The Emblem and Architecture: Studies in Applied Emblematics from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries (Imago Figurata Studies) 250350776X, 9782503507767

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THE EMBLEM AND ARCIDTEC TURE STUDIES IN APPLIED EMBLEMAT ICS FROM THE SIXTEENTH TO THE EIGHTEENT H CENTURIES

Imago Figurata

The Series will contain editions, studies and reference works. Publication is in major European languages. Editorial Board:

Peter M. Daly (McGill University, Montreal, Canada), John Manning (University of Wales, Lampeter, Wales), and Karel Porteman (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium). Advisory Board:

Michael Bath (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland) Pedro Campa (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA) Karl Enenkel (Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands) Wolfgang Harms (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, Germany) Daniel Russell (University of Pittsburgh, USA) Marc van Vaeck (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) Ilja M. Veldman (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Already published: Editions Vol. 1 Antonius à Burgundia, Linguae vitia et remedia (Antwerp, 1631), with an introduction by Taon van Houdt, 1998 Editions Vol. 2 Johann Kreihing, Emblemata ethico-politica (Antwerp 1661), with an introduction by G. Richard Dimler, S.J.

Submissions Anyone wishing to have a typescript considered for publication in Imago Figurata should first send a letter of enquiry accompanied by a 500 word abstract to one of the General Editors.

THE EMBLEM AND ARCHITECTURE STUDIES IN APPLIED EMBLEMATICS FROM THE SIXTEENTH TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES edited by Hans J. Boker Peter M. Daly

Imago Figurata Studies Vol. 2

BR.EPOLS

© BREPOLS @l PUBLISHERS Turnhout 1999 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means without written permission from the publisher ISBN 2-503-50776-X D/1999/0095/21

Contents List of Illustrations

vii

Preface by R. Nicholas Olsberg

xiii

Introduction by Peter M. Daly

XV

Issues and Problems

1

Wolfgang Harms, "The Investigation of Emblem Programmes in Buildings: Assumptions and Tasks"

3

Egon Verheyen, "On Meaning in Architecture"

17

Urban Buildings

43

Judy Loach, "The Seventeenth-Century Restoration of the Temple De Lyon"

45

Charles Burroughs, "Hieroglyphs in the Street: Architectural Emblematics and the Idea of the Façade in Early Sixteenth-Century Palace Design"

57

Library Architecture

83

L6rânt Bencze, "The Iconography of the Frescoes in the Baroque Refectory (1737) and the Classical Library (1832) of the Benedictine Archabbey of Pannonhalma (Hungary)"

85

Eric Garberson, "The Relation between Decoration and Books in Early Modern Libraries: Three Examples from Germany and Aus tria"

107

Princely Residences

123

Sabine Môdersheim, "Duke Ferdinand Albrecht's SelfPortrayal in the Emblematic Programme of Castle Bevern"

125

vi Marc van Vaeck, "The Stuccoes of J.C. Hansche at Horst and Modave: Applied Emblematics and the Reception of De Passe's and Rollenhagen's Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum in the Low Countries"

149

Ecclessiastical Buildings

177

Annemarie Sawkins, "Royal and Imperia! Emblematics in the Architecture of François I"

179

Lubomir Konecny, "The Emblematics of J.B. Santini's Church Our Lady of the Visitation at Obyctov"

191

The Book and Architecture

207

Dietmar Peil, "Architectural Motifs as Significant or Decorative Elements in Emblems and Frontispieces"

209

Hans J. Boker, "Respiciendo et Prospiciendo: Political Allegories of Architecture and Sculpture on the Frontispieces of Leoni' s Editions of Palladio and Alberti"

231

Peter M. Daly and Andrea MacElewee, A Selective Bibliography of Studies of the Emblem and Architecture

24 7

Nota Vitae

309

List of Illustrations

vii

Issues and Problems Wolfgang Harms Figure 1 Part of the "Bunte Kammer" of 1673 of the manor house Ludwigsburg in northern Schleswig-Holstein. Figure 2 Ludwigsburg, emblem combining an architectural quotation with an emblem by Camerarius. Figure 3 Emblems in the church of the Württemberg castle of Stetten (1681-82). Figure 4 A newly invented emblem in a spiritual context in the church of the castle of Stetten. Egon Verheyen Figure 1 Charles-François Ribert. Architecture singulière: L 'Éléphant triumphal, Grand Kiosque, à la Gloire du Roi. 1758, pl. 2. Perspective View. Washington, D.C., Library of Congress. Photo: Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Figure 2 Charles-François Ribert. Architecture singulière: L 'Éléphant triumphal, Grand Kiosque, à la Gloire du Roi. 1758, pl. 4. Cross Section. Washington, D.C., Library of Congress. Photo: Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Figure 3 Title Page from the United States Magazine, Philadelphia, January 1779. Washington, D.C., Library of Congress. Photo: Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Figure 4 Redeunt Saturnia Regna, Emblematic Illustration on the Occasion of the Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New York, Massachusetts Centinel, vol. ix, 1788. Washington, D.C., Library of Congress. Photo: Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Figure 5 James Trenchard, "Behold! A Fabric now to Freedom rear'd." Frontispiece to The Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, vol. 2, 1788. Washington, D.C., Library of Congress. Photo: Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Figure 6 William Thornton, Design for the Eastern Facade of the United States Capital. 1795-1797. Washington, D. C., Library of Congress. Photo: Egon Verheyen. Figure 7 William Thornton, Design for the Eastern Facade of the United States Capital. Center Section, 1795-1797. Washington, D. C. Library of Congress. Photo: Egon Verheyen.

