Figura con testo : nota su una possibile assonanza tra il "Capitolo dell’Ingratitudine" di Niccolò Machiavelli e la "Calunnia di Apelle" di Sandro Botticelli

The article highlights the possible relationship between the iconography of the ‘characters’ used by Botticelli in his Calumny – where he transposes Luciano’s ekphrasis – and the personae from Machiavelli’s Capitolo dell'Ingratitudine [Chapter of Ingratitude], where allegorical figures related to Envy and Suspicion seem to be very close to those in the painting. Both works were realised in the first decade of the sixteenth century in Florence, whose political and intellectual tensions could have had a strong influence on both written and painted works of art.