added to them on the right and the left, as with respect to man.

Marchetto argues that the written notes should capture the intentions of the composer as closely as possible "because of the need to hand down the music" and for that reason tails be added to the notes. For Marchetto the expression of musical time "via naturae" refers to semibreves without stems, while "via artis" designates those with stems since the addition of a stem on a semibreve changes its natural value within the tempus. As with painting, therefore musical notation must faithfully reproduce on paper the sounds of the music that are "in nature."

The purpose of this study is to explore the complex relationship between the composition and musical theories of Marchetto and the representation of music-making in Giotto's Arena Chapel frescoes. For example, Marchetto's motet Ave regina celorum/Mater innocencie has compositional links--in both text and music--to Giotto's Wedding Procession and Annunciation. Furthermore, Giotto repainted musical instruments in these paintings. Giotto changed louder instruments to softer ones by shortening their lengths and generally toning down the "musical" sound in his pictures. I posit that these alterations may have been made on the suggestion of Marchetto.

Yet to be considered in the musicological literature, Bernardino Scardeone's authoritative De Antiquitate Urbis Patavini contains a comprehensive history of Paduan music and composers from antiquity through the first half of the sixteenth century. In a chapter entitled "De claris musicis Patavini," Scardeone begins with a general account of the power of music and its rudiments in Greek and Roman society. He then skips to a biography of Marchetto--whom he calls the first great musician of Padua--which is followed by biographies of Prosdocimo Beldomando, Antonio Lydio, Antonio Martorello, Antonio Rota, Francesco Portinario, and Annibale Patavino. Scardeone states that Marchetto was known first as a philosopher and second as a great practitioner of music in Padua.

Scardeone then claims that Marchetto was so well-known as conversant in music that he became the great friend of Robert of Anjou, king of Sicily. According to Scardeone Marchetto visited Robert's court in Naples. This explains the subsequent dedication of the Pomerium to Robert. Scardeone writes that Marchetto "was, therefore, close to Robert--at one time--as Timothy was close to Alexander, who had learned how to calm and excite the sentiments of the King to the point that Robert liked to vary the sound and rhythm of songs." This association with the King of Sicily places Marchetto at the Neapolitan court, along with Giotto, Boccaccio and Petrarch.

The connection between Giotto and Marchetto is revealed through a consideration of Marchetto's motet Ave regina celorum. Based on the presence of acrostics found in the texts Gallo argues that the motet was written for the opening ceremonies of the Arena Chapel on March 25, 1305. The triplum contains Gabriel's salutation to the Virgin Mary (Luke 1: 28) while the duplum contains Marchetto's name:

Triplum Duplum

AVE regina celorum, (M)ater innocencie,

pia virgo tenella. Aula venustatis,

MARIA candens flos florum, Rosa pudicicie,

Christi(que) clausa cella Cella deitatis.

GRACIA que peccatorum Vera lux mundicie,

dira abstulit bella. Manna probatis.

PLENA odore unguentorum, Porta obediencie,

stirpis David puella. Arca pietatis.

DOMINUS, rex angelorum Datrix indulgencie,

Te gignit, lucens stella. Virga puritatis.

TECUM manens ut nostrorum Arbor fructus gracie,

tolleret seva tela. Nostre pravitatis.

BENEDICTA mater morum, Virtus tue clementie

nostre mortis medela. Me solvat a peccatis.

TU signatus fons ortorum,

manna (das dulcinella,

IN te lucet) lux cunctorum

quo promo de te mella.

MULIERIBUS tu chorum

regis dulci viella,

ET vincula delictorum

frangis nobis rebella.

BENE(DICTUS futurorum

ob nos) potatus fella.

FRUCTUS dulcis quo iustorum

clare sonat cimella.

VENTRIS sibi parat thorum

nec in te corruptella.

TUI zelo febris horum

languescat animella.

