‘Locus amoenus’ and the Sleeping Nymph: ‘Ekphrasis’, Silence, and ‘Genius Loci

In his late 15th century chronicle (ca 1477-1484), Michael Fabricius

Ferrarinus (died between 1488-1493), prior of the Carmelite cloister in

Reggio Emilia, introduced the rumour that an ancient fountain had been

found super ripam Danuvii (on the banks of the Danube) with the

sculpted figure of a sleeping nymph. According to Ferrarinus, the

fountain bore a peculiar epigram:

HVIVS NYMPHA LOCI, SACRI CVSTODIA FONTIS,

DORMIO, DVM BLANDAE SENTIO MVRMVR AQVAE.

PARCE MEVM, QVISQVIS TANGIS CAVA MARMORA, SOMNVM

RVMPERE. SIVE BIBAS SIVE LAVERE TACE.

Many scholars have discussed the impact of the rumour as creating a

prototype for Renaissance sculptures of the sleeping nymph in Rome and

for the development of the well-known genre of the sleeping Venus in

painting. Building upon the previous studies, this essay contextualizes

the phenomenon of the sleeping nymph and its textual and artistic Nachleben

from the point of view of the locus amoenus as silence. This

study combines iconological, aesthetical-philosophical and

anthropological approaches, and contributes to a better understanding of

sleep, voyeurism, water and silence within the context of the nymph’s

particular genius loci.