ART AND RELIGION IN KAREL VAN MANDER’S OEUVRE GOD AND THE GODS IN THE SCHILDER-BOECK The Warburg Institute 30 September 2014 MA thesis MA in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture Word count: 14.967 2 This thesis signifies the end of a wonderful year at the Warburg Institute in London. I would like to thank all the lecturers and my fellow students, who have taught me so much during this past year. I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Paul Taylor, who supervised my thesis. The past year would not have been the same without many good friends I have made, both within the Warburg and outside, and I would like to thank them too for joining me in all kinds of adventures this year. Geen dingh soo slecht, of daer is somtijts yet goets in. ~ Karel van Mander, 1604 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 4 2. The Mennonites 4 2.1. Reforms during the sixteenth century 4 2.2. The origins of Mennonitism 5 2.3. Mennonite theology and practice 6 2.3.1. Baptism 6 2.3.2. Spiritual state 6 2.3.3. Symbols of faith 7 2.3.4. The ban 7 2.4. Religious persecution and tolerance 7 3. Karel van Mander 8 3.1. Van Mander’s life 8 3.2. Karel van Mander as a Mennonite 9 4. Mennonites and art 10 4.1. Mennonites and painting 10 4.1.1. Mennonite influences in Karel’s painting 11 4.1.2. Reception of painting 13 4.2. Mennonites and literature 13 4.2.1. Mennonite poetery 14 4.2.2. Chambers of Rhetoric 14 4.2.2.1. Rederijks in Haarlem 15 4.2.3. Karel van Mander as poet 15 4.2.3.1. Secular poetry 16 4.2.3.2. Religious poetry 16 4.2.3.3. Reception of literature 18 5. The Schilder-Boeck 18 5.1. God: Christianity in the Schilder-Boeck 20 5.1.1. Talent, God, and Natuere 20 5.1.2. Morals, virtues, and vices 21 5.1.2.1. Good examples 21 5.1.2.2. Bad examples 22 5.1.3. The Church as an institution 23 5.1.4. Religious scenes 24 5.1.4.1. Beeldt and Historie 25 5.1.5. Iconoclasm in the sixteenth century 26 5.2. The Gods in the Schilder-Boeck 26 5.2.1. Wtlegghingh: Commentary on Ovid’s Metamorphoses 27 5.2.2. Humanism and art 28 5.2.2.1. Painting and Poetry as sister arts 29 5.2.2.2. Liberal art or a craft? 29 5.2.2.3. Art theory 30 5.2.2.4. Personifications 31 5.3. Conclusion 32 6. Conclusion 32 7. Bibliography 34 4 1. Introduction Scholars have formed strong opinions about what kind of man Karel van Mander was, often based on his Schilder-Boeck (‘Book on Painting’): he is discussed as a humanist or a Mennonite; as a painter or a poet.1 Even though nowadays Van Mander is mostly known for the Schilder-Boeck, he produced many paintings and religious poems during his lifetime too. Humans are complex and contradictory beings, and to extract only one element about this man and try to analyse all his work in light of this is limiting for our understanding of his work. In this thesis I made an attempt to paint a more complete picture of Karel van Mander, by looking at his poetry, paintings, and of course his Schilder-Boeck. It is known that Karel van Mander was a strict and devout Mennonite – a reformed Dutch Anabaptist denomination named after Menno Simons – but also that he had an interest in humanist developments in painting and poetry, and went to Italy for his painterly education. First, Van Mander’s background as a Mennonite will be discussed, as well as Mennonite influences in his artistic work. Next, the Schilder-Boeck will be analyzed according to two main themes: God, including several remarkable aspects regarding Christian elements, and The Gods, trying to trace humanist influences on his work. As will hopefully be shown, reconciliation between the two is difficult at times, but sometimes it is more satisfying to respect the difference and try to discover what the reader can learn from it. 2. The Mennonites 2.1 Reforms during the sixteenth century The sixteenth century was a period of religious and political reform in Europe. Luther and Zwingli started spreading their protestant ideas from the first decades of the sixteenth century onwards, leading to more and more movements resisting the Catholic Church. These reformed ideas partly rooted in the humanistic movement. The earlier Italian humanists were interested in an education that would ensure the optimal development of human capacities, by the combination of knowledge, intellect and virtue. Humanism created an intellectual environment in which the power of church , nobility and individuals was reconsidered and redefined .2 The Catholic Church was thus not only criticized by theological reformers, but Humanists like Erasmus confronted the Church too and offered the people a critical mind-set with which they could study the vernacular Bible. This did not necessarily