DOI Heft:
Rozprawy
DOI Artikel:Kandt, Kevin E.: Andreas Schlüter and Otto van Veen: the source, context, and adaption of a classicizing embelm for the tomb of Jakub Sobieski
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28185#0101
ANDREAS SCHLÜTER AND OTTO VAN VEEN: THE SOURCE, CONTEXT, AND ADAPTATION
99
mirror he could regard his own reflection as well as those symbols of his
office. While the juxtaposition of Friedrich’s own image with the royal at-
tributes emphasized his achievement of kingship, one might also under-
stand the uanitas of a mirror as an emblematic Fürstenspiegel or and re-
minder of his moral obligations as a ruler and, ultimately, of his own
mortality.* 144
Further examination of van Veen’s book-engravings shows cadres of
frightful skeletons wearing shrouds and carrying scythes as they conduct
various macabre deeds.140 Plate 38, for example, entitled “Cunctos Mors
Una Manet” (Fig. 42), and in German “Dem tode seind wier aile gleich,”
reminds the reader that Death conquers ail men, from the most humble
to the most elevated:
“Der tod leufft auf mit einem fusse die burg/als wie des betlers kaht; und giebt
dem Schuhster gleiche musse mit dem/der in dem hoechsten staht sein hoch-er-
images or icons hâve either a crown and/or scepter resting on stool, pedestal, or canopied
throne, e.g. (Sheet 7a) “Nec Prece, Nec Pretio,” (Sheet 13) “Vi Temperata,” (Sheet 14)
“Habuit, Cui Deferor, Ante,” (Sheet 23) “Impatiens Consortis Erit,” (Sheet 42) “ConUta
ConDI Deo.” The lengthy dedicatory title, abbreviated somewhat here, is: B.C.D! Augusta
Borussiae Brandeburgicae Transformatio Quam Serenissimo et Potentissimo Borussorum
Rege Friderico Primo S.R. J. Archicamerario et Electore, Plurimarum Amplissimarum
Provinciarum Principe ac Domino in Orbis Terrarum Gentium ...Regiomonti Borus-
sorum D. XIIX Jan. Anno MDCCI féliciter coronato, Variis conceptibus Symbolicis...ea
qua par est, observatia inscriptis adumbrare, atq. sub ipsis Sacrorum Inauguralium
Votis anniversariis primis. qui erat D. XVIII Jan. N. MDCCII...Andréas Günther Jur.
Cultor, (Ms. Boruss. Fol. 206) Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, Likewise, in Danzig, a man-
script there showed a similar emblem designed by local painter Heinrich Duwen, for an
unexecuted commémorative medal honoring the newly elected King Jan III Sobieski in
1674. It présents a table with a Turkish carpet upon which rests a shield and crown
with the motto: Servavi et mervi. See: E. Iwanyko, “Emblematyczne Sobiesciana
Gotfryda Peschwitz,” Artium Quaestiones, 2 (1983), pp. 236 and 237. For the Berlin ex-
amples, I am extremely grateful to Dr. Liselotte Wiesinger of Berlin for kindly bringing
the mirror décoration and the Günther manuscript from her unpublished text on the
Berlin Schloss - Erste Paradekammern to my attention.
144 The combination of a scepter and mirror, a motif associated with the virtues for the
“idéal prince,” and connected with the twelve virtues of Hercules or Hercules as the good
prince, originate in the emblematic traditions of Andréas Alciatus, Emblematum Liber
(Paris, 1542), e.g. Emblem VI “Concordia” and Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, Idea principis
christiano politici, (1640). Peter Daly, Recent German Contributions of the Charac-
terization ofthe Emblem Genre, Neudeln/Lichtenstein 1979, pp. 82-3 and W. Harms, “Die
emblamatische Selbstdarstellung des Auftraggebers in Pommersfelden,” in Ausserliter-
arische Wirkungen barocker Emblembücher: Emblematik in Ludwigsburg, Gaarz und
Pommersfelden, W. Harms and H. Freytag (eds.), Munich 1975, p. 150.
