Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Love Games

The 17th century engravings below come from a book of love emblems that is variously categorised around the traps as erotic and pornographic - it will help if you are trilingual and have a (very) good imagination. (I've omitted the French poetry pages to tone down the salaciousness)



Affrica monstrorum non tanta mole..



17th century tennis match engraving



illustration of early form of croquet



engraved scene of Renaissance-era game of bocce or bowls



Early Modern domestic scene - standing man + woman playing backgammon



engraved outdoor Renaissance scene of volleyball-like game



medieval tournament scene - jousting variation



baroque engraving of table shuffleboard scene



book illustration of 17th cent. outdoor ice-skating scene



death's dance (garlanded Roman skeleton) visits baroque household



sinner taken to hell outside domestic nobility scene



short king climbing ladder up to kiss queen (engraving)



baroque indoor scene - man pokes stick into barrel containing people



Early modern scene - woman surrounded




'Le Centre de l'Amour, Decouvert Soubs Divers Emblesmes Galans et Facetieux' (sic) was first published (by Chez Cupidon of course!) in about 1650 and was uploaded by U. Illinois Urbana-Champaign to the Internet Archive.

The 'gallant' and 'facetious' in the title lend an air of humour or mockery in relation to this Renaissance/Baroque publishing genre of embelemata, which is usually treated with a modicum of seriousness. The theme of games or sport has been deployed as a metaphor in the illustrations for the difficulties and sensitivities encountered in the negotiation of a relationship.

The book's readers are meant to contemplate the illustrations in conjunction with mottoes in Latin and German underneath, and the short, French epigrammatic verses appearing on the accompanying pages. In this way, they will be eventually able to decipher the true meanings of the visual scenes. Personally, I often find it difficult to divine the underlying message in illustrations from the era, because there was a very different mindset in relation to allegory and hidden meanings in objects and pictures back then (I touched on this phenomenon in a bit more detail once before: The Odd Baroque). However, I do find the visual mystification - only one facet of the trope - to be a charming dimension to that artistic era.

We see examples or precursor equivalents of such games as tennis (jeu de paume), croquet, bowls, shuffleboard, volleyball, jousting and backgammon. Music and the playing of instruments is presumably included within the same rubric for allegorical purposes in the emblems. Although there isn't anything overt in the erotic sense in the images above, there are a few scenes (especially those not shown) in which it is very easy to pick the double meanings and lurid allusions, even if the engravings themselves are ostensibly innocent.

Peter Rollos (active from about 1619 to 1644) was a German engraver who worked in Frankfurt, Prague and Berlin. Two of his notable publications (in which the illustrations seen above first appeared) were 'Vita Corneliana' and 'Euterpae Suboles' from the 1630s.

Embelmata posts on BibliOdyssey previously : these contain a wealth of related and background links that I won't bother to repeat here, save for Love Emblems.

Oh, a(n) (incomplete) copy of this book sold at auction in 2005 for over $10K.

7 comments :

Julia said...

This is great, thank you!

David Apatoff said...

Peacay, I'm not sure I see the "erotic and pornographic" (and believe me, I looked hard) but I do see the "way cool" here.

I especially love page 50 (the cloud of symbols emerging from the barrel), page 36 (those demons with the lightning bolts and flames outside the door) and page 82 (the naked lady in the barrel) but I have had a lot of trouble deciphering the text (and Babel Fish is not much help). I went to the U. of Illinois upload, which was visually terrific but wasn't much help with the content. Any suggestions for your loyal readers who, like you, are interested in engaging the "visual mystification"?

peacay said...

I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help David. You can read from the lack of supporting links - and maybe my tone - that the commentary on this book is sparse and eyebrow raising at best.

I saw mere mentions of erotic/pornographic and there wasn't anything worth quoting or linking (and what I had is now gone). If I've over-emphasized the potential scurrilous dimensions, it was to balance out the lack of actual, credible commentary. I did see something giving a nudge and a wink about this scandalous scene (woman and man playing bagpipes) but it wasn't overly deep or persuasive.

I think we can safely assume that this is the type of intellectual porn that requires untangling subliminal messages from 3 languages and an engraved scene. The 'mystifying' part - to me - is how they decided that this was somehow erotic at all.

I believe demystifying relief can be found ..um.. elsewhere on the internet; or so they say.

Kelly Robinson said...

"...this is the type of intellectual porn that requires untangling subliminal messages from 3 languages and an engraved scene."

Sounds like my kind of porn!

malcolm jones said...

where to begin?! "Le centre d l'Amour" dates from c.1680 -- pace Univ Illinois -- and is composed of much earlier Rollos engravings -- as Praz noted (p.478)“the pls. of Vita Corneliana and Euterpae Suboles [both isued separtely in 1624]reappeared under the title Le Centre de l’Amour” -- as for the motif of the 'grillen', your readers might care to have a look at my Pinterest board, ""Chimaera crotchets" -- subliming the brain as a cure for folly" Hope this reaches you -- and keep up the good work, btw! Much appreciated, Malcolm

malcolm jones said...

Hmm... firstly, Univ Illinois is mistaken in dating "Le Centre de l'Amour" c.1650, it is c.1680ff if it's a day! Secondly, asd Praz pointed out aeons ago, the Centre is merely a reprinting of Rollos' earlier [both 1624] works, the "Vita Corneliana" and the "Euterpae Suboles". As for the cloud of 'grillen' that appear above the drunkard's head in the "Centre's" pl.50, your readers might care to have a look at amy Pinterest board, "Chimaera crotchets" -- subliming the brain as a cure for folly" -- love your blog, btw! Keep up the good work!

malcolm jones said...

I see I'm only about 4 years too late1 Malcolm

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