Emblematic Patterns in Holbein`s Illustrations for

Emblematic Patterns in Holbein’s Illustrations for Erasmus’s
Praise of Folly (1515) [1.8.2014]
A generation before the publication of Alciato’s Emblematum libellus
(Augsburg 1531) that established the literary and esthetic convention of the
emblem, Sebastian Brant adopted a pre-emblematic pattern in his seminal
didactic work Das Narrenschiff (Basel, 1494). Brant, a successful publisher
and author, accorded great importance to visual imagery as an instructive tool
and a means to reach a larger urban audience. He conceived his moralistic
treatise as a complete work incorporating both text and image, a format that
prefigured the genre of the emblem book. Erasmus, only eight years Brant’s
junior, was undoubtedly familiar with The Ship of Fools when he composed
his satirical Praise of Folly (1509).
My
paper
examines
Holbein’s
interpretive
marginal
drawings
commissioned by Myconius, for his own personal copy of the 1515 edition of
Erasmus's Praise of Folly with commentary by Listrius. It is possible that the
illustrations in Brant’s book prompted the humanist schoolmaster Myconius to
have illustrations added for didactic purpose to his exemplary edition.
Though some of the 82 drawings might be considered as merely
illustrative, there are many that are more elaborated and inventive. I will focus
on a few of these interpretive drawings, which I define as “emblematic.”
 Dame Folly- [The whole page (fol. B)]
Holbein’s interpretative drawings expand on Erasmus’s text and
Listrius’s commentaries. Many relate to the printed side-notes excerpted from
Listrius’s commentaries, which function similarly to a motto, while Listrius’s
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moralistic commentary might be perceived as the subscriptio. Myconius’s
handwritten notations, may also have stirred Holbein’s imagination.
While the printed marginal side-notes in the page layout in Johann
Froben’s 1515 edition of Moriae encomium were deliberately intended to
attract the viewer’s attention, their incorporation into a quasi-emblematic
pattern was likely Holbein’s own invention, perhaps inspired by Brant’s preemblematic precedent.
 Veneration of the Virgin ↔ The pilgrim
As we may note, Holbein’s drawings are positioned below, beside or
above the embossed side notes and are sometimes even integrated into the
drawing.
 Dame Folly (fol. B)- [detail]
The first of Holbein’s marginal drawings shows Dame Folly addressing
her fool-listeners with her witty discourse. The apostil below the drawing,
(Risus stultorum) “fools’ laughter”, functions in lieu of a traditional emblem
motto. The handwritten words mala audire (“to have a bad reputation”),
appearing above the drawing, was apparently Myconius’s own commentary
on Erasmus’s text regarding Folly’s persona: “I am not unaware of how bad
Folly’s reputation is . . .”
Holbein’s satirical portrayal of Dame Folly as a preacher delivering her
sermon to an audience of fools whose faces Erasmus describes “immediately
brightened up with a strange, new expression of joy,” may have been inspired
by the image of “Wisdom Preaching” in Brant’s Ship of Fools.  Brant, Ship
of Fools, chapter 22: “The teaching of wisdom.”
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In the woodcut, the female personification of Wisdom addresses her
fool-parishioners from a pulpit with a plea to abandon folly and pursue
wisdom. Holbein, I suggest, ironically inverts the Brantian metaphoric image
of Wisdom, and using the contemporary folkloric guise of the “mock sermon,”
replaces Wisdom with the female incarnation of Moriae as the “false preacher”
delivering her speech to a gathering of fools.
Folly’s discourse voices Erasmus’s personal thoughts about the clergy
and religious reform. While he advocated for reform of the Church in light of
the writings of the Church Fathers and Scriptures in his Enchiridion militis
christiani (1501), from behind Folly’s mask, he could, with impunity, attack the
clergy, priests and monks on account of their corrupt behavior, expansion of
the cults of saints, superstitious beliefs and veneration of relics.
In her declamation, Folly harshly chastises theologians and preachers
for their sophistry, which stray from the true apostolic spirit, though she
professes pseudo-empathy for their heads “swollen and stuffed” with trifling
theological deliberations, and declares that she didn’t “think Jupiter’s brain
was any more burdened when he called for Vulcan’s axe to give birth to
Pallas.”
 Jupiter relieved (The Birth of Pallas Athena; fol. P2v).
Below the marginal comment (Solēnis cultus theologorum) “solace the
cultivated theologians”, Holbein offers a unique and inventive interpretation of
the birth of Pallas Athena, in which instead of beautiful bodies and handsome
features, he portrays the Olympians gods as grotesque ugly, deformed and
pathetic old men. Vulcan is shown with raised axe in order to relieve Jupiter’s
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headache. Jupiter’s posture and anguished facial expression denote his
distress.
The tiny armored figure of Pallas Athena springing from the head of
Jupiter could be construed as an ironic allusion, since Athena was the
goddess of Wisdom and her image is evoked here in ridicule of false wisdom.
 Hieronymus Bosch, The Cure of Folly (The Stone Operation, c.
1494).
Erasmus’s metaphoric image of the “swollen and stuffed” heads of the
theologians, I propose, evokes the theme of the removal of the stone of folly,
a popular contemporary Netherlandish iconographic motif. Operating on the
“swollen heads” of fools in order to extract the “stones” or release the “vapors”
from their brains, was a proverbial satiric image in contemporary carnival
plays and visual arts.
Folly ridicules the theologians’ exaggerated descriptions of the
minutiae of Heaven, where the blessed souls can even “play the ball.”
 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Feast of Fools [detail-left]
This unusual image, I suggest, may be related to the previous image
of the “swollen heads,” through the Dutch expression sottenbollen, likely
familiar to Erasmus, which is composed of the words sot, meaning fool, and
bol meaning either ball or head, or in other words, foolish heads, and thus,
intended by the author as another popular Netherlandish pun related to folly.
 Saint Christopher (fol. K): [“Closely related to such men are those
who adopted the very foolish belief that if they look at a painting or
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statue of that huge Polyphemus Christopher, they will not die on that
day.”]
In Folly’s satiric declamation against priests and preachers, she
ridicules their encouragement of cults of saints, singling out the widespread
embrace of the cult of Saint Christopher, patron saint of travelers and sailors,
and the cult of the Virgin, which grew out of late medieval piety and flourished
in the Netherlands in the fifteenth century through the religious movements of
the Devotio Moderna and Brotherhood of the Common Life.
Of the cult of Saint Christopher, Folly particularly scoffed at the “foolish belief”
that if people look at a painting or statue of the saint, “they will not die on that
day.”
Under the printed side notes that read Superstitiosus imaginum cultus
(“superstitious cult of images”), Holbein depicts a genre-like scene of a fool
piously praying before a framed devotional image of Saint Christopher that is
suspended on a brick wall. Listrius, no doubt aware of Erasmus’s strong
feelings on the matter, outdid the author by calling such beliefs “utterly
heretical opinions,” in his commentary.
 Dürer, Saint Christopher, woodcut, c. 1503–1504.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Northern Europe, the cult of Saint
Christopher was spread through woodcuts that featured the giant figure of the
saint set against a landscape background that is deliberately diminished in
size.
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Holbein, obviously familiar with this type of popular woodcut,
intentionally deviated from the iconographic model by altering the proportions
of the fool-devotee and the saint, thus offering his own mocking criticism of
the cult of this saint. The fool appears much larger than the image of the saint,
and instead of the traditional burly and dynamic Saint Christopher, Holbein
casts him as an elderly static figure.
 Veneration of Virgin (fol. Mv): [“Some saints have a variety of
powers, especially the Virgin mother of God, to whom the ordinary run of
men attribute more almost than to her son.”]
Folly also spared no sentiment for the cult of the Virgin, which she
claimed detracted from the proper place of her son in Christian devotion.
Folly further hurls criticism at those who “light candles to the Virgin,
Mother of God, even at noon when there is no need!” This image seems to
have inspired Holbein for his second marginal drawing associated with the
side note Superstitiosus imaginum cultus, in which he depicts two pious
women lighting candles before an iconic image of the Virgin and Child in a
flaming mandorla. The out-of-doors location of this shrine may be understood
as another jab at those who light candles at midday.
The word Mola appearing at the lower left, was likely inscribed by
Myconius, before Holbein commenced his illustration. Indeed, Holbein
incorporated the inscription into the drawing by encasing the word. Mola salsa
referred to by Listrius in his commentary, was the grain and salt mixture
prepared by Vestals in Ancient Rome to be sprinkled at all state sacrifices.
Myconius’s handwritten notation may be understood as his personal rebuke of
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the pagan-like cult practices that Holbein visualized as analogous to the
practices associated with veneration of the Virgin Mary.
The pilgrim (fol. M4)
In Moriae’s long list of various types of fools, she alludes also to foolpilgrims who claim they are going on a pilgrimage “to Jerusalem, Rome or St.
James of Compostella,” but do so in order to shirk their responsibilities of
business and family. Listrius elaborates in his commentary on those who
embark on pilgrimage for the wrong reasons and labels the majority of them
“out and out vagabonds.”
Holbein’s interpretive drawing integrates the printed side note: Qui sacra
uisut loca (“those who visit sacred places”), which cuts through the roadside
shrine in the drawing. Holbein portrays a caricatured figure of a vagrant
dressed in a pilgrim’s hat and cape, holding a stick and a flask, approaching a
small roadside shrine, from which extends a hand that points out the way.
 The pilgrim (fol. M4) ↔ Brant, Ship of Fools, chapter 21: “Of
chiding and erring oneself".
Holbein was likely inspired by the woodcut illustration in Brant’s Ship of
Fools that also features the motif of the roadside shrine with pointing hand.
The painter-engraver seems to have taken his inspiration for his image from
the verse: “A hand that’s to the crossroad tied / Points out a path it’s never
tried.” He shows the fool walking in a swamp, visualizing the poem’s motto
that a fool “rather in the mud would fare,” in other words, opt for the route of
folly and sin and ignore the path pointed out by the hand affixed to the
roadside shrine. The fool thus makes the wrong choice at a moral crossroads,
a theme that preoccupied contemporary thought.
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Erasmus’s censure differs from Brant’s sermonic tone. His Dame Folly
satirizes merchants, whom she accuses of going on false pilgrimages in order
to leave behind their business duties and family obligations. As we noted,
Listrius viewed the pseudo-pilgrims as vagrants, and his commentary, “those
who visit sacred places” should be read as a sarcastic jibe at pilgrimage as
another form of superstition. Holbein’s wayfaring–pilgrim appears to be
walking in the direction of the pointing hand that is affixed to the roadside
shrine similar to the one in the Ship of Fools woodcut. Thus, at first glance, it
seems as if this pilgrim is following the correct path, but the attentive viewer
will note that the shrine is empty, suggesting that this pilgrim is engaged in a
false pilgrimage of the kind ridiculed by Erasmus and seconded by Listrius.
 The scholar, pretty woman and the peasant (fol. B 3)
In another declaration—that folly cannot be concealed—Erasmus’s
Moriae satirizes learned-fools masquerading as wise men. Under the marginal
note Dissimulata stulticia (“concealed folly”), Holbein creates an autonomous
multi-layered commentary prompted by Folly’s remark.
Holbein stages a comic scene with three protagonists: a doctor of the
Church who turns to look at a seductive young woman while simultaneously
stepping on the egg-filled basket of an old peasant egg vendor who reacts
with dismay. The lecherous savant ensnared by the voluptuous woman is a
“fool of love,” hence, typifying the Erasmian “wise-fool.”
Holbein was apparently playing on the contemporary dual meaning of
eggs as a reference to folly and sexuality. Many contemporary German
humoristic prints depict old peasants carrying eggs or birds to market.
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 Master bxg, Old Peasant Couple Carrying Ducks and Eggs, c.
1475–1500
In this print, a lustful couple carries their merchandise to the market; the
man intentionally holds the basket of eggs in front of his genitals, and the
woman carries a basket with goslings on her head. In northern Renaissance
culture, eggs were a common allusion for a man’s testicles as well as an
attribute of folly and lustful behavior, while the verb “to bird” (vögelen) carried
the vulgar meaning “to copulate.” The goose was considered the most lewd of
birds, as well as emblems of folly.
