The Bentivoglio Targone – Eugenio Larosa
In recent years, my studies of the fifteenth century have repeatedly focused on the figures of condottieri and lords, examining them not only through their political and military affairs, but also through the objects that accompanied their public presence. This line of research has led me to reflect on an often underestimated aspect: what is commonly defined as material culture is almost never a mere backdrop; rather, it very often constitutes a concrete and visible form of the representation of power.
The Bentivoglio targone belongs precisely to this dimension: that of an artifact that, beyond its nature as a shield, becomes an expression of prestige, political memory, and lordly self-representation.
The Bentivoglio Targone: Art, Political Memory, and Lordly Self-Representation in Bologna in 1488
November 27, 1488, marked one of the most dramatic moments in Bologna’s political history at the end of the fifteenth century. The conspiracy promoted by one branch of the Malvezzi family against Giovanni II Bentivoglio was not merely a failed attempt to overthrow the city government, then firmly controlled by the Bentivoglio house, but also the outcome of the progressive deterioration of relations between two families that, for a long time, had shared alliances, political interests, and forms of mutual support.
The discovery of the plot and the swift, exceptionally harsh repression that followed transformed the event into a profound rupture in Bologna’s public memory. Arrests, executions, acts of vengeance, and exiles marked the definitive strengthening of Bentivoglio power and gave the lordship the opportunity to translate its political survival into a new and more forceful form of self-representation.
It is within this historical context that the so-called Bentivoglio targone, now preserved in the Museo Civico Medievale in Bologna, should be placed. Critical tradition has tended to link its creation directly to the deliverance of 1488, interpreting the artifact as a celebratory object conceived to translate the salvation of the lord and the defeat of his opponents into visual form.
In order to understand its meaning fully, however, it is first necessary to clarify what was meant, between the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, by the term targone, also attested in contemporary sources in the variants tarcone and imbracciatura. The term designates an oval, convex shield, probably derived from the older tavolaccio of the communal age, but distinguished from it by its more pronounced curvature and greater capacity to envelop the body. It should not be confused with the pavese, to which it has sometimes been improperly compared, since the latter has a trapezoidal shape and a different structure.
The targone is attested from the late fourteenth century through the fifteenth century. Its use in warfare is clearly documented by both visual and written sources, which describe its function as protection particularly suited to siege operations, advances toward fortifications, trenching, sapping, and, more generally, all those activities in which the infantryman was exposed to enemy fire.
In material terms, the work appears as a wooden shield covered with painted parchment. Oval and elongated in shape, it has a convex, enveloping structure that clearly distinguishes it from other types of portable defenses. The curvature visible today, however, appears more pronounced than it must originally have been, probably as a result of improper conservation of the artifact in later periods.
The outer surface is entirely gilded and organized according to a decorative scheme of remarkable refinement: a dotted ground, an elaborate border, and, at the center, the scene of Saint George on horseback piercing the dragon. The saint wears armor contemporary with the artifact and bears on his shield the famous “segata” emblem of the Bentivoglio, in red and gold. The interior also preserves significant elements of the original structure, including remains of parchment, traces of the nails used to fasten the cushion, and the leather handle. The targone thus appears as an object in which the primary function of defense is combined with a high quality of execution and ornamentation, fully consistent with a ceremonial and representative purpose.
From this point of view, the Bentivoglio example is of particular importance. Although fifteenth-century iconography quite frequently depicts infantrymen armed with a targone, surviving material examples are extremely rare.
The artifact makes it possible to observe construction details that are often simplified in visual sources. Among the most interesting elements is the arrangement of the arm grip, which appears slightly oblique and not perfectly aligned with the central axis of the shield. This is a significant technical detail, because it allows the object to be compared with contemporary images and permits more precise observations about the actual ergonomics of these shields.
All the constituent elements of the work, from the gold ground and the refined surface to the centrality of the figurative scene, the presence of family heraldry, and the overall monumentality of the ensemble, suggest that the shield was not intended for real combat, but for ceremonial display.
The art-historical profile of the work also deserves attention. The quality of the Bolognese targone has, over time, led critics to associate it with major names in late fifteenth-century Emilian painting, from Lorenzo Costa to Francesco Francia.
We are faced with an object fully embedded in the visual culture of the Italian courts and lordships of the second half of the fifteenth century, a context in which weapons, while preserving the memory of their original function, could be transformed into privileged instruments of political and dynastic self-representation.
The Bentivoglio targone, in fact, functions as a representation of lordly power. The figure of Saint George slaying the dragon, set against the gold ground, does not merely evoke a devotional or chivalric repertoire widely diffused in the fifteenth century, but is given an openly political meaning. The insertion of the Bentivoglio emblem on the saint’s shield directly links the Christian hero to the ruling house. The fight against the dragon is thus transformed into an allegory of Giovanni II Bentivoglio’s victory over his opponents. In other words, the shield becomes an image constructed to celebrate the ability of Bentivoglio authority to survive the threat, defeat the enemy, and reaffirm its dominion over the city.
In the Bentivoglio targone, therefore, the defensive weapon is transformed into a symbol of restored order and a visible testament to the strength of the house.
The Bentivoglio targone stands out as one of the most interesting surviving objects of the material, figurative, and political culture of Bologna at the end of the fifteenth century. Its importance derives not only from the rarity of the object or the beauty of its decoration, but also from its ability to concentrate different levels of meaning in a single artifact: the military tradition of the shield, its artistic refinement, its ceremonial function, its heraldic language, and the memory of a specific political event.
Bibliography
La stagione dei Bentivoglio nella Bologna rinascimentale, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, 2006.
Boccia, L. G., Dizionari terminologici. Armi difensive dal Medioevo all’età moderna, Florence, 1982.
“Di Galeazzo Marescotti de Calvi da Bologna e della sua cronaca,” in Archivio storico italiano, 1875.
The Bentivoglio Targone – Eugenio Larosa
