«L’altro fu Aristotil tanto vecchio, che si sommise d’esser cavalcato» L’iconografia del “Sapiente soggiogato” nei luoghi di potere

This research aims to explore the origin and diffusion of an unusual iconography in the history of art: Aristotle ridden. This picture that shows a man on all fours with a woman on this back, assumes completely different meanings depending on the context which takes place. In fact, before being an allegory of the sexual act, the iconography of the “Subjugated Sage” is the representation of the subordination of man to women, of submission to the Empire of Love, and finally is the representation of the victory of our animal instinct over our rational one. All these aspects of the legend with its different meanings, are echoes of two different forms of the expression of the story: literary and artistic. From the literary side the story of Aristotle ridden (which originates in the Eastand spreads to the West around the XIII century) spreads with two distinct intensions: on one side the moral examples of father Dominican Jacques de Vitry which want to highlight feminine shrewdness urging the devotees not to be mistaken; on the other side with the Henry de Valenciennes’s fabliau who wants to prove the true power of Love. As well as the literary form, the iconography of the Aristotle ridden has different meanings depending on the context: the purpose of this representation in the Portail de la Calande at Rouen in France is different between the same representation in the Palazzo del Podestà at San Gimignano in Italy. In this research we will analyze one of the many applications of the iconography: in a private and institutional context.