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Mapping the Passion in the Era
of Confessional Clashes:
Branteghems Leven Ons Heeren
Christi as a model for the
Evangelicae historiae
imagines
Birgit Ulrike Münch, University of
Trier
My paper examines images concerning
the Passion of Christ in the 16th
century as well as changes and
continuities in passion iconography
during the era of confessional
clashes. Until recently, the focus
of research has been directed
almost exclusively on the question
of specific Protestant or Catholic
iconographic traditions. But
contrary to this approach, a
trans-confessional analysis seems
to be necessary to fully understand
the single passion-iconographies.
Although the importance of the
picture as an educational aid is
obvious since the ideals of the
antique “ars memorativa”, I try to
figure out that the passion-cycles
for a post-Reformation readership
serve a higher didactic function:
within the illustrations of the
Reformation and the
Counter-Reformation we find - to a
higher degree - tituli as
well as didascaliae to
ensure the reader’s correct
comprehension of the Latin or
vernacular passion texts. Another
novelty has to be mentioned
concerning the 16th century passion
prints: From the 1520s onwards –
and at the beginning only in
Protestant bibles – one finds
geographical and cycle bible-maps
which show the Christ’s Via
dolorosa and authentic
replications of the
historico-topographical settings
(buildings, streets), the Volto
Santo as well as correct
descriptions of the historically
verifiable circumstances of the
crucifixion: These images mark the
beginning of a new interest in an
objective New-Testament biblical
archaeology of the Early Modern
era.
The famous Evangelicae Historiae
Imagines written by the Jesuit
Hieronymus Nadal forms an ideal
paradigm to demonstrate the
validity of two hypotheses: First,
that passion iconography is a
steadily evolving history of a
pictorial subject, which is
dominated by continuity rather than
a break in tradition up to the end
of the 16th century. And second,
that the three main purposes of
these images – aesthetic,
devotional, and didactic – are
neatly combined in this work from
the printing-press. The work was
published in Antwerp in 1593 and
contains 153 large-format
copperplate engravings which
illustrate the life of Christ with
a narrative style involving
multiple scenes. The
inventor of the copperplate
engravings has hitherto remained
unknown in art historical research.
The original aim of the book was to
introduce young Jesuit students by
picture and word to the meditation
on the Gospel pericopes recited in
the liturgy of the eucharist. A
short title above each individual
engraving points to the topic of
the respective pericope. To
illuminate the path that the viewer
has to take with his eyes as they
wander through the multi-scenic
illustrations, the different
actions, persons and locations are
marked by letters or
didascalia, just as
prescribed by the Jesuit meditation
practice following the doctrines
for contemplating Biblical texts as
promulgated by Ignatius of Loyola.
These doctrines ask for an
imaginary scenic visualization of
the Gospels. Although we know of
three series of preparatory
sketches, the drawing patterns of
the Evangelicae have to this
point remained unknown. The author
Nadal himself could not have worked
without access to a detailed corpus
of pictures as a basis for
conceptualizing these complex
images, and even more so for
writing down the meditations for
the panoramic pictures. As
scholarship has primarily – and
without success – tried to find his
forerunner in so-called high art
such as Dürer’s series, the huge
amount of devotional literature was
not enlisted in this task.
Nonetheless, it is possible to
clearly assign the drawing pattern
to the passion images of the
Evangelicae historiae
imagines: In 1537 a book about
the Vita Christi was printed
in Antwerp by Mattheus Crom. Its
author was the Carthusian Willem
van Branteghem of Aalst. A
Netherlandish edition of the same
work – also printed by Crom – was
entitled: Dat leven ons Heeren
Christi. The book contains 186
woodcuts, which were designed by
Lieven de Witte, an artist from
Ghent, who is mentioned in a
laureate poem written by the
humanist Georgius Cassander. After
the sermon the believer should
consult the text and the images to
memorize what he had just heard.
From my perspective, it is
absolutely certain that Nadal used
this Netherlandish book as the
pattern for the Evangelicae
historiae imagines. This is so
clear to me because every one of
the 153 scenes of the Jesuit book
has its direct predecessor in
Branteghem's Gospel’s
compilation, even so rarely
illustrated biblical passages as
the Passover meal.
My analysis of Nadal’s work makes
it clear that it is absolutely
necessary to compare the different
passion cycles, even if they differ
in the confessional orientation of
their respective inventor and
primary audience. Only this type of
scrupulous comparison can shed new
light on the genesis and
dependencies of different passion
iconographies, such as Nadal’s
famous book. It was especially
these dependencies that were at
times suppressed in the interests
of confessionally bound religion,
because they did not comply with
the image confessors painted of
this faith. In the specific case of
the Evangelicae Historiae
Imagines a book published over
fifty years before Nadal’s work
formed the pattern for the latter.
In a broader sense our
understanding of the so-called
confessionally oriented image
cannot stop with pointing out the
specifically Protestant or Catholic
characteristics of a work of art.
Instead, it must also at times
bridge the gap between these
confessional camps.
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