Urban Buildings Charles Burroughs Figure 1 Palazzo Rucellai, Florence. Façade. Courtesy, Alinari/Art Resource. Figure 2 Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome. Façade. Courtesy, Alinari/Art Resource Figure 3 Via Alessandrina in the Roman Borgo (marked via Alexandrina). Clearly visible are the rectangular Piazza Scossacavalli extending the two large

Illustrations

Vlll

Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8 Figure 9

palazzi cardinalizi and the tall Palazzo Branconio at the beginning of the final black before the piazza. Étienne Dupérac, View of Rome, 1577, detail. Courtesy Maps Department, British Library. Palazzo Castellesi (Giraud-Torlonia), façade. Courtesy, Alinari/Art Resource. Palazzo Domenico della Rovere, as restored following construction of the via della Conciliazione. Courtesy, Alinari/ Art Resource. Palazzo Caprini, partial view of façade. British Architectural Library, Cavendish-Burlington Collection, Palladio XVIl/2. Courtesy, Royal Institute of British Architects. Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila, view attributed to G.B. Naldini (formerly attributed to Parmigianino). Florence, Uffizi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, 230A recto. Courtesy Soprintendenza alle Gallerie di Firenze. Palazzo Farnese, Rome. Courtesy, Alinari/Art Resource. Serlio, "Bestial Order": Libro extraordinario, fol.29. Courtesy, Kroch Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Cornell University.

Library Architecture Lorant Bencze Figure 1 Refectory of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma (Hungary). Photo: J6zsef Hapak.Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Figure 2 Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Figure 3 Oval Cupola in the Refectory. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Figure 4 Tunnel Vault in the Library. Photo: J6zsefHapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Figure 5 Benedictine Cardinals and Bishops in the Refectory. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Figure 6 Great Hungarian Statesmen, Politicians and Writers in the Library. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. The Meal of Saint Benedict and the evil Monks. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Figure 7 Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Greek and Roman Philosophers and Writers in the Library. Photo: J6zsef Figure 8 Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. The Evangelist St. John in the Refectory. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Figure 9 Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Jurisprudence-Pe rsonification of the Faculty of Law in the Library. Figure 10 Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma.

The Emblem and Architecture Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13

Figure 14

IX

Refectory Emblem fresco of bird in cage. Photo: J6zsef Hapak. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Refectory Emblem fresco of deer crossing a river. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Printed Source for emblem of bird in cage: Boschius' Symbolographia ... 1702 Edition, Pannonhalma copy. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Printed Source for emblem deer crossing a river: Boschius' Symbolographia... 1702 Edition, Pannonhalma copy. Photo: J6zsef Hapâk. Reproduced by courtesy of the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma.

Eric Gaberson Figure 1 Windhag, Four Views of the Library (Archive, Friedrich Polleross). Figure 2 Windhag, Alte Bibliothec, diagram (Danielle Hautaniemi)

Princely Residences Sabine Modersheim Figure 1 Ferdinand Albrecht, Sonderbare I aus Géittlichem eingeben I Andiichtige Gedancken, Bevern 1777, frontispiece. Photo: Courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek, W olfenbüttel (HAB Th 2959) Figure 2 [Karl Ludwig von der Pfalz], Philothei Symbola Christiana Il Quibus Idea Hominis Christiani Exprimitur, Frankfurt 1777. Title page and Emblem XXXIV. Photo: Courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel (HAB: Uk 4° 47). Figure 3 Johann Saubert, Dyodekas Emblematum Sacrorum, Nürnberg 1625-1630. Photo: Courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek, (HAB Ub 4° 23). Figure 4 Johannes Bruck von Angermundt, Emblemata moralia, StraBburg 1615, I 18. Photo: Courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek. Figure 5 Bruck, Emblemata moralia, I 37. Photo: Courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek. Marc van Vaeck Figure 1 Leuven, Abbey of Park, Library, "Ex His Immobilis Veritas." Reproduced by courtesy of the Abbey of Park. Figure 2 Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, "Regni Cornona Rex." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Figure 3 G. Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (1611-1613), I,66. Figure 4 Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, "Victrix Fortunae Sapientia." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Figure 5 Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, "In Virtute et For[tuna]." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst.

X

Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14 Figure 15 Figure 16 Figure 17 Figure 18 Figure 19 Figure 20

Figure 21 Figure 22 Figure 23 Figure 24 Figure 25 Figure 26 Figure 27

Illustrations Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, the story of Battus. Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, the story of Jason and Medea. Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, the story of Jason and the dragon. Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, the story of Kephalus and Prokris. Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, the story of Kephalus and Prokris. Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, the story of Narcissus. Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Metamorphosis Dat is: Die Herscheppinge ... bescreuen vanden vermaerden ende geleerden Poet Ouidius (Antwerp, 1608), fol.94r. Metamorphosis Dat is: Die Herscheppinge ... bescreuen vanden vermaerden ende geleerden Poet Ouidius (Antwerp, 1608), fol.94v. P. Ovidii Nasonis Matamorphoses, Argumentis Beruioribus . . . cum ... iconibus in aes incisis (Antwerp 1650). Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, "In Nocte Consilivm." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, "Arte et Marte." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, "Non Vno Sternitvr Ictv." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. Sint-Pieters-Rode, Castle of Horst, "Mvsica Serva Dei." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Horst. G. Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (1611-1613), 1.53. Castle of Modave, smaller Hercules room, "Nascentes Morimvr Finisque Ab Origine Pendet." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Modave. G. Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (1611-1613), 1.45. Castle of Modave, room with the seasons, "Spring." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Modave. Castle of Modave, room with the seasons, "Father Tùne." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Modave. Castle of Modave, room with the seasons, "Father Tùne." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Modave. Castle of Modave, room with the seasons, "Hope." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Modave. Castle of Modave, room with the seasons, "Faith." Reproduced by courtesy of the curator of the Castle of Modave. G. Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (1611-1613), 11.16.

The Emblem and Architecture Figure 28

xi

G. Rollenh.agen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (1611-1613), 1.69.

Ecclessiastical Buildings Annemarie Sawkins Figure 1 Central Gable of the North Transept of the Notre-Dame at Senlis Figure 2 Detail from the roof of Villers-Cotterêts. Figure 3 Salamander flanking the South Portal of Beauvais. Figure 4 Tree of Jesse Tympanum of the South Transept of Beauvais. Lubomir Koneeny Figure 1 J.B. Santini, Our Lady of the Visitation, Obyctov. Ground plan. Figure 2 J.B. Santini, Our Lady of the Visitation, Obyctov. Schematic diagram. Figures 3&4 J.B. Santini, Saint John of Nepomuk, Zelemi hora u Zdâru. Photo: A. Paul, Prague. Figures 5&6 J.B. Santini, Our Lady of the Visitation, Obyctov. Photo: J. Ployhar, Prague. Figure 7 A. Alciato, Emblemata, Leyden: Plantiniana Officina & F. Raphelengius, 1608, 202, embl. CXCV. Photo: National Library, Prague. Figure 8 H. Junius, Emblemata, Antwerp: Ch. Plantin, 1570, 56, embl. L. Photo: National Library, Prague. Figure 9 C. Ripa, Iconologia, Venice: C. Tomasini, 1645, 510. Photo: National Library, Prague.

The Book and Architecture Dietmar Peil Figure 1 Georgette de Montenay, Livres d'armoires, no.23. Figure 2 Mathias Holtzwart, Emblematum Tyrocinia, no.41. Figure 3 Mathias Holtzwart, Emblematum Tyrocinia, no.11. Figure 4 Gabriel Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum 1613), I,15. Figure 5 Gabriel Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum 1613), I,65. Figure 6 Gabriel Rollenh.agen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum 1613), I,69. Figure 7 Mathias Holtzwart, Emblematum Tyrocinia, no.63. Figure 8 Gabriel Rollenh.agen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum 1613), Il,31. Figure 9 Gabriel Rollenh.agen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum 1613), I,34. Figure 10 Georgette de Montenay, Livres d'armoires, no .16.

(1611(1611(1611-

(1611(1611-

xii

Figure Figure Figure Figure

Illustrations 11 12 13 14

Figure 15 Figure 16 Figure Figure Figure Figure

17 18 19 20

Mathias Holtzwart, Emblematum Tyrocinia, no.20. Jacobus Typotius, Symbola divina. Part III, p.113. Jacobus Typotius, Symbola divina. Part III, p.134. Gabriel Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (16111613), 11,4. Georgette de Montenay, Livres d'annoires, no.1. Gabriel Rollenhagen, Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (16111613), II, 14. Georgette de Montenay, Livres d'annoires, no.10. Johann Franz Griendl von Ach, Pyramis, frontispiece. Johann Franz Griendl von Ach, Pyramis, fol.A3v. Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World, London 1614, frontispiece.

