The World/Le Monde - Contrasting the Dodal and Conver

[Ross G Caldwell]

Calvesi was writing about The supper at Emmaus a 1600 ca painting which represents an (almost) "androgynous" Christ.

There is this one from a c. 1600 painting in a convent in Lessines
http://www.notredamealarose.com/coupdoeil.php?a=tableaux&lang=UK
(click on the fifth thumbnail, or first on the second row)

which at least some art historians say is the unique manifestation of the androgynous Christ in art. It is quite stunning!

See - http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/miller.asp

Toward the end of the 16th century, a group of nuns -Augustine sisters of charity -commissioned a painting of Christ. They loved him, they told God and each other, because he gave the world life like a mother gives her baby milk. And so they asked the artist to provide their Jesus with a woman’s hips and breasts.

The painting, Lamentations around the body of Christ, was hung in the nuns’ hospital-convent, Notre-Dame a la Rose in Lessines, now a splendid museum 100 kilometres west of Brussels. But the breasts, concealed under a further coat of paint in the 19th century, remained a secret until 1993. Then the town of Lessines commissioned Ghent art restorer Bart Verbeek to clean the hospital’s collection of paintings.

“Everything seemed normal at first,” says Verbeek, 46, a practising Catholic who had done work for Ghent’s cathedral and museums. “Jesus looked like an ordinary man until I removed the layer of more recent paint. At first, I was afraid it was a hoax. But subsequent tests confirmed that the painting was genuine.”

According to art and theology experts, theories about Christ’s “womanliness” were relatively common during the Middle Ages. The Lamentations, however, is a unique manifestation of this idea in art.

(Marc) Vuidar saves the Lamentations around the body of Christ for the last part of his guided tour. It hangs in a first-floor “bishop’s guest room”, a lavishly-decorated bedroom. In the painting, angels surround Jesus as his fingers close around his left nipple, as if he were lactating. “For the nuns, it made Christ easier to identify with,” says Vuidar. “This is an androgynous Christ who incarnates the virtues of man and woman.”

To a layman, the work might appear heretical but, say theologians, it’s not meant to be taken literally. Saint Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, wrote, “There is neither male, nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” “There was much written in the Middle Ages about Jesus’ womanly qualities,” says William Collinge, author of The Dictionary of Catholicism. “There just aren’t many physical manifestations of this.”

A nun in the Middle Ages was supposed to have two kinds of relationships with Christ. She was to be his faithful (and chaste) bride, and she was to imitate him, in all ways possible. There are even stories of nuns wearing false beards and men’s clothes. In that light, an androgynous Christ appears less surprising.

In this painting, Christ may have been depicted with breasts, but many works, like a well-known Man of Sorrows, focussed on his sexual vitality.

Still, it is reasonable to assume that medieval painters and sculptors produced dozens of androgynous Christs that were later mutilated or overpainted. Thanks to modern restoration techniques, the one in Lessines survived.

It is reasonable to think there were others; this one is exceptional too, but is not a strict analogy, since it is the dead body of Christ, not the resurrected Christ (sorry to be so picky!)

This article appears to categorically state that this is the "unique" surviving respresentation in art (although not in text). We must rely then on luck to find anything like what appears to be shown in some World cards.

Ross

 

[kwaw]

While being similar in many respects to the Vieville [which I agree with Kaplan is akin to Christ as 'king of the jews'], and there are figures of an androgynous Christ [mainly but not exclusively in the Netherlands], I don't personally see the female figure at the centre of the Noblet world as such. She has no halo, plus she has a loin cloth of leaves [like the Dodal and Chafard], which seems more likely to me to identify her with Eve. In the 16th century Eve was often portrayed with Christ in Judgement [and perhaps here we have a conflation of such] in art of a reformist tendency that valued faith and direct knowledge of god, such can be found among the artists of Sienna in the early 1500's [ergo such 'reformist' tendencies were not confined to 'non-catholic' regions]. In eschatological terms [which position in sequence may indicate], the restoration of the world [as it was before the fall] was equated with the redemption of Eve. If Eve there is a possible parallel with the concept of the Anima Mundi, in that both were called the 'Mother of all Living'.

If Eve, then is her 'baton' actually the broken spindle? A symbol of Eve as in the Ghiberti Eve:

 

[kwaw]

If Eve, then is her 'baton' actually the broken spindle? A symbol of Eve as in the Ghiberti Eve:

Ghiberti's Eve is modeled upon the dancing maenad from a Bachanalian Sarcophagus. The sarcophagus was copied by numerous artists and its images used as models in both sculptures and paintings. The dancing maenad is particularly found in abundance in the architecture of Florence. The reliefs of the sarcophagus were reproduced upon the Camino Della Iola, according to some art historians as a wedding allegory for Federigo and his wife Battista Sforza, married in 1460. For Panofsky the Bacchanalian thiasos represented upon the sarcophagus evokes, " an overpowering joy remembered by the votaries of Dionysus as a transitory experience in life and accepted by them as a promise of unending felicity after death." In the 'reconstruction' Orphic theology in the renaissance the dancing maenad was taken as a symbol of the eternal paradise to come whose joys are but momenarily experienced in this life, a glimpse afforded by the ecstatic rites of Dionysus.[Rubinstein]

The figure is also suggestive of figures of the 'anima mundi', sometimes represented on it's own or combined within a cosmograph [such as in Fludd]; as such parallels may be drawn with the concept of the 'New Jerusalem' as both represent the eternal centre.

ref: "A Bacchic sarcophagus in the Renaissance" by Ruth Olitsky Rubinstein, published in the British Museum Yearbook 1 [The Classical Tradition] 1976.

 

[DoctorArcanus]

While being similar in many respects to the Vieville [which I agree with Kaplan is akin to Christ as 'king of the jews'], and there are figures of an androgynous Christ [mainly but not exclusively in the Netherlands], I don't personally see the female figure at the centre of the Noblet world as such.

I agree. I think that Johannes Scotus is interesting from a philosophical point of view, and it makes a lot of sense to me, but I don't think he is relevant for the World card: I was off-topic as usual

I also appreciated the Bible quote in one of the links posted by Ross:

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
​

Going back to the world card, I think that the dancing pose of the female figure is very important.
The images posted by Kwaw are interesting and the fireplace in particular is beautiful. Where is it? Any more information?

Marco

 

[kwaw]

The images posted by Kwaw are interesting and the fireplace in particular is beautiful. Where is it? Any more information?

Marco

The figure of Eve is from the panel on Genesis, part of the Bronze frame on the east doors of the Florentine Baptistry by Ghiberti. The marble chimney piece is in the Ducal Palace of Urbino. The Sarcophagus is in the British Museum. Drawings of it appear among the model books and works of artists from the beginning of the 15th century. It was at the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome until near the end of the 16th century when it was restored and moved by Pope Sixtus V to his Villa Montalto. An essay on the sarcophagus appears in 'The Classical Tradition', the British Museum Yearbook 1, entitled 'A Bacchic sarcophagus in the Renaissance' by R. O. Rubinstein, where both Ghiberti's 'Eve' and the Urbino fireplace are illustrated as examples of its influence and use as a model. In the fireplace the lower of the two friezes, above the figures of Hercules and Iole, reproduces the front relief of sarcophagus with some changes. Instead of the triumphal procession of Bacchus and Ariadne of the sarcophogus, the Camino frieze interprets it as a Triumph of Love, and the snake has been transformed into a scrolling ribbon.

It has often been noted of the TdM world card figure that there is some resemblance to figures of Fortuna. Of Ghiberti's Eve too, modeled upon this dancing maenad from the Bacchic sarcophagus, Rubinstein notes: "She holds a spindle with a broken shaft in her left hand, and her veil, encircling her in a spiral, billows out like Fortuna's sail."

