Emblematica : an interdisciplinary journal for emblem studies 1995 [print 1997 and 1998] [9,1; 9,2]

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Summer, i"

Vol. 9No. I

EMBLEMATIC A VirtotifirtiutA comes

An Interdisciplinary Journal for Emblem Studies AMS PRESS

EMBLEMATICA ISSN 0885-968X

Manuscripts and books for review may be sent to either editor; however, no obligation is recognized to review or return any book received. Articles and essays should conform to the guidelines published in the MLA Handbook for Writers (1977 editition); authors should submit their work in duplicate and will be expected to provide high-quality glossy prints of any illustrations to be published with their work. Submissions should be accompanied by return postage. Subscriptions and remittances should be sent to the publisher, AMS Press, 56 East 13th Street, New York, NY 10003-4686, U.S.A. The annual subscription rate for institutions is $79.50 and for individuals $30.00. Please add $7.00 (US), $8.00 (all Foreign/surface) for delivery. City/State residents add appropriate sales tax.

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IMBUMATICA An I n t e r d i s c i p l i n a r y J o u r n a l for E m b l e m S t u d i e s is p u b l i s h e d t w i c e a y e a r , in t h e s u m m e r a n d w i n t e r . I'.mbleniatica p u b l i s h e s original articles, essays, a n d specialized biblio g r a p h i e s in all a r e a s of e m b l e m s t u d i e s . In a d d i t i o n it r e g u l a r l y c o n t a i n s r e v i e w articles, r e v i e w s , research r e p o r t s ( w o r k in p r o g r e s s , i n c l u d i n g theses, conference r e p o r t s a n d abstracts of c o m p l e t e d theses), notes a n d q u e r i e s , notices (forthcoming conferences a n d p u b lications), a n d v a r i o u s t y p e s of d o c u m e n t a t i o n .

Editors Peter M. Daly McGill University Department of German 1001 Sherbrooke Street W. Montreal, PQ Canada H3A 1G

D a n i e l S. Russll Department of French and Italian University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 U.S.A. John Manning Review Editor Department of English University of Wales, Lampeter Lampeter, Dyfed SA48 7ED Wales, U.K.

Advisory Board Karel P o r t e m a n Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven T h o m a s P. R o c h e , Jr. Princeton University J o h n M. S t e a d m a n University of California, Riverside

B a r b a r a C. B o w e n Vanderbilt University A u g u s t Buck Marburg and Wolfenbiittel Wolfgang Harms Munich John Rupert Martin Princeton University

J. B. Trapp

The Warburg Institute,

London

Editorial Board Claudie Balavoine CNRS, Paris Virginia W. Callahan Howard University, emerita P e d r o F. C a m p a University of Tennessee, Chattanooga K a r l Josef H o l t g e n Erlangen-Nurnberg

B e r n h a r d F. S c h o l z Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Agnes Sherman Princeton University Alan Young Acadia University Egon Verheyen George Mason University

EMBLEMATICA An Interdisciplinary Journal for Emblem Studies

Volume 9, Number 1

Summer, 1995

Articles The articles in this issue by Mary Lou McKenna, Mara R. Wade and Amy Wygant are versions of papers read at the Third International Emblem Conference in Pittsburgh in August, 1993. The articles by Katarina Cieslak and Karl Josef Holtgen are versions of papers read at the Wroclaw conference in June, 1995. Lynette C. Black Popular Devotional Emblematics: A Comparison of Sucquet's he Chemin de la Vie Eternele and Hugo's Les Pieux Desirs

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Katarzyna Cieslak Emblematic Programs in Seventeenth-Century Gdansk Churches in the Light of Contemporary Protestantism: An Essay and Documentation

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Mara R. Wade Emblems and German Protestant Court Culture: Duchess Marie Elisabeth's Ballet in Gottorf (1650)

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Amy

Wygant Corneille, Rubens, and the Heroic Emblem

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Judi D. Loach Jesuit Emblematics and the Opening of the School Year at the College Louis-le-Grand

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Mary Lou McKenna "Masks of words and painted plots": Swinburne and Nineteenth-Century Emblematics

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Review and Criticism Reviews Hugh Buchanan and Peter Davidson, The Eloquence of Shadows: A Book of Emblems: Emblemata Nova, by Alastair Fowler Reinventing the Emblem. Contemporary Artists Recreate a Renaissance Idea. An Exhibition Curated by Alison B. Leader, by Daniel Russell

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Research Reports, Notes, Queries, and Notices Notes Stephen Rawles An Unrecorded Edition of Jean Lefevre's Translation of Alciato, with New Translations of Emblems from the "Venice" Collection

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Mary V. Silcox Three (?) Hditions of Combe's Theater of Fine Devices Karl Josef Holtgen Catholic Pictures versus Protestant Words? The Adaptation of the Jesuit Sources in Quarles's Emblemes

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Popular Devotional Emblematics: A Comparison of Sucquet's Le Chemin de la Vie Eternele and Hugo's Les Pieux Desirs LYNETTE C. BLACK The University of Memphis To the rich corpus of French devotional literature of the early seventeenth century belong the translations of two popular neoLatin devotional emblem books. These are French versions of Antoine Sucquet's Via Vitae Aeternae (1620), entitled Le Chemin de la Vie Eternele (1623), and of Herman Hugo's Pia Desideria (1624), entitled Les Pieux Desirs (1627).2 Together these four publications by Jesuit authors and their translators form a sequence that reveals a growing

1. Terence C. Cave describes the rising popularity of vernacular devotional literature, including devotional treatises and poetry, during the late sixteenth century in Devotional Poetry in France c.1570-1613 (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1969). 2. Antoine Sucquet, Le Chemin de la Vie Eternelle, trans. R. P. Pierre Morin (Antwerp: Henry Aertssens, 1623); Via Vita Aeternae, iconibus illustrata (Antwerp, 1620); Herman Hugo, Pia Desideria (Antwerp: Jean Cnobbeart, 1624); Les Pieux Desirsf trans. P. J. Jurisconsult (Antwerp: Jean Cnobbeart, 1627). In this study, quotations from Sucquet and Hugo are taken from the translations in order to emphasize the involvement of these works in the popular tradition of French devotional literature. Observations about the works apply equally to the Latin originals. The plates are from books in the Stirling Maxwell Collection at the Glasgow University library and are reproduced by the kind permission of the Librarian.

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tendency toward making devotional methods accessible to a general reader for w h o m the vernacular was the preferred language. It is useful to think of these books as belonging to the specific genre of the meditational emblem book, which pinpoints emblem books exhibiting traces of the purposes and forms of mainly Ignatian meditation. The Pia Desideria and the Via Vitae Aeternae share medi­ tative premises, such as the exercise of the three faculties of the soul (memory, understanding, and will), common to works in this cate­ gory. Оце might say that they are distinguished by their purpose, which Karl Josef Holtgen attributes to Quarles as a devotional poet, "to inspire his readers so that they will follow him in endeavouring to grasp the truths of the Christian faith through sense, imagination, mind, will and affections." However useful the similarities by which genres are defined, the rich diversity of meditative emblematics can be more fully appreciated through a study of differences between the works. Their striking differences with respect to the form and content of the verbal elements, as well as the composition and use of the image, have not to my knowledge been examined. These apparently very popular works enjoy only limited availability today; thus the present comparative description serves to bring to 3.

Karl Josef Holtgen, in discussing the structure of Francis Quarles's emblems, describes the "amalgamation of the emblematic and meditative traditions' 7 (Aspects of the Emblem: Studies in the English Emblem Tradition and the European Context [Kassel: Edition Reichenberger, 1986], pp. 48-49). See also Mark Carter Leach, "The Literary and Emblematic Activity of H e r m a n Hugo, S. J. (15881629)," Diss. U. of Delaware, 1979. Both scholars are cited by G. Richard Dimler for the placement of the Via Desideria in the category of meditative emblematics ("Edmund Arwaker's Translation of the Pia Desideria: The Reception of a Continental Jesuit Emblem Book in Seventeenth-Century England," in The English Emblem and the Contintental Tradition, ed. Peter M Daly [New York: AMS Press, 1988], p. 203).

4.

Holtgen, p . 38.

5.

Both works were published several times in Latin during the mid-century, Hugo's in 11 editions between 1624 and 1647, according to Mario Praz, who also lists n u m e r o u s translations and adaptations (Studies in Seventeenth Century Imagery, 2nd ed. [Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1964], p. 143). Alan R. Young lists the available film and facsimile copies of the Pia Desideria but indicates none for the Via Vitae Aeternae nor for either of the translations ("Facsimiles, Microform Reproductions, and Modern Editions of Emblem

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lij'Jil tlu* diverse features of early seventeenth-century devotional cmMemalics and to illustrate ways of appealing to a lay audience. Л starting point for a comparison is the tripartite arrangement of both works. Gabriele D. Rodter asserts that Hugo's Pia Desideria adopts the structure of Sucquet's work with respect to the triple way of purgation, illumination, and union, with the titles of each book indicating these paths respectively. However, this point of compari­ son remains problematic since, apart from their common tripartite division, the two works share very little structural similarity. In fact, the subtitles of each work do not indicate specifically the paths of purgation, illumination, and perfective union, described by lionaventura and working within the formal structure of Ignatian meditation. Sucquet's three divisions are chronological: "Le chemin de ceux qui commencent" ("Via Incipientium"), "Le chemin de ceux qui profitent" ("Via Proficientium"), and "Le chemin des parfaits" ("Via Perfectorum"). Hugo's three subtitles show manifesta­ tions of emotion-tremblings, hopes, and sighs: "Gemissements de l'ame penitente"("Gemitus Animae Poenitentis"), "Souhaits de l'ame saincte"("Desideria Animae Sanctae"), and "Soupirs de l'ame aymante" ("Suspira Animae Amantis"). One might justify Rodter's assertion on the basis that the triple way can be construed to suggest chronology—beginning with purgation of sins and ending with the perfection of the soul—and in this respect Sucquet's sequential divisions would correspond to the triple way considered as a proc­ ess. Hugo's tremblings, desires, and sighs relate generally to prob­ lems associated with peace, truth, and love, the three results attrib­ uted to the three paths, respectively, according to Saint Bonaven-

Books," Emblematica, 1 [1986], 109-56.) 6. Via piae animae: Grundlagenuntersuchung zur emblematischen Verknupfung von bild und wort in den 'Via desideria (1624) des Herman Hugo S. J. (1588-1629), Microkosmos, 32 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1992), p. 27. 7. Michael Bath discusses the triple way of Bonaventure, its traditional associa­ tions with meditation, and its particular application to the emblems of Benedictus van Haeften and Christopher Harvey in Speaking Pictures: English Emblem Books and Renaissance Culture (London: Longman, 1993), pp. 180ff.

