Full Description
In his late 15th century chronicle (ca 1477-1484), Michael Fabricius
Ferrarinus (died between 1488-1493), prior of the Carmelite cloister in
Reggio Emilia, introduced the rumour that an ancient fountain had been
found super ripam Danuvii (on the banks of the Danube) with the
sculpted figure of a sleeping nymph. According to Ferrarinus, the
fountain bore a peculiar epigram:
HVIVS NYMPHA LOCI, SACRI CVSTODIA FONTIS,
DORMIO, DVM BLANDAE SENTIO MVRMVR AQVAE.
PARCE MEVM, QVISQVIS TANGIS CAVA MARMORA, SOMNVM
RVMPERE. SIVE BIBAS SIVE LAVERE TACE.
Many scholars have discussed the impact of the rumour as creating a
prototype for Renaissance sculptures of the sleeping nymph in Rome and
for the development of the well-known genre of the sleeping Venus in
painting. Building upon the previous studies, this essay contextualizes
the phenomenon of the sleeping nymph and its textual and artistic Nachleben
from the point of view of the locus amoenus as silence. This
study combines iconological, aesthetical-philosophical and
anthropological approaches, and contributes to a better understanding of
sleep, voyeurism, water and silence within the context of the nymph's
particular genius loci.
