Recreation in the Renaissance

The Medical Discourse 25
From its second edition, the product of the publishing firm Giunta of
Venice in 1573, Mercuriale’s text was integrated by illustrations designed
by the Neapolitan antiquarian Pirro Ligorio. Gender roles are no less
evident here, if we compare the light exercise of a young woman on the
swing with the muscular figures of some male bodies (Figures 3.2 and
3.3). As we mentioned before, swinging was classified in medical literature
as passive exercise befitting the human beings of most delicate
complexions. The fact that the swinging scene is a girls-only business
(the two helpers holding chords being women as well) may be partly
due to the artist’s intention to reproduce a classical custom according
to the manner in which it was historically practised; whatever the case,
it adds here an aura of purity that would be spoiled by sexual promiscuity.
Ligorio was also responsible for the iconography of one of the
most specific cycles of games represented in Renaissance art, which presents
some points of contact with the visual representation of athletics
in Mercuriale’s book. 16 The cycle is found in Este Castle, the principal
residence of the ruling family in Ferrara. Duke Alfonso II (ruled
1559–97), the son of Renée of France, had had a remarkable education,
both literary and chivalric; on the eve of inheriting his title, he was
jousting in Henry II of France’s team on the occasion in which the king
was the victim of a fatal accident. 17 The rooms known as the ‘Apartment
of the Mirror’ (Appartamento dello Specchio) were renewed after a serious
earthquake had hit the city in 1570. The apartment includes a ‘Salone
dei giuochi’ and a ‘Saletta dei giuochi’; the vaulted ceilings of both
rooms were frescoed by Leonardo da Brescia, Sabastiano Filippi (il Bastianino)
and Ludovico Settevecchi, and represent a generous selection
of games – the Saletta rather concentrating on children’s play. The sports
and pastimes portrayed in the individual panels of the Salone are swimming,
the swing, the trigonal (a game of skill with balls), the quadriga
race, the pyrrhic (ancient martial dance), throwing the discus, the game
of hoop and tintinnabulae, the ball game with armlet, the wrestling
match, weightlifting and the pancratium (a mixture of wrestling and
boxing). With the exception of the feminine connotation of swinging,
the ceiling is dominated by a display of male bodies, usually naked, in
the fashion of ancient gymnastics. In the Saletta, around a central representation
of the Four Seasons (who are holding hands in a circle), we
find the cestus (boxing), the game of wineskins, the gladiatorial contest,
the telesia (armed dancing exercise), the game of skittles, spinning the
top, the sling, the wrestling match, fishing, the game with ball and
hoop, that with racquet, and ring-a-roses, together with music and
poetry (school of reading and writing). Allegories of human life domi-