Instytut Historii Sztuki <Posen> [Hrsg.]: Artium Quaestiones (10.2000)

112

KEVIN E. KANDT

mori motif of mankind’s ephemeral existence,160 and skillfully adapted
Hendrik Goltzius’ image of the homo bulla or ALlegory of Transitoriness,
(1594),161 into a three-dimensional sculpture. (Fig. 47) Incidentally, the
Goltzius print was even influential in Poland for as late as the 18th cen-
tury we fïnd an illustrated emblem based upon this same composition
with a scythe-bearing skeleton included.162 The Berlin sculptures were
probably adaptations from printed sources which continued earlier prac-
tices learned during the Warsaw period, and should be studied further
within the context of the artist’s Polish funerary monuments as well. But
in a somewhat unknown example from the Berlin Schloss interiors we
again discover a memento mori in keeping with the spirit of the Zôlkiew
tomb.

The Roten Samt Kammer ceiling, from the Berlin Schloss Paradekam-
mern suite, was once ornamented with décorations done presumably
after Schlüter’s designs, under his supervision,163 and dated c. 1699-
1700.164 (Fig. 48 a-b) Documentary photographs illustrate a complex
iconography that existed between the painted ceiling with the Times of
the Day and an architectural frame with an intriguing depiction of
death.16î3 The painted grotesque frieze above an allegorical repre-

160 E. Mühlbàcher, Andréas Schlüter und die Plastik Seiner Zeit, Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin - Skulpturensammlung, (ecl), exhibition catalogue, Berlin 1964, p. 26.

161 The terni “homo bulla” is derived from an ancient saying that ”Man is like a (soap)
bubble,” mentioned by the writer Marcus Terentius Varro in his Rerum Rusticarum, (Libri
III) later popularized as an allegorical représentation during the Renaissance. Ibid., pp.
121-122. The Goltzius copper-plate engraving shows a soap-bubble blowing child resting
upon a skull and an inscription “Quis Evadet?” and has the following poem: “Flos nouus, et
verna fragrans argenteus aura/Marcescit subito, périt, ali, périt ilia venustas./Sic et vita
hominum iam nunc nascentibus, eheu,/Instar abit bullae vanique elapsa vaporis.”
F. Estius. Die Sprache der Bilder: Realitàt und Bedeutung in der niederlcindischen Malerei
des 17. Jahrhunderts. Braunschweig 1978, pp. 175-177, especially 177. Many thanks to
Dr. Maria Kluk, National Muséum in Warsaw, for acquainting me with this publication.
See also, W. Stechow, “Homo bulla,” Art Bulletin, 20(1938), pp. 44ff. and Y. Mori, “The
Iconography of homo bulla in Northern Art from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centur-
ies,” Homo Ludens: Der spielende Mensch, 6(1996), pp. 149-176. Thanks go to Dr. Mori for
sharing her article with me.

lb2 The woodcut entitled “Sic Omne Périt,” is illustrated in A. Barszczewski, Trans-
port zlotego Abdanku... Jana Skarbka arcybiskupa i metropolity Iwowskiego.... Lwôw 1734.
J. Chroscicki, ”Castris et Astris,” Biuletyn Histoi'ii Sztuki, 30(1968), nr. 3, pp. 393-4 and
ill. 6.

163 L. Wiesinger, Deckengemalde im Berliner Schloss. Frankfurt/Main and Berlin
1992, pp. 162, 182, 198 (note 20), 205, and ill. 123-124, 132-133.

161 Peschken and Klünner, Das Berliner Schloss, pp. 480-481 and ill. 124-125.

16a Since it was the final room in the Paradekammern enfilade located just before the
Alte Kapelle the iconographie significance may hâve been especially important. Wiesinger,
Deckengemalde, pp. 182, 183.