Battle of the Sea Gods: A Humanist Vision

Battle of the Sea Gods: A Humanist Vision

Written by: Miranda Cohen

            Battle of the Sea Gods is an engraving made by Andrea Mantegna in the 1470’s. The engraving shows the violent and dynamic battle between eleven classical deities of the sea amidst churning waves and spraying salt. The piece is many-layered and intriguing, not only visually but also historically, as it references an era long before its creation. Mantegna was an artist fascinated by classical literature and art, and he clearly borrowed from various classical pieces in his creation of the engraving.[1] Mantegna goes further than merely borrowing, however. With Battle of the Sea Gods, Mantegna is testing his hand at creation of new lore about classical subjects. Though there is no classical text describing such a battle, Mantegna depicted this plausible struggle, and so, in a way, put himself in competition with classical artists. His fascination with classical culture is a reflection of his association with the Humanists, a group of intellectuals during the Renaissance who reenergized interest in classical antiquity. In a short summary, “(Humanism) involves above all the rediscovery and study of ancient Greek and Roman texts, the restoration and interpretation of them and the assimilation of the ideas and values that they contain.”[2] Battle of the Sea Gods is very much a Humanist piece of art: an intellectual puzzle that revives classical subjects, but one that also puts them in a new situation with a personal flourish.

The engraving is comprised of two equally sized panels that are meant to be viewed together as a whole. The left panel contains of five figures. The main focal point is the struggle between two figures in the foreground. Both are seated on horses, and are depicted in the middle of a conflict. The god at the right side of the panel has his mouth open in a snarl, his robe furling out behind him. With his right hand he is stabbing another god who is sitting side-saddle on a horse, blood pouring out of the wound in his mouth; his right hand, which is holding a bundle of fish, is pulled back in agony. Behind both of these figures stands Neptune, the only easily identifiable figure. He stands with his back to us; in his right hand he holds his characteristic trident, in his left, a dolphin, an animal commonly associated with him. To the left of this clump of figures is a god in the foreground atop a sea monster. He is looking away from the scene with an expression of anguish, directing his eyes to the staff he is holding dramatically with his right hand. Behind him, the ominous figure of an old and emaciated woman looms over the scene. Her mouth is contorted in a snarl, and with her left hand she extends small plaque over the heads of the raging sea gods containing the word “Invid,” or, “Envy”.

The left panel flows seamlessly into the right in terms of the marshy scenery of the background and the continuation of the figures from the edge of the panel. The right panel contains six figures. Starting on the left-most side of the right panel, a sea goddess looks over to the action of the left panel, further connecting the two panels. Next to her is a dramatic clash between two gods. To the right of the woman is a god who has the torso of a man and the body of a horse with scales, leaning toward the viewer, his mouth opened in a grimace. In his right hand he holds thin spears close to his side; in his left, he is brandishing an animal skull. He is reacting to the figure on his right, a furious sea god who is also part human, part fish and part man. This sea god has a blade object raised in his right hand and seems ready to strike. Behind him, a woman is clutching his waist, attempting to hold him back, her long hair whipping around wildly. Behind her is a figure whose body is twisted dynamically to the side, who is brandishing a bundle of fish in his right hand. Finally, to the left of this figure stands a boy who is looking at the struggle at the front of the scene. He is blowing a horn, while extending his left hand sideways toward the figure brandishing the fish, as if wishing to calm the action.

Mantegna’s composition in Battle of the Sea Gods helps him to bring out his humanist vision.  The dimensionality of his figures brings to mind the sculptures of classical antiquity.[3] Indeed, there is much evidence for the fact that Mantegna was heavily influenced by classical sculpture. When he was eleven years old, Mantegna began training in the classical school at Padua. His instructor, Squarcione, was fascinated by the classical arts and owned a great deal of classical sculptures and casts. [4] As his apprentice, “drawing from sculptural models both contemporary and classical was a standard part of… (his) training”.[5] Mantegna matured as a painter and worked on many religious pieces, but Mantegna’s fascination with antiquity did not end. Mantegna took many trips to study classical works. In 1464, he traveled to Lake Garda in Northern Italy with other artists and visited classical sites. Batzner offers a description of their journey:

The companions addressed one another with classical names and titles such as Imperator and Consul, wore laurel wreaths on their heads, and rowed across Lake Garda singing to the sound of lutes, clearly feeling as though they had transported themselves to the realms of Arcadia. [6]

This passage suggests not only an admiration of classical culture, but also a longing actually to be a classical artist.

Thus it is interesting that envy is such an important theme in Battle of the Sea Gods. The emaciated, even ominous, old woman brandishing the sign “Invid” is one of the most noticeable, and at the same time, puzzling, aspects of the piece. There are several suggestions as to what Mantegna was referencing with the word envy. One theory is that he is alluding to the rivalry between sculptors and painters at this time in Italy.[7] There was a major rift between the two groups, as each was trying to prove that his medium was the best.[8] Thus, Mantegna may have been creating a parallel between the envious fighting sea gods and the jealousy of artists at the time. This is quite possible because envy is a concept that often emerges in his work.[9] Another likely possibility supported by the account of Mantegna’s journey is that Mantegna was commenting on his own jealousy of classical artists and his longing to be one himself. This is probable, knowing Mantegna’s delight in classical art and his fixation on envy. Through his inclusion of the element of envy, Mantegna has twisted the classical content of the piece and has introduced a concept that transcends time.

Mantegna borrowed directly from many classical sources to create his vision, both literary and artistic. The appearance of the woman characterizing Envy, for example, was taken from “Ovid’s famous characterization of Envy, a withered hag with foul breath and rotten teeth consuming snakes.” [10] Mantegna was also much influenced by classical art, particularly sculpture. One source that influenced him was a sketchbook that contained drawings of classical sculpture.[11] He was also seemingly influenced by a “sarcophagus relief then in the della Valle collection in Rome,”[12] a piece that was known to the Marchese Ludovico Gonzaga, Mantegna’s patron.[13] It is possible that Gonzaga commissioned the work specifically to include elements of this relic. In addition, the entire engraving is reminiscent of another work by the London Pliny Master. The Pliny Master’s piece, entitled Triumph of Sea Creatures, even contains a nearly identical depiction of Neptune in the same pose with a trident in one hand and a dolphin in the other.[14] During the late 1470’s, the time that Mantegna produced this engraving, there were several artists who produced such pieces, suggesting that this subject matter was popular at the time.[15]

However, though Mantegna clearly took from other sources, he also showed much creativity, especially in his crafting of the scene in the engraving. As far as we know, there is no documentation of such a scene occurring in classical literature.[16] Mantegna used his power as an artist to invent a possible occurrence among classical characters. This may seem strange to modern art critics, but at this time there was a very different attitude about the manipulation of and addition to the classical canon.[17]  During the same trip Mantegna took in which he imitated aspects of classical life, he and his companions also carved their own inscriptions into stones and also into modern pieces modeled after the antique.[18] Rather than seeing it as a perversion of classical culture, at this time there was an active engagement with the culture, especially within Humanist groups. Says Batzner: “At this time a spirit of research was intermingled with a general enthusiasm for antiquity that had no qualms about adding to authentic material.” [19]

 Battle of the Sea Gods is a piece that intellectuals could appreciate just as much as art critics. The piece invites conjecture over the identity of the gods and the conflict in question that would require an extensive knowledge of classical mythology. This suggests that the engraving is targeted for an audience of Humanists, who would have viewed the piece as an intellectual puzzle. Mantegna himself was “…one of the most important humanist painters of his day, and his interests in archaeology and literature gave him the grounding for an art directed at the educated upper classes”.[20] No doubt this work was very exciting to Humanists, who could spend a great deal of time conjecturing over such a piece.

Mantegna’s choice of medium adds his own personal touch to his humanist vision. Mantegna was the first major painter in Italy to explore the art of engraving.[21] Formerly, there had been some engraving in Italy, such as illustrations on the backs of playing cards and small pictures of saints. Mantegna was one of the first artists to open up engraving as a legitimate artistic avenue of expression. There are several reasons why Mantegna may have chosen this medium. One of the most notable aspects of engraving is the ability to make copies of one’s work. This did not mean, however, that there were many copies of the print: Mantegna specifically limited the number of copies produced. It still meant, however, that Mantegna was able to acquire more money than if he had produced a singular drawing.[22]

For Mantegna, the transition between drawing and engraving was most likely an easy one. Mantegna’s role in the process was to produce a drawing that a professional engraver would then copy.[23] The production of an engraving was an extremely long and painstaking process, in which mistakes were incredibly difficult to correct.[24] However, Mantegna did not have to learn this new medium, and thus he was obtaining considerably more amount of money for doing essentially the same process as producing a drawing. The medium of engraving also helps to indicate to what audience Mantegna was selling his work. One copy of Battle of the Sea Gods was commissioned by Mantegna’s patron, Ludivico Gorgozana. It is possible that Gorgozana, a fellow humanist, displayed the work in his country home.[25] The small scale as well as the non-religious subject matter hint that this work was intended for private viewing, and for reasons discussed earlier, was intended for a humanist audience.

Mantegna’s choice of medium also helps him to differentiate this piece from other classical imitations, and marks it as purely his own. Mantegna references and even copies from antique works to create Battle of the Sea Gods, but by using engraving as his medium, he separates himself from these artists, both his predecessors and his contemporaries. Thus this piece both links Mantegna to antiquity and expresses his own personal vision.

Battle of the Sea Gods is a dynamic and engaging piece that proves even more interesting with an appreciation of its history. The work is a mix of the old and the new, the ancient and the contemporary. To its Humanist audience, it would have been an intellectually fascinating piece. To modern viewers, the engraving still holds much power in its composition and its form. Knowledge of its history only adds to the appreciation for the piece. The piece can serve not only as a source of artistic inspiration, but also an illustration of the unique movements in the artistic and intellectual realms of Italy in the late 15th century.  

[1] Nick Batzner, Andrea Mantegna: 1430.1431- 1506 (Koln: Konemann, 1998), 86-87

[2] Jill Kraye, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996), 2

[3] Jane Martineau, ed. Andrea Mantegna: 1431-1506. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Abrams, 1992), 274.

[4] Batzner, Mantegna, 6.

[5] Francis Ames-Lewis and Anka Bednarek, eds. Mantegna and 15th- Century Court Culture: Lecture Delivered in Connection with the Andrea Mantegna exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992 (London: Dept. of History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1993), 10-11.

[6] Batzner, Mantegna, 48.

[7] Martineau, Mantegna, 274.

[8] Ibid, 274.

[9] Ibid, 274.

[10] Kraye, Renaissance Humanism, 173

[11] Ibid, 48.

[12] Martineau, Mantegna, 286.

[13] Batzner, Mantegna, 48.

[14] Martineau, Mantegna, 286.

[15] Ibid, 286.

[16] Batzner, Mantegna, 48.

[17] Ibid, 48.

[18] Ibid, 48.

[19] Ibid, 48.

[20] Batzner, Mantegna, 74.

[21] Batzner, Mantegna, 86-87.

[22] A. Hyatt Major. Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980), 187

[23] E Lincoln. The Invention of the Italian Renaissance Printmaker (New Haven, 2000), 17

[24] Anthony Griffiths. Prints and Printmaking: An Introduction to the History and Techniques (Berkely, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996),  35

[25] Martineau, Mantegna, 274.