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tura. But this general structure does not account for the wide-rang­ ing thematic content of Hugo's poems. Hugo's pattern of development is better accounted for by the specific triple-way motifs described in the outline for the triple way of meditation in the middle of book two of the Via Vitae Aeternae, where Sucquet explains the "affectations" that accompany the three p a t h s of m e d i t a t i o n . Each of the three w a y s described by St. Bonaventure and pursued within the formal structure of Ignatian meditation—the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive—is characterized by certain subjects and emotions appropriate to the way. However, Sucquet (482) notes that one must take care not to call into play all the emotional responses listed: "Mais prenez garde icy qu'on a coustume pour l'ordinaire, de ne mettre plus de sept ou huict affections . . . ." [But take care here not to bring out more than seven or eight affections, as is ordinarily done . . .] Nor is there a prescribed order: "Mais il faut confesser qu'on ne peut observer un ordre certain & asseure d'affections, & qu'il faut suivre en cela l'onction, & la conduicte du s. Esprit." [But I must confess that one cannot follow a certain and assured order of affections, and that one must follow in that regard the tenderness and guidance of the Holy Spirit.] (ibid.) Furthermore, the three ways, not necessarily sequen­ tial, can be interlaced in a single meditation, for "il arrive souvent, que diverses affections d'icelles voyes se trouent & concourent en u n e m e s m e m e d i t a t i o n , " the m a i n c o n s i d e r a t i o n b e i n g that "douleur," "imitation," and " Г а т о и г de Dieu" be principally called forth, (ibid.) After the preface to the reader listing the topics of each book, Sucquet gives another list referring the reader to selections ranging over the whole book for each of the three ways. The triple w a y consists of thematic elements, topics, or attitudes appropriate to the path in question, rather than a strict formal pattern. Thus it seems likely that in looking at devotional works of this nature, one 8. The Triple Way: Or Love Enkindled in The Works of Bonaventure, trans. Jose de Vinck, vol. 1; Mystical Opuscula (Paterson, N. J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, I960), p. 63. 9. The list provided by Pierre Morin, the translator of Sucquet's work, does not include information about the topics recommended on the pages cited by Sucquet in the original.

LYNETTE С. BLACK

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should expect to find dominant themes indicating the triple way, not In a clear-cut path, but interspersed with others. And in fact, Sucquet's plan is exemplified by the thematic ar­ rangements of the three books in the Pia Desideria. Sucquet (480) lists a primary attitude for each of the paths: "douleur" for the "voye p u r g a t i v e / ' ' T a m o u r de vertu" (compare to "imitation" in his list noted above) for "la voye illuminative," and "l'amour de d i e u " for "la voye unitive." Rather than the goals (purgation, illumination, and perfective union), it is the three emotions associated with them—namely, grief, imitation, and love of God—which are re­ flected by the subtitles of Hugo's book. The three conditions of the Anima correspond to Sucquet's list: douleur (la voye purgative) in the "Gemissements de l'ame Penitente," l'amour de vertu (la voye illumi­ native) in the "Souhaits de Tame Saincte," and l'amour de Dieu (la voye unitive) in the "Souspirs de l'ame A y m a n t " Generally, then, it is the emotional dimension of each stage which H u g o chooses to stress, d r a w i n g from the tradition of affective piety which Sucquet de­ scribes. Further, within each book, the attitudes appropriate to each way are manifested in Anima's experiences. To the purgative way, Suc­ quet assigns hatred for sins: Ilz appellent voye purgative, quand l'entendement pro­ pose a l'ame la turpitude du peche, a celle fin qu'elle le deteste: & quand de plus, il luy met devant les yeux les quatre fins derniers de l'homme, a celle fin qu'estant esmeue par la consideration d'icelles, elle passe p a r le moyen des pieds de ses affections, & par sa volonte a la crainte de Dieu, & se retire des pechez avec grande horreur d'iceux. . . . Les affections de la voye purgative sont, la honte & confusion des pechez commis, la d o u l e u r & contrition d'iceux, & la crainte de la justice de Dieu; apres laquelle suit le desir de se mortifier, pour satisfaire au mesme Dieu. (481) [It is called the purgative w a y w h e n u n d e r s t a n d i n g shows the soul the turpitude of sin, in order that the soul detests it; and when in addition, it places before her eyes the four final ends of man, so that being m o v e d by the consideration of these, she passes, by means of the feet of

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her affections and by her will, to the fear of God and withdraws from sins with great horror of them. . . . The affections of the purgative way are shame and confusion for sins committed, grief and contrition for them, and fear of the justice of God; after which comes the desire for mortification to satisfy this same God.] The purgative way, then, entails shame and grief for sins, mingled with fear of God's justice. Appropriately, in Hugo's first book, the penitent soul reflects Sucquet's themes as she bemoans her sinful state and, in fear of God's anger, considers the last Judgment. Nine of the fifteen emblems clearly implement Sucquet's instructions quoted above. The emblems show Anima aware that her sins are ever before her (2), ill in bed, sick with sin (3), noting her imperfections (5), facing an armed Divine Love (6), trapped in the snares of death (9), begging for mercy rather than justice (10), seeking in vain a hiding place from a thunder­ bolt-bearing Divine Love (12), contemplating a vision of judgment (14), and languishing in despair with the vanishing days (15). In the illuminative way, says Sucquet, the soul concentrates on love of virtue, rejecting the riches of the world and h o p i n g to attain virtue: Les affections de la voye illuminative sont, l'amour de diverses vertus, l'esperance & le desir de les acquerir, l'abnegation de toutes les choses de ce monde, & d e sa propre volonte, & l'imitation de nostre Seigneur & des Saincts. (481) [The affections of the illuminative way are love of m a n y virtues, hope and the desire to acquire them, abnegation of all things of this world and of one's own will, and the imitation of our Saviour and the Saints.] The illumined soul above all desires spiritual virtue and hopes to attain it through the imitation of Christ. Acccordingly, the second book of the Pia Desideria emphasizes the choice of the path of virtue and the hopes of the Christ-seeking soul. Here Anima as the spouse rejects the Cupid bearing the wares of the world (1), the woman representing the worldly pleasures (5), and the vanity of cosmetics and jewelry (6); desires to be guided in the right path (2, 3); searches for and finds divine love in the night (i. е., holiness in the midst of sin) (10, 11, 12),

