The Mastery of Nature

ASPECTS OF ART, SCIENCE,

AND HUM AN ISM IN THE

RENAISSANCE

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Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

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U NIV E R S I T Y

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Despite the evident connections that scholars have pointed ou t between Hocfn agcl Jnd "Ghcnr-Bruges" manuscripts , there is, in fa ct, a consider­ able dis tance between them. Alth ough philosophical and rel igious ele­ mems are no doubt stili present in Hoefnagcl's m anuscrip ts , other in ter­ ests increasingly m otiva te the artist's depiction of nattlre. T he wor~ of n~.E..ur e is ~~imling...~ be desan.ctified . With HoefnagcC we ,lfe On the way to th e development of the still life that is independent of sacred ass o­ ciations, to the investiga tion of matter aud of the pro cesses of.the.n.a.tw:al world co nside red as endsin. themsclve-s . We arc approaching the world of the"-scicntiflc re~olution " of tbe seventeen.th century, w hich provided the foundations fo r the vie)L.Q[ the world as a ma terial. dcsanctifled Ll.l1 1verse.

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The Perspective of Shadows THE HISTORY OF THE THEORY O F SHADOW PROJECTION

T .£ PROJ£CTION of , h,dow, is , problem that plagued artists iUJd art theorists of the Renais sance. W11cn the representation of d)e visual world of three dimensions again becam e a task for pain tin g, the problem of represen ting light, and the shadow caused when an o bject impedes tbe path of light, became increasingly important. Shadows that overlie the o bj ects creating them-the model­ ing shadows of painting- gIve the ctIect of relief Shadows cas t by one obj ect onto another make the o bj ects seem to stand out and help us to locate them in space. Cast shadows also give clues to the shape, direction, relative distance from the eye, and position of the source of light. ' To the artists an d art theo rists of the Renaissance, the proper depiction ofshadows ther efore beld great interes t. We have already seen ill C hapter I how cas t shadows contributed to the illusion of trompe l'oeil in manu­ scripts. Previous ly cast shadows had been used by Netherlandish artists such as Jan van Eyck (one thmb of the remarkable oranges in the Ar­ nolfini double po rtrait rLondon, National Gallery]) and Robert Campin (as in the shadows created by the fi re in rhe Hermitage Virgm and C hild), as well as by Germanic painters such as Konrad Witz, for the creation o f similar illusions of nature. From at least the time of Giotto, cast shadows were of no less m terest in ItalIan art and art theory.' The late sixteenth-cen tury theorist Giovanni Battis ta Armenini thus states a com monly accepted o pinion w hen he says that after tbe outl ine 0 a figure, riliello is the most importan t part of a painting. But a correct impression ofrelief according to Armcninj depends on pLacing the "larger lights" in accordan ce with tbe shadows they cause. Hence it necessitates J knowledge of different kinds oflight and lig ht effects, and im pli ci tly o f

vase contain ing m ore cut fl owers. If such flowers had affcl.live power~, how much more would they have possessed if they had been collected o n pijgrim age and thereby been sanctified by association with a holy locus or

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As a recent study of medieval pilgrim ages has sta ted, a pil grimage, defmed as a j ourney for a religious m otive, is possession by m eans of religio us behavior. 10 short, a pilgrimage is the sacralizatio n of the space in w hich the pilgrim j o urneys.6 J Acco rdi ng to this fram e of reference, obj ects co ll ected along the way gain sign ifican ce through their association wi th the pilg rimage. Returni ng to the depiction of such objects in tromp e l'oeil, we would , suggest that when we fi nd pearls and other gems painted in books of • hours, we might assume that they have a traditional association w ith holy mages near w hich they appear. But other extraordinary obj ects, such as peacock feathers (sections of wh ich are painted in m an uscrip ts), Bowers of outsta nding character or beauty, herbs, and even insects (one thinks here es pecially of unusual o r attractive specimens such as butterflies), might also have been collected o n pilgri mages. It is possible that in addi­ tion to pilgrim badges and devotional images, some of the other obj ects depicted in the borders of illum inated man uscri pts ntigbt also illustra te items brough t back fro m pilgrimages. in cludmg remarkable forms such as butterflies and dragonilies (fi g. 8, 12) and peacock feathers (fi g. I!:)) . flowers or insects m ay not onl y have provided ample oppo rtun ities for artists to dis play tbeir virtuosit y and m astery of illusionism but also have peen presented as copies of actual specimens coJJected while on pilgrimage. Several pa rticu lar aspects of the trompe l'oeil devices fo und i'n script margins poin t to th is possibility. Many items are painted in their actual size. with cast shadows that enhance their ve ris imjJjrude. N ot only are flowers shown in borders; for th e firs t time in man uscript illumina­ tion, they arc depicted as if they had been cu t or plucked . Fl owcr~ and insects are often shown as if they bad been laid out fla t on the p age. £Y£ seeming to have been.J?lessed between theIeaves of a volul.Jle. O thers are snown astUhey had b~tt:lcbed or stJ.l.~k tbrougJ:uhc. pages, much like ( the practice demonstrable with pilgrim badges, which are depicted as if they had been pinnc
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We can on ly speculate as

