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.

Transcript

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
   

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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
   

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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)
   

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4. Arch with namesakes of Philip II
   

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5. The Giant Druon Antigoon
   

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7. La ioyeuse [et] magnifique entrée de monseigneur Francoys, fils de
   France… Antwerp: Plantin, 1582.
   British Library
   (Shelfmark c.22.c.12)
   

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8. The Giant Druon Antigoon in the Entry of Francois, duke of Anjou and Alençon, 1582
   

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9. Frans Hogenberg, Francis enters the Grote Markt, 1582, broadsheet etching, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
   

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12. Jef Lambeaux, Silvius Brabo fountain in the Grote Markt, Antwerp, 1887
    

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13. Jef Lambeaux, Silvius Brabo fountain in the Grote Markt, Antwerp, 1887
    

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14. Adriaen de Vries
    Bust of Rudolf II, 1603
    Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
    Giuseppe Arcimboldo
    Rudolf II as Vertumnus, 1590
    Sklokloster Palace, Sweden
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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19. Johannes Müller von Königsberg (a.k.a.
    Regiomontanus) (1436-1476)
    

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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.
    

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22. Tableaux vivant with allegorical figures and an actor
    playing Philip II.
    

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24. Frontispiece to Emanuele Tesauro, Il
    cannocchiale aristotelico. Venezia, Paolo
    Baglioni, 1655
    

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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.
    

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26. Joris Hoefnagel, illuminator (1591-96); Georg Bocskay,
    scribe (1561-62), Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta, fol. 20r.
    J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu
    

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27. Cosimo Castrucci, Landscape with Bridge and Church. 1596. Pietre
    dure. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Kunstkammer 3037.
    

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28. Southern German goldsmith,
    Nautilus Cup, c. 1580-1610.
    The Thomson Collection, Art
    Gallery of Ontario.
    

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29. Tabletop Automataon, Hans Schlottheim, Augsburg, 1585, gilt silver
    and clockwork. KHM, Vienna
    

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30. Anonymous artist, Mechanical picture, 1771, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris
    

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31. Anonymous artist, Mechanical picture, 1771, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris
    

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32. Frans Hogenberg, Francis enters the Grote Markt, 1582, broadsheet etching, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
    

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