Memling e il viaggio dei Magi. La "cinetica africana" e l'ossessione della danza nella percezione rinascimentale

The Gospel of Matthew (2: 1-12) tells us that three wise men, the Magi, came from the East to worship the divine child, the future King of the Jews. Since the early centuries of the Christian era, new data was gradually added to the canon of tradition. And only in the Fourteenth century did John of Hil-desheim define one of the Magi as being "Ethiopian", meaning that he came –according to the geographic knowledge of that time-from sub-Saharan Africa in its broad sense.As a result, in iconography, three banners were created to differentiate between the countries and peoples of origin of the three character. In Hans Memling’s work, the African king’s standard is the only one showing a colorful full length figure, characterized by an enthusiastic and lively dynamism, instead of elementary symbolism. This icon summarizes the Western view of African kinetics: it defines a "national and ethnic" model, going beyond the stylized form expressing the Renaissance perception of foreigners. It arises from the common belief that Africans did not think of anything but dance. This idea of expressing themselves and "living" while dancing has become the figurative paradigm of the exotic and picturesque attitude of individuals and peoples profoundly "different" from us. In the history of culture the paradigm is well represented and developed between the Middle Ages andRenaissance: see, for example the iconography of coats of arms, the images included in the first ethno-graphic chronicles, the shows of the European courts and the representations and parodies of Moorish dance.

《马太福音》(2:1-12)记载，三位贤士（Magi）从东方前来朝拜圣婴——未来的犹太君王。自基督教纪元早期数个世纪以来，传统典籍的正典中逐渐增添了新的史料。直到14世纪，希尔德斯海姆的约翰（John of Hil-desheim）才将其中一位贤士定义为"埃塞俄比亚人"，按照当时的地理认知，这意味着他来自广义上的撒哈拉以南非洲。因此，在图像学（iconography）中，人们创作了三面旗帜，用以区分这三位角色各自的出身国度与族群。在汉斯·梅姆林（Hans Memling）的作品中，非洲国王的旗帜是唯一一幅绘有色彩饱满的全身人像的旗帜，其特点是充满热情与活泼的动感，而非简单的符号化表达。这幅图像概括了西方对非洲动态的认知：它构建了一种"民族与族群"范式，超越了用以表达文艺复兴时期对异域人群认知的程式化表现形式。这一认知源于当时的普遍观念：非洲人除了舞蹈之外别无他思。这种在舞蹈中展现自我、"活出自我"的观念，已然成为形容与我们截然不同的个体与族群所具有的异域风情与独特风貌的具象范式。在文化史中，这一范式在中世纪至文艺复兴时期得到了充分的展现与发展：例如纹章的图像学创作、首部民族志编年史中的插图、欧洲宫廷的演出，以及摩尔式舞蹈的演绎与戏仿作品。