 

Triplum: Rejoice, Queen of the Heavens, tender and pious Virgin Mary, white flower among flowers, sealed cell of Christ; grace that relieved the sinners of cruel struggles. Filled with the perfume of sweet smells, daughter of the line of David. The Lord, King of Angels, has made you a shining star and remains within you in order to rip off the cruel arrows from us. Blessed Mother of virtue, medicine for our death. Chosen fountain of the garden, you sweetly have the manna. In you the light of everything is lit, from you I take the honey. For the women you lead the chorus with a suave viella (fiddle) and for us you breath the rebellious chains of sins. Blessed is he who drinks the bile for us, sweet fruit with which it plays with clarity, the cimella (chalumeau) of the just. In you he prepares the nuptial bed, and there is no immorality. Of the love for you the small and humble some shall languish.

 

Duplum: Mother of innocence, hall of the beauty. Rose of chastity, cell of divinity. True light of charity, manna of honesty. Door of obedience, tomb of mercy. Bestower of indulgence, rod of chastity. Fruit tree of grace [against] our wickedness. The strength of your mercifulness shall dissolve me from sins.

Both the triplum and duplum texts are lauds of the Virgin Mary. The triplum is an amalgamation of two principal chant antiphons associated with the Annunciation, the Ave regina gratia plena and Benedicta tu in mulieribus and speaks directly of the nuptial bed and the Annunciation.

Marked similarities arise from a comparison of the structure of Marchetto's motet Ave regina celorum and the numerical framework of Giotto's frescoes. Marchetto's motet alludes to the 39 scenes in Giotto's narrative (Plate 1) that directly concern the life of the Virgin. The motet consists of 39 longa measures, and the tenor of the piece, which seems to be newly composed, curiously juxtaposes the numbers 6 and 5. The talea (or length of rhythmic unit which repeats throughout the baseline) of the tenor measures six and consists of five pitches. In the fascimile there are five pitches--three in ligature and two longa--between rests (fig. 2). This reflects the same grouping in the chapel, for Giotto has painted three groups of six on the left hand wall. In the top row of the opposite wall are six more scenes beneath which are two groups of five images. This curious juxtaposition of numbers is necessitated by the windows on the left-hand side. The motet consists of 6 x 6 measures of the talea (the color--or length of the repeating melodic pattern--consists of 18 measures) arriving at the number 36. Marchetto concludes the piece with 3 measures, whose tenor contains a kind of cadence and whose upper voices slow down in time adopting the slower movement of the tenor. Perhaps the three extra scenes allude numerically to Annunciation on the back wall. Although Giotto created a space for five scenes only three actual narratives have been painted. These are the Annunciation, the Betrayal of Judas and the Visitation. The other two niches contain architectural spaces called coretti or concealed chapels. Marchetto may have not considered these scenes central to the narrative and thus omitted them from his count. The scenes included in our count (and Marchetto's 39) are those with which the viewer is directly confronted on entering the chapel.

The text of Marchetto's Ave regina celorum also contains several striking references to music which recall Giotto's frescoes, most notably the Wedding Procession of the Virgin (fig. 3), which is on the left top tier of the wall just to the left of the Annunciation. The scene is multi-dimentional in time. In one movement Mary and her attending ladies come upon a group of musicians. The second movement captures the musicians who play their instruments before the women arrive. One man plays a fiddle while others play wind instruments. The musicians wear shorter draperies and wreaths on their heads. The upper part of the picture has been badly damaged and what remains is a balcony with a large leafy branch, a sign of the Virgin's forthcoming pregnancy.

In lines 19-20 of the triplum we read: "MULIERIBUS tu chorum regis dulci viella," the same as the instrument in Giotto's painting. Marchetto says that the viella leads a chorus of virgins, which echoes Mary leading a chorus of women. Mary does not actually do the playing (she is never portrayed as playing musical instruments, though music accompanies her on many occasions), but she can appear as a conduit for the harmony of the music played by the instrumentalists. Through Mary the women hear the music of the viella and are ruled by its strains. This interpretation is made clear by Mary's placement near the center of the scene as an intermediary between the players and the women. She guides them by the metaphor of her implied music. This may account for her placid demeanor that has been traditionally viewed as extraordinarily musical by later commentators.