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is carried by Divine Love with an anchor for hope (13); and takes shelter in the shade of the tree of Christ (14). Anima's progress through the triple way appears in the emotional responses appropriate to the illuminative way, the French "souhait" underlining the soul's desire (or virtue as yet not fully realized. The third book of the Via Desideria meets the expectations of the unitive way according to Sucquet's description of divine love and the aspiration to be united with God: En fin la voye unitive est celle, par laquelle la volonte en suite de la consideration des benefices de Dieu, & de ses perfections, se porte par amour au mesme Dieu, se conforme a sa volonte, & aspire a s'unir parfaicement avec luy . . . . Les affections de la voye unitive sont, l'amour de Dieu, Taction de grace, le zele des ames, Tadmiration, la joye & la congratulation des perfections de Dieu, la resignation a sa volonte, les souspirs, qui procedent du desir d'arriver h la fontaine de vie, & a la gloire celeste, &c. (481-82) [Finally the unitive way is the one by which the will, after the consideration of the benefits of God and his perfections, gives itself by love to the same God, conforms itself to his will, and aspires to unify itself perfectly with him. . . . The affections of the unitive way are love of God, the action of grace, zeal of souls, admiration, joy, and felicitation of the perfections of God, resignation to his will, sighs, which proceed from the desire to arrive at the fountain of life and at celestial glory.] Love is the emotion by which the soul achieves perfect union with the will of God, a union which by its nature perfects the soul that achieves it. "Souspirs," being one of the appropriate emotions listed, accords Book III, by its title, with the unitive way: the sighing spouse languishes for love (1, 2) and exchanges lovers' crowns with Divine Love (3). In the third book, appropriately enough for the unitive way, quotations from the Canticles, traditionally interpreted as the story of Christ as the bridegroom, are proportionately more frequent than in the other books. In addition to love and sighs, Sucquet's definition of the way of perfective union includes the consideration of God's benefits and perfections. Thus, Anima contemplates future rewards: Divine

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Love in the fixed sphere (6) and in the vision of heaven (14); and in various personae—a pilgrim (7), a man inside the body of death (8), and a weighted figure (9)—Anima longs for perfection through union with God. According to Sucquet's guidelines, the triple way works through the appeal to the emotions; the affective mode of H u g o ' s work illustrates this principle as well as the specific emotions requested by Sucquet's instructions. Yet Sucquet's work itself uses titles that are procedural rather than affective—the beginners, those progressing, and those completing the method. The sighs of the soul longing for heaven are not heard in Sucquet's meditations. Hugo's imitation of Sucquet lies in the way his work puts the principle into practice, the emotions providing not only a path to salvation but also a means of popular appeal. But in both H u g o and Sucquet, the aims of meditation are to be fulfilled on earth, though heavenly longing may be one of those aims. Not an exercise in mysticism, meditation addresses the life of the devout on earth. In the last emblem of each book of the Via Desideria, Anima returns to the problems of earthly life: she is beset by problems of living in a strange land where she cannot sing the Lord's songs (1,15); by the world of time (II, 15) where she can never catch up with her opportunities; by h u m a n limitations (III, 15) where she realizes that Divine Love is too great for her to encompass. Nevertheless, as a paradigm for the human experience, Anima fulfills the goals of meditation in the triple way according to Sucquet's concept. Meditation prepares the soul to live a life in the world that prepares for future bliss. The purpose of meditation, he instructs his readers, is to move the will toward virtue; like the secular emblem writers, he says (480) that meditation is aimed "a

10. See Henri de Lubac on the beloved's union with the spouse as a figure for the union of Christ and the Church (Exegese medievale: les quatre sens de VEcriture, part 1, vol. 1 [Paris: Aubier, 1959], p. 560). 11. Louis Martz, in discussing the aims of meditation as exemplified by the treatises of St. Francois de Sales and others, makes the point that meditation was viewed as an exercise necessary to living the good life {The Poetry of Meditation: A Study in English Religious Literature of the Seventeenth Century [New Haven and London: Yale U. P., 1969], p. 16).

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rrlle fin de bien regler nos moeurs et nostre vie," moral concerns Interlaced in the love of virtue being, after all, practical for the choice of paths in life. Sucquet's Image 13 shows a cluster of tiny figures lor the four stoic virtues (Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, and | ustice) standing at the opening of the pathway to heaven. The angel representing virtue opposes the monster vice in the frontispiece as in many of the images. In spite of its size and formality, Sucquet's book addresses itself, not only to the Jesuit, but especially to the m a n in the world. In his chapter introducing principles of meditation, Sucquet identifies his audience and points out the general appeal of pictures: . . . cette mienne industrie . . . n'est pas seulement consacree aux Religieux: mais a toutes sortes de personnes. Car les images pourront servir a tout le monde, quand on est attaque d'une aridite d'esprit; et aux simples person­ nes elles pourront toujours estre profitables, pour les tenir plus attentifs en l'usage de la meditation. (477) [This my effort . . . is not only consecrated to the Relig­ ious: but to all sorts of persons. For the images will be able to serve anyone w h o is assaulted by spiritual aridity; and to simple people [the images] can serve to make them more attentive to the practice of meditation.] The simple people who will be well-served by the pictures illustrating the meditations include the heads of families; Sucquet addresses a chapter to "le gouvernement de la famille" entitled "Meditation du choix qu'il faut faire de la famille et du gouvernment d'icelle, qui est un moyen fort efficace pour s'advancer en la voye de Dieu." "[Medi­ tation on the choices one must make concerning the family and the government of it, which is a very effective way to advance oneself in the way of God.]" (429) Meditation, even in the formal Ignatian sense, belongs to ordinary people. Since readers are so readily attracted to pictues, the emblem book could be easily adapted to pedagogical purposes and specifically to religious instruction. One feature of meditation that provides a