To return then to the iconography of our cards, I think the loin cloth of leaves and the shaft in her hand point to an identification of the figure as 'Eve'. Classical images such as this dancing maenad from the sarcophus were often used as models for other figures, often having very little to distinguish between them except the emblems they carry. Fortuna and Occassio are frequently confused for example, the only difference between them sometimes being that one carries a razor [occasio] and the other a crescent moon [fortuna]. I would suggest the wand in the hand of the TdM figure derives from the broken spindle shaft of Eve from which image it has derived, an identification I think made stronger by the presence of the loin cloth of leaves in the early examples of the image. There are however parallels between Eve and Anima Mundi, both as being the 'Mother of all Living', and perhaps in some decks a transformation has taken place between the two?

Kwaw
ref: "A Bacchic sarcophagus in the Renaissance" by Ruth Olitsky Rubinstein, published in the British Museum Yearbook 1 [The Classical Tradition] 1976.

The marble fireplace also appears in "The Ducal Palace of Urbino. Its Architecture and Decoration." by P. Rotondi, 1969.

 

[kwaw]

While a little off topic, here are a few images I think pertinent to the imagery of the TdM World card in general, noting that the Kerubic animals are also symbols of the four kings or royal stars of persia, there is also the correspondence of the mandorla with the zodiac. Particularly the Melosthenic Man, in which body parts are related to signs of the zodiac, drawing corresponding relationships between macrocosm and microcosm.

One of the most beautiful is the Zodiacal Man from the Book of Hours of the Duc de Berry:

http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=c&a=p&ID=690

Zodiac mosaic from 6th century synagogue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Beit_Alpha.jpg

 

[DoctorArcanus]

Kwaw, thanks for the new information and images: Très riches masterpieces
I will have to go to Urbino and have a look at Hercules and Jole....

Marco

 

[kwaw]

In Eve, we have in the last card a reference to Genesis, so that in the end we have a return to the beginning, perhaps reflecting a neo-platonic element in structure of the sequence.

Taking a 3x7 structure the World in the celestial or upper regions mirrors the Chariot in the lower, the World as macrocosm above reflected in the Chariot as parvus mundum [as it is called in the Steele Sermon], the 'little world' or microcosm below; but also, with Eve as 'Mother of All' symbolising the platonic supernal soul above, we have the Chariot as the platonic concept of the individual soul mirrored below.

The four tetramorph are those upon which the 'Chariot' of the soul is raised to unite with the supernal soul above. In this union of the individual soul with the supernal, according to the Kabbalists: "The righteous causes his unblemished and pure soul to ascend to the supernal holy soul, she unites with her and knows future things."[R. Ezra of Gerona] ..."And this person will be called a prophet, since he is prophesying." [Nahmanides].

[Probably irrelevant, but the hebrew root for prophet and to prophesy is naib, similar to an early name for cards].

Kwaw

ref: Nahmides and Ezra quoted in Kabbalah: New Perspectives by Moshe Idel.

 

[kwaw]

In terms of the tradition of two sexes in one, we may note that Adam Kadmon is androgynous according to many late medieval christian and kabbalistic texts. In Kabbalistic reincarnation doctrine, ADM [Adam], there is the reincarnation of Adam [A} through David [D] and Messiah [M, as 'king of the jews']. Also, in a 'return to the beginning', Adam Kadmon in many Jewish and Christian texts was Androgynous, therefore the return at the end to the beginning possibly may be symbolised by the return of Man [male and female] to an androgynous beginning, reflecting the image of God [male and female] in whom Man is made in 'likeness'.

Though we might find literary evidence of the idea in Western Christian Europe [for example in 12th century neo-platonic school of Chartres], I have been unable to find iconographic evidence of such prior to the 16th century [with the exception perhaps of some alchemical emlemata]. Reformist elements of the TdM, such as of the World card and placement of the Popesse, lead me to consider that the TdM pattern [sequence and iconagraphy] cannot date prior to the 16th century. However, I consider the reformist, neo-platonic pattern of the TdM is a development of the Humanist Platonic patterns of the painted decks of the North Italian city states of the 15th century [we may, for example, perhaps relate the image of the city or new jerusalem images in these decks with the propaganda with made use of the ideal 'City' referencing Plato's 'Republic' at the time, such as by Sforza's secretary Decembrio].

 

[kwaw]

'Coronation of the Virgin' from the 'Book of the Holy Trinity (1415] by the Alchemist Ulmannus.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/kwaw93/TarotSymbolism/entries/787​

In Ulmannus system Mary is crowned by the divine trinity as the divine matrix or anima mundi from which all being springs. Mary [representing the body - moon] sits between the Father [representing the soul and attributed to the Sun] and the Son [representing spirit - Mercury] and above her the dove of the holy spirit, she represents the body [Moon]. In the four corners are the four holy beasts representing [according to the accompanying text in 'Alchemy and Mysticism' by Alexander Roob, p.478]:

Bull, Luke, Fire, Mars
Angel, Mathew, water, Venus
Eagle, John, earth, Saturn
Lion, Mark, air, Jupiter

These [trinity and quartenary] correspond to the seven metals, seven virtues, colours, days of the week and hours of the day. Below is the 'mirror of the holy trinity', a shield with the double headed black eagle dedicated to Emperor Frederick and also as symbol of St. John as patron saint of alchemy. Boehme uses the image of the 'mirror of the trinity' in reference to Sophia: "she is 'the exhaled force' or 'what is found in Nothing, in which father, son and spirit are seen". [Von der Gnadenwahl, 1623].

In reference to alchemy the symbols star, moon and sun are also significant. Here is a picture of StarMoonSun from a woodcut from Rosarium philosophorum [c.1550] illustrating an alchemical poem 'Sol and Luna' [written c.1400].

http://journals.aol.co.uk/kwaw93/TarotSymbolism/entries/785​

The Coronation of the Virgin and the Star.Sun.Moon are further connected in that it appears to me the central image of the coronation of the virgin is perhaps the model for the penultimate illustration in the 'rosarium philosphorum'[from which the star,moon sun image also comes] which shows the being of the alchemist or nature being crowned by the father,son and holy spirit [rather than mary]. In between these are illustrated the process of death and resurrection. Full text [english translation] with illustrations can be found at the excellent alchemical website:

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/texts.html​

The coloured drawing from Ulmanus [c.1415] is also the model for a woodcut print as Emblem 14 in Pandora: quote "This series of 18 woodcuts was first printed in Hieronymus Reusner, Pandora, Basel 1582 (reprinted in 1588). This was later printed with engraved versions of the woodcuts as Johann Michael Faust, Compendium alchymist, novum, sive Pandora explicata... Frankfurt, 1706. This series of emblems is based on one of the earliest German alchemical manuscripts Der buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit. There are 15 manuscripts known of this work the first copies of which have been dated to 1415-16. Many of these manuscripts have a series of coloured drawings on which the printed emblems were based."

See Emblem 14 here: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/amcl_pandora.html​

quote text to Emblem 14 from pandora:
"Imbibition of the body. Above a shield, which bears the picture of a crowned woman supporting Christ crucified as a double-headed eagle (as in the previous emblem), a Christ figure holding an orb labelled 'corpus', places a crown on the head of a woman, labelled 'anima'. Beside them an old man or Father figure, labelled 'sapientia' watches. From above the winged dove of the Holy Spirit descends, bearing the label 'terra'. At the four corners stand the winged symbols of the Evangelists, The eagle of John, the lion of Mark, the bull of Luke and the man or angel of Matthew." End quote [text from the alchemical website here: http://www.alchemywebsite.com/s_pandor.html]

So it appears the central female figure of `Mary' is also interpreted as `anima', giving us an example of a figure of `anima' together with the `four holy beasts'.

Of the double headed black eagle: "Turning to particular examples, some of the earliest seem to be the figures from Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit (circa 1400) and its later version Hieronymus Reusner's Pandora (1588), which use both heraldicized images and actual coats-of-arms. The main motif is the black double-headed eagle intended to denote the Philosopher's Stone, and some of the more complex heraldic devices incorporating that symbol represent the whole process of the Magnum Opus. The double headed eagle divided vertically ("per pale" in heraldic language) and with each half of a different colour is also present in De alchimia (16th c.) attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas as well as in some earlier alchemical treatises." Quote from: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/hermhera.html

The later engraved copies show it was an ongoing image or model used in alchemy, the later engraved copies have some more details, such as the inscription identifying the central female figure as anima. The alchemical imagery is of course based upon traditional trinitarian iconography, but replacing the 'globe' of the world with the anima. For example from the book of hours of the duc de berry, 1380, which also includes the four holy beasts:

http://gallery.euroweb.hu/art/zgothic/miniatur/1402-450/tresbell/06n_1400.jpg​

The replacement with anima mundi reflects a platonic influence through John Scotus and the school of chartre Peter Abelarde, William of Conches. It was also an influence upon the feminine theology of Hildegard. Concious though that it been declared in 'error' by the cistercians [Bernard of Clairvaux, 'De erroribus Abaelardi] she avoids the use of the anima mundi directly, replacing it with the figure of 'Caritas', though it is obvious from the speech of Caritas that she is none other than 'anima mundi', comparable to the Shekinah of jewish mysticism, the spirit of wisdom that 'fills the whole earth', the goddess Natura of medieval poetry [Newman]. As 'anima mundi' crowned within the almond laurel wreath she is the world [cosmos, universe] as a mirror of the trinity, the sensible world as a book in which one may 'read' the attributes and power of G-d in his trinitarian unity [the world, the year, the soul/body, each with their own 'trinitarian' sublayer, ie past, present, future; breadth, width, depth; life, work and reason], a trinitarian image often composed together with symbols of the quarternary, paralleling the ubiquitous image of the 'table of temperaments' from Isadore of Seville's 'De Natura Rerum'. If we are right to see in the female figure of the TdM an image of the anima mundi I think we are also right to note that after such an intepretation was declared 'in error' by the cistercian such imagery was not used, or at least was very rare, in any orthodox source, and in fact after the 13th century is only to be found commonly in alchemical texts wherein the astrological and alchemical symbolism of the four holy beasts are prevalent. I think we are justified therefore in considering the full multivalent symbolism of the four beasts and not just restrict them, as has been suggested, as symbols of the four evangelists 'only'. We may also note that eschatological symbolism and alchemical allegory are connected in 'spiritual' alchemy, each narrating in their own way a 'spiritual rebirth' or path of salvation, and that in alchemy 'new jerusalem' itself is taken as a symbol of the final outcome itself, the philisophers stone and spiritual rebirth, the 'crowning of the magi'.

Anima Mundi from 16th century alchemical text ->http://gfx.tarot.com/about-tarot/library/boneill/World11.jpg​

The Anima Mundi was also identified as the Holy Spirit and as such we may find some comparison with the Tower card through Hildegards 'Tower of the Church' in the 'Tower'. Her 'Tower' represents 'ecclessia sustained by the holy spirit, which kindles fiery virtues. Some of her children remain faithful, while others attack her.' The image is from 'Scivias II.4' and reproduced in Barbara Newman's 'Sister of Wisdom' p.217. The great 'fire' like flames of the tower represent the great light of the holy spirit, which the tower represents.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/kwaw93/TarotSymbolism/entries/786​

The image of tower with title 'house of god' may imply in the TdM the 'tower' is to be identified with the 'church', which is at variance with the Turris Ecclesia of St. Hildegard in that the Turris [tower] and Ecclessia [Church] though connected are seperate and cannot be taken, for reasons of dogma, as interchangeable with each other. The tower and the church [represented by the allegorical female figure of Ecclesia] in St. Hildegarde do not 'both' represent the church, rather they represent the relationship between the 'holy spirit' [the phallic tower] and the Church as Bride [ecclessia]. In the TdM however the tower is identified as the 'house of god', which possibly reflects the unorthodox and platonic influenced schools which sought to identify the holy spirit with the anima mundi, the tower as a symbol of the cosmos in which the holy spirit of god dwells. The identification of the holy spirit with the anima mundi was part of the neo-platonic influence of the 13th century inspired by the spread of the works of John Scotus which was rejected as unorthodox by the church fully aware of the inherent pantheistic implications. Despites its rejection by the orthodox church the concept remained within sub-cultural sidehoots such as alchemy and culminating in and expounded upon within the Christian platonic schools of the 15th century Italian renaissance.

Kwaw