14,> Note especially plates: 8, 22, 34, 37, 38, 39, and 42 in the 1656 Danckers édition.
99
mirror he could regard his own reflection as well as those symbols of his
office. While the juxtaposition of Friedrich’s own image with the royal at-
tributes emphasized his achievement of kingship, one might also under-
stand the uanitas of a mirror as an emblematic Fürstenspiegel or and re-
minder of his moral obligations as a ruler and, ultimately, of his own
mortality.* 144
Further examination of van Veen’s book-engravings shows cadres of
frightful skeletons wearing shrouds and carrying scythes as they conduct
various macabre deeds.140 Plate 38, for example, entitled “Cunctos Mors
Una Manet” (Fig. 42), and in German “Dem tode seind wier aile gleich,”
reminds the reader that Death conquers ail men, from the most humble
to the most elevated:
“Der tod leufft auf mit einem fusse die burg/als wie des betlers kaht; und giebt
dem Schuhster gleiche musse mit dem/der in dem hoechsten staht sein hoch-er-
images or icons hâve either a crown and/or scepter resting on stool, pedestal, or canopied
throne, e.g. (Sheet 7a) “Nec Prece, Nec Pretio,” (Sheet 13) “Vi Temperata,” (Sheet 14)
“Habuit, Cui Deferor, Ante,” (Sheet 23) “Impatiens Consortis Erit,” (Sheet 42) “ConUta
ConDI Deo.” The lengthy dedicatory title, abbreviated somewhat here, is: B.C.D! Augusta
Borussiae Brandeburgicae Transformatio Quam Serenissimo et Potentissimo Borussorum
Rege Friderico Primo S.R. J. Archicamerario et Electore, Plurimarum Amplissimarum
Provinciarum Principe ac Domino in Orbis Terrarum Gentium ...Regiomonti Borus-
sorum D. XIIX Jan. Anno MDCCI féliciter coronato, Variis conceptibus Symbolicis...ea
qua par est, observatia inscriptis adumbrare, atq. sub ipsis Sacrorum Inauguralium
Votis anniversariis primis. qui erat D. XVIII Jan. N. MDCCII...Andréas Günther Jur.
Cultor, (Ms. Boruss. Fol. 206) Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, Likewise, in Danzig, a man-
script there showed a similar emblem designed by local painter Heinrich Duwen, for an
unexecuted commémorative medal honoring the newly elected King Jan III Sobieski in
1674. It présents a table with a Turkish carpet upon which rests a shield and crown
with the motto: Servavi et mervi. See: E. Iwanyko, “Emblematyczne Sobiesciana
Gotfryda Peschwitz,” Artium Quaestiones, 2 (1983), pp. 236 and 237. For the Berlin ex-
amples, I am extremely grateful to Dr. Liselotte Wiesinger of Berlin for kindly bringing
the mirror décoration and the Günther manuscript from her unpublished text on the
Berlin Schloss - Erste Paradekammern to my attention.
144 The combination of a scepter and mirror, a motif associated with the virtues for the
“idéal prince,” and connected with the twelve virtues of Hercules or Hercules as the good
prince, originate in the emblematic traditions of Andréas Alciatus, Emblematum Liber
(Paris, 1542), e.g. Emblem VI “Concordia” and Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, Idea principis
christiano politici, (1640). Peter Daly, Recent German Contributions of the Charac-
terization ofthe Emblem Genre, Neudeln/Lichtenstein 1979, pp. 82-3 and W. Harms, “Die
emblamatische Selbstdarstellung des Auftraggebers in Pommersfelden,” in Ausserliter-
arische Wirkungen barocker Emblembücher: Emblematik in Ludwigsburg, Gaarz und
Pommersfelden, W. Harms and H. Freytag (eds.), Munich 1975, p. 150.
14,> Note especially plates: 8, 22, 34, 37, 38, 39, and 42 in the 1656 Danckers édition.