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The Theater of Emblems
Rhetoric and the Jesuit Stage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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Displayed on school walls during holidays, attached to floats and triumphal arches in processions, emblems played a part in all public events organized by the Jesuits in the 17th century. These verbal-iconographic compositions, which were used to illustrate the principal themes of the ceremony, were not a mere period detail or an ornamental device but constituted a means of expression which, by virtue of the particular relations governing the association of text and image, mobilized complex rhetorical, moral, and spiritual elements simultaneously. By associating an image - seen as the “body” - with a textual element (inscriptio et subscriptio) - the “soul” - the emblem-maker sought to achieve a unity of meaning in which the two forms of communication complemented each other: it is precisely the way in which the two elements are connected, and the laws that regulate their composition, that constitutes the foundation of the language of the emblem. This language, which is used in a corresponding manner in a variety of other symbolic compositions (devices, hieroglyphs, symbols, coats of arms, medals, etc.), is based on the rhetorical operations of the metaphor, applied here as a model both for the word, with its mimetic properties, and for figurative codes. However, the metaphor, as a product of human ingenuity, is not only situated at the crossroads of a system of thought crystallized in a great number of inventions, but also bears witness to an ornamental aesthetic, typical of the 17th century's aristocratic culture and social rituals. While there does exist a vast bibliography of materials on the function and role of metaphor in Baroque culture, questions nevertheless remain about the numerous cultural practices to which the Baroque gave rise and the particular processes that the 17th century brought into play. My intention here is not to resolve all such questions but rather to provide an analytical framework by focusing my observations on emblematic compositions produced in the scholastic milieu of the Society of Jesus.
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- Copyright © 1996 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
Notes
1. C.-F. Menestrier, L'art des emblêmes, Paris, 1674, p. 2.
2. On the complex history of the origins of these compositions see C. Balavoine, J. Lapond, and P. Laurens, Le modèle de la Renaissance, Paris, 1986.
3. For a full and quite comprehensive bibliography see M. Praz, Studies in Seven teenth-Century Imagery, London, 1947 (2nd revised and enlarged ed.), Vol. II. See also A. Schone's and A. Henkel's monumental Emblemata. Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart, 1967.
4. C.-F. Menestrier (note 1 above), p.4.
5. On the Jesuits' production of emblems, see G. R. Dimler, "A Bibliographical Survey of Jesuit Emblem Authors in German-Speaking territories," in: Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu (AHSI), 45 (1976), pp. 129-38; idem, "Jesuit Emblem Books in the Belgian Provinces of the Society, 1578-1710," in: AHSI, 46 (1977), pp. 377-86; idem, "A bibliographical Survey of Jesuit Emblem Authors in French Provinces, 1618-1726," in: AHSI, 47 (1978), pp. 233-50; idem, "A Bibliographical Survey of Emblem Books by Jesuit Colleges in the Early Society," in: AHSI, 48 (1979), pp. 289-310.
6. J.-M. Chatelain, Livres d'emblêmes et de devises. Une anthologie (1531-1735), Paris, 1993.
7. E. Tesauro, Il Cannocchiale aristotelico o sia, Idea dell'arguta et ingegniosa elocu tione, che serve a tutta l'arte oratoria, lapidaria et simbolica, esaminata co' principii del divino Aristotele … accresciuto di due nuovi trattati, cioè des concetti predicabili et degli emblemi, Venice, 1682 (1st ed.: Turin, 1654).
8. Ibid., p. 400. For a critical analysis of this work see E. Raimondi, Letteratura Barocca, Florence, 1982; M. Zanardi, "La metafore e la sua dinamica di signifi cazione nel ‘Cannocchiale Aristotelico' di Emanuele Tesauro," in: Giornale Storico della letteratura italiana, Vol. CLVII (1980), pp. 321-68.
9. On the celebrations at the Collegio Romano on the occasion of the canoniza tion of Ignatius of Loyola and François Xavier, see B. Filippi, "'Grandes et petites actions' au Collège Romain. Formation rhétorique et théâtre jésuite au XVIIe siècle," in: Les représentations symboliques du pouvoir à Rome, in press.
10. SOGGETO/ D'IGNATIO/ IN MONSERRATO,/ overo Mutatione d'Armi./ ATTIONE TRAGICOMICA, Che da giovani del Seminario Romano si rap- pre-/ senta in Collegio Romano della Compa-/ gnia di GIESU./ Disteso in Atti, e Scene dal Signor Don Girolamo Cao/ Sardo Convittore del medesimo Seminario./ IN ROMA,/ Appresso Alessandro Zannetti. MDCXXIII./ Con licenza de' Superiori, p. 7.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., p. 8.
13. E. Tesauro (note 7 above), p. 378.
14. J.-B. Herman, La pédagogie des jésuites au XVIe siècle. Ses sources, ses caractéris tiques, Paris, 1914, p. 286.
15. Ratio Studiorum, Reg. Prof. Rhet., No. 15, in: L. Lukacs (ed.), Momumenta Paed agogica (MP), Rome, Vol. V, pp. 427f.
16. C.-F. Menestrier (note 1 above), p.3.
17. Quintilian, Inst. Orat., VI, II, 32.
18. On the humanist exercise of ekphrasis, see M. Baxandall, Les Humanistes à la découverte de la composition en peinture, 1340-1450, Paris, 1989, pp. 110-24 (1st ed.: London, 1971); on the introduction of this exercise into the sacred lit erature of the seventeenth century, see M. Fumaroli, L'Age de l'eloquence. Rhétorique et res literaria de la Renaissance au seuil de l'époque classique, Geneva, 1980, pp. 257-73.
19. L. Richeome, "La Peinture Spirituelle ou l'art d'admirer, aimer et louer Dieu en toutes ses oeuvres, et tirer de toutes profit salutaire, au Tres Reverend Pere Claude Acquaviva General de la Compagnie de Iesus …," in: Les Oeuvres, Paris, 1928, Vol. II, p. 392.
20. A. Alciati, Emblematum libellus, Paris, 1535 (1st ed.: Basle, 1531).
21. The five rules are: 1) the composite must be rightly proportioned between the body (la figure) and the soul (le motto); 2) it must not be so obscure as to require an oracle for interpretation; nor must it be so clear as to be understood by the crowd; 3) above all, it had to be pleasing, that is to say, it must depict things that were agreeable to the eye such as stars, fire, water, trees, tools, ani mals, legendary birds; 4) it must not depict human forms; 5) the "motto" had to be conceived in an idiom that was different from that which constituted the composite, because in the emblem feeling had to be veiled; the "motto" was to be shorter, but not so brief as to be obscure or ambiguous. See P. Giovio, Dial ogo dell'Imprese militari e amarose, Rome, 1555.
22. A. Scipione, Il Rota ovver delle Imprese del Signor Ammirato Scipione nel qual si ragiona di molte Imprese di diversi eccellenti autori, e di alcune regole, e avvertimenti intorno questa materia, Florence, 1598.
23. See T. Tasso, Dialogo dell'Imprese, Naples (1594), p. 17.
24. E. Tesauro (note 7 above), p. 51.
25. Ibid., p. 164.
26. Ibid., p. 384.
27. J. Masen, Speculum imaginum veritatis occultae, exhibens symbola, emblemata, hieroglyphica, aenigmata, omni tam materiae, quam formae varietate, exemplis simul, ac praeceptis illustratum, Cologne, 1650.
28. On Masen's etymological research, see B. Bauer, Jesuitische "ars rhetorica" im Zeitalter der Giaubenskämpfe, Frankfurt/Main, 1986, pp. 508f.
29. J. Masen (note 27 above), p. 1.
30. Ibid., p. 70.
31. E. Tesauro (note 7 above), p. 11. On the ludic aspect, see also M. Zanardi, "Metafora e gioco nel ‘Cannocchiale Aristotelico' di Emanuele Tesauro," in: Studi Secenteschi, Vol. XXVI, pp. 25-99.
32. Ratio Studiorum, Reg. Praef. Stud., No. 3, MP, Vol. V, p. 403; Reg. Prof. Rhet., No. 18, MP, Vol. V, p. 428; Reg. Prof. Human., No. 10, MP, Vol. V, p. 433; Reg. Acad. Rhet. et Human., No. 7, MP, Vol. V, p. 453.
33. D. Bartoli, De' simboli trasportati alla morale, Rome, 1677, p. 5.
34. J. Masen (note 27 above), p. 561.
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