Castello del Buonconsiglio monumenti e collezioni provinciali

Lunette: the Graces

The ten lunettes along the Loggia’s wall depict three concerts and some themes taken from the Bible, mythology, and Roman history.

According to a recent interpretation (H.P. Ties, Il cardinale Bernardo Cles e il “potere d’amore”, “Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche, Sezione II, 2007, pp. 53-96) there exists a thematic tie not only between the lunettes but also between the Loggia’s decoration and that by the staircase that leads to the garden and ground floor area: it concerns the power that love has over men and women, but meant in the negative sense such as seduction, unleashed passion, and cause of madness. For a correct reading of the cycle it is necessary to begin with the lunette of the Graces, that has a central role in the symbolic aspects, and its not by chance that its the first that the Magno Palazzo visitor sees upon arriving from Castelvecchio, being that its on a perfect axis with the atrium door to the courtyard. According to the Latin writer Seneca, the three Graces holding hands alludes to the continuous beneficial exchanges that happen between them and represent that which renders man’s life enjoyable; music, poetry, the art of speech; but the Graces are also the maidservants to Venus, the goddess of love, and in fact, they lead to love.

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