Click to enlarge
I couldn't resist tinkering with the strange recent image from Ptak Science Books: Out of Context Department: Artists Taken by the Devil, 1620. It actually comes from a 17th century Dutch religious work, Den wech des eeuwich levens (The way to eternal life) by Antine Sucquet, Gerardus Zoes and Boëce van Bolswert, which is online in full at the Internet Archive.
The complete picture, on page 556, depicts a couple of artists painting Jesus and the Christian pantheon, but we haven't yet been able to work out why painter B is being grabbed by a demon. There is a caption, but my Renaissance Dutch is a little rusty. I'm taking advice.
"Om mat ghy de stercker tot de deugt verweckt sout worden, soeckt ende volght [A] d’exemplen der Heyligen, meest van uw’ Patronen, ende versoeyt [B] de sonde, die u van deselve treckt, ondersoeckt wat sy van dese deught hebben gevoelt, en geschreven; hoe sy die hebben geoffent door ‘t ingeven van den [C] H. Geest.
(Apologies for plagiarism to Ptak Science Books, Lol Manuscripts! and Wondermark).
Addendum. We have an explanation, thanks to Trevor at Kalebeul (who actually knows "Elderly Dutch" - see the comments). B is not the artist, but the creature grabbing him - not a demon but a representation of "sonde" (sin) distracting him.
- Ray
This is one of a bunch of related tropes designed to help readers lead better lives. Portraiture here is a way of learning from religious figures, who we see in the distance being radiated by the Holy Ghost (C). Sin (B) distracts the left-hand artist--we hope temporarily--from the Virgin Mary (D), while the Philosophers (H) lurk in the shadow of Virtue (I). And so forth.
ReplyDeleteSo Hollandish, the obsession with observation! Perhaps.
I occasionally translate Elderly Dutch for euros and cents. With your encouragement this kind of stuff will surely become incredibly popular and myself improbably wealthy.
Ah, so B is not the artist, but the creature grabbing him (not a devil but "sonde" = sin)?
ReplyDeleteLooking at this image again it seems to me now that the artist on the right (our right) might actually be a woman.
ReplyDelete