DIABLERIE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--EARLY TYPES OF THE DIABOLICAL
FORMS.--ST. ANTHONY.--ST. GUTHLAC.--REVIVAL OF THE TASTE FOR SUCH
SUBJECTS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--THE FLEMISH
SCHOOL OF BREUGHEL.--THE FRENCH AND ITALIAN SCHOOLS, CALLOT,
SALVATOR ROSA.
We have seen how the popular demonology furnished materials for the
earliest exercise of comic art in the middle ages, and how the taste
for this particular class of grotesque lasted until the close of the
mediæval period. After the "renaissance" of art and literature, this
taste took a still more remarkable form, and the school of grotesque
_diablerie_ which flourished during the sixteenth century, and the
first half of the seventeenth, justly claims a chapter to itself.
The birthplace of this demonology, as far as it belongs to
Christianity, must probably be sought in the deserts of Egypt. It
spread thence over the east and the west, and when it reached our
part of the world, it grafted itself, as I have remarked in a former
chapter, on the existing popular superstitions of Teutonic paganism.
The playfully burlesque, which held so great a place in these
superstitions, no doubt gave a more comic character to this Christian
demonology than it had possessed before the mixture. Its primitive
representative was the Egyptian monk, St. Anthony, who is said to have
been born at a village called Coma, in Upper Egypt, in the year 251.
His history was written in Greek by St. Athanasius, and was translated
into Latin by the ecclesiastical historian Evagrius. Anthony was
evidently a fanatical visionary, subject to mental illusions, which
were fostered by his education. To escape from the temptations of the
world, he sold all his property, which was considerable, gave it to
the poor, and then retired into the desert of the Thebaid, to live a
life of the strictest asceticism. The evil one persecuted him in his
solitude, and sought to drive him back into the corruptions of worldly
life. He first tried to fill his mind with regretful reminiscences
of his former wealth, position in society, and enjoyments; when this
failed, he disturbed his mind with voluptuous images and desires, which
the saint resisted with equal success. The persecutor now changed his
tactics, and presenting himself to Anthony in the form of a black and
ugly youth, confessed to him, with apparent candour, that he was the
spirit of uncleanness, and acknowledged that he had been vanquished by
the extraordinary merits of Anthony's sanctity. The saint, however,
saw that this was only a stratagem to stir up in him the spirit of
pride and self-confidence, and he met it by subjecting himself to
greater mortifications than ever, which of course made him still more
liable to these delusions. Now he sought greater solitude by taking
up his residence in a ruined Egyptian sepulchre, but the farther he
withdrew from the world, the more he became the object of diabolical
persecution. Satan broke in upon his privacy with a host of attendants,
and during the night beat him to such a degree, that one morning the
attendant who brought him food found him lying senseless in his cell,
and had him carried to the town, where his friends were on the point of
burying him, believing him to be dead, when he suddenly revived, and
insisted on being taken back to his solitary dwelling. The legend tells
us that the demons appeared to him in the forms of the most ferocious
animals, such as lions, bulls, wolves, asps, serpents, scorpions,
panthers, and bears, each attacking him in the manner peculiar to its
species, and with its peculiar voice, thus making together a horrible
din. Anthony left his tomb to retire farther into the desert, where he
made a ruined castle his residence; and here he was again frightfully
persecuted by the demons, and the noise they made was so great and
horrible that it was often heard at a vast distance. According to the
narrative, Anthony reproached the demons in very abusive language,
called them hard names, and even spat in their faces; but his most
effective weapon was always the cross. Thus the saint became bolder,
and sought a still more lonely abode, and finally established himself
on the top of a high mountain in the upper Thebaid. The demons still
continued to persecute him, under a great variety of forms; on one
occasion their chief appeared to him under the form of a man, with the
lower members of an ass.
