Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Mastery of Nature. Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in
the Renaissance. by Thomas Da Costa Kaufmann
Review by: Wolfgang Brückle
Source: Renaissance Quarterly , Autumn, 1997, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 932-
934
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of
America

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3039309

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 932 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

of papal primacy and one of the key Prague," Kaufmann broke new ground
proponents of German nationalism. with a revised interpretation of the
As one reads D'Amico's study on artistic culture at the Prague court un-
Maffei's Apologeticus and the three der Rudolf II. The author now has
pieces on German humanism, it be- published a collection of essays to ex-
comes clear that the Reformation was tend his previous discussion. Several of
instigated by both German theology the seven essays were initially pub-
and a political mode of thinking that lished in scattered locations; one of
had European resonances. In fact, I them appears here for the first time.
would argue that Hutten and Luther's The exemplary quality of the Kauf-
challenge to the temporal/political mann's work lies in the breadth of his
power of the papacy, a challenge fu- analysis which reaches far beyond nar-
eled largely by the humanists' reno- row art-historical focus. Kaufmann
vatio Romae, as noted above, was synthesizes his profound knowledge of
shared by all the major European pow- social, artistic, religious and scientific
ers, including Spain, the bulwark of issues and demonstrates how these for-
European Catholicism. This challenge ces influenced the formation of what
led to the calamity of the Sack of has been identified as the Mannerism
Rome of 1527 and to the eventual de- of the Rudolfian era, an artistic devel-
mise of the renovatio Romae in Rome. opment previously often regarded pe-
As expected in a collection of this culiar at best, or considered even banal
nature, the work suffers from some or sectarian.
repetitions (the recurring sketch of The first essay in the book may
Maffei, for example) and from some serve as an introduction to the study.
technical remisses (references to pagi- The author explains trompe l'oeil
nation of volumes where the articles nature studies, especially those of the
were first published). On the whole, court artist Hoefnagel, as part of a
however, the collection does provide genre enjoying independent status at
an insight into D'Amico's professional the Prague court. This essay allows the
interests and scholarly activities, as reader to gain insight into continuities
Paul Grendler maintains in his intro- of religious pursuit and artistic
duction. As such, it is a worthy tribute conceptions during the transitional
to a highly competent young scholar cultural time period from the fifteenth
whose career was cut short by an un- century, during the time of Durer,
timely death. Erasmus, and Melanchthon until the
ANGELO MAZZOCCO Prague court around 1600. Further,
Mount Holyoke College Kaufmann interprets the development
of trompe l'oeil effects, particularly
those decorating the margins of
Netherlandish book illuminations, as
Thomas Da Costa Kaufmann. The being linked to the then popular
Mastery of Nature. Aspects cfArt, Sci- wayfaring Christian piety and a sense
ence, and Humanism in the Renais- of privacy which allowed such aes-
sance. Princeton: Princeton Univer- thetic innovation. Unfortunately, the
sity Press, 1993. $39.95. author does not set into context the
In his 1985 monograph "L'ecole de phenomenon he describes with the in-

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 REVIEWS 933

creasing general prevalenc

affairs at the Prague court is dis-
istic painting in Europe since the entangled in Kaufmann's interesting
fifteenth century. His attempt to discussion of the events surrounding
establish a new interpretation that can the entry of Rudolf II in Vienna in
serve as a general explanation for the 1577. Based on documentary evidence,
appearance of illusionistic illustration Kaufmann is able to elucidate the role
therefore lacks a crucial link in the of the physician and astronomer
argumentation. Furthermore, the pi- Fabricius who, as a member of the
ous collection of dead specimens in Vienna court academy, played a pi-
books is in contradiction to the votal role in designing the decoration
trompe l'oeil effect which derives its
for the procession. Fabricius consulted
characteristic vividness from con- with the court painter Spranger on
templation of living organisms. specific aspects of the decoration,
Especially interesting is induding a depiction of the Ptolemean
Kaufmann's successful interpretation
terrestrial and the Copernican celestial
of Arcimboldo's famous bust spheres combined with a figure of
paintings. The author rejects the long
Pegasus, symbol of virtue and support
held notion that the "learned of artistic aspiration. (This motif
Egyptian" frolicked in the creation possibly
of derives from royal French
simple visual games by assembling a iconography, since the entry of Henry
variety of objects. He argues con- II in Rouen in 1550 also featured the
vincingly that the curious portraits display of a Pegasus appearing in the
present a sophisticated, if hidden, center of a terrestrial sphere and
symbolic claim to royal power over surrounded by a circle of fire. Was the
the kingdom of nature, and, by Rudolfian iconography more often
extension, within the monarchy. indebted to French sources? Another
Arcimboldo's "grilli" cannot be parallel indicating this is found in
explained any longer as the artistic Jiirgen Muller, "Per aspera ad astream.
whim of a self-conscious Renaissance Eine neue ikonographische In-
mind, but as a meaningful and terpretation of B. Sprangers Triumph
complex statement. The author un- der Weisheit," in: Ekkehart Mai et al
covers a more appropriate definition eds., Die Malerei Antwerpens [Cologne
of "grilli" in a German translation of 1994], 47-57.) Kaufmann concludes hi
Rabelais's Gargantua from 1575. In the discussion of the Prague court with a
preface, the translator Johann Fischart analysis of the concept of the Kunst-
discusses the word not as a hu- kammer assembled by Rudolf II.
moresque piece in the tradition of Extending the discussion of one of his
Pliny, but in connection with the previous publications, the author
image of the Greek satyr Silenus, continues to revise the traditional view
whose grotesque appearance concealed of the Kunstkammer as an esoteric
his internal seriousness. The possible secluded space, previously regarded as
further application of Kaufmann's a man-made paradise serving escapist
thesis to elements of humor in Re- notions. Instead, he stresses Rudolf's
naissance culture may reveal similarly serious ambition to figuratively
interesting parallels. emphasize the concept of royal power
The dense network of cultural through the display of the intricately

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 934 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

organized collection to a select The standard set in this intelligent

audience. Rudolf's pursuit book may serve as a model for the
symbolically embraces the Habsburg
future.
ambition to hegemony, although it WOLFGANG BRUCKLE
may not have been free of wishful Hamburg, Germany
autosuggestive thinking. Overall,
Rudolf follows the Aristotelian ideal
of noble distractions befitting a
member of the aristocracy, Robert C. Evans. Jonson and the
characteristic also of other European
Contexts of His Time. Lewisburg:
courts. Bucknell University Press, 1994.
Only one of the essays digresses xiv + 226 pp. $37.50.
from the focus of the book on the In Robert Evans's third book on
Prague court. It discusses the complex Ben Jonson since 1989, he offers his
genealogy of the shadow theory, the readers a miscellany of historical con-
scientific explanation of the visual texts. Much of Jonson and the Contexts
phenomenon. Although worthwhile of His Time presents "new archival
reading, one could envision other evidence" (xiii) bearing on various of
contributions in its place, Jonson's plays, masques, or poems, or
supplementing the main thrust of builds on - and, in certain instances,
Kaufmann's work which centers recycles - scholarship now remote but
around Habsburg culture. For still valuable to the project of our un-
example, a systematic analysis of thederstanding more fully Jonson's recep-
intellectual and religious currents of
tion of and by his contemporaries. The
the art at the Prague court and the conservative kind of historicism Evans
historicizing attitude of its renascence practices here owes far more to the
(as seen in the DUrer renaissance) could archival pursuits of a G.E. Bentley
have been further thematized. Also, than to the new historicism with
considering the interest of Kaufmann's which his work has been bracketed in
book for a varied readership, a reviews of his companion study, Ben
translation of the appended source Jonson and the Poetics of Patronage
texts would have been useful. (Bucknell University Press, 1989). At
Overall, the author's ambitious its best, Evans's finds extend Bentley's
investigation illustrates the close and D.H. Craig's important work of
interrelation of cultural historic forces,historical retrieval and collection, in-
shows how useless monocausal historic cluding the documenting of previously
explanations have become and unpublished allusions to Jonson. His
illustrates how necessary it has become
latest book also augments our still
scanty knowledge of Jonson's relations
to amalgamate research from different
scholarly fields to form a viable to key patrons in his Caroline years,
historic explanation. Kaufmann among them Newcastle, Weston, and
Digby. If the organizational weak-
proclaims the "conquest of reality" as
the cultural paradigm of early nesses of Jonson and the Contexts of His
modernism, and this thesis Time are glaring, individual chapters
appropriately describes the will be of durable interest to other
meritorious results of his own work.
scholars in the field.

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