12. Daniel S. Russell points out the historical development of pedagogical function

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channel for popular appeal, like the picture in an emblem, is the composition of place, the first prelude of an Ignatian meditation in which the meditant is instructed to imagine himself present at the scene. This part of the meditation provides the exercise of the memory in calling to mind the circumstances for meditation. As Holtgen points out, citing the example of Sucquet, the picture corresponds to the composition of place. He suggests that Hugo modeled his work on Sucquet's Via Vitae Aeternae with respect to the use of the picture as the compositio loci. However, though both employ the picture for this meditative function, the two authors use quite different formats for their emblems. All fifteen meditations in each of Hugo's three books follow a clearly emblematic design: a titled picture with a subscriptio in the form of a biblical passage, which is repeated as the headnote to a poem following the picture. After each emblematic unit (picture and poem) is a collection of quotations from the Church Fathers related to the issues raised in the emblem. By contrast, each emblem in Sucquet's book begins with a complicated list of devotional instructions, each of the thirty-two images being preceded by a list of the keyed parts of the picture, with instructions on a plethora of points to be pondered. In addition, between the images Sucquet places the bulk of his work: sections widely varying in length including, as well as the all-imortant formal meditations, a selection of essays, dialogues, and prayers. In spite of these differences in the format of the emblem and the position of the picture in it, the two works are similarly based on the

of the emblem genre (The Emblem and Device in France [Lexington: French Forum, 1985], p. 95). 13. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, trans. Louis J. Puhl (Chicago: Loyola U. P., 1951), p. 25. 14. The other two faculties to be exercised in a formal Ignatian meditation are the understanding and the will; through these faculties the image of the tripartite God is recreated in the soul. 15. Holtgen, pp. 48-49, stresses the integral relationship between the image and composition of place: "The pictura or imago of the devotional emblem can sometimes simply replace the meditative compositio loci."

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premise that the picture is fundamental to meditation, as it is in the emblem genre itself. Sucquet defines meditation in terms of imagemaking: "Meditcr, e'est considerer en son esprit et comme depeindre en son coeur, un mystere ou quelque doctrine tire de la vie de notre Seigneur" (479), or "Compositio loci, ut in imagine" in the neo-Latin version (469). Sucquet alleges that Ignatius himself went so far as to recommend (he picture as a visual aid to the composition of place. In discussing I he use of images, Sucquet calls on the authority of Ignatius: . . . l'inconstance de l'imagination laquelle estant demeuree sans bride depuis le peche d'Adam, faict courir Tame comme un vagabonde par cest univers et ne permet pas qu'elle s'arreste a des bonnes pensees; pour la retenir done il est expedient de l'attacher s'il faut ainsy parler a des images materielles et par le moyen d'icelles a des pieuse cogitations. Ce que nostre Pere Saint Ignace trouva fort bon et recommanda au Pere Natal de vacquer a ceste ouvrage et faire en sorte que la vie de notre Seigneur fust exprimee en de belles images. (478) [. . . the inconstancy of the imagination which, without a bridle since the sin of Adam, makes the soul run like a vagabond through this world and does not permit her to pause over good thoughts; in order to restrain her it is thus expedient to attach her, so to speak, to material images and by the means of these to pious thoughts. Which our Father Saint Ignatius found very good and recommended to Father Natal that he dedicate himself to this work so that the life of our Saviour might be expressed in beautiful images.] Sucquet is apparently referring to the Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia of 1593 by Jerome Nadal as the exemplary work telling the life of Christ through images. The imagination can be directed to good thoughts by means of pictures. Sucquet's use of images, then, is in keeping with the instructions of his Jesuit order. Similarly, Hugo's Via Desideria takes advantage of the popular appeal of the picture for the purposes of meditation. Differences between Hugo and Sucquet with respect to the type of picture and its use in the text highlight the greater clarity and simplicity of

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e m o t i o n a l a p p e a l of H u g o ' s w o r k . T h o u g h h e m a y follow Sucquet, he models him only in general concept and procedure but departs from him in several important ways to allow accessi­ bility by a broad audience. T h e d i f f e r e n t p r i o r i t i e s of H u g o and Sucquet are reflected in the differing degrees of ease or difficulty of comprehension attributable to the pictures. The pictures for H u g o ' s work, exe­ cuted by Boethius a Bolswert, have a single focal point and di­ rect the reader's attention to one representation (or two, at most) of a single concept. By contrast, in Sucquet's w o r k the highly de­ m§ tailed and complex engravings, Fig. l Sucquet Le Chemin de la Vie a l s Q b B o e t h i u s a Bolswert, deEternele, Image 5.

,J л

.

mand close attention to the writ­ ten instructions accompanying them on the facing pages. They con­ duct the meditant through an ordered series of points according to a list of instructions for reading parts of the picture labeled with letters corresponding to the instructive text. The meditant finds a staggering display of realistic, emblematic, or hieroglyphic images leading away from the temptations of the devil and the vices and toward the p a t h to heaven. The emblematic form of the meditation implies an attentive reader, w h o examines the picture in light of the textual instructions, thereby bringing imagination and intellect to bear on the details of the picture. For example, in Image 5 (Fig. 1), the pilgrim sits under a tree near which is an axe, labelled with the letter E to refer to item 16. Bath, 160-61, points out that both meditation and emblem address themselves to the sense of sight particularly and that both are based on the three faculties of the soul.

13

LYNETTE С. BLACK

1; in the list stating that one must be watchful, for the axe stands ready to cut d o w n the tree; one should live with awareness of mortality, as if each hour were "la derniere de sa vie." An angel points to a clock (Letter G) to indicate I his concept. The reader contemplates emblems for time—the old man with the scythe and hour glass, but with the circle of eternity and a skeleton hanging from it to show that time leads to eternity: ". . . eternite depend d'une seule heure ct d ' u n filet de la vie: Eternite a laquelle la mort nous conduict, sans que nous у pensions" [. . . eternity depends on a single hour and a thread of life: eternity to which death conducts us without our ^ , . , .

,

. i A i .

i

л r

A

H go

" '

Les

,Pieux

T Book II, Emblem 1.