The demons which tormented St. Anthony became the general type for
subsequent creations, in which these first pictures were gradually, and
in the sequel, greatly improved upon. St. Anthony's persecutors usually
assumed the shapes of _bonâ fide_ animals, but those of later stories
took monstrous and grotesque forms, strange mixtures of the parts of
different animals, and of others which never existed. Such were seen
by St. Guthlac, the St. Anthony of the Anglo-Saxons, among the wild
morasses of Croyland. One night, which he was passing at his devotions
in his cell, they poured in upon him in great numbers; "and they filled
all the house with their coming, and they poured in on every side,
from above and from beneath, and everywhere. They were in countenance
horrible, and they had great heads, and a long neck, and lean visage;
they were filthy and squalid in their beards, and they had rough ears,
and distorted face, and fierce eyes, and foul mouths; and their teeth
were like horses' tusks, and their throats were filled with flame, and
they were grating in their voice; they had crooked shanks, and knees
big and great behind, and distorted toes, and shrieked hoarsely with
their voices; and they came with such immoderate noises and immense
horror, that it seemed to him that all between heaven and earth
resounded with their dreadful cries." On another similar occasion, "it
happened one night, when the holy man Guthlac fell to his prayers, he
heard the howling of cattle and various wild beasts. Not long after
he saw the appearance of animals and wild beasts and creeping things
coming in to him. First he saw the visage of a lion that threatened him
with his bloody tusks, also the likeness of a bull, and the visage of
a bear, as when they are enraged. Also he perceived the appearance of
vipers, and a hog's grunting, and the howling of wolves, and croaking
of ravens, and the various whistlings of birds, that they might, with
their fantastic appearance, divert the mind of the holy man."
Such were the suggestions on which the mediæval sculptors and
illuminators worked with so much effect, as we have seen repeatedly
in the course of our preceding chapters. After the revival of art
in western Europe in the fifteenth century, this class of legends
became great favourites with painters and engravers, and soon gave
rise to the peculiar school of _diablerie_ mentioned above. At that
time the story of the Temptation of St. Anthony attracted particular
attention, and it is the subject of many remarkable prints belonging
to the earlier ages of the art of engraving. It employed the pencils
of such artists as Martin Schongauer, Israel van Mechen, and Lucas
Cranach. Of the latter we have two different engravings on the same
subject--St. Anthony carried into the air by the demons, who are
represented in a great variety of grotesque and monstrous forms. The
most remarkable of the two bears the date of 1506, and was, therefore,
one of Cranach's earlier works. But the great representative of this
earlier school of _diablerie_ was Peter Breughel, a Flemish painter
who flourished in the middle of the sixteenth century. He was born at
Breughel, near Breda, and lived some time at Antwerp, but afterwards
established himself at Brussels. So celebrated was he for the love of
the grotesque displayed in his pictures, that he was known by the name
of Peter the Droll. Breughel's "Temptation of St. Anthony," like one
or two others of his subjects of the same class, was engraved in a
reduced form by J. T. de Bry. Breughel's demons are figures of the most
fantastic description--creations of a wildly grotesque imagination;
they present incongruous and laughable mixtures of parts of living
things which have no relation whatever to one another. Our cut No. 155
represents a group of these grotesque demons, from a plate by Breughel,
engraved in 1565, and entitled _Divus Jacobus diabolicis præstigiis
ante magnum sistitur_ (St. James is arrested before the magician by
diabolical delusions). The engraving is full of similarly grotesque
figures. On the right is a spacious chimney, and up it witches, riding
on brooms, are making their escape, while in the air are seen other
witches riding away upon dragons and a goat. A kettle is boiling over
the fire, around which a group of monkeys are seen sitting and warming
themselves. Behind these a cat and a toad are holding a very intimate
conversation. In the background stands and boils the great witches'
caldron. On the right of the picture the _magus_, or magician, is
seated, reading his _grimoire_; with a frame before him supporting the
pot containing his magical ingredients. The saint occupies the middle
of the picture, surrounded by the demons represented in our cut and by
many others; and as he approaches the magician, he is seen raising his
right hand in the attitude of pronouncing a benediction, the apparent
consequence of which is a frightful explosion of the magician's pot,
which strikes the demons with evident consternation. Nothing can be
more _bizarre_ than the horse's head upon human legs in armour, the
parody upon a crawling spider behind it, the skull (apparently of a
horse) supported upon naked human legs, the strangely excited animal
behind the latter, and the figure furnished with pilgrim's hood
and staff, which appears to be mocking the saint. Another print--a
companion to the foregoing--represents the still more complete
discomfiture of the _magus_. The saint here occupies the right-hand
side of the picture, and is raising his hand higher, with apparently
a greater show of authority. The demons have all turned against their
master the magician, whom they are beating and hurling headlong from
his chair. They seem to be proclaiming their joy at his fall by all
sorts of playful attitudes. It is a sort of demon fair. Some of them,
to the left of the picture, are dancing and standing upon their heads
on a tight-rope. Near them another is playing some game like that
which we now call the thimble-rig. The monkeys are dancing to the
tune of a great drum. A variety of their mountebank tricks are going
on in different parts of the scene. Three of these playful actors are
represented in our cut No. 156.
