Marvelous Mechanical Bodies in Sixteenth-Century Joyous Entries in Antwerp and Vienna

This paper explores the mechanized performance of fealty by marvelous mechanical bodies in early modern joyous entries in northern Europe. Colossal sculptures and paintings allegedly bowed to Philip II in 1549 and Duke François of Anjou in 1582 during their entries into Antwerp, and to Rudolf II in his 1577 entry into Vienna. I will investigate how these automated bodies meshed with the discourses of these spectacular entries. Contemporary theories of meraviglia suggest a body that conspicuously crossed the boundary between inert sculpture and animated being could still the audience into statuesque spectators, thus calling attention to the wondrousness of the machine’s manufacture as well as the wondrousness of the animating sovereign’s presence. By connecting these mechanical marvels to literary conventions of artificial bodies and automata in late sixteenth-century elite society, we can better understand why these fealty-performing bodies would have been considered ideal signals of courtly power.

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1. Marvelous Mechanical Bodies in Sixteenth-Century Joyous Entries in Antwerp and Vienna Matthew Lincoln @matthewdlincoln University of Maryland, College Park Renaissance Society of America, March 2014
2. The Giant Druon Antigoon in the Entry of Philip II, 1549 Grapheus, Cornelius, and Julius Scaliger, La tresadmirable, tresmagnificque, [et] triumphante entree, du treshault [et] trespuissant Prince Philipes…Anno 1549. Pieter Cocke van Aelst, 1550. British Library
3. Title page from Grapheus, Cornelius, and Julius Scaliger, La tresadmirable, tresmagnificque, [et] triumphante entree, du treshault [et] trespuissant Prince Philipes… Anno 1549. Pieter Cocke van Aelst, 1550. British Library (Shelfmark C.75.d.15)
4. Arch with namesakes of Philip II
5. The Giant Druon Antigoon
7. La ioyeuse [et] magnifique entrée de monseigneur Francoys, fils de France… Antwerp: Plantin, 1582. British Library (Shelfmark c.22.c.12)
8. The Giant Druon Antigoon in the Entry of Francois, duke of Anjou and Alençon, 1582
9. Frans Hogenberg, Francis enters the Grote Markt, 1582, broadsheet etching, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
12. Jef Lambeaux, Silvius Brabo fountain in the Grote Markt, Antwerp, 1887
13. Jef Lambeaux, Silvius Brabo fountain in the Grote Markt, Antwerp, 1887
14. Adriaen de Vries Bust of Rudolf II, 1603 Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Giuseppe Arcimboldo Rudolf II as Vertumnus, 1590 Sklokloster Palace, Sweden
15. “On this [painted] board is superimposed a single independent board, on which Europe is represented, and which is designed so that she can bend her head and knees in a decent and civil motion with the rest of her body…” “On the opposite side Austria is pictured in the guise of a graceful and elegant girl, dressed in red and white, and which is set up to bow reverentially to his Imperial Majesty…” Fol. 19v from the “Description of the Ceremonial Entry of Emperor Rudolf II into Vienna, 17 July 1577, and of the Ehrenpforte erected by the City of Vienna, submitted to the City Council by Dr. Paulus Fabritius, Imperial Physician and Court Mathematicus.” (Niederösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Stände Archiv, A 9/26, fol. 10r-21r) Latin original published in Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, The Mastery of Nature: Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in the Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993): 215-216.
16. “On this [painted] board is superimposed a single independent board, on which Europe is represented, and which is designed so that she can bend her head and knees in a decent and civil motion with the rest of her body…” “On the opposite side Austria is pictured in the guise of a graceful and elegant girl, dressed in red and white, and which is set up to bow reverentially to his Imperial Majesty…” Fol. 19v from the “Description of the Ceremonial Entry of Emperor Rudolf II into Vienna, 17 July 1577, and of the Ehrenpforte erected by the City of Vienna, submitted to the City Council by Dr. Paulus Fabritius, Imperial Physician and Court Mathematicus.” (Niederösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Stände Archiv, A 9/26, fol. 10r-21r) Latin original published in Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, The Mastery of Nature: Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in the Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993): 215-216.
17. “On this [painted] board is superimposed a single independent board, on which Europe is represented, and which is designed so that she can bend her head and knees in a decent and civil motion with the rest of her body…” “On the opposite side Austria is pictured in the guise of a graceful and elegant girl, dressed in red and white, and which is set up to bow reverentially to his Imperial Majesty…” Fol. 19v from the “Description of the Ceremonial Entry of Emperor Rudolf II into Vienna, 17 July 1577, and of the Ehrenpforte erected by the City of Vienna, submitted to the City Council by Dr. Paulus Fabritius, Imperial Physician and Court Mathematicus.” (Niederösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Stände Archiv, A 9/26, fol. 10r-21r) Latin original published in Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, The Mastery of Nature: Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in the Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993): 215-216.
19. Johannes Müller von Königsberg (a.k.a. Regiomontanus) (1436-1476)
20. Leonardo da Vinci, Design for a programmable automata (proposed base for Leonardo’s Lion?), Codex Atlanticus, f. 812 r, ex 296 v-a Proposed reconstruction with flower mechanism; Taddei, Mario. I robot di Leonardo da Vinci, 2007.
22. Tableaux vivant with allegorical figures and an actor playing Philip II.
24. Frontispiece to Emanuele Tesauro, Il cannocchiale aristotelico. Venezia, Paolo Baglioni, 1655
25. Hendirck Goltzius, “Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze”, 1599-1602. Pen and brown ink, brush and oils, on blue-gray prepared canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
26. Joris Hoefnagel, illuminator (1591-96); Georg Bocskay, scribe (1561-62), Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta, fol. 20r. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu
27. Cosimo Castrucci, Landscape with Bridge and Church. 1596. Pietre dure. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Kunstkammer 3037.
28. Southern German goldsmith, Nautilus Cup, c. 1580-1610. The Thomson Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario.
29. Tabletop Automataon, Hans Schlottheim, Augsburg, 1585, gilt silver and clockwork. KHM, Vienna
30. Anonymous artist, Mechanical picture, 1771, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris
31. Anonymous artist, Mechanical picture, 1771, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris
32. Frans Hogenberg, Francis enters the Grote Markt, 1582, broadsheet etching, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam