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DOI Artikel:Murawska-Muthesius, Katarzyna: Milton's Tower: from the symbol of divine guidance to that of secret wisdom
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18898#0054
2. Jan van Goyen, Fishing Harbour, Poznań, Muzeum Narodowe
The divine naturę of light is also brouglit by Jacob Cats in an emblem showing an illumina-
ted navigation sign on tlie seashorc at night (it appears in Butcb canvases in place of the light-
house with which it is often associated). The accompanying lemma reads: Luceat lux vestra
coram hominibus15. Pieinelli interprets „la torre su la spiaggia del mare col lume acceso sił la
sua cima" in the same vein and appends to it the message: Per vada monstrat iter, stressing
that obedience to divine law leads to salvation. Later in the same paragraph he compares the
light of the tower to a noble man's virtue which „quasi face accesa in sii la torre, scopre a gli
altri la strada"10. Although there is no icon to accompany the entry Torre in PicinelH's Mondo
Simbolico, the absence is madc up for the number of texts with detailed descriptions of the
representation under discussion. Most of them refer to the image of the tower situated on the
seashore with a light at the top, though they exemplify its different meanings: personification
of virtue and divine law, a symbol of watchfulness, divinity and constanza, a symbol of the Vir-
gin Mary, etc. A representation of a tower erected on the rocks on the seashore with a burning
torch at the top of the tower occurs in Philosophia Imaginum... by Menestrier (1695) although
15. J. Cats, „Emblemata moralia et oeconomica*', Rotterdam, 1627, in: Protcus ofte Minne-Beelden Verandert in Sinne-Beel-
den, Middelburg, 1618, after A. Henkel, A. Schóne, Emblematu..., Stuttgart, 1967, cols. 1483—4; cf. A. Bentkowska, op.
cii. (Polish version), pp. 33 and 38; W. Hauptmann writes about this emblem in connection with the symbolism of the
Tower of Babel, ,,Luceat luxvestra coram hominibus"..., op. cif. Tha navigation sign shown in the emblem discuseed by
Cats, performed the function of a lighthouse in Holland. It often appears in paintings alongside the motif of the tower with
which i t is compositionally combined, as in Jan van Goyen's painting Fishing Harbour {Muzeum Narodowe, Poznań, fig. 2)
or Claes Pietersz Berchem's painting, around 1665 where the navigation sign is situated on the top of a tower erected
on a seashore, reproduced in Nederlandse 17e Eeuwse Italianiserende Landschapschilders [a catalogue of exhibition at
the Central Museum in Utrecht], Utrecht, 1965, fig. 91.
16. F. Pieinelli, Mondo Simbolico..., op. cit., p. 426, no 110.
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The divine naturę of light is also brouglit by Jacob Cats in an emblem showing an illumina-
ted navigation sign on tlie seashorc at night (it appears in Butcb canvases in place of the light-
house with which it is often associated). The accompanying lemma reads: Luceat lux vestra
coram hominibus15. Pieinelli interprets „la torre su la spiaggia del mare col lume acceso sił la
sua cima" in the same vein and appends to it the message: Per vada monstrat iter, stressing
that obedience to divine law leads to salvation. Later in the same paragraph he compares the
light of the tower to a noble man's virtue which „quasi face accesa in sii la torre, scopre a gli
altri la strada"10. Although there is no icon to accompany the entry Torre in PicinelH's Mondo
Simbolico, the absence is madc up for the number of texts with detailed descriptions of the
representation under discussion. Most of them refer to the image of the tower situated on the
seashore with a light at the top, though they exemplify its different meanings: personification
of virtue and divine law, a symbol of watchfulness, divinity and constanza, a symbol of the Vir-
gin Mary, etc. A representation of a tower erected on the rocks on the seashore with a burning
torch at the top of the tower occurs in Philosophia Imaginum... by Menestrier (1695) although
15. J. Cats, „Emblemata moralia et oeconomica*', Rotterdam, 1627, in: Protcus ofte Minne-Beelden Verandert in Sinne-Beel-
den, Middelburg, 1618, after A. Henkel, A. Schóne, Emblematu..., Stuttgart, 1967, cols. 1483—4; cf. A. Bentkowska, op.
cii. (Polish version), pp. 33 and 38; W. Hauptmann writes about this emblem in connection with the symbolism of the
Tower of Babel, ,,Luceat luxvestra coram hominibus"..., op. cif. Tha navigation sign shown in the emblem discuseed by
Cats, performed the function of a lighthouse in Holland. It often appears in paintings alongside the motif of the tower with
which i t is compositionally combined, as in Jan van Goyen's painting Fishing Harbour {Muzeum Narodowe, Poznań, fig. 2)
or Claes Pietersz Berchem's painting, around 1665 where the navigation sign is situated on the top of a tower erected
on a seashore, reproduced in Nederlandse 17e Eeuwse Italianiserende Landschapschilders [a catalogue of exhibition at
the Central Museum in Utrecht], Utrecht, 1965, fig. 91.
16. F. Pieinelli, Mondo Simbolico..., op. cit., p. 426, no 110.
48