[Illustration: _No. 156. Strange Demons._]
Breughel also executed a series of similarly grotesque engravings,
representing in this same fantastic manner the virtues and vices, such
as Pride (_superbia_), Courage (_fortitudo_), Sloth (_desidia_), &c.
These bear the date of 1558. They are crowded with figures equally
grotesque with those just mentioned, but a great part of which it
would be almost impossible to describe. I give two examples from the
engraving of "Sloth," in the accompanying cut (No. 157).
[Illustration: _No. 155. St. James and his Persecutors._]
[Illustration: _No. 157. Imps of Sloth._]
[Illustration: _No. 158. The Folly of Hunting._]
From making up figures from parts of animals, this early school of
grotesque proceeded to create animated figures out of inanimate
things, such as machines, implements of various kinds, household
utensils, and other such articles. A German artist, of about the same
time as Breughel, has left us a singular series of etchings of this
description, which are intended as an allegorical satire on the follies
of mankind. The allegory is here of such a singular character, that
we can only guess at the meaning of these strange groups through four
lines of German verse which are attached to each of them. In this
manner we learn that the group represented in our cut, No. 158, which
is the second in this series, is intended as a satire upon those who
waste their time in hunting, which, the verses tell us, they will in
the sequel lament bitterly; and they are exhorted to cry loud and
continually to God, and to let that serve them in the place of hound
and hawk.
_Die zeit die du verleurst mit jagen,
Die wirstu zwar noch schmertzlich klagen;
Ruff laut zu Gott gar oft und vil,
Das sey dein hund und federspil._
[Illustration: _No. 159. The Wastefulness of Youth._]
The next picture in the series, which is equally difficult to describe,
is aimed against those who fail in attaining virtue or honour through
sluggishness. Others follow, but I will only give one more example. It
forms our cut No. 159, and appears, from the verses accompanying it,
to be aimed against those who practice wastefulness in their youth,
and thus become objects of pity and scorn in old age. Whatever may be
the point of the allegory contained in the engraving, it is certainly
far-fetched, and not very apparent.
This German-Flemish school of grotesque does not appear to have
outlived the sixteenth century, or at least it had ceased to flourish
in the century following. But the taste for the _diablerie_ of the
Temptation scenes passed into France and Italy, in which countries
it assumed a much more refined character, though at the same time
one equally grotesque and imaginative. These artists, too, returned
to the original legend, and gave it forms of their own conception.
Daniel Rabel, a French artist, who lived at the end of the sixteenth
century, published a rather remarkable engraving of the "Temptation of
St. Anthony," in which the saint appears on the right of the picture,
kneeling before a mound on which three demons are dancing. On the
right hand of the saint stands a naked woman, sheltering herself with
a parasol, and tempting the saint with her charms. The rest of the
piece is filled with demons in a great variety of forms and postures.
Another French artist, Nicholas Cochin, has left us two "Temptations of
St. Anthony," in rather spirited etching, of the earlier part of the
seventeenth century. In the first, the saint is represented kneeling
before a crucifix, surrounded by demons. The youthful and charming
temptress is here dressed in the richest garments, and the highest
style of fashion, and displays all her powers of seduction. The body of
the picture is, as usual, occupied by multitudes of diabolical figures,
in grotesque forms. In Cochin's other picture of the Temptation of St.
