University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2015 Bodies of Knowledge: The Presentation of Personified Figures in Engraved Allegorical Series Produced in the Netherlands, 1548-1600 Geoffrey Shamos University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Shamos, Geoffrey, "Bodies of Knowledge: The Presentation of Personified Figures in Engraved Allegorical Series Produced in the Netherlands, 1548-1600" (2015). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1128. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1128 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1128 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Bodies of Knowledge: The Presentation of Personified Figures in Engraved Allegorical Series Produced in the Netherlands, 1548-1600 Abstract During the second half of the sixteenth century, engraved series of allegorical subjects featuring personified figures flourished for several decades in the Low Countries before falling into disfavor. Designed by the Netherlandsâ?? leading artists and cut by professional engravers, such series were collected primarily by the urban intelligentsia, who appreciated the use of personification for the representation of immaterial concepts and for the transmission of knowledge, both in prints and in public spectacles. The pairing of embodied forms and serial format was particularly well suited to the portrayal of abstract themes with multiple components, such as the Four Elements, Four Seasons, Seven Planets, Five Senses, or Seven Virtues and Seven Vices. While many of the themes had existed prior to their adoption in Netherlandish graphics, their pictorial rendering had rarely been so pervasive or systematic. Focusing on the period from 1548, when Hieronymus Cock opened his influential print publishing house in Antwerp, to 1600, when such series declined in popularity, I focus on the function of engraved allegorical series with personified figures in contemporary Netherlandish culture, particularly in Antwerp but also in Haarlem. Divided according to presentational format, the chapters explore the mental habits and cultural practices that informed contemporary readings of the imagery by an erudite audience of collectors. By considering the relation of form and content and by situating such imagery within the larger social and historical context of the Low Countries, this study elucidates how these images operated within contemporary culture and provides crucial insight into the nature of visual knowledge in the Netherlands during the late sixteenth century. As a form of visual rhetoric linked to other cultural practices, engraved allegorical series played a pivotal role in mediating and schematizing immaterial ideas for an educated elite in the Low Countries. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History of Art First Advisor Larry Silver Keywords Allegory, Classicism, Engraving, Netherlands, Personification, Sixteenth Century Subject Categories History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1128 ABSTRACT BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE: THE PRESENTATION OF PERSONIFIED FIGURES IN ENGRAVED ALLEGORICAL SERIES PRODUCED IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1548-1600 Geoffrey Shamos Supervisor: Larry Silver During the second half of the sixteenth century, engraved series of allegorical subjects featuring personified figures flourished for severaL decades in the Low Countries before falling into disfavor. Designed by the Netherlands’ leading artists and cut by professional engravers, such series were coLLected primariLy by the urban intelLigentsia, who appreciated the use of personification for the representation of immateriaL concepts and for the transmission of knowLedge, both in prints and in pubLic spectacLes. The pairing of embodied forms and seriaL format was particuLarLy weLL suited to the portrayaL of abstract themes with muLtipLe components, such as the Four Elements, Four Seasons, Seven Planets, Five Senses, or Seven Virtues and Seven Vices. WhiLe many of the themes had existed prior to their adoption in Netherlandish graphics, their pictorial rendering had rarely been so pervasive or systematic. Focusing on the period from 1548, when Hieronymus Cock opened his infLuentiaL print pubLishing house in Antwerp, to 1600, when such series decLined in popularity, I focus on the function of engraved allegorical series with personified figures in contemporary NetherLandish cuLture, particuLarLy in Antwerp but aLso in HaarLem. Divided according to presentationaL format, the chapters expLore the mentaL habits and cuLturaL practices that informed contemporary readings of the ii imagery by an erudite audience of collectors. By considering the reLation of form and content and by situating such imagery within the Larger sociaL and historicaL context of the Low Countries, this study elucidates how these images operated within contemporary cuLture and provides cruciaL insight into the nature of visuaL knowLedge in the NetherLands during the Late sixteenth century. As a form of visuaL rhetoric Linked to other cuLturaL practices, engraved aLLegoricaL series played a pivotaL roLe in mediating and schematizing immateriaL ideas for an educated eLite in the Low Countries. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................................ii INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1.................................................................................................................................................20 Plus Ultra: Personified Allegories in Landscape Settings with Subsidiary Scenes CHAPTER 2...............................................................................................................................................124 Sub Specie Aeternitatis: The Use of Clouds as Presentational Devices for CosmologiCal Allegory CHAPTER 3...............................................................................................................................................195 Tempus fugit: ProCessional Series of AllegoriCal Engravings CHAPTER 4...............................................................................................................................................296 Set in Stone: Personified Figures in Niches LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS...................................................................................................................377 ILLUSTRATIONS....................................................................................................................................395 (redacted due to copyright protections) BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................................396 iv 1 Introduction Not long after the establishment of his important print publishing house, Aux Quatre Vents, in Antwerp in 1548, Hieronymus Cock issued a series of etchings showing The Liberal Arts with Apollo, Minerva, and Industry after designs by Antwerp’s preeminent Italianate artist, Frans Floris (Figures 0.1-0.10).1 Published in 1551, these ten prints show monumental female figures – with the exception of Apollo – dressed in classical garments, intended to resemble ancient statuary. Floris’s elongated figures are standing in the immediate foreground of each image. Landscapes, some including Roman ruins, appear behind them.2 As the earliest Netherlandish print series of allegorical personifications situated in landscapes, the etchings represent an early attempt by Floris and Cock to depict classically derived abstract concepts in an appropriate visual idiom. The bodies of the Liberal Arts and classical deities exhibit features characteristic of the figural style adopted by Floris during his time in Italy (ca. 1541- 5) and in the years immediately following his return to Antwerp.3 The figures in the etchings display the same proportions as many of the figures portrayed in Floris’s 1 Hollstein (Frans Floris), nos. 120-129; Carl van de Velde, Frans Floris (1519/20-1570): Leven En Werken, 2 vols. (Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1975), P107-P116, figs 256-265; Edward H. Wouk, "Standing before Rome: Frans Floris's Liberal Arts with Apollo, Minerva, and Industry (1550-1551)," in De Renaissance Prentkunst in de zuidelijke Nederlanden (La gravure de la Renaissance dans les Pays- Bas Méridionaux), edited by Godlieve Denhaene (Brussels: Archives et Bibliothèque de Belgique, 2010), 129-59; Edward H. Wouk, "'Uno Stupore ed una Maraviglia:' The Prints of Frans Floris de Vriendt (1519/20-70),” in The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, 1450-1700 (Frans Floris), edited by Ger Luijten (Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel, Netherlands: Sound and Vision, 2011), xxxviii-xxxix. 2 The inclusion of Roman ruins in some of the background spaces has led some scholars to argue that Cock himself designed the scenic elements. Floris’s monogram (FF.I.V.) appears on Grammar, confirming his role as inventor, but Cock’s participation in the design – based on his publication of a series depicting Roman ruins