Housebook Master, Peasants Couple Walking to the Market,
(drypoint, c. 1470–1475)
The lump on the peasant’s forehead in this print would appear to allude to the
stone of folly.
Housebook Master, Peasants Couple Walking to the Market, 
Brant, Ship of Fools, chapter 34: “Fools now as before.”
[“Some think their wit is very fine,/Yet they are geese right down the
line,/All reason, breeding they decline.”]
 The scholar, pretty woman and the peasant
Holbein’s multi-layered composition elaborates the theme of the old
philosopher who foolishly allows himself to be seduced by a sensuous young
woman, a popular theme that was spread through the various visualizations of
the story of Aristotle and Phyllis, and the popular topos of ill-matched couples
in Northern culture, featured in prints, carnival plays and sotties.
Holbein further interprets the motif in another drawing showing an elderly
Stoic philosopher fondling the bosom of his young companion, which appears
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next to the humorous autonomous side note: Pudenda membra sine risu non
nominatur (“The private parts are not mentioned without laughter”).
 The Old Stoic and the Young Woman; fol. C2v
 The scholar, pretty woman and the peasant
Holbein's elaborate composition occupying the lower margin of the page
stands out for its theatrical stage set, which is marked by the sharply receding
floor bordered by a low brick wall and delicate cityscape along a river in the
background. By alluding to the scenography of contemporary urban farces,
Holbein added an additional ironic dimension to his illustration of the wise
fool.
The inspiration for Erasmus’s multifaceted portrait of the morosopher or
concealed fool was apparently Sebastian Brant who ridiculed the pseudolearned-fool in the first poem of the Ship of Fools.
 Brant, Ship of Fools, chapter 1: “Of useless books.”
The painter-engraver depicts a fool in the guise of an intellectual in his
study, surrounded by books. In the guise of a doctor, his folly is concealed
under his scholar’s cap, as we read in the concluding verse: “My ears are
covered for me, / If they were not, an ass I’d be.”
 Fortune (fol. S2v)
Folly states that no one can live happily unless they have gained her
favors. Hence, she ironically engages Fortune who “always has been most
hostile to wise men, whereas she pours her blessing on fools.” Beneath the
printed side note, Stultis fortuna fauet (“Fortune favors fools”), Holbein depicts
Fortune balancing on her emblematic globe signifying her instability, while
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pouring coins into the hem of the fool’s costume, who endeavors to catch as
many of them as possible. In this emblematical drawing, Holbein literally
visualizes Moriae’s image of Fortune who “pours her blessing on the fools.”
Below the drawing is an interpretive note in Mycronius’s hand: Groß esel
mussend gros seck tregen (“Large donkeys [i.e., fools] must carry large
sacks”), obviously referring to the fool catching the coins showered on him
from Fortune’s purse.
 Fortune ↔ Holbein, Fortune, Sketch for The Triumph of Wealth,
1532, detail (Paris, Musée du Louvre).
Holbein elaborates the emblematical image in a later work, where
among the throngs crowding around the triumphal chariot of wealth, we may
discern a man who attempts to catch as many coins in his garment as
Fortune, seated on the chariot, tosses into the crowd.
Conclusion
In a mere ten days, Hans Holbein the Younger, who was just 18 years old,
completed 82 drawings. The more elaborate drawings, of which we have
reviewed only a small portion, reveal artistic innovation.
Though we may presume that the later emblematic layout of Holbein’s The
Dance of Death (Lyons 1538) and Icones (Lyons 1539) was initiated by the
publishers (the Treschel Brothers), the quasi-emblematic pattern in
Myconius’s 1515 edition of Praise of Folly may have been Holbein’s
initiative. Perhaps the idea came to him from the apostils excerpted from the
text and his knowledge of Sebastian Brant’s pre-emblematic precedent, which
as we have seen, inspired a few of his own inventions.
