Imago Exegetica

Visual Images as Exegetical Instruments, 1400-1700

Edited by Walter S. Melion, James Clifton, and Michel Weemans

This volume consists of essays that pose fundamental questions about the relation between verbal and visual hermeneutics, especially as relates to biblical culture. Exegesis, as theologians and historians of art, religion, and literature, have come increasingly to acknowledge, was neither solely textual nor aniconic; on the contrary, following from Scripture itself, which is replete with verbal images and rhetorical figures, exegesis has traditionally utilized visual devices of all kinds. In turn, visual exegesis, since it concerns the most authoritative of texts, supplied a template for the interpretation of other kinds of significant text by means of images. Seen in this light, exegetical images prove crucial to understanding how meaning was constituted visually, not only in the sacred sphere but also in the secular.

Contributors include Giovanni Careri, Joseph Chorpenning, James Clifton, Nathalie de Brézé, Maria Deiters, Ralph Dekoninck, Arthur diFuria, Caroline van Eck, Dagmar Eichberger, Ingrid Falque, Wim François, Merel Groentjes, Agnès Guiderdoni, Barbara Haeger, Alexander Linke, Walter Melion, Jürgen Müller, Birgit Ulrike Münch, Colette Nativel, Wolfgang Neuber, Shelley Perlove, Leopoldine Prosperetti, Todd Richardson, Bret Rothstein, Tatiana Senkevitch, Larry Silver, Jamie Smith, Trudelien van ‘t Hof, Michel Weemans, and Elliott Wise.

Typology at its Limits: Visual Exegesis and Eschatology in the Sistine Chapel
GIOVANNI CARERI

Typology—Back with a Vengeance! Texts, Images, and Marginal Glosses in Vorsterman’s 1534 Dutch Bible
WIM FRANÇOIS

L’Épitaphe de Jan Michielsen et Maria Maes de Rubens. Rhétorique et Exégèse Visuelle
COLETTE NATIVEL

A New Interpretation of Vermeer’s Allegory of Faith: Vividness and Figural Interpretation
CAROLINE VAN ECK

II. VISUAL ANALOGY AS AN EXEGETICAL INSTRUMENT

Empathy as a Type of Early Netherlandish Visual Wit
BRET L. ROTHSTEIN

Meditative Exegesis and the Trope of Conversion in Dirk Vellert’s Calling of Peter and Andrew of 1523
WALTER S. MELION

The Preaching of John the Baptist: Herri met de Bles’s Visual Exegesis and Expanded Typology
MICHEL WEEMANS

Early Modern Hands: Gesture in the Work of Jan van Hemessen
TODD M. RICHARDSON

Becoming Elijah: The Sleep of Elijah by Philippe de Champaigne from the Convent of the Val-de-Grâce
TATIANA SENKEVITCH

III. EXEGETICAL IMAGERY OF SPIRITUAL CONFORMATION

‘See the Bridegroom Cometh; Go Out and Meet Him’: On Spiritual Progress and Mystical Union in Early Netherlandish Painting
INGRID FALQUE

Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Ruusbroec: Reading, Rending, and Re-Fashioning the ‘Twice-Dyed’ Veil of Blood in the Escorial Crucifixion
ELLIOTT D. WISE

Helenus and Dorotheos: Marten de Vos and the Desert Fathers
LEOPOLDINE VAN HOGENDORP PROSPERETTI

Lectio Divina and Francis de Sales’s Picturing of the Interconnection of Divine and Human Hearts
JOSEPH F. CHORPENNING

IV. READING THE BIBLE THROUGH IMAGES

Illumination of Images and Illumination through the Image—Functions and Concepts of Gospel Illustrations in the Bible of the Nuremberg Patrician Martin Pfinzing
MARIA DEITERS

Clades Judaeae Gentis: Patterns of Destruction
MEREL GROENTJES

Modes of Scriptural Illustration: The Beatitudes in the Late Sixteenth Century
JAMES CLIFTON

Framing Devices and Exegetical Strategies in Northern Illustrated Spiritual Literature
RALPH DEKONINCK AND AGNÈS GUIDERDONI

‘The Glory of the Last House’ (Haggai 2: 9): Rembrandt and the Prophets Malachi and Haggai
SHELLEY PERLOVE

V. VISUAL INFLECTIONS OF TEXTUAL AUTHORITY

Saints amidst the Inferno: Humanism in Wittenberg’s Pre-Reformatory Art: A New Exegesis of Dürer’s Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
BIRGIT ULRIKE MÜNCH

Visual Exegesis and Social History: Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf (1525-1596) and His Strategies of Self-Aggrandisement
WOLFGANG NEUBER

Gideon, an Old Testament Hero in Action: Burgundian Symbolism and the Visual Language of Protestant Flanders
DAGMAR EICHBERGER

Maerten van Heemskerck’s Heliodorus Driven from the Temple: Translatio and the Interrogative Print
ARTHUR J. DIFURIA

Of Churches, Heretics, and Other Guides of the Blind: The Fall of the Blind Leading the Blind by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the Esthetics of Subversion
JÜRGEN MÜLLER

Bruegel’s Biblical Kings
LARRY SILVER

VI. EMBLEMATIC IMAGES AND THE DISCERNMENT OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH

From Putti to Angels: The Celestial Creatures in Otto Vaenius’ Paintings and Emblems
NATHALIE DE BRÉZÉ

Exegetical Immersion: The Festivities on the Occasion of Francis de Sales’s Canonization (1665-1667)
AGNÈS GUIDERDONI

Old Emblems, New Meaning: A Critical Visual Account of the Reformation in De Hooghe’s Hieroglyphica
TRUDELIEN VAN ’T HOF

VII. PREFIGURATION AND TRANSFIGURATION

Vasari and The Transfiguration of Christ: Converging the Testaments and Competing with Predecessors
ALEXANDER LINKE

Rubens’s Christ Triumphant over Sin and Death: Unveiling the Glory of God
BARBARA HAEGER

Index Nominum