Study for Harpocrates (Silentio Deum Cole) 

Giulio Bonasone created this brown ink drawing, Study for Harpocrates (Silentio Deum Cole), in the mid-16th century. It depicts the Greco-Egyptian god of silence, Harpocrates, holding a candelabra and signaling for quiet. The image creates meaning through the visual codes of Renaissance humanism. Bonasone was working in Italy during the High Renaissance, a period when artists looked back to classical antiquity for inspiration, viewing ancient Greece and Rome as a golden age of harmony and proportion. Here, Harpocrates is presented as a nude, idealized male figure, reminiscent of ancient sculptures. Bonasone was also a printmaker, so the drawing may have been preparation for a print. This would have allowed for wider circulation of the image. As a cultural historian, I find it fascinating to research the classical sources Bonasone might have consulted, and also to trace the reception of his image by later artists and audiences. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.