Folly descends from her pulpit (fol. X4)
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Holbein’s emblematical drawings reveal both visual autonomy as well as
reliance on a pictorial vocabulary rooted in contemporary visual and verbal
sources, mainly prints and the urban performing arts including carnival plays
and sotties.
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Emblematic Patterns in Holbein's
Illustrations for Erasmus’s Praise of
Folly (Moriae encomium, 1515)
Yona Pinson, Tel Aviv University
Praise of Folly (Moriae encomium) :Declamatio
On the left: Erasmus’s text
On the right column: Listrius commentary
Handwrite notes added by Myocnius
Printed side-note
(motto)
Dame Folly addressing her audience (fol. B)
mala audire
(“to have a bad reputation”)
Risus stultorum
("The Fools' laughter")
Wisdom Preaching
Woodcut Illustration, Sebastian Brant,
Ship of Fools, chapter 22: “The Teaching
Of Wisdom”
Jupiter relived (The Birth of Pallas Athena); fol. P2v
Solēnis cultus theolgorum
("solace the cultivated theologians")
Jupiter relived (The Birth of Pallas Athena); fol. P2v
Solēnis cultus theolgorum
("solace the cultivated theologians")
Hieronymus Bosch, The Cure of
Folly (The Stone Operation, c. 1494.
Madrid, Museo nacional del Prado
“swollen heads” (sottenbollen)
The Dutch expression sottenbollen is composed of
the words sot, meaning fool, and bol meaning either
ball or head or in other words ‘foolish heads’
Pieter van der Heyden, after Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
The Festival of the Fools , engraving, after 1570 (detail)
Veneration of Saint Christopher (fol. K)
Superstitiosus imaginum cultus
(“superstitious cult of images”)
“Closely related to such men are
those who adopted the very foolish
belief that if they look at a painting
or statue of that huge Polyphemus
Christopher, they will not die on
that day.”
Dürer, Saint Christopher, woodcut, c. 1503–1504.
Veneration of Virgin (fol. Mv)
“Some saints have a variety of powers, especially the Virgin
mother of God, to whom the ordinary run of men attribute
more almost than to her son.”
Superstitiosus imaginum cultus
(“superstitious cult of images”)
The pilgrim (fol. M4)
Qui sacra uisut loca
(“those who visit sacred
places”)
A hand that’s to the crossroad
tied / Points out a path it’s never
tried.”
Sebastian Brant, Ship of Fools, 1494
chapter 21: “Of chiding and erring
oneself.”
Folly cannot be concealed
The scholar, pretty woman and the peasant (fol. B 3)
Dissimulata stulticia
(“concealed folly”)
Housebook Master, Peasants
Couple Walking to the Market,
(drypoint, c. 1470–1475)
Master bxg, Old Peasant Couple Carrying
Ducks and Eggs, c. 1475–1500
Geese and Folly- In popular imagination Geese were
considered as emblems of Folly
Peasant-Fool
The lump on the peasant’s forehead
alludes to the stone of folly.
Brant, Ship of Fools,
chapter 34: “Fools now as before.”
“Some think their wit is very fine,/Yet they are geese right down the line,
/All reason, breeding they decline .”
The verse here also suggests that the word goose is synonymous with being
a dolt or fool.
The scholar, pretty woman and the peasant (fol. B 3)
Dissimulata stulticia
(“concealed folly”)
The Old Stoic and the Young Woman; fol. C2v
Pudenda membra sine risu non nominatur
(“The private parts are not mentioned without laughter”)
The scholar, pretty woman and the peasant (fol. B 3)
Dissimulata stulticia
(“concealed folly”)
Brant, Ship of Fools, chapter 1: “Of useless books.”
“My ears are covered for me,
If they were not, an ass I’d be.”
Fortune (fol. S2v)
Stultis fortuna fauet
(“Fortune favors fools”)
Gross esel mussend gros seck tregen
(“Large donkeys [i.e., fools] must carry large sacks”)
Holbein, Fortune, Sketch for The Triumph
of Wealth, 1532, detail
(Paris, Musée du Louvre)
Groß esel mussend gros seck tregen
(“Large donkeys [i.e., fools] must carry large sacks”)
Folly descends from her pulpit (fol. X4)
Thank you !