Hans J. Bôker Figure 1 Andrea Palladio, Four Books on Architecture, ed. Leoni (1715): Portrait of Palladio. Figure 2 Andrea Palladio, Four Books on Architecture, ed. Leoni (1715): frontispiece. Figure 3 Gianbattista Alberti, Ten Books on Architecture, ed. Leoni (1726): titlepage. Figure 4 Giacomo Leoni: Carshalton Park (Surrey), main façade of house, from Gianbattista Alberti, Ten Books on Architecture, ed. Leoni (1726). Figure 5 Giacomo Leoni: Carshalton Park (Surrey), rear façade of house, from Gianbattista Alberti, Ten Books on Architecture, ed. Leoni ( 1726). Figure 6 Giacomo Leoni: Carshalton Park (Surrey), tympanum of main façade, from Gianbattista Alberti, Ten Books on Architecture, ed. Leoni (1726). Figure 7 Giacomo Leoni: Carshalton Park (Surrey), tympanum of rear façade, from Gianbattista Alberti, Ten Books on Architecture, ed. Leoni (1726).

xiii

Pre face R. NICHOLAS OLSBERG Institut de recherche en histoire de l'architecture, Montréal This book of essays is the product of an international colloquium, held at the Centre Canadien d' Architecture in Montréal from October 20 to 22, 1994 as part of the ongoing programmes of the Institut de recherche en histoire de l'architecture (IRHA). IRHA has as a fundamental purpose the promotion of interdisciplinary research in the field of architectural history. It includes among its goals the encouragement of dialogue between studies in the history and theory of architecture and the nature and methods of inquiry in other disciplines. In 1991, we inaugurated this discourse with a successful colloquium on Architecture, Ethics and Technology (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994) which addressed the relationship between history, technology and the poetics and ethics of architectural practice. Architecture and the Emblem continued this exchange of ideas with a much more specific dialogue, as scholars from different, perhaps divergent, fields addressed the presence, analysis, and interpretation of emblematic symbology as it may be found in the lite rature and works of architecture. The conference was introduced and animated by Kurt W. Forster of the Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur, ETH-Zurich. Forster's profoundly stimulating and controversial lecture introducing the proceedings illuminated from the start some critical differences in definition and method between art historians and emblem scholars. These differences continued to sharpen the focus of discussion throughout the working sessions of the colloquium. One group was eager to expand the definition of emblem towards an embrace of many varied forms of symbolic imagery and to loosen the modes of reading them. The other was concerned to maintain the orthodox boundaries of the emblem as a post heraldic device, conventionalized from nature and containing a specific and source-able reading. The debate between this essentially scientific approach and more open-ended analyses left both groups with new tools and approaches, based on a fuller grasp of the convergences and divergences between the disciplines. It was clear to the editors that the present book would gain focus and structure if we limited the essays to the traditional chronological frontiers of emblematics, in which the large majority of colloquium presentations fell. The result, we hope, is a volume of real breadth, ranging far beyond the

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essential core analysis of decorative emblematic programmes into such suggestive relationships as that of emblem to plan, to the physical organization of knowledge, and to the architectural book. In our effort to gain clearly defined parameters, and to establish a central common ground for this published dialogue, we have reluctantly omitted two or three wonderful papers on allegory and symbol in nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture. As these see publication in scholarly journals, we expect that the discussion begun in Montréal will widen and that new, perhaps unexpected relationships between the two disciplines will emerge. 1 wish particularly to thank Peter Daly, who conceived this project, Hans Boker, who helped him shape the final volume, and Allan Penning of the CCA, who coordinated the project for IRHA with unfailing energy, courtesy and efficiency. The project benefitted from the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

June, 1996

XV

The Emblem and Architecture: An Introduction PETER M. DALY McGill University The emblematic and iconographie decoration of buildings, bath secular and ecclesiastical, was widespread in Europe, and to a lesser extent also in the Americas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The fonction and significance of such emblematic decoration is, however, not always well understood, and it is frequently overlooked. And yet, these decorative programmes were seldom merely decorative, and they were therefore rarely "innocent." Historians of art and architecture have paid remarkably little attention to the architectural use of emblematics. In many instances it has been the literary historian turned emblem scholar who has studied some of these visual programmes in their architectural settings as examples of "applied emblematics" [angewandte Emblematik], and the concern has frequently been to establish sources. Adequate understanding requires that the architectural emblem be contextualized, i.e. interpreted within its societal, political and religious context as an expression of the intentions of the builder or designer. The subject of this book, architecture and the emblem, is a large one and the essays in various ways revisit a number of the central issues in emblematic architecture, most of which can probably be summed up under the two major headings of identification and elucidation. The identification of emblems in architectural settings presupposes a generic conception. When scholars talk about emblems in architecture they either articulate, imply or assume an understanding of the genre. Is an image in architectural space emblematic when it is symbolic of some nameable concept? To be an emblem, must the visual image be accompanied by textual components? And if so, must the brief texts be of a certain kind or folfil a specific fonction? The term "emblem" is used by the contributors to this volume in a variety of ways, ranging from the narrow and precise to the wide-ranging and virtually metaphoric. Iconographie figures and personifications, with and without texts, may be regarded as belonging to an emblematic mode, when the latter is accepted as a manifestation of allegory. The shape or design of buildings may be interpreted as emblematic when the shape, such as that of

