STANZAS AFTER THE TOURNAMENT
STANZE PER LA GIOSTRA

(1478)

~ EROS ON THE PROWL ~
Why Read This Medici Italian Classic?
It’s A True-Life Fable Interrupted By
A Beatific Orgy
&
You Are In It.
(Illustrated)

Angelo_Poliziano_-_Angel_Appearing_to_Zacharias_(detail).jpg

by Domenico Ghirlandaio

ANGELO POLIZIANO
The Scholar-Poet and Virtuoso-Courtier
was poisoned in a political conspiracy
(14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494)

STANZAS AFTER THE TOURNAMENT
An Ideal Prince
An Ideal Lady
An Ideal City
An Ideal Love…
And All of Them Real

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%B6ne_Schein_-_Primavera_(Botticelli)_04_ies.jpg

Discover the true story of Florence’s adored inspiration,
La Bella Simonetta
in the illustrated collection,
“Isolde Kurz: A Cultural Anthology”.

Stanzas After The Tournament,
one of the finest early examples of
the Renaissance undertaking,
is a fable that synthesizes
the Classical with the then-contemporary European culture.
But the author also seasons his song with a French flavor…
the Art of Courtly Love.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giuliano_de_Medici_by_Andrea_del_Verrocchio.jpg

“Help! Help! Bel Julio, this is no mere joust!”
Alas, poor Amor – how changed – begs, playful no more,
“Doing nothing lets the prideful, sterile boast
victory’s theirs.” “It’s sweetness I’d restore.”
“Then fight, man, for the thing that means the most.”
Today her wreath is serpents. See them as hurdle.
Chastity’s beautiful, Love alone fertile.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Head_of_Medusa_MET_DP150938.jpg

Love’s house fixates especially on doors.
Turn here, turn there, each one invites. Prodigious
tales of her family settling realms and scores
live in colors from beige to outrageous.
Would you pass the night in tumultuous spheres,
or take your raptures in fields more religious?
Do you see her, the goddess, your companion?
Did you both become her in crazy union?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giotto_Tower.jpg

Renaissance Florence lives on in Poliziano’s work
&
in Tuscany.