Monday, August 18, 2008

Amoris divini emblemata











Those cupids know how to have fun. Link…
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1 comment:

tellurian said...

I like this description.
The Amoris Divini Eemblemata was published in 1615. Vaenius relates how the archduchess Isabella suggested his earlier love emblems (Amorum Emblemata, 1608 ) might be reworked 'in a spiritual and divine sense.' After all, 'the effects of divine and human love are, as to the loved object, nearly equal.' Formally, the emblems are very much alike in structure: on the left-hand page first a Latin motto, then a group of quotations in Latin, and finally verses in several vernacular languages, on the right-hand page the picture. The visual unity is established, among other things, by the presence of the Cupid figure on most emblems. The book brilliantly succeeds in visually representing the growth and pitfalls of the love between man and God using a small girl to represent the soul and a small boy to represent divine love." One of the major innovations in Vaenius' Amoris divini emblemata is the presence of Divine Love and the Soul in all emblem pictures but one. These participants' actions (their gestures, the things they look at, the positions of their bodies) serve to heighten the spectators' interest and to reinforce the emblem's message. In many respects, Divine Love and the Soul are actors staging condensed representations of highly symbolic scenes from the drama of human salvation. Their presence turns the emblem pictures into something very much like theater stills." - Peter Boot.

9:46 am

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