DOCUMENTATION | Exhibitions: 1648 - War and Peace in Europe |
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Essay Volumes > Tome II: Art and culture |
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MARTIN KNAUER
War as Memento Mori
The function and significance of the series of engravings in the Thirty Years' War |
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Theatrum belli OR THE HORRORS OF WAR
Les Misères et les malheurs de la guerre (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War), the title of Jacques Callot's famous series of etchings, has long become a familiar point of reference, reiterated in numerous exhibitions. [1] This is hardly surprising, given that even a cursory glance is enough to engrave upon the memory the images of bloodthirsty attacks, pillaging, murder and wretched soldiers in the throes of death. While the visual impressions they give do correspond closely to the descriptions provided by chronicles, eye witness reports and other contemporary sources, [2] they beg the question as to the value of such illustrations as portrayals of war. Do they in fact "authentically" document the horrors of the Thirty Years' War?
Today it seems perfectly natural to speak of war as a sociopolitical phenomenon, as a product of misguided government policy, social or economic pressure. [3] Yet to what extent do such concepts coincide with 17 [th]-century attitudes to the violence of war? More specifically, can a portrayal by Callot or Franck of a military attack represent war in the same way as the twentieth-century war images - or rather anti-war images - to which we are accustomed, siding with the victims and railing against the perpetrators? [4] Apparently not, especially given the fact that, in the areas where the Thirty Years' War raged its fiercest, war events were never the predominant pictorial theme. [5]
There is much evidence to suggest that, at the time, the Thirty Years' War with all its epidemics and famines was widely regarded as a form of just retribution or even quite simply as heralding the Day of Judgement. War could thus be perceived as a divine sign in much the same way as various earthly and cosmic "miracles". On the other hand, it is typical of the mindset of the day that it was not peace, but bellum omnium in omnes that was regarded as characterising the natural state of things. [6] Given a situation in which death was part and parcel of everyday life and a sudden early demise the rule rather than the exception, it may not have been considered particularly out of the ordinary to lay down one's life in war. War, like death, remained something beyond the scope of human ken. What was important was not so much death itself as the manner of dying. [7]
In 1612 the Dutch poet Daniel Heinsius wrote "Theatrum est hic orbis in quo Natura hominem collocavit". [8] For those living in the time of the Thirty Years' War the events on the battlefield were merely one chapter in that great theatrum mundi that is the "Schaw=Platz der Geschichten der Welt" (scene of the histories of the world) as it says in the foreword to the first volume of Theatrum Europeum published in 1635. [9] When the Great Council met at Osnabrück in 1648, it seemed to the representatives of Nuremberg that the last war was "das blutige theatrum belli [...], auff welchem viel grewliche tragoedien diese Zeitt über gespielt worden" (the bloody theatrum belli [...] where many gruesome tragedies have been played during these times). [10] A copy of Franck's sequence has survived under the title ?Kriegstheater?. [11] The designation, meaning "theatre of war" is probably derived from the frontispiece figure, an officer with sash and staff atop Fortuna's globe, framed by a stage curtain (fig. 1). It is not entirely clear whether this is in fact intended as a theatrical reference. Certainly, the manner of fastening, like the pinning back of a cloth, does lend the impression of a painted backdrop, and as such it presents the spectator with a puzzle picture fluctuating somewhere between surface and space, reality and theatre, metaphor and documentation.
Capriccio and Soldatenbüchlein
In order to grasp the deeper context of war, judgement and death, we have to consider the series of engravings as a medium in its own right. The war sequences of the 17 [th] century were described variously as Capriccio or Soldatenbüchlein. Distinguishing between these two groups permits us to document the individual objectives of military pictorial series. The terms used do not represent any hermetic categories or independent artistic genres, but are simply an expression of different visual expectations and applications. Whereas the Capriccio is first and foremost a free interpretation of the client's pictorial model or demand for representation, the Soldatenbüchlein is to be regarded as a guideline for military training and a call to arms. In other words, the Capriccio would appear to cater to an artistic or aesthetic interest, whereas the Soldatenbüchlein is primarily a practical instrument.
At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War a considerably abridged version of Jacob de Gheyn's Exercise of Arms was published by Peter Isselburg in Nuremberg under the title Kuenstliche Waffenhandlung. [12] Probably the most important book of military theory of the early 17 [th] century [13], it was written in the wake of Johann von Nassau's military reform and formed the basis for a large number of diverse Kriegsbüchlein, or "booklets on war". [14]. It was subsequently surpassed in popularity only by Wallhausen's Kriegskunst. [15]
The first edition of 1607 contained 117 copperplate engravings based on drawings by De Gheyn. [16] In three separate sections, these provide instruction on the necessary techniques for handling muskets, pikes and matchlocks (harquebuses). Isselburg, himself a copperplate engraver, omitted the portrayals of the latter - "gemeine Rohr und Schuetzen" - in his later edition, because, as he noted in the introduction, the harquebus was no longer in common use. At the same time, he reduced the format from folio (with engravings measuring approx. 17.5 x 27 cm) to quarto and included two figures on each plate instead of one. The express aim of the publisher was to provide a more compact, more accessible and cheaper Soldatenbüchlein in keeping with the needs of the troops. The use of the diminutive suffix "lein" in the title not only reflected common contemporary usage, but also indicated a practical aim. The "umb mehrer bequaemblichkeit willen in dieses kleine Format auffs new gefertigte Wercklein" (little work re-produced in this small format for reasons of greater convenience) was intended for every reader "besonders aber alle Ehrliebende[n] Soldaten / unnd der Kriegsuebung zu wissen Begirige / solches umb ein geringes Geldt zu wegen bringen (könnten)" (but especially so that all honour-loving soldiers / and those eager to learn the exercises of war / can afford it for little money), as stated in the introduction.
Military breviers of this kind were intended not only to explain the use of weaponry and present the various individual types of troops, but also had the important function of attracting new recruits. Recent research indicates that it proved increasingly difficult in the course of the 17 [th] century for warlords to secure the loyalty of their soldiers and to recruit new ones. [17] Depictions of magnificently equipped bearers of arms thus had a certain role model function. They were intended to attract the reader to military service, offering the mercenary, in particular, the opportunity of identifying with his profession. The idea of attracting recruits had also been the prime motivation behind the 16th century portrayals of the lansquenet or mercenary footsodlier. Often satirical in tone, these engravings, which were generally issued as single-page prints, offered an escape from urban restriction and feudal dependence. They lured recruits with portrayals of foreign climes, arousing the desire for a life of freedom and adventure.
The Soldatenbüchlein of Lukas Kilian [18] published in Augsburg in 1609 also falls within the category of occupationally specific propaganda. The arms and weaponry it shows are those of contemporary footsoldiers. [19] The illustrations are based on the pattern estalished by De Gheyn. The prima plana or first page of the mustering list presents the figures of flautist, company commander and medic. The accompanying verses are particularly important. [20] The introductory rhyme, for example, clearly calls upon the lansquenet to strengthen his military resolve: "Wolauff jr wackere[n] Soldaten / Thut dises Buechlins nit entrathen / Dann es auffmuntern kann den Mann / Das ers frischer greiffet an" (Good health to you fine soldiers / do not dismiss this little book / for it can encourage a man / to attack with refreshed strength)(fig. 2). Kilian obviously aims to raise the prestige of armed service to that of any other occupation, thereby countering any doubts concerning the legitimacy of combat.
The purpose of the Soldatenbüchlein makes it quite clear that the prints it contains are not to be divided into categories of "free" art and "unfree" illustration. The very term "Büchlein" (literally "booklet" or "little book") can be understood beyond its specific format within the context of the day. When Sandrart mentions Callot's "Cappric[c]io-Büchlein" or when he speaks of the war series as a "verwunderlichen Büchlein genannt Le Misere della Guerre als ein besonder ausgesonnenes Werk von des Krieges Jammer, Elend und Noht" (wondrous booklet called Le Misere della Guerre, a particularly well conceived work on the misery, wretchedness and penury of war) [21] we can actually assume that he is indeed talking about a bound book or pamphlet in which the copperplate engravings were originally inserted.
A second category of military pictorial cycles is based on the capriccio. This important art historical concept was originally a musical term describing a work of lively fancy, a witty and whimsical invention or idea. [22] In the course of the 17 [th] century, capricci eventually came to stand primarily for variations on a single theme - that of war. Battle depictions of various kinds were particularly popular in Italy. [23] It was there that Stefano della Bella produced his six engravings entitled Varij Capricij Militarij [24] around 1641, just a few years after the Strasbourg-born artist Johann Wilhelm Baur had likewise created a fifteen-part series entitled CAPRICCI DI VARIE BATTALGLIE. [25] Baur's sea battles and cavalry combat are fraught with tension. While the battle scenes themselves are depicted as dramatic events, they cannot be historically pinpointed, for the aim of the series, as the title suggests, is to portray soldiers, arms and weaponry in a positive light.
Not all sequences depicting war scenes with the typical characteristics of the capriccio actually bear this name. In spite of its title, Stefano della Bella's six-part series ET PACE ET BELLO makes no statement on either war or peace. [26] The engravings were commissioned by the Marquis de Mauluerie, a naval officer in the service of Louis XIII. The attractive title page with its castle entrance flanked by mighty towers is followed by the familiar panorama of battle scenes: sea battle, horseback duel, cavalry behind the lines. All in all, there is a distinct preference for equestrian scenes. Jan Martszen the Younger is known mainly for his cavalry battles. There is a capriccio by Albert Flamens showing only equestrian combat. [27]
None of the series described has any obvious connection with the actual circumstances of the Thirty Years' War. It should be borne in mind, however, that, with few exceptions, these series of prints were produced and published outside Germany. The capriccio as a portrayal of war and battle did not act as a description of "reality" but possessed a decorative function instead. [28] Depictions of this kind were created first and foremost for a specific clientele of artistocratic officers and collectors with an interest in all things military. By contrast, the illustrated Soldatenbüchlein are purely functional, though not necessarily "neutral" prints whose contents can be more or less defined (according to Rainer Wohlfeil) as "technologically factual".
The series of war and soldier portrayals by Hans Ulrich Franck [29] and the artist known by the monogram CR [30] possess the superficial characteristics of both the capriccio and the Soldatenbüchlein. Whereas Franck's work is characterised by the apparently arbitrary use of popular military motifs such as direct combat and horsemanship, the second series is dominated by scenes from the soldier's life. First comes the gartender Landsknecht or lansquenet, his initial successes and his ignominious end. Unlike the war series mentioned earlier, however, the two cycles are based on a concept that goes beyond the decorative depiction of battle panoramas and idyllic scenes lauding the life of the lansquenet. Featuring misfortune, planetary influences and admonitions of a sinner's death, both sequences pronounce sweeping judgements on the soldier's life. This is particularly evident in the thematic emphasis of the cover and end plate, which serve to bracket all the other illustrations within a more or less hermetic programme of Christian moral argumentation.
Fortuna and the gods of war
Fortuna, that "vehicle of the human will and its constant frustration" [31] is regarded as the most important deity of the Renaissance. In the 17 [th] century there was an extraordinary interest in this two-sided figure that could change from Fortuna bona to Fortuna mala at any time. "Glück und Vnglück wendet sich alle Augenblick" (fortune and misfortune turn at any moment) and "Hier ist beständig nichts / als unbeständigkeit" (here nothing is constant / but inconstancy) wrote Christoph Lehmann and Paul Fleming during the Thirty Years' War. [32]
Apart from reflecting a general prevailing mood, the motif of Fortuna was also specifically applied in the analysis of current war events. This can be shown by way of example of illustrated single prints. The image of fickle fortune may have seemed particularly appropriate when a military endeavour appeared doomed to failure right from the start. The Austrian peasant uprising of 1626, for example, is cited in one such print as evidence of the "Thumbkuenheit der Menschen / welche gleichsamb ex desperatione, das wandelbare Gluecksrad / nach ihrem Willen und Gefallen / zu erzwingen sich vnterfangen" (foolish audacity of people / who through desperation seek to force the fickle wheel of fortune / according to their will and pleasure). Such a revolt, it maintains, obviously has as little chance of success as the Peasants' Revolt a hundred years previously, because it is "allein auff Glueck fundiret" (founded upon fortune alone). [33]
The enormous risk to life and property made war a game of all or nothing. Those daring enough to take that risk were, in the eyes of their contemporaries, quite literally soldiers of fortune. One such figure shown in a Genoese genealogy bears remarkable compositional similarities to the work of Franck (fig 3). [34] The officer on the globe is not parading in contemporary cuirass but in knightly armour, and one half of his body belongs to a player with a lute. In other words, the soldier of fortune is a gambler whose fortune is as readily won as lost. The globe of Fortuna also has another significance as a Vanitas metaphor. [35] In the course of the 17 [th] century the glass sphere came to be transformed into the soap bubble, perhaps the most poignant symbol of earthly transience. In the work of Franck the fickle fortunes of war are condensed into a Theatrum fortunae [36] whose fateful outcome is already charted from the very beginning. The illustration and accompanying motto warn against the violent and ignominious end which the series by the monogrammist CR presents as the other, sadder, side of the soldier's life.
The cover prints by the monogrammist CR show the planetary gods of war Mars (fig. 4) and Saturn (fig. 5). Aligned in mirror image, these two sets of twelve plates each represent the "good" and "bad" aspects of a soldier's life. Beneath the deities we can read the following inscriptions:
(Mars)
"Ob ich gleich Wütent Gott zeig hir mein Wehr vnd Waffn /
So kann doch auch zugleich, die Kunst viel nutzn schaffn."
("Though I present arms here as an irate god / this may also be of much use in art.")
(Saturn)
"Gleich wie mein Vortrab Mars, Sein Kindr Heil v. glüg, /
zeigt in den fördern buch So geht doch hier zurück, /
Al ihr fürnehmen bald, Vvter mein Regiment,
Dan ich ihn lohnen thu, mit ein schandlichn End."
("As Mars before me shows his children hail and hearty, /
in this present book, then turn about here, /
all that are honourable, under my regiment, /
I shall reward them with an ignominious end.")
The composition and juxtaposition of image and text follow the established iconographic tradition of the planets and their "children". [37] The fact that contemporary astrological attitudes played a role is particularly clear in the iconography of Mars, which is to be found in widespread descriptions. [38] Belief in astrology reached a late heyday in the 17 [th] century. [39] It was only with the transformation of the worldview set in motion by the findings of Galilei, Kepler and Newton that the Ptolemaic system and astrology in general fell out of favour. Three aspects are important where the war series is concerned. First of all, Mars and Saturn were regarded as "evil" planets, Saturn being by far the more ominous of the two. The distinction was significant, given that those who produced forecasts, calendars and horoscopes focused on the "good" or "bad" influence of the stars with their clients in mind. It is in interesting to consider Franck's image of the fickle fortunes of war fig. 1) in light of the fact that Mars and Saturn were treated as "Infortuna minor" and "Infortuna major" in astrological writings. In contrast to Venus and Jupiter, which represented "Fortuna minor" and "Fortuna major", all the adversities of human existence were united in these two ill-starred, warlike planets.
Secondly, the crimes depicted on images of Saturn and Mars can be evaluated according to penal law. [40] A distinction was made between crimes of violence and those commited with malice aforethought. While the long-term behaviour of those born under Saturn was regarded as a question of predisposition, the irate children of Mars were believed to act on impulse. According to this behavioural pattern, manslaughter and violent theft were attributed to the influence of Mars, while murder and (planned) theft were attributed to that of Saturn. In fact, this categorisation of crimes with their very different judicial consequenes could still be found in the Carolina, the court statutes of Charles V. The crimes associated with Mars found "honest" retribution in death by the sword or axe. [41] By contrast, the wheel or hanging - compare also the punishments depicted by Callot - left the wrongdoers in a state of "dishonesty". Unlike the criminal executed by the sword, who could go through the "purification of purgatory" by dint of the willingly suffered earthly punishment, the hanged delinquent had to fear for his soul. He could not be buried in consecrated soil, and what the carrion crows left was buried at the place of execution.
Thirdly, certain situations and incidents in the Thirty Years' War were associated with planetary constellations. Mars and Saturn were thought to be expressly responsible for the comet that appeared in 1618, [42] and were generally regarded as heralding the impending doom of war. According to tradition handed down from Classical Antiquity, the planets produced the comet which thus inherited their properties. In a pamphlet by Johann Kaspar Odontius, the comet is described, in terms of light and colour, as being "de nature Saturni vvnd Martis / weil er nicht so klar / sondern vielmehr tunckel / nueblicht vnnd bleichroth anzusehe gewesen" (de nature Saturni and Martis / because it was not so clear / but rather dark / misty and pale red to look at) [43] Paul Hintzsch, on the other hand, associated the appearance in the night sky with a very special message, seeing in it "Flagelli Saturni & Martis", cosmic whips as a sign of God's wrath at the sins of the world. [44]
Against this background it is hardly surprising that some surmised an other-worldly power behind the violence of war, holding the lives of the soldiers by invisible threads. Many examples of this can be found in art. The influence of astrological speculation on Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus, for example, is well documented. [45] It is clear that the mercenaries depicted by the monogrammist CR are to be regarded as typical children of Mars. They are based on the mediaeval canon of depictions of "planets and their children" which remained unchanged for many centuries. The warmongers out for booty (plate 6), stealing livestock, (plate 7), attacking peasants (plate 8; fig. 6) or a helpless woman and child (plate 9; fig. 7). The world of Saturn, on the other hand, is the world of delinquents on the wheel or gallows (plate 20; fig. 8) and the tattered veteran with the wooden leg (plate 22; fig. 9) whose crutch has been interpreted as an attribute of Chronos-Saturn. [46] If the retired soldier now had to bear "Spot schimpf v(nd) auch hohn" (derision, shame and scorn) this was not entirely his own fault, but because his birth under the influence of Saturn had preordained him for this fate.
State power and divine judgement
Today's reader may well see in Callot's war series a celebration of violence in which the senseless destruction wreaked by marauding soldiers is countered only by the repressive violence of the state. Overwhelmed by official troops, the marauders are finally put to death in ways that seem gruesome to us - hanging, the wheel, shooting or burning.
Neverthless, the common practice of equating the figure of the ruler on the last page with an early absolutist state power does not seem entirely convincing. [48] The figure, after all, lacks the coat of arms, symbols and insignia which, together with crown and sceptre, are the identifiable attributes of a certain rule and thus serve to vindicate state power. [49] The punishment of evil-doers, and with that the enforcement of a pax judicata, is by no means the end of the series. Instead, the fate of those soldiers is addressed who survived the war "unscathed". "Quant le guerre finit, son mal-heure recomence" states the title (plate 16). [50] As cripples, they had to seek shelter in hospices, or die hungry and begging by the roadside (plate 15). If we take these prints into account, we recognise that it is not the lot of a soldatesque criminal but the fate of the entire profession that is addressed here. The soldier in the Thirty Years' War was both perpetrator and victim. [51] Even the well-known motif of the revenge of the peasants, whose unpredictable aggression ("Les guettant à L'escart et par une surprise" - plate 17) had no consequences for themselves, indicates that the engravings did not seek to take issue with the state monopoly of power. The most important indication of this is the language used, which belongs to Christian-moralistic world view. Crime is seen as a vice, and punishment is equated with shame, contempt and final agony ("La honte, le mespris, et le dernier supplice" - plate 18). The connection is understandable if we regard the punishment above all as the "restitution of a divinely sanctioned legal order". [52] On death, God's judgment is passed upon the unrepentant sinner, with the concept of reward and punishment in the foreground. [53]
In the last illustration in Franck's series, as in the last engraving by the monogrammist CR, the connection between ignominious death and divine judgement is also evident. The figures lying on the open field in the engravings of the monogrammist CR cannot be identified simply as "dead soldiers"(fig. 10) as Hollstein erroneously describes them. [54] Among them is the corpse of Jezebel, who, according to the Old Testament, driven by avarice, incited her husband Ahab to murder. Divine retribution came with her defenestration and her body being devoured by dogs (2 Kings 9:30 ff.). In a broader sense, the Death of Jezebel is part of the iconography of justice. [55] A further aspect of this connotation is also important in this educational publication on the theme of death. Since mediaeval times, Jezebel's ignominious death had been regarded as a biblical example of sudden death taking the unprepared sinner by surprise. Abraham a Sancta Clara's popular Totenkapelle states unequivocally, "Denn der Tod ruffet offt unversehen / wie Jehu (bei Jezabel): Stuertzet sie von oben herab! wohin? in die Hoell / da die Hoellen=Hunde / der ewige Tod sie naget" (For death often calls unforeseen / like Jehu (in the case of Jezabel) / Cast her down! Whither? To hell / for the hellhounds / and eternal death to gnaw at her) [56] The accompanying copperplate engraving illustrates the theme of human equality in death, which has always been a component of the danse macabre. In death, the noble background of the body defiled is no longer recognisable.