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a tortoise, can be shown to carry relevant meaning, even when the visual structure itself provides no verbal message at all. The emblem is an early modern form of symbolic representation which combines symbolic graphies with brief texts. Related to the earlier imprese, which had been used for significant decoration, the emblem helped shape virtually all forms of culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Thousands of emblematic books were printed, and similar combinations of word and image enrich the material culture into the twentieth century. Today "emblem" conjures images of the badges of universities, coatsof-arms and national symbols, which consist of a motta and a symbolic picture. These are, indeed, the descendants of the emblem, survivors of a tradition of verbal and visual symbolism that was all-pervasive in the early modern period. The emblem, however, combines symbolic graphies and texts in a special way. The emblem picture is usually framed between two textual components, a motta and an epigram. Typically, the emblem begins with an abstract statement of theme in the motta, which is bodied forth in the picture and explicated in the epigram printed beneath. As a miniature form of allegory, the emblem communicates simultaneously through words and symbolic pictures. Two different symbol systems thus collaborate in the production of meaning. The reciprocal crossreferencing of text and image in the act of reading suggests that the picture is more than a mere illustration of the text. Furthermore, the text does not always repeat or develop the visual codes, which depend for their effect on the ability of the reader/viewer to identify picture content and recognize its inherent or assumed meaning. The function of the emblem is didactic in the broadest sense: it was intended to convey knowledge and truth in a brief and compelling form that will persuade the reader and imprint itself upon memory. Properly speaking "emblem" is, then, a term for a specific combination of symbolic graphie with motta and epigram as it is encountered in most editions of the emblem books of Andrea Alciato. The tri-partite combination of inscriptio, pictura and subscriptio is considered the classic manifestation of the emblematic mode. But the emblem did not appear from nowhere in 1531 when Georg Steyner published an illustrated collection of Alciato's epigrams for which the author chose the title Emblematum liber. One of the most important forerunners was the impresa or device, which consisted of two parts: a symbolic graphie image and a motta. This in turn was related among other things to ancestral heraldry with its symbolic image and motta.

Introduction

xvii

The fruitful interaction of heraldry, imprese and emblem enriched many buildings and pieces of architecture, both those which were intended to be permanent and other ephemeral structures such as triumphal entries or castra doloris. For most literary scholars emblem is bath a mode of allegorical thought and a specific art form combining text and symbolic image. By way of contrast, many historians of art and architecture have a broader or less rigorous conception of emblem, which for them can embrace at one extreme any visual image that connotes specific concepts, and at the other is characterized by enigma. The virtual equation of emblem and enigma will be found in an argument fully stated by William S. Heckscher and Karl August Wirth in the now famous and much quoted characterisation: "ln the emblem one is dealing with the combination of the word of the lemma with the picture of the icon which produces an enigma, the resolution of which is made possible by the epigram. "1 This equation of emblem and enigma found simple expression in 1986 in the Introduction to Huston Diehl's An Index of /cons in English Emblems Books 1500-1700. 2 Here we are instructed: "The motta and picture pose a riddle or enigma that the epigram salves or explains" (p.3), which is a virtual translation of Heckscher and Wirth, whose sentence, now shorn of its careful contexualising, becomes a description of the genre. In the most recent bio-bibliographic article on Alciato by Heckscher, 3 published in 1991, we read again that motta and picture create a kind of puzzle [Rats el], which the epigram resolves: "the epigram provides the reader-viewer with an indication of the solution of the inscriptio-picturaenigma ... " (p. 94). However, Heckscher concedes that Alciato himself created a series of fourteen tree emblems which do not fit the enigma model because the inscriptio names the tree and therefore creates no enigma. Already in 1964 Albrecht Schône had challenged the view that the emblem is essentially enigmatic, rejecting the Heckscher-Wirth description of the genre as "too narrow a definition, "4 painting to Alciato emblems in which the inscriptio names the subject depicted in the pictura, as in the case of the Cupid emblem "In Statuam Amoris." The notion that enigma characterizes emblem either describes the maker's purpose and therefore creation, or reader response and thus reception. Arguing for the maker's intention assumes we know that posing a riddle or enigma-for whatever purpose-was the intention of the creator. That assumes in turn that we know who the creator was, which raises the

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question of authorial control in this hybrid form. These are questions rarely raised, and even less often answered, especially in discussions of the enigmatic nature of the emblem. We know that the writer of emblem texts was seldom responsible for the pictures. W e also know that the artist was even less frequently responsible for the texts. And yet it is in this very combination of graphies and words that the supposed enigma, essential to the genre, resides. If "enigma" and "puzzle" in fact describe the response of the reader/ viewer, then the terms characterize reception rather than intention or creation. lt is basically surprise or incomprehension that some readers experience as they read down the page of the emblem. Semantic tension, or an information gap gives rise to such surprise or incomprehension. But the question of intended readership should always be borne in mind. Although Alciato had incorporated certain hieroglyphic motifs in his emblems and often writes allusively, it is, in my view, a mistake to raise the esoteric and enigmatic to the status of defining criteria of the emblem. The recognition that there is frequently an information gap between picture and text has given rise to the theory that the emblem is an enigmatic genre characterized by a tension between text and pictures. Considered carefully, what the reader describes is often his or her own response to the emblem. In other words, the argument confuses production with reception. This is not to deny that there frequently is an information gap between picture and text. But it does not follow that the emblem is therefore enigmatic. Where there is an information gap between picture and text the missing link is usually knowledge assumed by the emblem maker. What may appear to be an unrelated association, or even an "unnecessary relationship" (Rosemary Freeman) between picture and text often depends upon an unstated and yet traditional body of knowledge. The elucidation of the correctly identified emblematic component of a building naturally leads to the question of the elaboration of its meaning. At the most basic level this has been source hunting for emblem books which can be regarded as providing sources, and parallel hunting for emblem books which supply printed evidence for the meaning of the motifs found in architecture. But interpretation requires that one go beyond sources or parallels to a cultural contextualizing, which requires all kinds of historical information, not the least of which will be information on the intentions of the patron or the original designers. Historical, sociological, religious, political, even economic studies may be required to provide the framework within which