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how this artIStic practice originated. Per­

hap~agc Itsdr was meant as a substitute for the actua l o bject, in

much the way that a badge stood fo r the actual cult image of pilgrimage seen by the pilgrim. Like the fig ural im ages often foun d in the same "Gbent- Bruges" m anuscripts. the margindli,a.....ma.~ have bem be- ~ Iieved to partake in the power of th e o riginal im age, especially if the rcp- \J reseoration closely resembled the or iginal. Perhaps the trompe l'oeil im­ ages of pilgrim badges and of na turali a associated with pilgrimage could also ins pire recollectio n and..devo tion. T heir depi ctio n in life-siie trompe l'oeil wo uld certainl y have sti mulated memory most effectively, and rec­ ollection of the experience of a pilgr im age would. in turn, certainly have sttmu lat.ed devout thoughts. If the actu al pilgrim badges anddevotion­ alta, as weIr as pressed flowers and other natu ra lia, had earlier been col­ lected as memen tos that mi ght aid memory and devotion, the pain ted versions couJ d have performed the same fun cti ons , bu t w ith certain ad­ vantages; they did nOt damage the book the way th at actua l objects would have done, an d a flower or insect. soon to \vilt ()r decay, was more lastingly.r.reserved by b eing p;lj nted than by being pressed between the pages of a bQ.ok. O(I To return to Hoefnagcl , his manuscri pts and the procedures they re­ veal provide ev idence of nat ural obj ects being attached to illu m in ated manus cripts. but at the same ti me they demonstrate certain diffe~t practices. We m ay recall tha t. seve ral of the troll1pe l'o eil devices used , by Hoefnagel su gges t that Bowers and pl ants were actually kept in the pages of books. Hoefnagel frequently e mployed tbe device of showing a flowe r, bud, o r plant w hose stem is depicted in sud1 a way tha t it seem s to pierce the pag.e. In several instan ces Tn 'codices by the art ist now in Washington , D. c., an d in the Getry manuscript, the verso of the folio depicts the pan of the plant that would have been seen on the reverse. Significan tly these arc s_hown as livin..s1. n~t dried, p lJE,ts (figs. 3 and 4).67 In the Hours of Philip of Cleves-a "Gbent- Bruges" manuscript in which ) there had already been depicted pi lgrim badges, peacock feathers. and pages with j ewcJs-Hoetnagei himself not gnJy added tfO mpe l'oeil de­ vices, such as the flower seen fro m both s.ides of a page, bu t he also showed fl owers and insects as if they had been pressed into the book. ' Hoefnagel's comments in this manuscript also indica.te that he was fam il­ iar WIth other ear lier N etherlandish works and was reHectin g upon their ) artistic origins. Another remarkable fea ture is found in the Washington vo lum e known as Igllis (Fire), wh ich contains depictions of insects; this feature suggests \ that HoefnageJ's manu scripts refl ect ~¥l!~r practices, as in tbe M unich, Vienna , or Philip of C leves manuscripts. O n several of the pages where insects are shown in the Was hing ton book, the actual wi ngs of the crea­ I