Music was allied with virginity in the Middle Ages. Describing the Lamb on Mount Sion Revelations 14:1-5 provides the Christian source of this belief:

And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

Related to Giotto's frescoes is the chaste quality of the followers who hear the song of God. It is reminiscent of the group of women following Mary in the Wedding Procession. Thomas Connolly notes that the virgins sing an "inner" song, one that is not heard. Quoting the Passio of the Roman virgin St. Cecilia we find that she "sang in her heart to God alone." The "new song" will help to clarify why Mary does not play the viella in the picture but leads the choir of virgins with the viella in Marchetto's poem.

The notion of the "new song" versus the "old song" originates in Psalms. Numerous lines exhort believers to sing a new song. For example in Psalm 32 (i.e. the Hebrew/Reformed Psalm 33) we read "Praise the Lord on the cithara, sing to him with the psaltery of ten strings! Sing to him a new song, sing to him well" (ll. 2-3). Christian commentators on the Psalms, notably Augustine, have devised intricate allegorical interpretations of the music in these poems and have translated the singing and musical instruments into Christian doctrine. Therefore, we read Augustine's explanation of Psalm 33 as "Divest yourself of what is old; you have learnt a new song. A new man, a new testament, a new song." The "new song" becomes linked with celestial melody, and the old with melodies of the flesh. In addition, Psalm illuminators included images of the difference between the old and new song in their texts. Raucous musicians with unsavory demeanors and tumbling dancing figures were shown with the old and calm, serious, pious with the new. In Giotto's fresco, then, we are reminded of the women's chastity and their connection to the music in heaven. Their calm demeanors represent the "new song." However, though Mary is often depicted as the leader of a virginal choir, the mention of the viella is unique and further confirms the relationship between Marchetto's words and Giotto's picture.

A connection also exists between the viella player and Christ. The string instrument has been linked to the lyre, the principal instrument of Apollo on Parnassus. Apollo was aligned with Christ because he "could well be employed [by Christians] as a personification of justice, both as god of music which, like justice, reduces strife and discord to harmony, and as the god of the sun" as Christ was the figure of light and healing. The notion of justice and music continues in the musical reference in lines 25-26, "FRUCTUS dulcis quo iustorum clare sonat cimella" where the playing of the cimella instrument represents the "just." Justice is a central theme in Giotto's frescoes, since its patron Enrico Scrovegni commissioned the chapel in hopes of achieving salvation. In the Last Judgement on the entrance wall trumpeting angels border the seated Christ. Furthermore, in the dado, Giotto placed the seated Virtue of Justice above a marble-like predella scene of three women: one plays tambourine, one sings, while a third dances.

Marchetto's verses 25-26 contain a second allusion to Giotto's Wedding Procession, namely to the cimella (in Latin), or ciaramella in Italian, and "chalumeau" in English. The instruments in the Giotto are small single-reed instruments, though certainly not bagpipes. In fact, it is difficult to identify exactly what these instruments are, because Giotto changed his mind about the types of instruments he wished to represent. Indeed, a photograph taken after a restoration in the 1960's shows that what appear to be two short, recorder-like instruments were originally long-barrelled trumpets. These are the same kind of instruments blown by the angels surrounding God in the Annunciation, to which we will return.

The position of the players' heads reveals Giotto's pentimento. The two player's heads are tilted upward, indicating that Giotto first intended them to play trumpets, since the positioning of long instruments in this scene require that the head be tilted up just past horizontal. If Giotto had originally intended to paint recorder-or shawm-players, he probably would have tilted their heads downward. This is true of the famous recorder-player in a fresco of Simone Martini in Assisi Chapel. At some point after the Wedding had dried, Giotto changed to softer instruments in secco.

Giotto made numerous changes in the Arena Chapel frescoes, both by applying new plaster (intonaco) or fresco secco. At least one change in the Wedding Procession has been noted by Tintori and Meiss in the clothing of the figure in front of the Madonna. They note that Giotto wished to maintain a sense of movement by inclining the lower hem of the garments upward to the right. He achieved this motion by painting in the background color below them, and then added a flowing red line from the bottom left up to the knee. In this way he changed a heavy cape into a light mantel. The same change to a "lighter," airier and more appropriate mood is achieved by changing the representation of long trumpets to higher wind instruments. Giotto may have wanted the instruments to correspond with Mary's calm demeanor. Trumpets are traditionally loud, outdoor instruments played in processionals, while the fiddle and short reed instruments are more intimate.