Introduction

xix

an emblem programme in a given building can be adequately understood, i.e. interpreted. What is the relationship of printed emblems to architecture? Did architects and patrons base their structures and their decorative schemes on printed sources, and did the later owners of buildings or users of churches remodel and redecorate architectural space according to printed sources? Many literary historians have shown the extent to which buildings derive from printed emblems, and it would be strange if there were no connection between architecture and the manifestation of the "symbolic" mode of the emblem as we know it from books, paintings and the decorative arts. Pedro Campa, who has studied broadly the emblematic art of the Hispanie world, reports that Jesuit emblem books were the basis for many architectural programmes on the lberian peninsula and in South America. 5 Santiago Sebastiân6 has shown how the iconographical program of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Victory in Malaga was inspired by emblems from Herman Hugo's Pia Desideria. Rafael Garcia Mahiques has studied the decorative program of the Monastery of Santa Catalina de Arequipa in Viceregal Peru. 7 That programme comprises a set of twenty-four paintings which derive largely from Hugo's Pia Desideria and from Van Haeften's Schola Cordis. Sorne historians of art and architecture have tended to underrate this relationship to printed sources or models. But insisting on the importance of printed traditions should not blind us to the fact that designers, architects, and the users of buildings frequently devised new emblematic materials; they often reinterpreted and combined existing mate rials in new ways. The two introductory essays seek to corne to grips with the general issues involved in architectural emblematics. Wolfgang Harms considers emblematic programmes adorning architectural space, arguing that historical and socio-historical studies are necessary if we are to determine the purpose or functions of an emblem programme. The effectiveness of architectural emblematics is not a matter of mere decoration, nor can it be reduced to a simple transference of printed sources. lt is, rather, a question of content and function. Egon Verheyen looks more at the structure and purpose of buildings themselves. Architectural elements appear frequently in emblems, however, examples of architecture as emblem are much rarer. Architecture has its own requirements that do not always coïncide with those of emblems. While there exist, especially in Elizabethan England and baroque Germany and France, examples of close connections between architecture and devices, the

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Peter M. Daly

closest connection between architecture and emblems is found in the early planning stages of the United States Capitol. The volume provides many case studies, which in themselves shed further light on many of the se issues. These case studies have been chosen and arranged to illustrate specific types of emblematic architecture during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The section on urban buildings opens with Judy Loach' s discussion of the seventeenth-century restoration of the Temple De Lyon by the Consuls of Lyons who "restored" the antique structure, dedicated to Augustus and Minerva, in the form of a decorative scheme embracing both Town Hall and town college. Contemporary documents show how-while exploiting a wide range of rhetorical, visual and architectonie possibilities-a common emblematic mentality underlies the conception of these buildings, their interna! and external painted decorations constituting the "reconstruction" of the Temple, and official publications and performances devised to explain it. Charles Burroughs discusses the emergence in ltalian palaces of the architectural façade in its relation to the contemporary fashion for emblems and its sociocultural context. Facade and emblem are linked in terms both of the convergence of architectural and emblematic material, and of structural and semiotic affinities of facade and emblem as composite formal entities. Library Architecture is represented by two contributions focusing on representative buildings in Germany, Austria and Hungary. L6rânt Bencze' s essay is a comparative study of the iconography of the frescoes in the baroque refectory of the Benedictine Archabbey of Pannonhalma (Saint Martin's Hill, Northwestern Hungary) of 1737, and of the iconography of the frescos of the classicist library of the same archabbey dating from 1838. The emblematic frescoes of the refectory and of the library reflect both the function of the buildings and historically determined change. Bencze argues that monastic life was deeply rooted in the contemporary European and Hungarian social and cultural context. Though the monks led a cloistered life, they responded to these changes so that the frescoes and the architecture of the refectory and the library appear as "frozen witnesses" of such change. Eric Garberson examines the relationship between figurai decoration and the arrangement of books in three Austrian and German libraries. He concludes that correlation between decorative programmes and the organization of collections was optional during the sixteenth century and abandoned during the seventeenth century when the increasing volume of books made it impractical.