mean that they left behind Catholicism; Erasmus for example remained a Catholic his entire life.3 Even though works by for example Erasmus and Luther were printed and purchased in places like Antwerp, there was barely any true polemic literature to be found in this period, nor mass conversion. Overall, the reform movement in the Low Countries spread in a rather chaotic 1 Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck / waer in Voor eerst de leerlustighe Iueght den grondt der Edel Vry Schilderconst in Verscheyden deelen Wort Voorghedraghen / Daer nae in dry deelen t'Leuen der vermaerde doorluchtighe Schilders des ouden, en nieuwen tyds / Eyntlyck d'wtlegghinghe op den Metamorphoseon pub. Ouidij Nasonis. Oock daerbeneffens wtbeeldinghe der figueren Alles dienstich en nut den schilders Constbeminders en dichters, oock allen Staten van menschen, Haarlem 1604 (fascimile edition, Davaco Publishers, Utrecht 1969). Hereafter: Schilder-Boeck. 2 S. Voolstra, ‘De roerige jaren dertig. Het begin van de doperse beweging,’ in Wederdopers, Menisten, Doopsgezinden in Nederland 1530-1980, ed. S. Groenveld, J. P. Jacobszoon, S. L. Verheus, Zutphen 1981, pp. 10-24; see pp. 10. 3 Voolstra, Roerige jaren, pp. 14-15. 5 way, since there was no structural leadership from above and there were numerous different movements.4 2.2 The origins of Mennonitism Mennonitism is a version of Dutch Anabaptism, which was based on, but developed differently and independently from the Anabaptist movement which originated in Zürich, Switzerland in the 1520s. Around 1525, some followers of the protestant reformer Zwingli grew tired of his caution in reforming Christianity and his submissiveness to the local government, and took a radical approach which included rejection of infant baptism.5 The new Anabaptist movement declared itself opposed to Protestantism rather than Catholicism, and therefore the first persecutors of the Anabaptists were Protestants, who associated them with civil unrest.6 The Anabaptist movement spread quickly through Northern Europe, partly because many Swiss Anabaptists fled their country.7 In the 1530s, radical attempts were made to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth in Munster and Amsterdam, after the ideas of Melchior Hoffmann. Hoffmann was pacifist, but some of his followers were not and tried to enforce the Kingdoms with violence.8 These aggressive and radical actions by the Anabaptists lead to more persecutions, by both the Catholic Church and the Reformed movements.9 After these events, therefore, the Dutch Anabaptists stressed their pacifism to show they distanced themselves from the violent congregations.10 New leaders and Anabaptist congregations arose during these turbulent times, among which Menno Simons around 1535.11 In 1524 Menno had been ordained as a Catholic priest, but he started to rethink his faith and its practices, mainly the transubstantiation, after close readings of the Bible. This was in accordance with the Sacramentalists, who rejected the actual presence of Christ in the Eucharist and other ceremonies that could not be traced back to the Scripture, influenced by the biblical humanism of Erasmus.12 In addition, Menno closely studied the Bible and reformed works, and could not discover any foundation for 13 infant baptism anywhere. 4 A. Hamilton, ‘The Development of Dutch Anabaptism in the light of the European Magisterial and Radical Reformation,’ in From Martyr to Muppy (Mennonite Urban Professionals): A Historical Introduction to Cultural Assimilation Processes of a Religious Minority in the Netherlands, the Mennonites, ed. A. Hamilton, et al., Amsterdam 1994, pp. 3-14. See pp. .6-7; O. de Jong, ‘How Protestant are Mennonites? Isolation and Assimilation of Dutch Mennonites in the Framework of Dutch Protestantism,’ in From Martyr to Muppy, ed. A. Hamilton, et al., Amsterdam 1994, pp. 30-40; see pp. 34. 5 Hamilton, pp. 3; Voolstra, Roerige jaren, pp. 11 6 Hamilton, pp. 3, 5. 7 Voolstra, Roerige jaren, pp. 12 8 Voolstra, Roerige jaren, pp. 13, 17; De Jong, pp. 34 9 Voolstra, Roerige jaren, pp. 21 10 Voolstra, Roerige jaren, pp. 24; I. B. Horst, ‘De strijd om het fundament des geloofs. Van Melchiorieten tot Menisten, in Wederdopers, Menisten, Doopsgezinden in Nederland 1530-1980, ed. S. Groenveld, J. P. Jacobszoon, S. L. Verheus, Zutphen 1981, pp. 25-45: pp. 28. 11 P. Visser, ‘Mennonites and Doopsgezinden in the Netherlands, 1535-1700,’ in A Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521-1700, Leiden, Boston and Tokyo 2007, pp. 299-345: pp. 301-303. 12 S. Zijlstra, Om de ware gemeente en de oude gronden. Geschiedenis van de dopersen in de Nederlanden 1531- 1675, Hilversum 2000, pp.