31
As it becomes apparent that Cervantes indeed was profoundly influenced by Botticelli's imagery, it also becomes necessary to explain whether he had the opportunity to contemplate the Florentine's paintings. Cervantes spent approximately six years in Italy, during which time he was absent for brief intervals when participating in the naval campaigns that Don Juan of Austria led against the Turks. His exact itinerary during these six years is, of course, not known; but it is generally conjectured, according to the numerous Italian cities that he describes in his works, that he traveled extensively throughout the peninsula. Perhaps the best opportunity he had of a leisurely stay in Florence was when he journeyed from Barcelona to Rome by the land route. This would take him very close to the great center of art, and it would seem difficult to believe that a young man of such artistic penchant would not decide to see its art treasures. Cervantes resided in Rome for at least a year, during which time he could have made precious contacts among its artists and humanists while serving on the staff of Cardinal Acquaviva. One of these contacts could well have been El Greco himself who, in 1570, was painting in the Vatican for Cardinal Farnese. Thus Cervantes had ample opportunity to visit Florence and mingle in the Vatican with the greatest artists of Italy's last period of Renaissance glory.
As to the location of Botticelli's Venus paintings, we do know that the Primavera as well as the Birth of Venus, now at the Uffizi in Florence, originally came from the Villa di Castello, an estate belonging to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, a cousin of Lorenzo de' Medici. Access to this villa should not have proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for a young Spanish army officer who had been the secretary of Cardinal Acquaviva. Moreover, hand drawn or painted copies of famous paintings circulated to some extent even in the sixteenth century.
32
«but since she must be a goddess, she will desire more my soul than any other thing». La Galatea, I, p. 27.
33
La Galatea, II, p. 87.
34
The apple, as a common attribute of Venus, can be observed in the hand of each one of the Graces in Francesco Cossa's The Triumph of Venus and in Raphael's The Three Graces.
35
La Galatea, I, p. 26.
36
La Galatea, I, p. 59.
37
La Galatea, I, p. 64.
38
La Galatea, II, p. 170.
39
«The poplar was always chosen by Hercules, and the laurel by red Apollo; by lovely Venus was prized and esteemed the myrtle only; the green willow is loved by Flérida and for her own from among all she chose it». (Renaissance and Baroque Poetry of Spain, with English Prose Translations, ed Elias Rivers (New York, 1966), p. 81). The italics are mine. The myrtle is such an important attribute of Venus that more than one critic has utilized it to establish the identity of the central figure in the Primavera. Consult, for example, C. Dempsey, «Mercurius Ver: the Sources of Botticelli's Primavera», Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXI (1968), p. 255.
40
«Yo, señor caballero, aunque soy gitana, pobre y humildemente nacida, tengo un espiritillo fantástico acá dentro, que a grandes cosas me lleva». Cervantes, Novelas ejemplares, ed. F. Rodríguez Marín, (Madrid, 1962), I, p. 38. (All future references will be to this edition). That this little spirit is an essential factor in Preciosa's personality is also illustrated by the words of the old woman when she declares that the little gipsy speaks «como... una persona espiritada», (as a person dominated by a spirit), op. cit., p. 43. Preciosa's espiritillo fantástico thus emerges as one of her most important attributes, and I am convinced that it is intimately coupled with the romantic concept developed by the Florentine humanists who claimed that man was inspired by a divine spirit dwelling within him. Thus far my attempts to document this with first-hand sources have not been fruitful.