Ricardo De Mambro Santos
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Ricardo De Mambro Santos Holy Beauty Northern Renaissance Prints and the Making of the Hexham Abbey Bible (Cambridge, 1629) Hallie Ford Museum of Art Mario Adda Editore Holy Beauty Northern Renaissance Prints and the Making of the Hexham Abbey Bible (Cambridge, 1629) Ricardo De Mambro Santos Holy Beauty Northern Renaissance Prints and the Making of the Hexham Abbey Bible (Cambridge, 1629) With an essay by Bruce T. Martin and contributions by Olivia Barry and Virginia van Dine Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem (Oregon) Mario Adda Editore, Bari (Italy) Holy Beauty. Northern Renaissance Prints Discovered in an Early English Book February 10 to April 29, 2018 Exhibition at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Willamette University, Salem, OR) Curator: Ricardo De Mambro Santos Photo credit Dale Peterson (for all reproductions from the The authors of the catalog entries are identified by Hexham Abbey Bible) their initials: Emma Ahern [EA] Acknowledgments McCall Concannon [MC] I would like to thank my wonderful colleagues at the Sarah Crabb [SC] Department of Art History at Willamette University, Ricardo De Mambro Santos [RDMS] Prof. Ann Nicgorski and Prof. Abigail Susik, for their Shalini Grover [SG] continual support. A special, truly genuine, thanks Kel Mandigo-Stoba [KMS] also to my friends from the Hallie Ford Museum Melissa Riede [MR] of Art, in particular to John Olbrantz, Jonathan Emma Sargent [ES] Bucci and Elizabeth Garrison for their tireless help Matthew Swart [MS] and insightful work. My profound gratitude goes Maya Zavala [MZ] to Bruce T. Martin for his friendly (and patient) Natalie Zhang [NZ] companionship throughout this entire intellectual journey. Finally, I would like to say “un grazie di Financial support for the exhibition catalog has been cuore” to the publisher Mario Adda Editore from provided by the Verda Karen McCracken Fund of the Italy for having embraced this project with such a Department of Art History at Willamette University. promptness and enthusiasm. This volume could not have been made without the collaboration of my The Hexham Abbey Bible as well as the engravings adored Willamette students and alumni, to whom displayed in the exhibition Holy Beauty belong to this book is dedicated. Bruce T. Martin, founder of Historic Bibles & Ricardo De Mambro Santos Engravings (www.historicbibles.com). ISBN 9788867173556 © Copyright 2018 Mario Adda Editore via Tanzi, 59 - Bari Tel. & fax +39 080 5539502 www.addaeditore.it [email protected] Layout Sabina Coratelli 4 Table of Contents Introduction 9 Touching Heavens. Art, Religiosity, and Didactic Aims in the Hexham Abbey Bible Ricardo De Mambro Santos 77 Catalog Essays 161 Holy Beauty or Unholy Marriage? Discovery, Provenance, and Social-Theological Musings on the Hexham Abbey Bible Bruce T. Martin 179 The Concept of Romanism in Northern Art. An Analysis of Its Critical Implications Olivia Barry 185 The Parable of Ten Virgins. An Interpretation Based on Coornhert’s Concept of Perfectionism Virginia van Dine 189 Bibliography 5 Introduction 1. Title Page of The Book of Common Prayer, printed by Thomas and John Buck in Cambridge, England, 1629 (Hexham Abbey Bible). Albany (OR), Collection of Historic Bibles & Engravings Touching Heavens. Art, Religiosity, and Didactic Aims in the Hexham Abbey Bible Ricardo De Mambro Santos Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. St Augustine, De verbis Apostoli, Sermo 27 1. Introduction. the second half of the sixteenth century, the use of Remarks on a Newly Discovered Corpus of Prints engravings as book illustrations was still very rare. in the Hexham Bible The situation changed somewhat at mid-century, partly due to the establishment, in cities such as An- The exhibition Holy Beauty presents, for the first time, twerp and Amsterdam, of many printing-publishing a unique exemplar of The Book of Common Prayer and houses, mostly specialized, however, in the produc- The New Testament (ill. 1), published in Cambridge, tion of independent series of engravings.5 England, in 1629, characterized by a most peculiar The book displayed in this exhibition constitutes, feature: interpolated with the pages of the Sacred therefore, a truly exceptional object, for it contains Scriptures, this volume contains over 110 full-page many different print series originally carved and engravings, from different series and sources, strate- sold as autonomous corpus of images, designed with gically arranged in the attempt to establish a dialogue the aim of providing visual translations of particular with the biblical text.1 In other words, this is not biblical passages or allegorical narratives with mor- an illustrated book, but a book with illustrations (ills. al lessons. Only subsequently were these prints in- 2-3) or a “Picture Book,” as we shall explain better in corporated within this book and bound together, the next paragraphs.2 Carved in a technique known becoming, then, an integral part of it. Strategically as burin by a group of renowned sixteenth-century combined with the text, these images were used to Dutch and Flemish masters, the prints displayed in illustrate, for instance, relevant paragraphs from the this volume were produced mainly between 1582 Gospel according to St Matthew (ill. 4), the Gospel accord- and 1585, that is to say, many decades before the ing to St Mark (ill. 5), the Gospel according to St Luke publication of the book.3 Only later, between 1643 (ill. 6), the Gospel according to St John (ill. 7), and also and 1662, as it will be argued, they were inserted pages from the Acts of the Apostles (ill. 8). into the Bible and eventually bound together, creat- In addition to their illustrative value, the prints ing what could be called an extraordinary “Museum collected in this Bible present also significant features of Sacred Prints.” from a compositional, technical, and conceptual Shortly after the invention of the printing ma- standpoint and count, among the various designers, chine by Gutenberg, around 1450s, book publishers engravers, and publishers involved in their making, generally commissioned woodcuts to be included in names of the caliber of Maarten van Heemsker- Bibles that were intended to be illustrated.4 Before ck (1498-1574), Hieronymus Cock (1518-1570), 9 2. Hexham Abbey Bible, fol. 674 10 3. Hexham Abbey Bible, foll. 730-731 Philips Galle (1537-1612), Jan Sadeler (1550-1600), Peter engraved by Hans Collaert – was purchased in and Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). different states (one published by Gerard de Jode in That is not to say, however, that the “aesthetic” 1585, within the Novi Testamenti, in templo gestorum qualities of these engravings – to use an anachro- icones tredecim elegantissimi ac ornatissimi; the second by nistic term in reference to the time when this Bible Claes Jansz Visscher in 1639 as part of the Theatrum was compiled6 – might have been the main criteria Biblicum hoc est Historiae sacrae Veteris et Novi Testamenti with which they had been bought and, then, insert- tabulis aeneis expressae) and included twice in the vol- ed into the book. If anything, the opposite appears ume in order to illustrate the same biblical narrative to be true: the images were probably chosen, in fact, according to different Gospels, namely, the one writ- in strict subordination to – and as clear, instructive ten by St Matthew (ill. 9) and by St Luke (ill. 10). It is illustrations of – the biblical text. This method of se- evident, therefore, that these images were chosen and lection is confirmed by the fact that the same com- acquired primarily to perform the illustrative goal position – such as the Crucifixion with the Penitent St that they were expected to fulfill. 11 4. Hexham Abbey Bible, fol. 671 (Gospel according to St Matthew) 12 5. Hexham Abbey Bible, fol. 693 (Gospel according to St Mark) 13 6. Hexham Abbey Bible, fol. 707 (Gospel according to St Luke) 14 7. Hexham Abbey Bible, fol. 730 (Gospel according to St John) 15 8. Hexham Abbey Bible, fol. 748 (Acts of the Apostles) 16 Moreover, during the binding process, some of adequacy, and compositional immediacy and decorum. the prints had their edges cut and resized in a rath- Be as it may, examined from a Postmodern lens er irregular manner so that their compositions re- of analysis, this rare exemplar of the 1629 edition sult slightly altered and, in some cases, the inscrip- of the Book of Prayer and the New Testament shows a tions that used to accompany the engravings appear complex articulation of artistic qualities, ethic con- partly obliterated, if not removed altogether. Had cerns, pedagogical strategies, and religious aspirations the original compiler of this book a better defined profoundly intertwined, as we shall examine in detail “aesthetic” agenda and more sophisticated artistic in the next pages. For the moment, it suffices to un- concerns in his mind, such a pragmatic and some- derline the fact that, in a broad sense, the interplay of how dismissive treatment of the prints would not be ethic, aesthetic, and confessional matters was a very justifiable. It would have resulted, in fact, rather un- relevant theme in sixteenth-century Europe and, as usual among art collectors and print connoisseurs.7 recent scholarship has pointed out, also in other geo- In other words, these images were not conceived as graphical areas.8 collectible items, but, on the contrary, seem to have In the specific case of sixteenth-century prints, been acquired and assembled for reasons that did not etchings, and engravings, since they were composed belong to the sphere of what we could call nowadays by iconic elements as well as verbal signs in constant “aesthetic directives” and might have responded to dialogue with each other, it is not surprising to find other criteria, such as their didactic clarity, textual out that these mediums had become, throughout 9.