Giotto's initial decision to represent trumpets may have been influenced by the fact that he witnessed Paduan festivities accompanied by loud instruments. According to Gennaro Gennari, a decree was passed concerning the "accompagnamento delle spose novelle." He cites the Paduan tradition in which parents and friends accompany the bride to the house of her husband with great festivity of "suoni e canti." The citizenry believed that these processions created commotion, confusion and were generally public nuisances. A law passed in 1277 ordained that no more than twenty people per side of the family were allowed to march in procession. Gennari writes "Wise decree, because these populous gatherings could be suspected to be machinations against the state."

It is possible that Giotto saw the Paduan ceremony dedicated to the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. The Annunciation fresco has a compositional structure that recalls the placement of the Virgin and Gabriel in compartments from which they spoke the lines of the dramatic office. Trumpets were traditionally used in the Paduan processionals that accompanied the characters:

Mary and the angel were played upon two platform and carried to the Arena, preceded by trumpet players of the city and Paduan clerics. They were followed by the Podesta and all the citizens. The Angel was to salute Mary in the courtyard of the Arena. This was to be done without payment by the city or the clerics. The salaried trumpet players were to play their trumpets and playing accompany the angel and Mary to the palace of the Arena without additional funds.

Giotto may also have chosen trumpets as a recurring motive. The long lines of the trumpets echo the lines in architecture that permeate the entire fresco cycle. They also appear in the Annunciation (where interestingly several also seem truncated) and the Last Judgement. However, in choosing to truncate the trumpets, not only in the Wedding Procession but also in the Annunciation, Giotto has softened the tone of the scene to better fit the demeanor of the Virgin.

The third musician in the Wedding does not have the instruments at his lips, but seems poised to play while his companions are playing. This may account for the singular ciaramella in the text. Marchetto does not mention trumpets at all, but rather the "new" instruments painted by Giotto. They seem to be an invention used specifically to fit the existing outlines created by the shortened trumpets. This has interesting implications. It is possible that Marchetto, who enjoyed the distinguished reputation of philosopher and greatest musician in Padua, may have inspected the frescoes or been asked about the suitability of the trumpets. Tintori and Meiss confirm that Giotto painted in the traditional manner from the top down, so the Wedding Procession would have certainly been complete during the earliest phase of painting, early enough for Marchetto to suggest changes and write his motet text.

Marchetto's motivation for reflecting the fresco in this motet is understood in the context of his concern for the reproduction of music as if captured from reality. In this case, Marchetto not only reproduces on paper the notes he wishes his singers to produce, but also, in a visual/musical play, Giotto's complex matrix of frescoes. Marchetto renders Giotto's frescoes with precision in the numerology of his notation and the subtlety of his text with its acrostics and descriptions of the images. Such interdisciplinary decorations were not unique in this time in Padua. Giotto's paintings inspired a miniaturist to decorate an antiphoner for the Cathedral dating from c. 1306. Giotto is also credited with having decorated the walls of the Sala della Ragione, the program of which has been ascribed to Peter of Abano, the philosopher, music theorist and astronomer.

The final point to be considered is the representation of implied music in the Annunciation (Plate 4). The scene is divided into two parts: the upper, which represents Gabriel's Mission, and the lower which takes place on earth. In Giotto's sequence of frescoes, the Annunciation follows the Wedding Procession. Gabriel kneels on the left, while Mary hears his words on the right. God is surrounded by legions of angels, some of whom play instruments. In the left background, two angels play a lute and a tambourine mirrored by two angels who play psaltery and cymbals in the right foreground. Others appear to be singing. In the right foreground, an angel plays the "trumpet," which, like the Wedding Procession, seems to be cut-offby the frame while a second plays, what has been described as a double recorder. The choice of instruments is typical of medieval angel choirs. Marchetto acknowledges the image of the angel choir in the first part of his Lucidarium when he quotes Remigius: "The vastness of music encompasses all that lives and all that does not live; this the choir of all the angels, archangels, and saints sings without end, chanting 'Sanctus, Sanctus' before the eyes of God."

