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Boekbespreking/Book review
Reindert L. Falkenburg, Joachim Patinir. Landscape as an devotes almost half of his book. '1 here are no immediate Image of the Pilgrimage od Life, Translated from the Dutch by precedents for this subject in fifteenth-century art. Rather Michael Hoyle. (Oculi. Studies in the Arts of the Low it developed out of earlicr ?l ndachtshildet?,or devotional im- Countries, Volume 2). Amsterdam and Philadelphia, John ages, such as the Madonna of Humility, or the Madonna Benjamins Publishing Company, 1988. VII + 226 pp., 50 and Child in a hortus conclu.su,s,an enclosed garden whose black and white illustrations. many plants symbolize the virtues of the Madonna and the future Passion of Christ, It is the tradition of the Joachim Patinir is generally recognized as the founder of the clusu.s,furthermore, that accounts for the complex program Flemish school of landscape painting that flourished in the of botanical symbols that the author discerns in the land- sixteenth century. Ever since T,uclwi? von Baldass's pio- scape of the Prado Rest ott the Flight, among them the Tree of neering article of 191r 8 on Patinir and his followers, we have Knowledge and the Tree of Life. been told that it was Patinir who liberated landscape from Patinir, however, enriches the original iconic image of the the subordinate role it had occupied in earlier altarpieces Madonna and Child with subsidiary scenes of the Massacre and devotional panels. Under his the sacred stories of the Innocents, the Miracle of the iN."li<,a stages designed to accommodate these 'mnemograms.' In- allegorical landscape did not die with Patinir. The pictures stead, they possess a profound significance in their own of the next generation of Flemish landscapists, including his right, a subject discussed in the second half of Falkciiburg's most famous follower Heri-I met de I3les (more properly cal- study. Because they show deep panoramas crowded with a led Herri Bles), were to continue this landscape tradition great diversity of topographical features, Patinir's land- 'centered around the metaphor of the pilgrimage of life and scapes have been described by German scholars as life's two paths' (p. i i i ) . der, literally 'world pictures,' first used in this context by Even from this brief summary, it will bc cvident that Fal- Von Baldass in z g r 8,and usually translated as 'world land- kenl>urg's interpretation of Patinir owes something to the scapes.' 1 his term is apt, Falkenburg assures us, not so much work of W. Wiegand and Hans-Joachim Raupp, both of because these pictures show the manifold beauty of the whom are, in fact, cited by the author. These two scholars world, as Von Baldass claimed, but because they symbolize have interpreted paintings hy Jacob Ruisdael and other a world that 'has surrendered to sin' (p. 66). scventccnth-ccntur-y Dutch landscapists as basically moral But if I'atinir's landscapes symbolize the sinful world, they allegories in which natural and man-made elements have also represent the pilgrimage of life. This idea is developed been endowed by the artist with specific symbolic meanings. in an extended discussion of the (/haron, which Falkenburg Raupp, in fact, has suggested that some of these landscapes sees not as a straightforward illustration of the classical illustrate the journey of life. Similar interpretations have myth, but as an allegory of the progress of the Christian soul been advanced by Josua Bruyn in an essay in the catalogue through life. The river Styx is the `sea of this world,' running of the exhibition Masters o/? r?lh-Cenlury Dutch Lan(lc(ipe between Paradise and 'Purgatory.' It bears the ship of Paiyttings, shown at Amsterdam, P?oston and Philadelphia in man's soul that has arrived at the end of its voyage. Charon 988. personifies Death who is about to land the soul at one of the For Falkcnburg, this approach appears at its most successful two destinations facing him. With references to such vener- in his analysis of the Rest on the Flight. His interpretation of able allegories as Hercules at the Crossroads, the Pythago- the picture as a devotional image is plausible, and much of r-ean two ways of' life, and the 'I abul? Cebeli.s, Falkenburg this plausibility derives from his judicious use of literary and concludes that the Charon shows the two paths of life open to visual parallels and sources. Especially interesting is his ac- every man, the paths of virtue and vice, that end in either count of the Vita Chri.stiliterature of the later Middle Ages; it eternal bliss or eternal torment. can be recommended as a most useful introduction to the The two 67. Jerome landscapes arc interpreted along similar subject. Moreover, when Falkenburg cites a text, he is at lines. In the dramatic contrast between the desolate moun- pains to demonstrate that it was in circulation during the tain ranges and the fruitful inhabited plains lying far below, artist's lifetime. I should add that this same care is exercised Patinir represents the ways of virtue and vice respectively. throughout the book. This is very much as these two paths were depicted in con- Nevertheless, the other sections ol his study raise several temporary illustrations of Hercules at the Crossroads, in issues that should be discussed here at greater length. One which Virtue beckons from the top of a steep rock, difficult concerns his explication of the Charon. Falkcnburg can be ofascent, while Vice dwells in a pleasant valley. St. Jerome, commended for his brave attempt to interpret this rather of course, is the very exemplar of the man who has chosen enigmatic picture. According to Greek myth, as is well the path of virtue, and Falkcnburg cites Jerome's well- known, Charon was the ferryrrran who transported the dead known preference for the solitary lifc in the rocky wilderness across the Styx, the river encircling Hades. Patinir, how- and his aversion to cities with their sinful allurements. ever, has located the Styx between a very Boschian paradise In the Paris St. _7eroinethe saint is surrounded by animals, landscape and an equally Boschian netherworld replete plants, and other details symbolic ofsiin or salvation. In both with monsters and burning buildings. These circumstances versions of the .St,jerome, too, scenes from Jerome's life have would indeed seem to invite a Christian interpretation of been inserted into the surrounding landscape: the extrac- this picture. However, the details of Falkenburg's explana- tion of the thorn from the lion's paw (this forms the chief tion are difficult to follow, a difficulty only increased by episode in the Madrid version), the ass stolen by robbers what appears to be some confusion in the use of terminol- and retrieved by the lion, the robbers forgiven by the saint. ogy. To begin with, the right bank of the Styx does not These details have a double function. They illustrate the represent 'Purgatory, the realm of the Damned,' as he calls kind of behavior characteristic of the sinful world; they also it (p.74). Purgatory never houses the damned souls, even exhort the viewer to mount the path of virtue as a 'true temporarily, as the author seems to think. They are dis- "homo viator" imitating ir? the expectation of re- patched directly to Hell, where they await the Last Judg- ceiving forgiveness for sins and entering the heavenly home- ment. Instead, Purgatory is the temporary abode of those land' (p.g2). And because the Flight to Egypt was present- souls who must be purged of their sins before being admitted ed in the late medieval Lives of Christ as a metaphor of life's to the sight of God. For most of the souls in Purgatory, this pilgrimage, the Prado Rest on lhe Fliglat can be seen as yet elevation into Heaven occurs, once again, before the Last another example of the pilgrimage of man through the sin- Judgment. The nature of Purgatory is well illustrated at the ful world.In his final chapter, Falkcnburg suggests that at bottom of Enguerrand Charonton's CoronaÚonofihe ?'i)?ginof least several other landscapes by Patinir can be interpreted On the right, the damned are afflicted by fire and along similar lines,; these include the Prado Tenaplatiorz demons; opposite, the souls in Purgatory ara shown in very Anlhorayand the Catherine in Vienna. But the silimar circumstances, except that an occasional soul is rcs-