Emblemi i učeni likovni govor : (od XVI. do XVIII. stoljeća)

Ometlić, Željka. (2015). Emblemi i učeni likovni govor : (od XVI. do XVIII. stoljeća). Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Art History. [mentor Cvetnić, Sanja].

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Abstract

The thesis focuses on the subject of emblems, artistic and literary genre which occurred in the sixteenth century. In the course of the next two centuries production of emblems was significant since they played an important role in the cultural life of Renaissance Europe. The first book of emblems titled Emblematum liber was written by Italian legal scholar Andrea Alciato in the year 1531. Alciato's work initiated a fashion for emblems; emblem collections known as emblematas and originally written in Latin soon became popular and widely translated throughout Europe. Emblems were usually made up of three components: a title (motto), a woodcut or engraving (pictura) and a verse epigram (subscriptio), although there are numerous known alterations of this structure. Emblems were influenced by a great variety of sources, from Egyptian hieroglyphs, ancient Greek and Roman writers and myths to Christian iconography, the Bible, popular sayings and proverbs. At first the intended audience were well educated individuals who enjoyed solving emblems' often cryptic meanings. However, soon emblems became a widely accepted tool for transfeering didactic messages of moral and faith to a large audience. Emblems reached the peak of popularity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and were still popular in the eighteenth century. In the course of the nineteenth century they slowly went out of vogue, although they were still used as an interior decoration. We come across first emblem collectors in this period. The thesis provides insight to the history of emblems and their characteristics as well as an overview of the most important authors and their collections, the history of emblem study and contemporary achievements in that field.

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