Anthony, the saint is represented as a hermit engaged in his prayers;
the female figure of voluptuousness (_voluptas_) occupies the middle of
the picture, and behind the saint is seen a witch with her besom.
[Illustration: _No. 160. The Demon Tilter (Callot)._]
[Illustration: _No. 161. Uneasy Riding (Callot)._]
But the artist who excelled in this subject at the period at which we
now arrive, was the celebrated Jacques Callot, who was born at Nancy,
in Brittany, in 1593, and died at Florence on the 24th of March, 1635,
which, according to the old style of calculating, may mean March,
1636. Of Callot we shall have to speak in another chapter. He treated
the subject of the Temptation of St. Anthony in two different plates,
which are considered as ranking among the most remarkable of his
works, and to which, in fact, he appears to have given much thought
and attention. He is known, indeed, to have worked diligently at it.
They resemble those of the older artists in the number of diabolical
figures introduced into the picture, but they display an extraordinary
vivid imagination in the forms, postures, physiognomies, and even
the equipments, of the chimerical figures, all equally droll and
burlesque, but which present an entire contrast to the more coarse and
vulgar conceptions of the German-Flemish school. This difference will
be understood best by an example. One of Callot's demons is represented
in our cut No. 160. Many of them are mounted on nondescript animals,
of the most extraordinary demoniacal character, and such is the case
of the demon in our cut, who is running a tilt at the saint with his
tilting spear in his hand, and, to make more sure, his eyes well
furnished with a pair of spectacles. In our next cut, No. 161, we give
a second example of the figures in Callot's peculiar _diablerie_.
The demon in this case is riding very uneasily, and, in fact, seems
in danger of being thrown. The steeds of both are of an anomalous
character; the first is a sort of dragon-horse; the second a mixture
of a lobster, a spider, and a craw-fish. Mariette, the art-collector
and art-writer of the reign of Louis XV. as well as artist, considers
this grotesque, or, as he calls it, "fantastic and comic character,"
as almost necessary to the pictures of the Temptation of St. Anthony,
which he treats as one of Callot's especially _serious_ subjects.
"It was allowable," he says, "to Callot, to give a flight to his
imagination. The more his fictions were of the nature of dreams,
the more they were fitted to what he had to express. For the demon
intending to torment St. Anthony, it is to be supposed that he must
have thought of all the forms most hideous, and most likely to strike
terror."
Callot's first and larger print of the Temptation of St. Anthony is
rare. It is filled with a vast number of figures. Above is a fantastic
being who vomits thousands of demons. The saint is seen at the entrance
of a cavern, tormented by some of these. Others are scattered about in
different occupations. On one side, a demoniacal party are drinking
together, and pledging each other in their glasses; here, a devil is
playing on the guitar; there, others are occupied in a dance; all
such grotesque figures as our two examples would lead the reader to
expect. In the second of Callot's "Temptations," which is dated in
1635, and must therefore have been one of his latest works, the same
figure vomiting the demons occupies the upper part of the plate, and
the field is covered with a prodigious number of imps, more hideous in
their forms, and more varied in their extraordinary attitudes, than in
the same artist's first design. Below, a host of demons are dragging
the saint to a place where new torments are prepared for him. Callot's
prints of the Temptation of St. Anthony gained so great a reputation,
that imitations of them were subsequently published, some of which so
far approached his style, that they were long supposed to be genuine.
Callot, though a Frenchman, studied and flourished in Italy, and
his style is founded upon Italian art. The last great artist whose
treatment of the Temptation I shall quote, is Salvator Rosa, an Italian
by birth, who flourished in the middle of the seventeenth century.
His style, according to some opinions, is refined from that of Callot;
at all events, it is bolder in design. Our cut No. 162 represents St.
Anthony protecting himself with the cross against the assaults of the
demon, as represented by Salvator Rosa. With this artist the school of
_diablerie_ of the sixteenth century may be considered to have come to
its end.
[Illustration: _No. 162. St. Anthony and his Persecutor._]