Angels and Demons in Art by Rosa GiorgiReview by: Timothy MaschkeThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Fall, 2007), pp. 834-836Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20478543 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 17:28

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheSixteenth Century Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:28:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

834 Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXVIII/3 (2007)

was replaced by a "discourse of homosocial exchange" (125) more suited to the Aristotelian premise of balanced reciprocity. The king's liberal delegation of authority to male favorites, though, complicated this model in other ways. His distribution of power and rewards to men of low birth such as the Earl of Somerset and the Duke of Buckingham, like his authoriza tion of the sale of titles, depreciated the value of the royal gift and provided a corrupt model of gift exchange. The establishment of separate households for the king, queen, and princes, each supporting and supported by its own factions, further decentralized and mediated the distribution of favors.

Chapter 4, which examines the literary "gifts" proffered in celebration of the Somerset wedding, offers particularly rich insights into the impact of these complications on patron age-seeking writers. Poets were required both to compete openly with one another in a fragmented patronage marketplace and to praise a powerful bridegroom whose marriage was surrounded by scandal and whose position was vehemently opposed by other patrons. Chap man unabashedly praises Somerset, apparently resting all of his hopes on the favorite, and in the process opens himself to charges of literary prostitution. Presenting himself as unable to escape the duty of writing an epithalamium for the occasion, Donne distances himself from Carr and effectively devalues his poem as gift. Jonson, Campion, and the anonymous author of The Masque of Flowers address the favorite and his king rather than the bride and groom, honoring Carr while acknowledging the threat to social order posed by his relationship with James.

In its examination of these texts and others, Selfish Gifts suggests that the ideals and practices of gift exchange had important implications for the early modern patronage sys tem. Its fresh engagement with well-known texts will appeal to a broad range of readers, while its reconfiguration of the literary-critical models established by Marotti, Dubrow, and others will be of special interest to students of lyric poetry.

Angels and Demons in Art. Rosa Giorgi. Guide to Imagery. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005. 384 pp. 400 color illus. $24.95 ISBN 978-0-89236-830-3.

REVIEWED BY: Timothy Maschke, Concordia University, Wisconsin

Notoriety has its benefits, even for scholars specializing in early modern European his tory. The title of this work may draw ensnared readers of Dan Brown's sequel to The Da Vinci Code, which has the same title sans "in art." While this book is no blasphemous cloak and-dagger fabrication, Rosa Giorgi offers intriguing perspectives in her academic interest in the "symbology" of Christian art. Through high-quality reproductions of exemplary works of art, she discloses the "secret code" of master artists as they depict religious faith or human fears by means of angelic wings or demonic horns.

Only an art historian specializing in iconography, such as Rosa Giorgi, could guide both novice and specialist into an engagingly deeper appreciation of many fascinating reli gious works in the visual arts. This book is the seventh in the J. Paul Getty Museum Guides to Imagery series, including Symbols and Allegories in Art and Gods and Heroes in Art, along

with an earlier project by Giorgi, Saints in Art. It is translated by Rosanna M. Giammanco Frongia from the original Italian, Angeli e demoni (Milan, 2003) and the J. Paul Getty Museum is to be commended for this English edition.

Through brief introductions and explanatory annotations, Giorgi, who has also written on Caravaggio, El Greco, and Velazquez, guides the reader/viewer into a vast realm of reli gious imagery spanning more than two thousand years. Structured around a philosophically

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:28:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Book Reviews 835

metaphysical journey from the netherworld to the heights of heaven, the book begins with creation as Giorgi leads the viewer to see the present in new light of future glory. Exploring a variety of mainly Christian expressions, the work depicts the spectrum of the human imag inative depictions of an unseen supernatural world.

Divided into six somewhat ambiguously or vaguely titled chapters, this handbook pro vides a wealth of information through intriguing illustrations beyond angels and demons. Chapter 1 portrays images from creation and paradise through the fires and flames of limbo and purgatory to the heavenly Jerusalem. Chapters 2 and 3 provide alternate paths for humanity-the Path of Evil leads from the seven deadly sins to the Black Mass, and the Path of Salvation progresses from classical antecedents to saints who battled Satan. Chapter 4 offers images related to the last days, beginning with the ars moriendi and danse macabre, and leading to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Universal Judgment. Infernal and Angelic Cohorts, chapters 5 and 6, display images of Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, and the Antichrist in addition to their classical antecedents, on the one hand, and seraphim, cheru bim, and a plethora of angels and archangels, on the other hand.

Bountifully illustrated, each chapter is divided into subthemes. For example, chapter 3 introduces Hercules at the Crossroads, followed by illustrations of Psychomachy, Overcom ing Temptation, Works of Mercy, Jacob's Ladder, the Ladder of Virtues, the Trials of Job, Prayer and Ecstasy, and finally Saints Who Battled the Devil.