Desirs

'

thinking about it J. A hieroglyph for eter­ nity, the tail-eating serpent forming a circle crossed by a palm and a flaming sword for the alternatives of salvation and perdition, rises above. At the left and continuing into the background are objects of nature and life that show time flying: soap bubbles, smoke from a fire, an arrow shot into the air, harvesters, a deer running away, a ship on a river. The title admonishes the reader not to rest since life is short: "La mort nous talonne, la vie s'enfuit: pourquoy vous arrestez vous, vous qui estes pelerin?" [Death follows at our heels, life flies away: why do you stop, you who are a pilgrim?]. Whereas there is a high degree of interdependence of text and picture in Sucquet, Hugo's poems take the picture for a starting point, amplifying and enlarging on the situation depicted. In Book II, emblem 1 (Fig. 2) Anima pushes aside the worldly Cupid and grasps the tablet held by Divine Love. In the background an ox reclines and a horse kicks up his heels under the uplifted h a n d of a man. One of only sixteen which depict background activity, this 17. Dimler observes that the distance between word and image is greater in a meditative emblem than in a secular emblem; he likens the poem to "an exemplum, a parable, or a sermon" (204).

EMBLEMATICA

14

picture illustrates by contrast to the many dimensions of Sucquet's images, the coherence and focus characteristic of the picturae of H u g o ' s work. The poem opens with a reference to the conflicting loves of ornament and action illustrated in the picture—"Deux amours differents de parure & de geste"—but instead of celebrating the choice of virtue over vice, which Anima, like Hercules, seems to have made, the poem elaborates on the dilemma posed by free choice. Hoping that no "amoureuse flame" (the wrong kind of love) will win him, the soul ponders the dangers of freedom: On ne peut rien treuver, qui soit plus indomptable, Que cette liberte d'eslire a son plaisir. Et Ton n'a point de loy, tant soit elle equitable, Qui semble suportable a ce libre desir. [One can find nothing more impossible to conquer, Than the liberty to choose according to one's own pleasure, And one has no law, however equitable it might be, That to that free desire seems bearable.] The ox and the horse, freed by the laborer from their restraints, pursue their frolics eagerly and resist returning to the yoke and harness. In commenting on the background picture, the poem enlarges on the foreground topos concerning choices in order to show that submission to rule is better than free pursuit of pleasure. In the second half of the poem, the subject becomes the inadvisability of freedom, exemplified by the cases of Phaeton and Icarus. It is futile, according to examples drawn from human experience, to think one knows what is best. The closing prayer, accordingly, asks God to impose his law upon the soul. Thus the poem leads the meditation away from the picture of moral choice and into a spiritual or even theological lesson. In addition to their focus and their function of serving as a springboard for meditation, the pictures of Hugo differ from those of Sucquet in the way they depict the meditant. H u g o ' s sweetly angelic Anima enacts the scenes with engaging realism. The meditant is surely meant to be touched by seeing his own h u m a n condi18. Pieux Desirs, pp. 237-38.

LYNETTE С. BLACK

15

lion appealingly portrayed, his conflicts and emotions mirrored brforc him as Anima fears, for example, the anger of Divine Love, (I, 6), relegates jars of pommades to a low priority (II, 6), and looks in desperation for the absent loved one (II, 10). Furthermore, the childlike representation of Anima, like that of Divine Love, engages the sympathy of the reader in a way that Sucquet's adult male pilgrim with his unchangingly austere visage could scarcely do. While the meditant is depicted in all but eight of Sucquet's thirtytwo images, an external embodiment of Ignatius's instructions to make oneself present at the scene, such a compositio loci is really accomplished by means of the inner eye of the soul. Thus Sucquet's images do not remove the effort the meditant must m a k e in the composition of place, for image-making is a function of the mind. Following the system of tags between the picture and the explana­ tion engages the reader in the act of forming the mental picture and of imagining himself present at the scene. Rather than substituting for the composition of place, the picture is an aid to realizing it. Sucquet's images, then, provide strict guidelines for the imagina­ tion of the meditant. The imagination is not to be allowed free range. The distrust of the image as a distraction of the senses, a well-studied phenomenon associated with Protestants, was also an issue for Catholics. Although the Protestant distrust of images be­ came more entrenched, the Catholics justified the didactic use of images, as Sucquet's reference to Ignatius' instructions, cited above, illustrates. Moreover, Louis Richeome in the preface to his Tableaux sacres (Paris, 1601) explains that the image works according to the levels of biblical exegesis—the historical, the allegorical, the tropological, and the anagogical—to teach the Christian mysteries. Since pictures provide pleasure, they incline the will toward vir­ tue. According to this theory, far from wrongfully stimulating the

19. Holtgen, p. 43, points out that the popularity of Hugo's work owed much tc the appealing depictions of love between Christ and the soul. 20. The control of the imagination through the picture is analogous to the wa) Sucquet recommends limiting the stimulation of the emotions. See his pre­ viously quoted warning about arousing only selected emotions appropriate tc the triple way (see p. 4 above). 21. The following is from the 1619 translation entitled Holy Pictures of the Mystical

16

EMBLEMATICA

senses, a picture engages the reader in a direction specified by the emblematist. In addition, image-making itself becomes a figure. In Sucquet's w o r k , the picture or the act of drawing or painting becomes an analogy for the condition of the spirit. Several images depict the soul in the act of creating images. This occurs significantly in Sucquet's Image 11 (Fig. 3), which depicts not only the nativity b u t also the process of meditation. The instructions accompanying the image say " . . . choisissez le subject de vostre meditation . . . & p u i s comme un bon peintre, representez la au coeur" (496 italics mine). The picture s h o w s the heart being painted with scenes representing aspects of the nativity scene which the meditant is facing. Each vignette bears an inscription that idicates the questions that the intellect should pose about the image being formed: Quis? Quid? Q u o m o d o ? Ubi? Q u a n d o ? Cur? In the following Image 12 the same e n g r a v e d heart identifies the virtuous soul ready to p u t into action the v i r t u e medi-

Figures of the Most Holy Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist, p. 4: ". . . touching by this means (the speaking pictures) the four Cardinall senses, which commonly are found in the treasures of the Holy Scripture; the Literall or Historicall, which goeth the first; the allegoricall or figurative, which is the spirit of the Literall; the Tropologicall or morall, which formes the manners, and the Anagogicall, which shewes the triumphant church . . . . And in this fashion have comprehended four sorts of Expositions and three sorts of pictures, to teach with fruit and pleasure the most great mystery of our Religion: for if there be no other better nor profitable Methods, then these foure: and if there be nothing more delightful then a picture, nor which make a thing glide more sweetly within the soul then a picture: nor which calls foorth the will to love or hate any object, good or evill, which to it shall be proposed: I see not in what manner one can more profitably, lively, and delitiously teach the vertues, the fruits, and the delicatenesse of this divine and holy meat, of the body of the sonne of God, then with the above named Expositions . . . " 22. Allusions in devotional poetry to imprinting the image of the Cross on the heart belongs to this aesthetic. For example, see Jean de La Ceppede's sonnets to the Cross in Part One, Book II of Les Theoremes sur le Sacre Mystere de Nostre Redemption, Reproduction de l'edition de Toulouse de 1613-1622 (Geneva: Droz, 1966) : Sonnet 25 ends: "Fay que ta sainte Image en mon ame pourtraite / Brise ainsi quelque jour, ma prison, et mes fers" 11. 13-14). Sonnet 31: "Je ne craindray non plus, s'il te plait de t'empreindre / Par le burin d'amour, sur le roc de mon coeur" (11. 13-14).

LYNETTE С. BLACK

17

Fig. 3 Sucquet, Le Chemin de la Vie Fig. 4 Sucquet, Le Chemin de la Vie Eternele, Image 11. Eternele, Image 21.

tated: "Voulez vous suivre la vertu qui vous est proposee en quelque certain mystere? Mettez votre confiance en Dieu seul et vous meffiez de vous mesmes" (530). Not only is the image painted in the heart of the meditant, but the meditant's imitation of a saintly model is depicted as image-making. Imitation as image-making appears, for example, in Image 18, where the Virgin Mary and Saint Paul stand before easels as their portraits are painted, one successfully and another by an unfortunate soul whose easel is overturned by the devil. In Image 21 (Fig. 4), for which title of the list of instructions enjoins the reader to look and imitate ("Regardez et imitez l'exemplaire de vertu qui vous est monstre par nostre Seigneur"), the imitation of Christ with the cross is shown by the soul painting him. In Image 28, the segment of the instructions that asks the soul to follow the example of Christ and the saints ("perfectionney voz m e s m e s b o n n e s oeuvres a l'example de notre Seigneur et des Saincts") corresponds by the tag "L" to a figure painting the portrait of a saint.

18

EMBLLMATICA

In spite of the objection that images are only sense impressions, image-making offers to the soul a means for applying spiritual truths to himself—in other words, for recreating the image of God in himself by the renewal of imagination, corresponding to creative p o w e r of God the Father. According to Bonaventure, God in creating the universe, has d r a w n a picture: The creatures of this sensible world signify the invisible attributes of God: partly because God is the origin, m o d e , and goal of every creature (every effect being a sign of its cause . . . ) . For all creatures are essentially a certain image and likeness of the Eternal Wisdom, but those that are raised, according to the Scriptures, by the spirit of p r o p h ecy to a spiritual prefiguration, are so in a special way. Nature is the visual image of God's text, a principle which underlies both devotional and emblematic traditions. Sucquet, continuing his explanation of the principles of meditation, says that "nous pouvons tirer de toutes creatures des enseignmens pour bien faire et considerez cela mesme, non seulement comme nous etant diet de la bouche de Dieu; mais comme escrit en gros caracteres sur les creatures mesme" [we can draw from all creatures lessons for doing well and consider these [lessons] not only having been said by the mouth of God; but as written in large characters on the creatures themselves.] (506). Sucquet articulates the theory that God's messages to man are written in his creatures. Thus, emblem theory approaches devotional theory as the picture and verbal texts become one.

23. The Journey of the Mind to God in The Works of Bonaventure, trans. Jose de Vinck, vol. 1: Mystical Opuscula (Paterson, N. J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1960), pp. 26-27. 24. For a discussion of typological interpretation and its application to emblem theory, see Richard Dimler, "Literary Considerations in the Classification of the Jesuit Emblem," Jahrbuch fur Internationale Germanstik, 14, 1 (1982), 104. 25. In "Emblem and Meditation: Some English Emblem Books and their Jesuit Models," Explorations in Renaissance Culture, 18 (1992), 55-91, Holtgen shows the influence of Jesuit emblem books on the English emblematic tradition. The great variety of Jesuit applications of the emblematic genre is e m p h a s i z e d in Holtgen's "The Emblematic Theory and Practice of the English Jesuit Henry

LYNL11L С. BLACK

19

On this point, as in the case of his instructions on the triple way, Sucquet provides a theory which is more ostensibly applied in Hugo's work than in his own book. In the engravings for Sucquet's work, relatively few of the images come from the natural world. Occasionally these may be given, usually as background objects, as in the image of time (Fig. 1) discussed above. But in fact most of the images are not literal but allegorical or hieroglyphic. By contrast, H u g o uses images from the natural world consis­ tently, if not in the picture, then in the word-image in the poem. Many of these are commonplaces, but some, particularly as ex­ p a n d e d and enlivened by the translator in Les Pieux Desirs, seem original. Floods from melting snows (1,8), limed birds (1,9), s p i d e r ' s webs (1,9), ephemeral insects and flowers (I, 13) industrious ants (1,14), harvested plants (III, 2), suns covered by clouds (III, 6), day turning to night and spring to winter (III, 7)—these offer their spiritual lessons by analogy with man's life. Or creatures represent the state of the soul, like the hart longing for the pure water (III, 11) and the tethered (III, 9) or the caged (111,10) bird aspiring to freedom. Anima's frustration with the veil hiding Divine Love while sug­ gesting his presence (Book III, Emblem 12) represents the h u m a n acknowledgement that the truth behind the sign can not be con­ fronted directly by mortal eyes. H u m a n beings must live in the world, as the philosophy of meditation recognizes, where anticipat­ ing a bliss always in the future, one must depend on images. Generally, then, H u g o exploits the features of meditation that address life in the world of the senses. His work translates devo­ tional theory into practical spiritual experience through meditation. The fluid relationship between picture and text and the less elabo­ rate pictures make Hugo's work more easily accessible to the general reader than that of Sucquet. The picture appeals more to the affective Hawkins (1577-1646)/' in Heinrich F. Plett, ed., Renaissance-Poetik/Renaissance Poetics (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1994), pp. 338-61; see also Holtgen's introduction to Hawkin's Partheneia Sacra (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1993). 26. Peter Daly (Emblem Theory: Recent German Contributions to the Characterization of the Emblem Genre. Wolfenbutteler Forschungen, bd. 9 [Liechtenstein: КТО, 1979], p. 80) classifies emblems according to their conceptual level as hiero­ glyphic, allegorical, and typological (qtd. in Dimler, p. 103).

20

EMBLEMATICA

m o d e in Hugo's work and more to the intellective in Sucquet's. The latter instructs the reader in a more specific way with attention to doctrine and form; the former, while calling on the same purposes and methods of meditation, engages a general reader with affective piety that models, without outlining or demanding them, the steps leading to salvation.

Emblematic Programmes in Seventeenth-Century Gdansk Churches in the Light of Contemporary Protestanism: An Essay and Documentation KATARZYNA CIESLAK Gdansk

The aim of this study is to discern the intention and function of emblematic decorations in Lutheran churches in Gdansk, and to determine how such use relates to specific occurences in the history of the Lutheran Church in Gdansk, as the use of emblematics was restricted there to Lutheran culture. Emblems appeared in Gdansk churches relatively early—already in 1639—but interest in ecclesiastical emblems lasted only until 1694. Unfortunately, the majority of works of art of interest to us have been lost and only their descriptions survive. The first cycles of emblematic paintings decorated the pillars of St. Mary's church. These paintings were destroyed by fire in 1945, but they were described in sufficient detail at the close of the seventeenth century that is possible to establish their sources. Series of emblematic illus-

1. Research for this article was made possible by a scholarship from the HerzogAugust-Bibliothek, Wolfenbuttel, Germany. Gregor Frisch, Beschreibung der Oberpfarrkirche zu St. Marien in Danzig und der inneren Merkwurdigkeiten derselben . . . 1698, Biblioteka Gdanska Polskiej Akademii Nauk [Library of the Polish Academy of Letters and Sciences, Gdansk], MS. Mar. Q 146, passim.

21

22

EMBLEMATICA

trations were accompanied by Christological and Old Testament cycles in accordance with the Protestant homiletic principle of "Scriptura sui ipsius interpres"; the pictures received comment in the form of citations from yet other books of the Bible. Paintings on canvas decorated sixteen of the inter-naval pillars, from four to nine—most frequently seven. It has been possible to establish the visual sources for two of nine emblematic cycles in the works of Daniel Cramer and the Jesuit Jeremias Drexel. Emblematic decoration of interior space in the form of illustrations on pillars also appeared in other Gdansk churches: in 1648 in the church of the Holy Trinity, in 1664 in St. John's and in 1675-76 in St. Catherine's. The first of these decorations is known only from a record in the archives, the next two, however, were catalogued by art historians 4 before they were destroyed in 1945. In St. John's church biblical scenes were included in the emblematic decorations, at times on the same pillar. The influence of five emblematists has been established: Daniel Cramer, Johann Michael Dilherr, Johann Saubert the elder, Georgette de Montenay, and the Jesuit Etienne Luzvic. The decoration on the inter-naval pillars in St. Catharine's church was most probably designed—in the ideological sense—by the minister Michael Falck. The only exception is the cycle modelled after Daniel Cramer's Emblemata Sacra on the pillar in the southwestern part of the building. The same church also boasted a series of vaulting keystones decorated with emblems, probably also Falck's idea, which did not, however, survive the damage suffered by the church in 1945.

2.

Jan Harasimowicz, "'Scriptura sui ipsius interpres'. Protestantische Bild-WortSprache des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts," Text und Bild, Bild und Text. DFG-Symposion, ed. Wolfgang Harms (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1990), p p . 262-82.

3.

Ephraim Praetorius, Das evangelische Danzig . . ., vol. 1, Biblioteka Gdanska Polskiej Akademii Nauk, MS. 428, p. 519.

4.

Willi Drost, Kunstdenkmaler der Stadt Danzig, I, St. Johann (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1957), 141-48; II, St. Katharinen (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1958), 118-22, 131-32.

5.

Drost, 1958, pp. 123-24.

KATARZYNACIESLAK

23

During the years 1639-94 s e v e r a l e m b l e m a t i c cycles f o u n d t h e i r w a y i n t o four Abuu. chapels of St. Mary's church. Since, following the Reforma­ tion, these chapels lost their ritualistic function and served as burial sites for the families of patricians or guild mem­ bers, the decorations commis­ sioned for them (known only from seventeenth-century de­ scriptions) concentrated mainly on vanitas themes, de­ riving from emblems by Geor­ gette de Montenay, Daniel C r a m e r a n d E r a s m u s Francisci. In Gdansk, certain church furnishings were also deco­ rated with emblems. The pul­ pit and font, which furnished St. John's church until the last 4At V-ЫА.ЩШ& & в . a -0- £ в> # . &n $5$tmfj $ii}&[tm tmfrcit i>ta у w*;>>д&(/||

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