As in the last picture by the monogrammist CR, the final picture in the series by Franck shows no sign of war or struggle (fig. 11). Horse and rider, with some bones in the foreground, create a still life of transience. [57] Only on closer inspection do we notice the various states of decay of the corpse. Bare bones, the remains of flesh and skin, and some unscathed body parts. This unnatural depiction is typical of the memento mori, which is not intended to show the deceased person, but to illustrate his mortality. Between ignominious death and divine forgiveness, as suggested in the juxtaposition of gallows and unscathed church, the spectator is called to ensure his soul's salvation in time.
"Consider the end". War as memento mori [58]
The sequences by Callot, Franck and the monogrammist CR depict crime and punishment, war and violence as warnings to everyman to weigh up the consequences of his actions in good time. This intention is particularly clear in Franck's title motto (fig. 1). It says "O höre nimb in acht dz gegenwertig - betracht dz künfftig vnd vergess halt nit - daß fertig" (O hark, attend to the present - observe the future and do not forget - the end) and is derived from Ecclesiasticus 7;40: "In everything you do / consider your end, and you will never sin." [59] which was also associated with the proverb "Quidquid agis, prudenter agas et respice finem". In the 17 [th] century, this verse was widely known. It was represented in anthologies of proverbs, genealogical mottos and gravestone epitaphs, and often cited in abbreviated form. [60]
Ecclesiasticus, or the Book of Sira, which Luther maintained would "einen burger odder hausvater Gottfuerchtig / from vnd klug mache" (make a citizen or householder godfearing, pious and clever) [61] seems to have been a special phenomenon of Lutheran piety. [62] Many of the sentences on a godfearing life and death, on preparations for death and funerary rites were reiterated in the predominantly Protestant devotional literature. [63] Even in the Middle Ages, Ecclesiasticus 7:40 and Deuteronomy 32:29 ("Utinam saperent et intellegerent haec ac novissima sua providerent" / "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end") epitomised the essence of the memento mori. The quator novissima or Four Last Things were derived from this concept of the novissima. Judgement, Hell and Heaven were unequivocally present in attitudes to death. [64] The Last Things remained a focal theme beyond religious literature and were a sign of a pious life even in the early modern age. [65]
In the context of the memento mori, it is evident that Franck does not use the German term "fertig" [meaning finished or ready] simply to signify the end, as its modern usage implies. Beyond the life's end of the soldier whose war fortunes have turned against him, a religious and specifically eschatological dimension is added. Etymologically derived from the word "Fahrt" [meaning a journey, which is also the Germanic root of the English word "fare" in its latter-day sense of "to journey" or "to travel" and by analogy "to fare" well or badly], it originally meant "ready to depart" [66] and in a spiritual sense it meant being inwardly prepared to confront the notion of death in preparation for a "good" death. Three examples can be used to illustrate this: in the devotional text Das AllerEdelste Leben der gantzen Welt (The Most Noble Life of the Whole World) Johann Rist writes of the "suesse und verwunderliche Wirkung(en) der Music" (The sweet and wondrous effect(s) of music, stating that it makes the sad less melancholy, and the suitor sly, but that it makes "einen Andaechtigen aber sehr faertig / GOTT zu loben" (a pious man very ready ["faertig"] / to praise GOD). [67] In his sermon on Ecclesiasticus 7:40 Valerius Herberger (1562-1627) refers directly to the Last Judgement and in doing so employs the same pattern of "reward" and "punishment" as the monogrammist CR (fig. 10) and Callot. "... wie man lebt, so stirbt man, wie man stirbt, so faehrt man, wie man faehrt, so bleibt man. Boese Arbeit nimmt boesen Lohn." (...as one lives, so does one die, as one dies, so does one depart, as one departs, so does one remain. Evil work demands an evil reward). [68] And in a funeral sermon by Andreas Gryphius, we find "Was hilffts aber / daß man sich des Todes erinnert / wenn man sich nicht darzu bereitet? ... Die jenigen aber / die sich jederzeit durch ein heiliges Leben zu jenem stets wehrende(n) fertig gemacht / die mit Gott allhier gewandelt in diesem Leben ... sind getrost und freudig. ... Ja die stete Vorbereitung schrecket ab von allen Lastern: Was du thust / so bedencke das Ende / sagt Syrach / so wirst du nimmermehr uebels thun." (What good is there / in remembering death / if one does not prepare for it? ... But those / who prepare themselves ... / who have walked with God in this life ... are comforted and glad, ... constant preparation deters from all vice: In everything you do / consider the end / says Sira / and you will never sin). [69]
CONCLUSION
In short, the function of the memento mori makes it clear that the portrayal of war and violence in the pictorial series of the Thirty Years' War is not an end in itself. Unlike the war series Spiegel der FRANCE TIRANNYE created by Romeyn de Hooghes in 1673, [70] depicting the historically documented pillaging of two Dutch villages by the troops of Louis XIV and in which we can already find something of the "accusatory pathos of the present posing the question of the originator" [71] the works of Callot, Franck and the monogrammist CR are predominantly religious and edifying. The violence of war, aimed at innocent "victims" and in the form of just retribution against the perpetrators themselves, appears as a moral rather than a political issue. War is but a touchstone, one of many human challenges for that life after death which, unlike earthly life, is eternal. In the illustrated warning against ignominious, unrepentant death, we find a traditional Christian perceptual pattern that was to remain valid as an element in devotional literature until well into the early modern period.
FOOTNOTES
1. Consider also Goya's "Desastres de la Guerra". See also Exhib.cat. Bielefeld 1972; Exhib.cat. Ludwigshafen 1983; Exhib.cat. Berlin 1983; Exhib.cat. Hamburg 1987/88.
2. Cf. Friesenegger 1974; Peters 1993.
3. See Janssen 1972-92; Schrey 1997 ff.
4. Cf. Jürgens-Kirchhoff 1993.
5. Adriani 1977, p. 134.
6. "Negari non potest, quin status hominum antequam in societatem coiretur, bellum fuerit; neque hoc simpliciter, sed bellum omnium in omnes" (Thomas Hobbes, De Cive 1,12). Cited by Janssen 1972-92, p. 577.
7. In general Ariès 1980; Vovelle 1983.
8. Cited in Bauer 1964, p. 250.
9. Cf. Bingel 1909/1969, p. 15, 17.
10 Cited in Repgen 1988a, 53, 74.
11. Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren, inv. no. 5396/1-24 (plate 22 missing ). Leaves loose-mounted in eighteenth century French half-leather binding with gilt spine; a red spine panel bears the words "Franck Kriegs=Theater".
12. Isselburg 1620.
13. Eberle 1992, p. 66.
14. The better known include for example Lavater 1644/1973.
15. Wallhausen 1615/1971.
16. Kist 1971. The preparatory drawings were produced around 1596, commissioned by Johann von Nassau, who also appears to have initiated the publication.
17. Burschel 1994; cf. also Baumann 1994.
18. NEWES SOLDATEN BVCH LEIN [...], Augsburg 1609, Title (16,8 x 12,2 cm) and 15 plates (16,2 x 11,5 cm) with four-line verses below each. See Hollstein-A, vol. XVII, p. 160.
19. Cf. also Wagner 1980; Ortenburg 1981, esp. pp. 90-98; Beaufort-Spontin 1982, esp. pp. 95-142.
20. All verses cited in Hämmerle 1922, p. 13.
21. Cited in Peltzer 1925, p. 260.
22. See esp.: Hartmann 1973; Busch 1986.
23. On this subject and for a bibliography of further reading, see Hale 1990, pp. 137-168.
24. 8, 6 x 14 cm. See Vesme 1971, nos. 258-263.