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tures represented have been glued onto the page next to tbe body of the creature represented (fig. 27)· On the one hand, the elision of painted and substan tial form, of the fi ctive and real, indicates that this is a further step in th e histor y of naturalistic ill um ina tion in which th e usc of illusionis tic devices migh t be regarded as a display of wit. On the other band, given Hoefn agel's ties with trad ition. at the same time they also suggest tbat he was continuing an ea rlier practice. In this regard, it is also important to consider that, with the exception of the Homs of P hilip of C leves, the decoration of which Hocfnagel ( com pleted, and the missal he illuminated on commission for Archduke Ferdinand (of the Tyrol) , H oefnagcl's marginalia are not execllted in JEanuscripts intended for private devotion. While the Bocskay codices in Vienna an d M alibu contain some specimens of sacred texts , they are hand w ri ti ng model books. And whil e the texts in the man uscrip ts of th e Four Elemel1ls now in Washington are also in part derived from the Bible, they are incorporated into emble ms. Although these works still possess some spiritual or rather ethical associations, they are not sacred in the manner of tradi tional books of hours . H oefn agel was working after the histo rical divide of the Reformat ion . FOt Protestants of the la ter sixteenth cen tury, devotional books su ch as books of hours had ceased to be in usc. Religious devotion was directed instead to reading the Bible. Theologi cal rexts, incl uding the worKs of L urbcr and Melanchthon. became the fo cus of attention. 0 I1 e--o( these works was Melanchrhon's Loci CO Ill/lI/lIl e S rerulll theologiwl"llm , his book of theolog ical co m monplaces. Its accumulation of biblical texts and theo­ logical doctrines in a certain sense replaced the Catholic prayer books. in cludi ng boo ks of hours. It was often in copies o f this work tha t a new form of book originated : the Stamm b~l clr, known in Latin as albrml amico rum and in E nglish as an au tog raph album . Stammbiic/J er could be employed for famil y or personal l matters, fo r example, to record fam ily histories; earlier prayer books such as Ferdinand 1'5 had performed this fu nction, just as Bibles have in more recent times. Another more familiar use o f Stammbrkher was to col­ lect the signatures ana im pressions of acquain tan ces and frien~ cll:lrin travels . T he fashion of keeping Slammbiicher seems to have begun with students at Protestan t universities, who for these purposes u ~~ra blan k. pages that had been inserted into copies i)f tbe- Li)(-i -(imwwnt:£. 68 Their travels did not take them , however, on religious pil grimages of a traditional sort; it would be the signa ture of a worthy professor or theolo­ ( gian, not a sanctified piece of nature, that woul d have a plac~iu..slu;h a book: Still, mutatis muta/1dis, hooks with religio us associations retained their function as places for collections even after a time of confessional change. Eventually Stammbacher lost this connection, and the practice of

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27. Geo rg Hoefn agel , Pain ted dragonflies with real w ings attached, A l1ill1alia R(lliollaiia ef Illsecta (Igllis)

keeping autograph books became wides pread among travel ers and seden­ tary folk alike, among those with theological interests and those w ith secular. T he development of this sort of book, w ith whose production Hoef­ nagel can also be identi fied, further helps to pla ce his work w ithin its tradition. Whi!c Hoefn agel 's confessional allegiance remains somew hat \ unclear, he was most probably not a Catholic. When he went on trips, and he was a freq uen t traveler, they were not holy pilgrimages. instead he went on voyages fo r discovery, 'inform ation, and experience. T11C topographical views he made on his voyages were not imb ued with sa­ cred significance. And the m iniatures w ith naturalistic content that he frequently m ade as Slammhllc/1bliitler (entries in autograph albums) fo r his fri ends were full of another philosophical and religious view of the world, one that can be related to associations with humanists and interests in natural history, political moderation, and religio us eir enis m. 69

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Nassau an d the I-lours of Philip of C leves (figs . 17. 9) · These examples demonstrate tha t im ages of the Virgin were popular places both for the addition of pilgrim badges and then later for their trompe l'oeil irrutarions. This practice m ay be related to the special devotion towa rd the Virgin, w hich is, after all . reflected in the populari ty of pilgrimage sites devoted to her and is em bodied in the very texts of books of hours themselves: a m aj or section of each book is devoted to the hours of the Vi rgin. P M arian devotio n may also be associated with particular aspects of ill usion ism in earlier boo ks of ho urs, such as a page in the Hours of Catherine of C leves, w here probably the owner's own ros ary, an obj ect specificall y c0n11ecred w ith M arian devotions, is represented in the margins of a page con taining a scene of the Adoration of the M agi (fig . 7). T he rclation of painted badges to pilg rimage is also suggested by their appearance around images associated w ith j o urneys, such as depictions of Saint C hr istopher (fig . II ) or of the story of the Fli ght into Egypt (fig . 20). ~J Another very personal and private use of the ea rlier original manu­ sto pts in which. the actllaTpilgrim:ageobJects w ere found suggests o ther possibilities for interpretation onrompe l'oeil imag·e ry. K oster reco rd s that the prayer book o f Em pero r Cha rles V (ruled 1519-155 8), R udolf Ii's aternal grandfather, $Qlltaioed~ addition to pil gri m badges and devo­ tional images , entries referring to details of family history. Besides th ese ' so rts of entries, in the book of hours made by artists of the "Ghent­ Bruges" school c. 15 20 fo r Archduke (latn Emperor) Ferdin and I there arc also family records and memorials, and evcr1J..n an envel o pe, a piece _ of the ve[ of his spo us e, An na. q The presen c