Marchetto was familiar with the classification of sound in three general groups, all of which are represented in Giotto's picture. He describes them in Book 1. Chapter 7--13 of his Lucidarium as three "species of music" (p. 89). The first is designated as "harmonic" music which is produced by the voice of human beings or animals. This is created by "sound of air set in vibration by the breath" (p. 91). The second is "organic" music produced by the breath of humans as in "trumpets," then he notes the instruments "cimellis, and pipes, organs and the like" (p. 97). He refers to the same instrument here (cimella) that Brown described as "single-reed" instrument. The third and final category is "rhythmic" music which Marchetto contends consists of all sound that is not voice as in the "monochord, the psaltery, the bell and similar instruments" (p. 101). This tripartite distinction in musical sound is found in Augustine's De ordine 2.39, and can be traced further to Cicero's De Re Publica 2.41.

Each of these categories of musical sound types is represented in Giotto's fresco. Furthermore, the representation of Annunciation in two parts--unprecedented in the history of art--accentuates the musical quality or motion of the scene. In the midst of the heavenly music, God sends Gabriel to announce the birth of Christ to Mary. There is implied musical transmission in this scene that corresponds to the musical drama of the Annunciation practiced in Padua at this time. In celebration clerics dressed as Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph and Joachim walked in procession from the sacristy around the cathedral carrying silver books. A small boy-chorister dressed to represent Gabriel [sitting on a chair] was carried from the baptistery and taken into the church; the clerics stopped in the middle of the church to represent a choir. The sub deacon paused after the readings and the words Et egressus angelus ad eam dixit were spoken. At this point Gabriel came forward, kneeling with two fingers of his right hand raised and began the antiphon Ave Maria gratia plena. These are the words of Marchetto's acrostic, perhaps the motet was sung at this point, to replace the singing of the antiphon. The connection to the Giotto is further noted because in his painting Gabriel is kneeling with two fingers raised. While receiving the spirit (symoblized by a dove) Mary arises and sings the antiphon Ecce ancilla. Marchetto was quite familiar with this antiphon since he uses it in the Lucidarium. Thus heavenly music is transmitted to earth, in the figure of Mary, who in the earlier scene, guides the chorus of believers accompanied by the sound of the viella.

The movement in Giotto's fresco from heavenly to earthy music reflects: the interest in the representation of earthly phenomena as experienced in nature. A similar progression appears in Marchetto's two theoretical treatises. The Lucidarium begins with several chapters outlining the history of music and its meaning, while the second the Pomerium concern music as a strictly physical property. The Pomerium contains no allusions to past writers about music--Boethius, Cassiodorus, or Augustine--as in the first treatise. Rather, when describing the properties of intervals, Marchetto chooses to quote the scientific Aristotle and his treatise The Physics. Another important claim to a return to nature, is Marchetto' choice of definition for the word music. In Book 1. Chapter 6 he notes that "music derives from moys, which means "water," since music was discovered by the waters, as Remigius reports; for just as water cannot be touched without its being moved, so can there be no music without it being heard (p. 87)." The same words recur in Peter of Abano's Expositio Problematum Aristotelis, of c. 1310. Peter was the leading proponent of the Aristotelian natural school, stressing the scientific appreciation of objects based on observation.

The notational practices of Marchetto and the painting of Giotto in the Arena Chapel show a strong affinity for the representation of nature. Giotto captures the details of flora, fauna, facial expressions and musical instruments. Marchetto captures the spirit of the Annunciation in the colorful language of his motet text and symbolic notation. Together they epitomize the prevailing intellectual and artistic spirit in the city of Padua and its dedication to a scientific understanding of natural objects. Both represent the pinnacle of medieval thought: Giotto as the master of expression and form, and Marchetto the last breaths of linearly driven music just prior to the adoption of a more harmonic, textually driven language.

created by nbeck@lclark.edu

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