Baroque and Rococo

 

Baroque and Rococo Art Map

 

The Art of the Portrait


 

Masterpieces of European Portrait-Painting


1420-1670

 

Portraits of Renaissance Humanists


 

see also:


Lucas Cranach

the Elder
 

Lucas Cranach the Elder:



Dr. Cuspinian and his Wife


 

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Dr. Cuspinian and his Wife
(detail)

The nine women appear to be the nine Muses, who were answerable, according to Greek myth, to their leader Apollo, who has been identified as the figure behind the tree at the left of the picture. Their element is water. A balance is intended here to the fire behind Anna Cuspinian. Perhaps this polarity symbolises the distinction between the genders: according to Plutarch, fire was the male element, water the female.
 

Cranach painted this double portrait on the occasion of the marriage of the Viennese humanist Johannes Cuspinian and his wife Anna, daughter of an official of the Emperor. Cuspinian's (1472-1529) real name was Spiepheimer, and he was originally from Schwemfurt. He studied at Leipzig where he earned his laurels as a poet, advancing, at the age of twenty-seven, to the position of rector at the University of Vienna. He went on to hold various other positions - Imperial Superintendent of the University from 1501, and Dean of the Medical Faculty from 1501/02-eventually becoming personal adviser and official historian at the court of Emperor Maximilian I. In 1508, he edited Rufus' "Descriptio orbis "; he was editor of Otto von Freising's "World Chronicle" (1515ff.), and author of the "History of Roman Consuls up to Justinian" the so-called "Consules" (almost completed by 1512), and of a renowned book on Roman emperors ("De Caesaribus atque Imperatoribus Romanis", Strasburg 1540). Like Conrad Peutinger, Conrad Celtis and others, Cuspinian was undoubtedly one of the most versatile humanists of his age. Initially, Cuspinian showed great sympathy for the theological and political aims of the Reformation. Like many other humanists, however, he distanced himself from the revolutionary movement after the Peasants' War and reaffirmed his allegiance to the Catholic Church.

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Dr. Cuspinian and his Wife
(detail)
 

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Dr. Cuspinian and his Wife
(detail)
The parrot, whose call was thought to be
"Avc", the Angelic Salutation, was considered
a Marian symbol: a sign of innocence and
purity.

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Dr. Cuspinian and his Wife
(detail)
 

Lucas Cranach, Cuspinian's equal in years, had entered his father's workshop and travelled through south Germany before meeting with success in Vienna, where his work was particularly well received in humanist circles. The humanists provided him with access to the court, thus paving his way to the position of court painter (in 1504 he went to Wittenberg to take up this office under Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony).
Cranach composed these portraits as a pair. This is apparent in the continuity of the landscape behind the elegantly dressed couple. The trees at the edges of the painting, on the left and right of the figures, are placed so that their branches form an arch, imparting an air of grandeur to the sitters. The background was evidently composed
with a distinct purpose in mind: nothing here is arbitrary. The landscape is full of erudite symbolism, probably devised by Cuspinian himself. In a well-informed study on this double portrait, Dieter Koepplin has suggested that Cuspiman's frame of reference was Pico della Mirandola's "Poetica Theologica", and Marsilio Ficmo's doctrine of divine mysteries. He concludes that the various images disguise hieroglyphic allusions to the cabbala. An example of this is the artist's secretive mimmalisation of symbols, turning them into "occult" figures. At the left of the picture, for example, behind the tree, there is a minuscule figure with long, flowing hair, whom Koepplin has convincingly identified as Phoebus, or Apollo, since the figure is given a lyre and bow, the attributes of this antique god. However, Apollo does not appear here as the god of light, but rather as the opposite: as a "chtonian-mantic" god (Koepplin), almost a demon. The writhing snake on the ground is a reference to Asclepius, the god of medicine, who was a son of Apollo (cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 2, 602-620). The detail alludes to Cuspinian's medical profession, as does the red beret on his head: "Medicus rubras fert corpore vestes" (A doctor wears red clothing).
Another figure, one so tiny as to be almost invisible, stands on a pinnacle of rock on the castle-topped mountain behind Cuspmian. Shown in an antique gesture of adoration, the figure prays to a star which Cranach has painted in real gold. The star is evidently supposed to represent the Epiphany in the teachings of the early Christian hymnic poet Clemens Prudentius. whose work demonstrably had a profound effect on Cuspmian. Koepplin interprets the figure as Orpheus, relating his position on the mountain to the Platonic notion of "furor poeticus", and to the mountain-cult which often accompanied the veneration of stars.
The nine women washing, bathing and carrying water in the middle distance between Cuspmian and his wife, may be connected to Apollo, too. They appear to be the nine Muses, who were answerable, according to Greek myth, to their leader ("Musagetes") Apollo. Their element is water, and a balance is evidently intended here to the fire behind Anna Cuspinian. Perhaps this polarity symbolises the distinction between the genders: according to Plutarch, fire was male and water female, a notion adopted by Ficino. This theme seems appropriate enough for a wedding painting. It is possible, however, that the fire alludes to the burning bush (Exodus 3, 2), which was used as a symbol for the Immaculate Conception during the late Middle Ages because it "burned with fire" but "was not consumed", just as Mary had remained a virgin during motherhood. The chastity of the Virgin remained an ethical precept for married women for many centuries. The motif of the parrot on the tree, given to Anna Cuspinian as an attribute, is consistent with this precept. The call of the bird was thought to be "Ave", the Angelic Salutation; since the Middle Ages it had therefore been considered as a Marian symbol, a sign of the innocence and purity associated with Mary.
What then is the significance of the other birds shown against the darkening sky? Behind Cuspinian there is an owl with prey in its talons being mobbed by a flock of birds; behind his wife on the right, an eagle and a swan (on its back) are locked in combat. As a humanist emblem, the owl was highly ambivalent, sometimes referring to the goddess Athena's (or Minerva's) wisdom, sometimes to its recalcitrant opposite: blind stupidity.
 

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Dr. Cuspinian and his Wife (detail)

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see also:


Hans Holbein

the Younger
 

Hans Holbein the Younger:


Erasmus of Rotterdam



 

Hans Holbein the Younger
Erasmus of Rotterdam
1523
 

Hans Holbein the Younger
Erasmus of Rotterdam
1523
 

Bought by Louis XIV from the Cologne banker Eberhard Jabach, the painting initially entered the royal collection, from whence it found its way to the Louvre.
Hans Holbein the Younger executed several portraits of Erasmus of Rotterdam. His famous portrait of 1523, now at Longford Castle, shows a three-quarters view of the humanist in the narrow corner of a room, staring out in front of him with tired eyes. To his left there is a richly ornamented pilaster, crowned by a capital with the relief of a fabulous, mermaid-like creature. Behind him, divided off by a curtain, is a recess with a shelf and some books. Erasmus is standing at a table, his hands resting on a book whose facing edge bears an inscription referring to Heracles in slightly incorrect Greek. This is probably meant as a humorous reference to the painstakingly detailed commentaries and annotations that Erasmus supplied with his Latin translation of the New Testament, or to his philological work in general.
 

Hans Holbein the Younger
Erasmus of Rotterdam
1523
 

Holbein's portrait (now at the Louvre) is similar to a portrait executed by Quentin Massys in 1517, in that both show Erasmus writing. Holbein's portrait is undoubtedly one of the greatest sixteenth-century portraits of a humanist. The portrait consciously reverts to an old-fashioned profile view. Whereas quattrocento profile-view portraits often appeared conventional and stiff, Holbein introduces an intensely dynamic psychological dimension by showing the sitter actively engaged as a historical subject. The silhouette of the great thinker is shown against a panelled interior with a repeat-pattern tapestry. His large, dark coat with its brown, turned-up cuffs and the black beret on his head provide a contrast against which his face and hands stand out as the centres of his intellectual activity. Erasmus is shown writing, his lowered, seemingly introverted gaze on the written page, obscuring the pupils of his eyes. The scholar is entirely engrossed and appears not to notice the (imagined) spectator.
 

Quentin Massys
Erasmus of Rotterdam
1517
 

This was evidently the way in which Erasmus wanted to be seen: at work, recording the movement of thought in writing. He probably sent the likeness to his friend Thomas More, to whom, in 1511, during his third visit to England, he had dedicated his satirical work "In Praise of Folly" (Encomium Moriae), a pun on More's name.
Like his portrait of the French ambassadors, Holbein's portrait of Erasmus contains a number of hidden allusions. One of the ornamental animals on the tapestry can be identified as a griffin, a fabulous beast described in ancient myths as having the talons of an eagle and the body of a lion. Medieval and Renaissance Christian hermeneutics saw these characteristics as metaphors for vigilance (eagle) and courage (lion). At the same time, the beast symbolised the ambivalent nature of Christ: the bird represented divinity, the lion's body the human being. In Dante Alighieri's "Purgatory" (29,106ff.) there is a description of a griffin pulling the triumphal chariot of the church. On the eve of the Peasants' War, with various religious groups either attacking or championing him for their own cause, Erasmus used the hidden allusion to Dante's "Divine Comedy" to demonstrate his allegiance to the church. He remained loyal to the church all his life, despite his sympathies for the Reformation and criticism of the Roman Catholic clergy.
 

Hans Holbein the Younger
Sir Thomas More

Holbein painted several portraits of Sir Thomas More, who was a close friend of Erasmus.
This was the preliminary drawing, executed in 1527, for a painting of More's family
(for which there arc further drawings of the heads of individual sitters).
After his return to Basle, Holbein delivered the drawing to Erasmus,
who was most enthusiastic.
 

Hans Holbein the Younger
Erasmus of Rotterdam
1530
 

Hans Holbein the Younger
Sketch for the Portrait of Sir Thomas More and his Family
1527
Pen, brush and ink over chalk on paper, 38.9 x 52.4cm
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