Introduction

XXI

Princely residences in Germany and the Low Countries form the next grouping. Sabine Môdersheim discusses the former decorations of Castle Bevern, which is described in Duke Ferdinand Albrecht's printed record. She shows how the programme reflects the Duke's self-interpretation and self-representation. The decor can be read as a book, in fact as a book of emblems, composed of painted letters and pictures as well as of emblems taken from several edifying emblem books from the ducal library. Marc van Vaeck investigates the iconographie programme of the historiated stuccoes in the castles of Horst and Modave in Belgium. Many of these stucco representations were designed by J. C. Hansche after De Passe's etchings in Rollenhagen's emblem book Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum (1611-1613). The article goes beyond establishing sources to consider the specific, even idiosyncratic function of bath bimedial genres, the emblem book and the stucco representation. Ecclesiastical buildings are the subject of two essays. Annemarie Sawkins considers royal and imperial emblematics in the architecture of François I, with special reference to the late Gothie architecture of NotreDame at Senlis. While the pre-emblem tradition of royal initials and de vices in secular architecture is both political and more commonplace, these features are also found in ecclesiastic architecture thus implying that the study of "applied emblematics" needs to be extended to all building typologies. Lubomir Konecny investigates the emblematic conception of the parish church of Our Lady of the Visitation at Obyctov, built posthumously according to the design of Jan Blazej Santini-Aichel. The ground plan reveals the contours of a tortoise, which it is shown was traditionally understood a symbol of feminine virtue, and thus provided an emblematic concetto for a building dedicated to a sacred event in the life of the Virgin Mary. The last two essays turn the question around in order to consider the role of architecture in the printed medium of the book. On the basis of a rich selection of examples Dietmar Peil shows that architectural motifs play a significant role in both emblems and frontispieces. They can fulfil a decorative function, but they also frequently embody the main significance of a central emblematic cluster, contextualize the main motif or symbolize important secondary meanings. In his essay "Respiciendo et Prospiciendo" Hans J. Bôker investigates the significance of the allegories of Architecture and Sculpture on the title pages of Leoni's editions of Palladio's and Alberti's treatises and their implication for contemporary political understanding of Classical vocabulary.

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Peter M. Daly

While placing these frontispieces in a project for a country house into the pediments of the two porticoes, Leoni turns-in order to propagate the underlying ideological concept-an architectural design into the monumentalisation of an architectural book.

NOTES 1. "Man hat es beim Emblem demnach mit einer Vereinigung vom Wort des Lemma mit dem Bild der Icon zu einem Ratsel zu tun, dessen Aufüisung durch das Epigram ermi.iglicht wird;" William S. Heckscher and Karl August Wirth, "Emblem, Emblembuch," Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte (Stuttgart: 1959), vol. 5, col. 95. 2. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986. 3. William S. Heckscher, "Alciato" in Die Deutsche Literatur. Biographisches und bibliographisches Lexikon. Series II Die Deutsche Literatur zwischen 1450 und 1620. (Bern: Peter Lang, 1991), vol.2, pp.90-136. 4. " ... eine allzu enge Definition." Albrecht Schi.ine, Emblematik und Drama im Zeitalter des Barack (Munich: Beck, 1965), p.20. 5. See Pedro F. Campa, "The Spanish and Portuguese Adaptations of Herman Hugo's Pia Desideria." ln: Emblematic Perceptions: Festschrift for William S. Heckscher. Ed. Peter M. Daly and Daniel Russell (Baden-Baden: Koerner Verlag, 1997), pp. 43-60. 6. Sebastian Santiago, "El Pia Desideria de Herman Hugo y el Santuario de la Virgen de la Victoria: un ensayo de lectura," Boletin de arte (Universidad de Malaga) 2 (1981), 9-30. See also, Sebastian Santiago, Contrareforma y barroco (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1989), pp.65-75. 7. Rafael Garcia Mahiques, "Gemidos, deseos y suspiros. El programa mîstico de Santa Catalina de Arequipa," Boletin del Museo e Instituto Camôn Aznar 48-49 (1992): 83113.

ISSUES AND PROBLEMS

The Investigation of Emblem Programmes in Buildings: Assumptions and Tasks WOLFGANG HARMS Universitat München From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, emblematics and architecture entered into many associations. 1 I shall not consider emblematics on the exteriors of buildings, even though the function of buildings could be explained emblematically to a wider public through the connection with sun dials or portais or the whole side of a bouse, and even though emblems could, in a different manner, continually address the passers-by. In the interiors of buildings attention should be paid not only to permanent emblems on walls, ceilings and windows; the emblematics of such furnishings as pulpits, chairs, tiled stoves and wall hangings also had comparable functions. The concept of "programme" 2 which lies at the heart of my topic should not be understood too narrowly. In a wider sense, every emblematic decoration of space is programmatic, if it is not solely decorative, in that it addresses the beholder through its content, seeks to teach and thus bas an appellative function. In a special sense 1 understand by "programme" a structured collection of emblems, which have been arranged together with a functional intention; the structural forms can be strict or open. Unlike "programme," the concept "emblem" creates fewer problems. 3 That the third, interpretative and textual part of the emblem is frequently missing in architecture is easily explained. This is a calculatedly fragmentary kind of emblem, which is to be understood as an open form, i.e. the beholder is challenged to provide the conclusion of the emblem by actively continuing the line of thought to produce a possible interpretation, thus completing the emblem. Underlying this is an aesthetic that depends to a high degree on the recipient and functionally relates to the viewer. 4 Research on emblem programmes in architecture still relies heavily on individual case studies, since, but for a few encouraging exceptions, 5 we lack systematic, broadly-based inventories. Insofar as sources can be identified such investigations should consider the once existent but now lost body of emblems. Thus, it bas now been possible to reconstruct on the basis of handwritten sources an emblem programme for the Sophienhof, the seat, long since destroyed, of a Silesian duchess. lt was an emblem programme

