bonfire of the vanities
{{short description|Religiously-motivated burning in 1497 of objects believed to lead to sin}}
{{About|the historical event|the novel|The Bonfire of the Vanities|the 1990 film|The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)|the opera|The Bonfire of the Vanities: The Opera}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox event
| title = Bonfire of the vanities
| image = IMG 0797 - Perugia - San Bernardino - Agostino di Duccio -1457-61- - Falò delle vanità - Foto G. Dall'O2.jpg
| image_size =
| image_alt =
| caption = Bernardino of Siena organising a vanities bonfire, Perugia, from the Oratory of San Bernardino, by Agostino di Duccio, built between 1457 and 1461
| native_name = Falò delle vanità
| native_name_lang = it
| english_name =
| time =
| duration =
| date = {{start date|df=yes|1497|02|07}}
| venue =
| location = Florence, Italy
| coordinates =
| also_known_as =
| type = Burning of objects condemned by authorities as occasions of sin
| theme = Supporters of Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects, such as cosmetics, art, and books
}}
A bonfire of the vanities ({{langx|it|falò delle vanità}}) is a burning of objects condemned by religious authorities as occasions of sin. The phrase itself usually refers to the bonfire of 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola collected and burned thousands of objects such as cosmetics, art, and books in the public square of Florence, Italy, on the occasion of Shrove Tuesday, martedí grasso.{{cite book |first1=Barbara |last1=Deimling |title=Sandro Botticelli |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VjHEhT5wRiwC&pg=PA79 |year=2000 |publisher=Taschen |isbn=978-3-8228-5992-6 |pages=79}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.covenantseminary.edu/worldwide/en/CH310/CH310_T_33.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517201252/http://www.covenantseminary.edu/worldwide/en/CH310/CH310_T_33.html|url-status=dead|title=Covenantseminary.edu|archivedate=17 May 2008}}
Francesco Guicciardini's The History of Florence gives a firsthand account of the 1497 Florentine bonfire of the vanities.{{Cite book|title=The History of Florence|last=Guicciardini|first=Francesco|publisher=Harper|year=1970|edition=1st|location=New York|translator-last=Domandi|translator-first=Mario}} The focus of this destruction was on objects that might tempt one to sin, including vanity items such as mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, playing cards, and musical instruments. Other targets included books that Savonarola deemed immoral, such as works by Boccaccio, manuscripts of secular songs, and artworks, including paintings and sculptures.
Precursors
Although often associated with Savonarola, such bonfires had been a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino di Siena in the first half of the 15th century.{{Catholic |wstitle=St. Bernardine of Siena |first=Paschal |last=Robinson |volume=2 |inline=1 |prescript=}}
Savonarola
Savonarola was a Dominican friar who was assigned to work in Florence in 1490 at the request of Lorenzo de' Medici. Within a few years, Savonarola became one of the foremost enemies of the House of Medici and helped bring about their downfall in 1494.Martines p. 19 Savonarola campaigned against what he considered to be the artistic and social excesses of Renaissance Italy, preaching with great vigor against any luxury. His power and influence grew so much that, with time, he became the effective ruler of Florence and had soldiers for his protection following him around.Martines p. 1
In 1497 and 1498,{{cite journal |last1=Prizer |first1=William F. |title=The Music Savonarola Burned: the Florentine Carnival Song in the Late 15th Century |journal=Musica e Storia |date=2001 |issue=1/2001 |doi=10.1420/12501 |url=https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1420/12501 |issn=1127-0063}} during the time in which the festival known as Carnival occurred, Savonarola began to host a regular "bonfire of the vanities". He collected and burned objects that he considered objectionable, including nude paintings, wigs and makeup, love poetry, games and dice, and music and musical instruments.{{cite journal |last1=Cumming |first1=Julie E. |title=Review of Savonarolan Laude, Motets, and Anthems |journal=Notes |date=2001 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=721–723 |doi=10.1353/not.2001.0012 |jstor=900842 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/900842 |issn=0027-4380|url-access=subscription }} Anyone who tried to object found their hands being forced by teams of Savonarola supporters. These supporters called themselves Piagnoni ("Weepers") after a public nickname that was initially intended as an insult.Green, J. & Karolides, N. (2005) Savonrola, Fra Girolamo. In Encyclopedia of Censorship: New Edition. New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc. p. 495
Savonarola's influence did not go unnoticed by the higher church officials, and his actions came to the attention of Pope Alexander VI. He was excommunicated on 13 May 1497. He was charged with heresy and sedition at the command of Pope Alexander VI.{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|date=2009|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|location=China|isbn=978-1-60239-706-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr/page/80 80]|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr/page/80}} Savonarola was executed by hanging on 23 May 1498, and his body was burnt. His death occurred in the Piazza della Signoria, where he had previously held his bonfires of the vanities.{{cite book | year=2007 | title=Italy: Savonarola| work=Encyclopædia Britannica}} Then the papal authorities gave word that anyone in possession of the friar's writings had four days to turn them over to a papal agent for destruction. Anyone who did not comply also faced excommunication.Martines, pp. 168, 275–277
= Botticelli =
Although some later sources reported that the Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli burned several of his paintings based on classical mythology in the great Florentine bonfire of 1497, the primary source on his life, Vasari's biography, does not mention this, and no early record does either. Vasari asserts that Botticelli produced nothing after coming under the influence of Savonarola but that is not accepted by modern art historians, and several of his paintings are assigned dates after Savonarola's death in 1498. The art historian Rab Hatfield says that one of Botticelli's paintings, The Mystical Nativity, cryptically dated 1500, is based on the sermon Savonarola delivered on Christmas Eve, 1493.Rab Hatfield, "Botticelli's Mystic Nativity, Savonarola and the Millennium", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 58 (1995), pp. 88–114 Writing several centuries later in 1851, Orestes Brownson, an apologist for Savonarola, vaguely mentions artworks by Fra Bartolomeo, Lorenzo di Credi, and "many other painters", along with "several antique statues" being burnt in the bonfire.Orestes Brownson, [http://orestesbrownson.com/index.php?id=229 "Savonarola: his Contest with Paganism"], Brownson's Quarterly Review, April 1851, Orestes Brownson Society, {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215201708/http://orestesbrownson.com/index.php?id=229 |date=15 February 2009 }}
In popular culture
The event has been represented or mentioned in varying degrees of detail in several works of historical fiction, including George Eliot's Romola (1863), E. R. Eddison's A Fish Dinner in Memison (1941), Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's The Palace (1978), Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (1992), Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley's If at Faust You Don't Succeed (1993), Timothy Findley's Pilgrim (1999), Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's Rule of Four (2004), Jeanne Kalogridis's I, Mona Lisa (2006), Traci L. Slatton's The Botticelli Affair (2013), and Jodi Taylor's No Time Like the Past (2015), and in television dramas including the Showtime series The Borgias, The Sky (Italy) and the Netflix (North America) series Borgia, and the third season (2019) of the Netflix (North America) series Medici in the final episode titled "The Fate of the City". Other references in popular culture include:
- As a metaphor, Tom Wolfe used the event and ritual as the title for his 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities and its film adaptation.{{Cite book|last=Wolfe, Tom |title=The Bonfire of the Vanities |date=21 February 2002 |isbn=978-1-4299-6056-4 |edition=First Picador |location=New York |oclc=861510765}}
- Vampires Marius and Armand visit the scene of Savonarola's execution after his body has been cleared away in Anne Rice's The Vampire Armand (1998){{Cite book|last=Rice, Anne |title=The vampire Armand |date=1999 |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=978-0-345-46453-8 |location=New York |oclc=773710170}}
- The Bonfire is depicted in the video game Assassin's Creed II, in which Savonarola is one of the antagonists.{{cite web |url=http://www.ign.com/wikis/assassins-creed-2/Sequence_13:_Bonfire_of_the_Vanities |title=Sequence 13: Bonfire of the Vanities |date=14 November 2011 |access-date=15 May 2018 |work=IGN |publisher=Ziff Davis, LLC}}{{cite web |url=https://kotaku.com/5477869/assassins-creed-ii-bonfire-of-the-vanities-micro-review-once-more-with-fleeing |title=Assassin's Creed II: Bonfire of the Vanities Micro-Review: Once More, With Fleeing |last=Plunkett |first=Luke |date=24 February 2010 |access-date=15 May 2018 |work=Kotaku |publisher=Gizmodo Media Group}}{{cite web |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/assassins-creed-ii-bonfire-of-the-vanities-review |title=Assassin's Creed II: Bonfire of the Vanities |last=Reed |first=Kristan |date=23 February 2010 |access-date=15 May 2018 |work=Eurogamer |publisher=Gamer Network}}
- Jordan Tannahill's 2016 play Botticelli in the Fire is a fictional retelling of the events leading up to the bonfire of the vanities.{{cite news |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2016/04/29/jordan-tannahill-gives-us-history-for-the-disempowered-review.html |title=Jordan Tannahill gives us history for the disempowered |newspaper=Toronto Star|date=29 April 2016 |access-date=15 May 2018 |last=Fricker |first=Karen |author-link=Karen Fricker }}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last1=Martines |first1=L. |date=2006 |title=Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120629095530/http://www.3pipe.net/2012/06/echoes-of-botticelli-in-early-modern.html Echoes of Botticelli in Early Modern Sources]—Explores primary sources related to Botticelli and Savonarola
{{authority control}}
Category:15th century in the Republic of Florence
Category:15th-century Catholicism