Emblematic ecstasy
Excerpt from the book 'Théâtre d'amour. The garden of love and its delights'. By Carsten-Peter Warncke
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With a history almost as ancient are the Seven Virtues and the Seven Vices, who emerged as concepts in late antiquity in Prudentius' Psychomachia and who became a regular theme of allegorical and symbolic portrayals in literature and art from the Middle Ages onwards. Over time there evolved a canon of these recurring figures, one that finds its way into our anthology, too (fols. 92-105). Thus the Seven Virtues are present in a set of engravings made by Christoffel I van Sichem around 1600 and published by Claesz. Jansz. Visscher in Amsterdam (fols. 92-98). They fall into two categories: first the spiritual virtues of Faith, Hope and Love, and secondly the cardinal virtues of Justice, Prudence, Fortitude and Temperance. They are clearly identified by name and shown with their characteristic attributes, whereby the fact that Justice is not wearing a blindfold demonstrates that the format still offered scope for variation. The Seven Virtues have their opposite in the Seven Vices, which by the moral standards of Christianity count as the seven deadly sins: Pride, Lust, Envy, Anger, Covetousness, Gluttony and Sloth. They appear here in another set of engravings by Crispin de Passe the Elder, executed around 1600 from drawings by the important Flemish artist Marten de Vos (fols. 99-105).
A long-established system of allegorical representation also existed for some of the physiological traits of the human character. This artistic tradition is represented here by the series of the Five Senses (fols. 106-111) issued by the publisher Assverus van Londerseel, who was active in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and collaborated closely with the engraver Nicolaes de Bruyn. All he was previously known to have published was a series of small sheets of the Five Senses engraved from designs by Marten de Vos, but that series is not the same as the one in our album! Humankind is part of divine creation and hence subject to ist order - this was a conviction embraced as firmly in those days as Christian values. Art correspondingly offered allegorical depictions of all the phenomena that shape our cosmos and govern life on earth, such as the seasons of the year, the times of day and the elements. Like so many of these concepts, the notion of the four elements can be traced back to the natural philosophy of antiquity, where - in contrast to modern natural science - the elements are differentiated not by their physical and chemical properties but by their fundamental effect on and significance for the natural world. We find them here personified by deities from antique mythology, in a set of four sheets by Jacob Matham after drawings by Hendrick Goltzius (fols. 139-142). The times of day feature in our album only in the figure of Aurora, who represents the dawn (fol. 118). This engraving was issued by the Antwerp publisher Adriaen Collaert, whom we know produced several such series, none of them the same as our sheet, however.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
With a history almost as ancient are the Seven Virtues and the Seven Vices, who emerged as concepts in late antiquity in Prudentius' Psychomachia and who became a regular theme of allegorical and symbolic portrayals in literature and art from the Middle Ages onwards. Over time there evolved a canon of these recurring figures, one that finds its way into our anthology, too (fols. 92-105). Thus the Seven Virtues are present in a set of engravings made by Christoffel I van Sichem around 1600 and published by Claesz. Jansz. Visscher in Amsterdam (fols. 92-98). They fall into two categories: first the spiritual virtues of Faith, Hope and Love, and secondly the cardinal virtues of Justice, Prudence, Fortitude and Temperance. They are clearly identified by name and shown with their characteristic attributes, whereby the fact that Justice is not wearing a blindfold demonstrates that the format still offered scope for variation. The Seven Virtues have their opposite in the Seven Vices, which by the moral standards of Christianity count as the seven deadly sins: Pride, Lust, Envy, Anger, Covetousness, Gluttony and Sloth. They appear here in another set of engravings by Crispin de Passe the Elder, executed around 1600 from drawings by the important Flemish artist Marten de Vos (fols. 99-105).
A long-established system of allegorical representation also existed for some of the physiological traits of the human character. This artistic tradition is represented here by the series of the Five Senses (fols. 106-111) issued by the publisher Assverus van Londerseel, who was active in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and collaborated closely with the engraver Nicolaes de Bruyn. All he was previously known to have published was a series of small sheets of the Five Senses engraved from designs by Marten de Vos, but that series is not the same as the one in our album! Humankind is part of divine creation and hence subject to ist order - this was a conviction embraced as firmly in those days as Christian values. Art correspondingly offered allegorical depictions of all the phenomena that shape our cosmos and govern life on earth, such as the seasons of the year, the times of day and the elements. Like so many of these concepts, the notion of the four elements can be traced back to the natural philosophy of antiquity, where - in contrast to modern natural science - the elements are differentiated not by their physical and chemical properties but by their fundamental effect on and significance for the natural world. We find them here personified by deities from antique mythology, in a set of four sheets by Jacob Matham after drawings by Hendrick Goltzius (fols. 139-142). The times of day feature in our album only in the figure of Aurora, who represents the dawn (fol. 118). This engraving was issued by the Antwerp publisher Adriaen Collaert, whom we know produced several such series, none of them the same as our sheet, however.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Théâtre d'amour
Hardcover, 18.5 x 25.3 cm (7.3 x 10 in.), 352 pages
$ 34.99
$ 34.99
A heartwarming album of romantic illustrations
Fol. 112: An allegory of Vanitas