Relevant details or explanations of the iconographic focus in each subsection are intro duced with brief synopses. These subsections include insights into the artists' worldview. In the upper corner of each page of a subsection, a thumbnail reproduction of a painting that exemplifies that category is displayed. Sidebars in each subsection define the name or the category, provide biblical references and sources in related literature, explain characteristics of the category, and note the diffusion of the image through various time periods. Captions for each painting or depiction, usually one per page, note the artist and title, the date of composition and its present location, predominantly from premier European museums. Lacking, however, is the size of the work-some illustrations are nearly actual size, while others are photographs reduced to almost microscopic proportion and nearly unidentifiable detail. Yet, the reproductions are of an acceptable quality for such a reasonably priced guide book. In addition, each picture has illustrative lines that extend from specific objects in the work to marginalia, where Giorgi decodes a particularly intriguing symbol.

The broad focus enables Giorgi's book to depict mystical creatures and divine person ages that range from ancient icons to twentieth-century artworks, with major attention to works in medieval and early modern times. As might be expected by early modern scholars, the work of Hieronymus Bosch is most represented, with eleven paintings depicted. Albrecht Durer's illustrations are second-most-frequently reproduced (eight). Six works are by Rubens, followed by Goya and Jan Van Eyck. Works by Caravaggio, Giotto, Michelan gelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Tintoretto join a few twentieth-century artists, notably Chagall and Picasso.

While no major problems exist with this handbook, a few minor criticisms are in order. Although the format is attractive and exceptionally informative, several two-page reproduc tions are difficult to see because of the book's size (5.25x7.75 inches). A few inevitable errors were identified; for example, sometimes six-winged seraphs are identified as cherubs, and some biblical allusions are misunderstood Job's "leprosy").

Not an encyclopedia, but more than an introduction, this elucidating work provides informative browsing for students and scholars alike with a variety of subjects to stimulate research into Renaissance and early modern religious symbols. Covering the religious and

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:28:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

836 Sixteenth Century Journal XXXVIII/3 (2007)

philosophical worldviews, this introductory anthology will not replace extensive reference works as it leads readers from black masses to beatific visions and from the horrors of hell to the heights of heaven. This book, produced as a handbook for museumgoers and art history students, can serve as a helpful resource for early modern scholars either as a pictorial primer into an expanding area of research or as a guide for graduate students.

<.,.,I\,.,r- 1

Medieval Love Poetry. Ed. John Cherry. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005. 96

pp. 45 color illus. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-89236-839-6.

REVIEWED BY: E. L. Risden, St. Norbert College

Beautiful books, especially beautiful good books, make great gifts. Beautiful, like so many of the Getty Museum volumes, Medieval Love Poetry will make a fine gift, and I take that as its essential purpose. I am happy to have a copy, as will be your Aunt Sally who loves Brother Cadfael mysteries or your college-age brother who is wondering what to get his lat est inamorata, an art history major, for her birthday, or your colleague who likes to have plenty of illustrations to show students a range of examples of medieval art. I readily admit, too, that I like good coffee-table books full of art or travel photos and bubbly description, and this book can satisfy that taste as well.

The stunning plates of manuscript illuminations, inscribed jewelry, and ivory casket lids alone make the volume worth a look. They aptly exhibit both the range and consistency of the art of the Middle Ages. Some of them bring together visuals valuable for literature teach ers (for instance, three of the four illuminations for the unique manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). The printed text, uncramped, and nonintrusive, offers pleasing sentiments to contextualize the visuals. The size of the book (approximately 6x7 inches) and colorful dust jacket with its front-cover illumination from a fourteenth-century Flemish manuscript of the Roman de la Rose add immediate appeal.

Scholars will find a few annoyances-but then the book is not intended for a scholarly audience. EditorJohn Cherry includes brief headnotes on a few important Romances (from which come the majority of the chapter titles) to explain the courtly love idea to which the verses adhere, and the translations remain uncluttered and clear to read.

To elaborate a bit on the annoyances, the title, while brisk and direct, does not exactly represent the contents of the book. The book makes no effort to span or even represent medieval love poetry in general; it has two distinct aims, which the editor notes in the intro duction: to illustrate "poetic" inscriptions of love on medieval jewelry and to provide sample images and brief posies that encapsulate the love sentiments of a few of the most notable

medieval Romances. The illustrations bear clear labels that note their sources, but the writ ten text lacks the same specificity; a list of source texts and further reading appears in the back, but I would rather have something right on the page to indicate what I am reading though I understand why editor and publisher might have found such information superflu ous in a book not really intended for me.

Also the accompanying text is not always a poem; sometimes it is a brief prose selection from the Romance (in translation) that the artwork illuminates or an aphoristic inscription (with no particular poetic qualities) from the work itself. Art and text together aim to pro vide apertures into the recurrent theme amor vincit omnia (love conquers all), which may or may not have been ubiquitous in the Middle Ages. Medieval Love Inscriptions might have fit better, though I understand the difficulty of selecting a title both accurate and catchy upon which both author and publisher can agree.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:28:47 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions