DOI article:
Nowacki, Dariusz; Piwocka, Magdalena: Orzeł w Skarbcu Koronnym na Wawelu: ze studiów nad klejnotami doby manieryzmu
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19893#0181
however, are beyond the present discussion. Likewise, the
cock-shaped emblems of marksmen's brotherhoods are left out
of our considerations and also order insignia such as the Order
of the Holy Ghost.
The emblems, developed on the basis of Italian humanism,
gave considerable scope for realization in Renaissance jewellery.
It was these objects that were conceived as devices - ensigns
- personal symbols by means of which their owner defined
himself, revealed his ideals, or in a sophisticated manner paid
homage to his sovereign or to his ladylove. Such ideas were
particularly aptly expressed by zoomorphic pendants. In the
second half of the 16th century bird-shaped, especially aąuiline,
jewels predominated, their symbolic content being elear to the
viewer brought up on Pliny, Paradin, and the Fathers of the
Church. The positive connotations of an Eagle, derived from
its physical traits - far-reaching eyesight, strength, and speed
- had been perpetuated in eneyelopaedie and moralizing lite-
raturę as far back as antiąuity. The adoption of Jove's attribute
as an imperial Eagle - Victrix Aąuila - by the Roman Empire
confirmed its status among the highest ranking symbols of
power. References to them recur at the lower levels of hierarchy
- for the purpose of praising the attributes of an ideał prince
or monarch, in the sphere of ideas such as justice, intrepidity,
charity, and solicitude for his subjeets. Piero Valeriano, who
in 1556 devoted to Eagles an entire chapter of his Hieroglyphica,
enumerates various meanings of the bird: Imperatoria maiestas,
Benignitas, Solitudo Regni, Perniciosa Potentia, Rex Pius et
misericors, and Conuiciorum Contemptor.
Through association with Jove the Thunderer it was fre-
ąuently depicted with a bundle of thunderbolts in its claws
(fig. 27), as can be seen in the emblem of Sigismund Augustus
in Ruscellfs collection (fig. 28). Following Aristotle and Pliny,
the Eagle was credited with an extraordinary property of
regenerating while flying towards the sun (figs 29-30).
The most popular collections - of Joachim Camerarius and
Jacob Typotius - dating from the turn of the 16th and 17th
centuries, contain, inter aha, the emblem of an Eagle with a
stone in the nest, inscribed with a commentary borrowed from
Pliny, which relates to the strengthening of one's character
(fig. 31). The emblem in Typotius, designed for Cardinal
Francesco Gonzaga (fig. 32), which is based on a Roman relief
from the time of Trajan - preserved in the Church of SS.
Apostoli in Rome - and which presents an Eagle on a bough
with olive branches growing out of it, seems close to renditions
in the above-mentioned jewels.
The juxtaposition of the king of space, recognized as the
embodiment of nobility and supremę virtues, with a serpent
- a mean creature incarnating base and sordid traits - waś
always seen as a symbol of the perennial combat between
good and evil, between light and darkness, between Christ
and Satan, as a sign of the victory over death and of the
Resurrection. This topos and its artistic representation passed
into the Renaissance emblems through ancient writers, albeit
the origin of the motif is older and universal. The Christian
theme overlapped those long-established ideas, adding sharpness
to the contrasts in the image of the dichotomic pair of antitypes.
Most allusions to the enmity between the serpent (dragon)
and the Eagle can be found in Typotius (figs 33-36). Also the
imprint of the Rovilius printing house in Lyons depicts an
Eagle on a globe, attacked by serpents (fig. 37). This motif
is displayed in three extant gems, among which the Staufen
cameo of c. 1230 (fig. 38) has some ancient precedents. The
bird in the Cambridge pendant (fig. 39) may have been
borrowed directly from Typotius. Such a literał borrowing is
hard to ascertain in the Wawel object. However, the lack of
an identical model for it in the Renaissance Impresa should
not give rise to anxiety, sińce the engraving illustrating the
book may have served either as a direct pattern or solely as
an inspiration.
Thus, the Wawel eagle-shaped pendant embodies morał,
Christological, and perhaps even political ideas in a form that
is not too sophisticated but elear. Considering great freedom
in dating the published jewels, the time of execution of the
Wawel object must be given cautiously, but it should come
within the limits of the last twenty years of the 16th century.
This may be indicated by the rather archaic form and orna-
mentation of the box mount on the bird's breast (fig. 40). The
discernible interpenetrating tripartite palmettes boldly con-
toured in black are characterized by linear abstraction, typical
of moresąue, which the Spaniards cali cordelas. Despite the
awkwardness of form the origin of the Eagle from the Iberian
circle seems certain. Imprecise criteria, incomplete knowledge
of the extant materiał as well as methodological chaos in
dealing with Renaissance jewellery induce focusing the attention
not only on individual objects. When studying them, it is
necessary to distinguish between what is the conseąuence of
repeating graphic patterns and what the specificity of a
particular workshop or the rosult of a regional context. Intuitive
dating and attribution of the finest products to „South Germany"
should give way to attempts at the reliable inventorying and
systemizing of unsigned objects. Therefore, it seems justified
to present the Wawel curio against a wider background of
the „species" with the aim of capturing its difference, and to
undertake a preliminary recapitulation of the characteristics
and divisions observable in the group of Mannerist „avian"
pendants.
cock-shaped emblems of marksmen's brotherhoods are left out
of our considerations and also order insignia such as the Order
of the Holy Ghost.
The emblems, developed on the basis of Italian humanism,
gave considerable scope for realization in Renaissance jewellery.
It was these objects that were conceived as devices - ensigns
- personal symbols by means of which their owner defined
himself, revealed his ideals, or in a sophisticated manner paid
homage to his sovereign or to his ladylove. Such ideas were
particularly aptly expressed by zoomorphic pendants. In the
second half of the 16th century bird-shaped, especially aąuiline,
jewels predominated, their symbolic content being elear to the
viewer brought up on Pliny, Paradin, and the Fathers of the
Church. The positive connotations of an Eagle, derived from
its physical traits - far-reaching eyesight, strength, and speed
- had been perpetuated in eneyelopaedie and moralizing lite-
raturę as far back as antiąuity. The adoption of Jove's attribute
as an imperial Eagle - Victrix Aąuila - by the Roman Empire
confirmed its status among the highest ranking symbols of
power. References to them recur at the lower levels of hierarchy
- for the purpose of praising the attributes of an ideał prince
or monarch, in the sphere of ideas such as justice, intrepidity,
charity, and solicitude for his subjeets. Piero Valeriano, who
in 1556 devoted to Eagles an entire chapter of his Hieroglyphica,
enumerates various meanings of the bird: Imperatoria maiestas,
Benignitas, Solitudo Regni, Perniciosa Potentia, Rex Pius et
misericors, and Conuiciorum Contemptor.
Through association with Jove the Thunderer it was fre-
ąuently depicted with a bundle of thunderbolts in its claws
(fig. 27), as can be seen in the emblem of Sigismund Augustus
in Ruscellfs collection (fig. 28). Following Aristotle and Pliny,
the Eagle was credited with an extraordinary property of
regenerating while flying towards the sun (figs 29-30).
The most popular collections - of Joachim Camerarius and
Jacob Typotius - dating from the turn of the 16th and 17th
centuries, contain, inter aha, the emblem of an Eagle with a
stone in the nest, inscribed with a commentary borrowed from
Pliny, which relates to the strengthening of one's character
(fig. 31). The emblem in Typotius, designed for Cardinal
Francesco Gonzaga (fig. 32), which is based on a Roman relief
from the time of Trajan - preserved in the Church of SS.
Apostoli in Rome - and which presents an Eagle on a bough
with olive branches growing out of it, seems close to renditions
in the above-mentioned jewels.
The juxtaposition of the king of space, recognized as the
embodiment of nobility and supremę virtues, with a serpent
- a mean creature incarnating base and sordid traits - waś
always seen as a symbol of the perennial combat between
good and evil, between light and darkness, between Christ
and Satan, as a sign of the victory over death and of the
Resurrection. This topos and its artistic representation passed
into the Renaissance emblems through ancient writers, albeit
the origin of the motif is older and universal. The Christian
theme overlapped those long-established ideas, adding sharpness
to the contrasts in the image of the dichotomic pair of antitypes.
Most allusions to the enmity between the serpent (dragon)
and the Eagle can be found in Typotius (figs 33-36). Also the
imprint of the Rovilius printing house in Lyons depicts an
Eagle on a globe, attacked by serpents (fig. 37). This motif
is displayed in three extant gems, among which the Staufen
cameo of c. 1230 (fig. 38) has some ancient precedents. The
bird in the Cambridge pendant (fig. 39) may have been
borrowed directly from Typotius. Such a literał borrowing is
hard to ascertain in the Wawel object. However, the lack of
an identical model for it in the Renaissance Impresa should
not give rise to anxiety, sińce the engraving illustrating the
book may have served either as a direct pattern or solely as
an inspiration.
Thus, the Wawel eagle-shaped pendant embodies morał,
Christological, and perhaps even political ideas in a form that
is not too sophisticated but elear. Considering great freedom
in dating the published jewels, the time of execution of the
Wawel object must be given cautiously, but it should come
within the limits of the last twenty years of the 16th century.
This may be indicated by the rather archaic form and orna-
mentation of the box mount on the bird's breast (fig. 40). The
discernible interpenetrating tripartite palmettes boldly con-
toured in black are characterized by linear abstraction, typical
of moresąue, which the Spaniards cali cordelas. Despite the
awkwardness of form the origin of the Eagle from the Iberian
circle seems certain. Imprecise criteria, incomplete knowledge
of the extant materiał as well as methodological chaos in
dealing with Renaissance jewellery induce focusing the attention
not only on individual objects. When studying them, it is
necessary to distinguish between what is the conseąuence of
repeating graphic patterns and what the specificity of a
particular workshop or the rosult of a regional context. Intuitive
dating and attribution of the finest products to „South Germany"
should give way to attempts at the reliable inventorying and
systemizing of unsigned objects. Therefore, it seems justified
to present the Wawel curio against a wider background of
the „species" with the aim of capturing its difference, and to
undertake a preliminary recapitulation of the characteristics
and divisions observable in the group of Mannerist „avian"
pendants.