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Another Da Vinci mystery: why three eggs in ADA?
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Dear List,
While on a recent visit to a book-store I discovered a "historical-novel" about Da Vinci: "Leonardo s Swans", written by Karen Essex where she describes the plights of 15th-century Italian sisters Isabella and Beatrice d'Este. Isabella is the elder and engaged to handsome Francesco Gonzaga, while Beatrice is promised to the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza.
I was reminded of Ada's occasional references to swans and to three eggs (not one or two). The mythological eggs are described as being either a blue one - arisen from the conjunction of Jupiter and Nemesis and later adopted by the wife of Tindareus, King of Sparta - and when from it Helena (of Troy) arose or they may be described as forming a pair from which Helen, Clitemnestra, Castor and Pollux were hatched. (Leda is also the name of one of planet Jupiter s moons.)
In VN s "Ada" the insistence is on the number "three" . A quick selection from the digital version found for me:
1.Their open mouths met in tender fury, and then he pounced upon her new, young, divine, Japanese neck which he had been coveting like a veritable Jupiter Olorinus throughout the evening.
2. ( Darkbloom s notes) p.407. Olorinus: from Lat. olor, swan (Leda’s lover).
3. A reference connecting Baron Klim Avidov ( anagram of Vladimir Nabokov) to Jupiter:
"The set our three children received in 1884 from an old friend of the family (as Marina’s former lovers were known), Baron Klim Avidov, consisted of a large folding board of saffian and a boxful of weighty rectangles of ebony inlaid with platinum letters, only one of which was a Roman one, namely the letter J on the two joker blocks (as thrilling to get as a blank check signed by Jupiter or Jurojin).
4. There is the fateful hotel, Three Swans: " The Three Swans where he had reserved rooms 508-509-510 had undergone certain changes since 1905. A portly, plum-nosed Lucien did not recognize him at once ... In the lounge, as seen through its entrance, the huge memorable oil — three ample-haunched Ledas swapping lacustrine impressions — had been replaced by a neoprimitive masterpiece showing three yellow eggs and a pair of plumber’s gloves on what looked like wet bathroom tiling.
5. The recurrent "three": "The delightful phenomenon of all three terms being true, but making nonsense when hashed, provided Van with another source of amusement (...). The Three Swans overwinged a bastion. Anyone who called, flesh or voice, was told by the concierge or his acolytes that Van was out, that Madame Andr* Vinelander was unknown, and that all they could do was to take a message."
6. Painted or living swans come in threes at one of the couple s beaming and happy encounters:
"Would she look up? All her flowers turned up to him, beaming, and she made the royal-grant gesture of lifting and offering him the mountains, the mist and the lake with three swans."
VN s novel deals with the lives and deaths of three siblings: Van, Ada, Lucette. Their connection to Jupiter Olorinus ( Nabokov?) and Leda introduces the theme of "three" and "rape", instead of the mythological two eggs. It also creates a confusion between Leda&Swan, Leda&Eggs, Vaniada/VN& Jupiter Olorinus.
Could VN have indicated Leonardo s own Leda painting or sketches ( in them we find only two eggs), or suggested the amours of the two d' Este sisters? In his novel there is a panel where three big ungracelike Leda s are substituted by neoprimitive three yellow eggs and a plumber s gloves...
Jansy Mello
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Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
While on a recent visit to a book-store I discovered a "historical-novel" about Da Vinci: "Leonardo s Swans", written by Karen Essex where she describes the plights of 15th-century Italian sisters Isabella and Beatrice d'Este. Isabella is the elder and engaged to handsome Francesco Gonzaga, while Beatrice is promised to the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza.
I was reminded of Ada's occasional references to swans and to three eggs (not one or two). The mythological eggs are described as being either a blue one - arisen from the conjunction of Jupiter and Nemesis and later adopted by the wife of Tindareus, King of Sparta - and when from it Helena (of Troy) arose or they may be described as forming a pair from which Helen, Clitemnestra, Castor and Pollux were hatched. (Leda is also the name of one of planet Jupiter s moons.)
In VN s "Ada" the insistence is on the number "three" . A quick selection from the digital version found for me:
1.Their open mouths met in tender fury, and then he pounced upon her new, young, divine, Japanese neck which he had been coveting like a veritable Jupiter Olorinus throughout the evening.
2. ( Darkbloom s notes) p.407. Olorinus: from Lat. olor, swan (Leda’s lover).
3. A reference connecting Baron Klim Avidov ( anagram of Vladimir Nabokov) to Jupiter:
"The set our three children received in 1884 from an old friend of the family (as Marina’s former lovers were known), Baron Klim Avidov, consisted of a large folding board of saffian and a boxful of weighty rectangles of ebony inlaid with platinum letters, only one of which was a Roman one, namely the letter J on the two joker blocks (as thrilling to get as a blank check signed by Jupiter or Jurojin).
4. There is the fateful hotel, Three Swans: " The Three Swans where he had reserved rooms 508-509-510 had undergone certain changes since 1905. A portly, plum-nosed Lucien did not recognize him at once ... In the lounge, as seen through its entrance, the huge memorable oil — three ample-haunched Ledas swapping lacustrine impressions — had been replaced by a neoprimitive masterpiece showing three yellow eggs and a pair of plumber’s gloves on what looked like wet bathroom tiling.
5. The recurrent "three": "The delightful phenomenon of all three terms being true, but making nonsense when hashed, provided Van with another source of amusement (...). The Three Swans overwinged a bastion. Anyone who called, flesh or voice, was told by the concierge or his acolytes that Van was out, that Madame Andr* Vinelander was unknown, and that all they could do was to take a message."
6. Painted or living swans come in threes at one of the couple s beaming and happy encounters:
"Would she look up? All her flowers turned up to him, beaming, and she made the royal-grant gesture of lifting and offering him the mountains, the mist and the lake with three swans."
VN s novel deals with the lives and deaths of three siblings: Van, Ada, Lucette. Their connection to Jupiter Olorinus ( Nabokov?) and Leda introduces the theme of "three" and "rape", instead of the mythological two eggs. It also creates a confusion between Leda&Swan, Leda&Eggs, Vaniada/VN& Jupiter Olorinus.
Could VN have indicated Leonardo s own Leda painting or sketches ( in them we find only two eggs), or suggested the amours of the two d' Este sisters? In his novel there is a panel where three big ungracelike Leda s are substituted by neoprimitive three yellow eggs and a plumber s gloves...
Jansy Mello
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
