‘Stupid Midas’ Visualising Musical Judgement and

Moral Judgement in Italy ca.1520

The Judgement of Midas

Ovid, Metamorphoses ‘So Pan made music on his rustic reeds and with his uncouth song entranced the king. Midas by chance was there. To Apollo next grave Tmolus turned and, as he turned, his fringe of trees turned too. Apollo's golden hair was garlanded with laurel of Parnassus; his mantle, rich with Tyrian purple, swept the ground he trod; in his left had he bore his lyre, inlaid with gems and ivory; his right the plectrum held; his very pose proclaimed the artist. Then with expert touch he plucked the strings and, won by strains so sweet, old Tmolus bade the reed bow to the lyre. Tmolus’ judgement and award pleased all who heard; yet one voice challenging, crass-witted Midas' voice, called in unjust. Apollo could not suffer ears so dull to keep their human shape. He filled them with coarse grey hairs, and hinged their base to move and twitch and flop; all else was man; in that one part his punish-ment; he wears henceforth a little ambling ass's ears.’

Raphael Regius’ commentary, 1493 ed. ‘Midas, who was freed from the ability of making what he touched gold, and who was hated for his powers, lived in the woods and worshipped Pan, the god of shepherds. Pan, since the pipe that was invented by him was seen to be pleasing by the nymphs, was ready to challenge Apollo in a contest, with Tmolus the god of the mountain being ordered as judge. After the verdict brought in favour of Apollo had truly pleased everyone, only Midas, being led by his natural stupidity, disapproved of it as if it were an injustice. Wherefore Apollo, being angry, turned his ears into ass’ ears, by which his stupidity would be shown.’

Renaissance Mythographic Readings

Apollo is understood to represent harmonious proportion, properly understood and controlled by reason

Pan is equated with Marsyas and understood as hotheaded, ignorant, bestial and lusty

This story and that of the ‘Midas touch’ both exemplify Midas’ poor judgement, a result of his ‘natural stupidity’

In the various attempts to re-create the ‘Calumny of Apel-les’, Midas’ ass’s ears become the portals through which Ignorance and Suspicion prompt poor moral judgement

Musical Judgement and Moral Judgement

The Ancient Discourse

Harmony is governed by proportion, and so is human tem-perament; thus music can affect human behavior

‘For rhythm and harmony penetrate deeply into the mind and take a most powerful hold on it, and, if education is good, bring an impart grace and beauty, if it is bad, the reverse’ (Plato, Republic)

Music should therefore play a role in moral education ‘music has indeed the power to induce a certain character of soul, and if it can do that, then clearly it must be applied to education’ (Aristotle, Politics)

Good musical judgement engenders good moral judgement ‘the proper training we propose to give will make a man quick to perceive the shortcomings of works of art or nature …; anything beautiful he will welcome gladly … and so grow in true goodness of character; anything ugly he will rightly condemn and dislike’ (Plato, Republic)

The Renaissance Discourse

The ethical effects of music are repeatedly cited ‘the ancients believed the soul to be a number and a harmony … and there was nothing which so softened and delighted our souls as harmony and number’ (Bruni, The Study of Literature)

Conduct books endorsed the use of music in education as a source of moral improvement

‘for many reasons that would take too long to explain, [Plato and Aristotle] say that [music] has to be learned in childhood, not so much for the sake of its audible melodies but because of its capacity to breed good new habits and a virtuous disposition ’ (Castiglione, The Courti-er)

Good musical judgement begets good moral judgement ‘music must be sought after for the sake of morals, inasmuch as the habit of passing judge-ment on what is similar to morals in its rational basis cannot be considered to be different from the habit of passing judgement on the rational basis of morals themselves, and of becoming expert in this latter judgement through imitation ’ (Cortese, The Cardinal)

Good moral judgement identified with virtue of prudence ‘[virtue as a whole] may be defined more or less as prudence and the knowledge of how to choose what is good ’ (Castiglione, The Courtier)

Musical judgement takes priority over executive skill ‘There are three classes of those who profess harmonic practice. One plays instruments, another composes songs, and the third judges the work of instruments and song. ... The third class are those who possess the expertise for judging, so that they are truly able to grasp rhythms and melodies and also song as a whole. ’ (Gafori, Theory of Music)

Music presents a specific moral choice between rational/martial/heroic music and sensual/effeminate/bestial music

‘Now when I talk about music, I do not mean that theatrical and effeminate music which destroys rather than forms public morals, but rather that moderate, manly music celebrated by the ancient heroes’ (Gafori, Practice of Music)

Conclusions

The concept of musical judgement was central to Italian elite musical culture in the years around 1500, because it allowed the operation of musical

taste to be configured as natural, rational, and moral.

The story of the Judgement of Midas offered a way to represent allegorically the operation of taste judgements in music which was very open to

moral readings.

This panel formed the lid of an ‘arpicordo’, i.e. a

polygonal virginal; its stark messages about musical

judgement were presented to the owner as they sat

down to play.

Midas’ gormless stare and slumped

posture contrast with Minerva’s

alert and elegant pose and her

military dress; unlike Midas,

Minerva’s judgement is informed by

reason.

Apollo’s back displays his heroic

musculature, mirroring the shape of

his lira da braccio, whilst in contrast

the line of the upright plant obscur-

ing Marsyas’ genitals is continued in

the line of his shawm.

It was quite common to combine the

stories of Marsyas and Midas into a single

narrative, and common also to link in

Minerva who invented the flute in the first

place, but the presentation here of both

Marsyas’ and Midas’ punishments is very

unusual.

Tim Shephard Patrick McMahon

University of Sheffield

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3. A) Cima da Conegliano, The Judgement of Midas, oil on panel, 1513-17. Statens

Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

Suggestive

position of

Pan’s bow

makes a direct

link between

his musician-

ship and his

sexuality.

This painting reads the Midas story through the conventional

contemporary moral dichotomy between rational, heroic music

and sensual, effeminate music.

An older, more

severe Tmolus, in

more modest

contemporary

attire, also

interrogates the

viewer with his

gaze.

Stood on Midas’ right hand side, Apollo’s inappropriate military

garb identifies him as the choice of masculine heroic virtue.

Sat at the centre of the painting in contemporary elite

dress, Midas looks straight at the viewer, caught at the

exact moment of formulating his faulty musical judgement.

Isabella’s impresa delle pause is a musical stave filed

with rests. This silence reflects her good musical

judgement, since she knows when it is best to

remain silent, displaying the virtue of prudence.

Pastoral setting is

appropriate both to the

myth and to Isabella

d’Este’s country villa for

which this maiolica

service was made.

King Midas is shown

wearing a gold tunic—

appropriate to his

status as a king, but

perhaps also remind-

ing the viewer of the

poor judgement he

displayed in the ‘Midas

touch’ episode.

In Hygenis’ version of

the Contest of Apollo

and Marsyas, Apollo

wins another music

contest by playing his

lyre upside down. Here

Pan is depicted foolishly

trying to match his

opponent—the finger

holes on his pipes are at

the wrong end.

B) Nicola da Urbino, Armorial Plate: The Story of King Midas, maiolica, ca.1520-25. Metropol-itan Museum, New York .

Arms and devices make

it clear that the scene

depicted on this plate is

presented to Isabella’s

dinner guests as an

aspect of her identity,

inviting them to reflect

on her exemplification

of good musical

judgement and the

related virtue of

prudence.

C) Agnolo Bronzino, Apollo and Marsyas, oil on panel

transferred to canvas, ca.1530-32. Hermitage Mu-

seum, St Petersburg.

Midas’ barber here whispers the secret of the king’s

embarrassing ears into a hole in the ground, but the

reeds growing there spread it abroad when the

wind gave them voice.

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