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cloth of gold which shaded his head. The part of the pro-
cession which the Florentines then present in Naples had under-
taken was composed of elegant young cavaliers, skilfully bran-
dishing their lances, of a chariot with the figure of Fortune,
and of seven Virtues on horseback. The goddess herself,注3
in accordance with the inexorable logic of allegory to which even
the painters at that time conformed, wore hair only on the
front part of her head, while the back part was bald, and the
genius who sat on the lower steps of the car, and who symbo-
lised the fugitive character of fortune, had his feet immersed (?)
in a basin of water. Then followed, equipped by the same
Florentines, a troop of horsemen in the costumes of various
注3
The position assigned to Fortune is characteristic of the naivete of the
enaissance. At the entrance of Massimiliano Sforza into Milan (1512),
he stood as the chief figure of a triumphal arch above Fama, Speranza,
udacla, and Penitenza, all represented by living persons. Comp. Prato,
rch. Stor. iii. p. 305. |
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