25. 11,3 x 14 cm (1635). See Hollstein-A, vol. II, p. 161.
26. Ca. 10 x 25 cm (1641). See Vesme 1971, nos. 264-269.
27. "Divers Combats dediez Monseigneur le Marquis d'Albert [...]" (after 1669); 6 plates, 9,7 x 16,7 cm. See Bartsch, vol. VI, p. 321-323.
28. Cf. Cederlöf 1967; Popelka 1984.
29. 25 Bl., ca. 13,5 x 11 cm (1643-1656). See Hämmerle 1923; Hollstein-A, vol. VIII, p. 167-179.
30. 24 plates, c. 12 x 10 cm (1642). See Hollstein-A, vol. XXXIV, pp. 131-140 (under Christian I Richter). As the ligatured monogram CR with a cross is documented in this form only here, all further references are to "the monogrammist CR".
31. Reichert 1985, p. 19.
32. Cited by Kirchner 1970, p. 31, 19.
33. "Glucks Hafen Des vor Hundert Jahrn vergangenen Bauernkrieg [...]" (1627). See Paas 1985-94, vol. III, p. 251.
34. Cat. Nuremberg 1987, fig. 77.
35. Möller 1952, pp. 157-177.
36. On the subject of the "Theatrum fortunae" see Kirchner 1970, pp. 55ff.
37. Cf. Planeten-Kinder, in Warburg 1993, pp. 280-283.
38. Z.B. Hildebrand 1617, p. 52. The first edition of this standard astronomical work was published in Erfurt in 1613.
39. The standard work on this remains Boll 1977.
40. Radbruch 1950a; Schild 1980, pp. 106ff.
41. A survey of penal law in Dülmen 1988; Dülmen 1993a.
42. See Dünnhaupt 1974, pp. 112-118; Lehmann 1985.
43. Odontius 1619.
44. Hintzsch 1619.
45. Cf. only Haberkamm 1972.
46. Cf. Panofsky 1977a.
47. 18 plates, 8,2 x 11 cm (1633). see Lieure 1924-29, vol. VII, p. 71-78.
48. See esp. Choné 1992. Cf. also Ries 1981.
49. Cf. Dollinger 1982. On the French situation, see Pillorget 1991.
50. The extent to which Callot influenced the commentary by Michel de Marolles can no longer be determined. All that is certain is that space was kept free on the plate for verses to be added.
51. Kroener 1992; cf. also Kroener 1982.
52. Dülmen 1993a, p. 109.
53. Cf. Merkel 1977 ff.
54. "Dogs and birds devouring dead soldiers". see Hollstein-A, vol. XXXIV, p. 137.
55. Schild 1988, esp. 149ff.
56. Abraham a Sancta Clara 1710, pp. 200f. The danse macabre originally designed for the Augustinerhofkirche in Vienna was the model for the danse macabre in both Wondreb and Babenhausen. Cf. Kirchhoff 1976 and Kirchhoff 1984.
57. Cf. the section on the Vanitas still-life in Schneider 1989, pp. 77-88.
58. For details see Knauer 1997.
59. Cited in Luther 1980.
60. Cf. art. "Ende", in: DSL, I, col. 985; Büchmann 1968, p. 55.
61. Luther 1533, foreword (unpag.).
62. Molitor 1976, 18. A study of the Book of Sira taking particular account of the history of piety has yet to be undertaken.
63. Krummacher 1986, pp. 97-113.
64. Haas 1989, p. 32.
65. Krummacher 1987, 519.
66. Cf. entry on the word "fertig", in: Kluge 1975, p. 210.
67. Rist 1663. Cited in Schöne 1963, p. 340.
68. Herberger 1739, p. 311.
69. "Abend Menschlichen Lebens", in: Gryphius 1667, p. 410-492p., 454ff.
70. Title and seven plates, c. 31 x 39,5 and. 20 x 30 cm (1673). The engravings were originally designed as book illustrations and were published the same year in the Hollandsche Mercurius. See Landwehr 1970, nos. 30-34.
71. Elmar Bauer, in exhib.cat. Ludwigshafen 1983, p. 46.
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