Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

The sleeping nymph fountain depicts a female figure reclining beside a spring with the inscription meaning 'mother of all things.' This image was widely copied in Renaissance gardens as actual fountain sculptures across Italy and France.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Kurz (1953) traces the reception history of the sleeping nymph motif from the HP through its numerous garden adaptations. The image combines the classical tradition of the sleeping Ariadne with the Renaissance cult of the genius loci.

Key Passages / Evidence

• ... and extreeme loue, afterwards she desired him to go on further, where also with great delight he beheld innumerable other Nymphs, with their desired louers, in a thousand sorts of... [HP primary text]
• ... from Boccaccio.” He goes on to locate the source for the doorway to a palazzo in the book in the seventh canto of Teseide, where in a similar way, a door is opened onto the world of “idea.” He... [Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution)]
• ... trovò una exquisita fontana et molto conspicua. Et come vide venire cinque legiadre damigelle verso ad esso, et quelle dii suo advento ivi assai meravegliantise, pietosamente resicuratolo ad... [Avesani et al. (Colonna studies)]

Source Documents

Avesani et al. (Colonna studies); Blunt 1937 (HP in French art); HP (Da Capo edition); HP primary text; Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); O'Neill (Durham thesis); Praz 1947 (foreign imitators); Word_Image_2015_apr_03_vol_31_iss_2_Nygren_Christopher_J_The_Hypnerotomachia_Pol