4

Wolfgang Harms

commissioned by the Duchess Anna Sophia of Liegnitz and which came into being within the circle of influence of the poet Friedrich von Logau between 1655 and 1658 in Silesia. 6 We are dependent on such old descriptions or first drafts, where under the sign of the Enlightenment, especially in Austria under Emperor Joseph II, architectural emblem programmes were destroyed, whether by a simple painting over or through structural changes, as the new age turned away from the Baroque. In several case studies of emblematics in architecture, an old failing emerged which emblem studies can no longer afford: a writer proved that an object found in an emblem of a building also appeared in a specific emblem book, and then believed, in some cases quite rightly, that the specific source had been found, unfortunately neglecting to ask further about the different function in the new context. An eagle flying toward the sun or a sunflower turning toward the sun occur frequently in emblem books; such architectural motifs can have their source-and that means alluding to their meaning-in an emblem book. But they could just as easily have a nonemblematic source. We know that emblematics is only one specific form of the many older modes of interpreting the world which we can call, for simplicity's sake, an allegorical reading of the Book of Nature or an understanding of the world as "mundus symbolicus. "7 But when we can really prove that a certain emblem book is the only basis for an emblem programme in architecture, what do we actually know? In the first instance, only that the book was known, not the purpose that dictated its transformation into the new medium, into the painted picture in the building. 8 And that, above all, is what research into emblematics in architecture should investigate. Here it is not sufficient to compare the emblem in the book with the emblem in the building. It would take historical and socio-historical studies of the patron, his situation in life und the purposes of the architectural space, which would provide the definite assumptions for determining the aims or functions of the emblems. Only after the historical and spatial situation has been clarified, can the intended or actual effect of the emblems be established, hypothetically or with certainty. Let me give a concrete example. The emblems in Castle Eggenberg in Graz9 all have as their source Saavedra's Mirror of the Prince, but that does not imply that their actual function is derived from Saavedra's interpretation. The meaning of the sun in the emblem of the eagle's flight, for example, can represent any "summum bonum," but in this case, instead of a spiritual reading pointing to God, the context would suggest a political interpretation with respect to the emperor, given the fact that the whole programme is intended to make

The Emblem and Architecture

5

evident the qualifications of the house of Eggenberg to be close to the emperor. The method for determining function differs in the case of multiple sources. In order to raise further questions, I will turn to a multi-facetted example, the manor house Ludwigsburg in northern Schleswig-Holstein. 10 The exact dating of the 175 emblems in the so-called "Bunte Kammer" in Ludwigsburg (Fig. 1) was made on the evidence of the earliest of the eighteen emblem books that were used there as models. In the year 1673, everything that the young nobleman Friedrich Christian von Kielmannseck did could be related to his intended career at the near-by Gottorf Court of the Duke of Schleswig. He therefore made it a principle in his architectural emblems to quote one part of his emblematic source-in this case following Saavedra, recognition of the power and duty of the ruler [Regit et corrigit] in this bridle-emblem-and , as a new second part, to incorporate an architectural reference to the place of his political objectives. In another emblem (Fig. 2) there is a combination of the pictura of wreaths and a motto from Camerarius with the tilt-yard and stables in the foreground as an architectural quotation of the Amalienburg, a part of Castle Gottorf, named after the wife of the then sovereign, Duke Christian Albrecht in whose services the lord of the Ludwigsburg manor house aspired to make a career. In a similar manner he added his own castle to the partial adoption of one of van Veen's love emblems. Kielmannseck's splendid education-the eighteen sources for the emblems in seven languages belonged to his library-was demonstrated in his choice of emblems and at the same time rendered functional: a member of the minor nobility offers himself for higher services by formulating the ethical principles of the European nobility in an emblematic manner. A doser analysis of the "Bunte Kammer" would show, for instance, that this sequence of emblems confirms this nobility's acceptance of that social discipline to which a number of the central demands of Neostoicism correspond, as expressed above all by Justus Lipsius: Self discipline, military perseverance, action and constancy in public misfortune, unwavering organizing activity instead of resignation to fate, und beyond the confessional bias loyalty to the political institution dominates. The number of religious emblems is small. An exception is the bird of paradise whose supposed characteristic is to be without feet, which leads to the interpretation that it avoids all contact with earthly things. Kielmannseck was not lacking in worldly ethical rigor: he commits himself to "ut mors aut vita decora" [either death or a worthy life] quoting his source, the Nuremberg Harsdôrffer.

6

Wolfgang Harms

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