Citation: Montesinos Castañeda, María. 2023. Chastity in Temperance’s Images. Religions 14: 1409. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel14111409 Academic Editor: Lesley Twomey Received: 30 August 2023 Revised: 3 November 2023 Accepted: 6 November 2023 Published: 10 November 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). religions Article Chastity in Temperance’s Images María Montesinos Castañeda Department of Global Languages and Cutures, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA; mariamoncas@tamu.edu Abstract: Ancient thinking conceived Temperance as the enemy of pleasures and excesses, mainly bodily pleasures. This idea was the source of Temperance’s depictions in the Middle Ages. Attributes such as the torch and jug, castle, tower, bit, salamander, ermine, or the presence of Cupid accompany Temperance’s personification as controlling elements of bodily pleasures. The combinations of attributes relative to chastity give rise to two different iconographic types. These iconographic types translate theoretical considerations about this virtue visually. Keywords: temperance; chastity; lust; allegory; iconography; cardinal virtues 1. Introduction Although there were no visual references in Antiquity, representations of Temperance appeared in the Middle Ages. Its first depictions are from the 9th century, and how it is represented led to several iconographic types. 1 León Coloma (1998) approached some of these iconographic types. However, scholars paid more attention to Temperance’s “new visuality” 2 iconographic type (Whitehead 1960; White 1969, 1973; North 1979) because of technological innovation of its attributes. Other research about Temperance’s visualization usually focuses on a concrete work of art, such as Camelliti’s (2013) essay. Art historians usually try to explain allegories using Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1593; Ripa 1765), but in this case, we do not find medieval Temperance depictions in this treatise or similar treatises. Broad research about Temperance’s image is necessary, so this essay focuses on visual depictions of chastity in Temperance’s depictions. As a result, several attributes and iconographic types emphasize the quality of chastity in temperance as a virtue. This essay exposes the origin of these attributes by drawing attention to their meaning. This research merges art history and written sources with an iconographical approach 3 by relating images to written sources. With this purpose, this essay’s structure has three parts. The first section briefly explains a theoretical framework from classical and medieval written sources as an introduction to the topic. The second part exposes the origin, continuity, and variation of “Chaste Temperance” iconographic types in which chastity makes sense for their characteristic attributes. The third section explains other Temperance attributes related to chastity, such as a bit, bridles, salamander, and ermine. 2. Chastity as a Virtue Associated with Temperance Soprhosyne referred to Temperance in the classic Antiquity, which meant self-control and chastity, among other meanings (see North 1979; Rademaker 2004). Some literary and philosophical sources define this term. Plato defined temperance as “an order and control of pleasures and lust” (Plato 1949, p. 81; R. 8, 430e). 4 Aristotle explained that “To sobriety of mind it belongs not to value highly bodily pleasures and enjoyments, not to be covetous of every enjoyable pleasure” (Aristotle, p. 60; VV 2, 1250a 5). According to Aristotle, Virtue is at the midpoint between two extremes, which are two vices (Arist. EE, II, 3, 5, 10), placing temperance between lust and chastity: “Temperance is a midpoint between licentiousness and lack of sensitivity about pleasures” (Aristotle 1973, pp. 1330–31; MM 21, 1191a). 5 Religions 2023, 14, 1409. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111409 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions