The book half open : humanist friendship in Holbein's portrait of Hermann von Wedigh III
- A small, blind-tooled volume sits on a table covered in green baize: one clasp is open, the other is closed; and a slip of paper emerges from it reading 'Veritas odium parit' ('truth breeds hatred'). This detail occurs in the foreground of a portrait by Hans Holbein of a young man identified as the Cologne patrician Hermann von Wedigh III (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). A study of the physical features of the book and of the history of the brief text - actually an ancient and then Erasmian adage - leads to a new interpretation of the painting in the context of humanist friendship. The book is seen to be a multivalent simile for the work of art authored by the artist as well as for the sitter himself, raising questions about the implications for these of a medium that can be opened and closed. The half-open condition of the book is understood to reflect the complementary pressures of openness and closedness, accessibility and intimacy, that characterized the Renaissance republic of letters.
Author: | Oren MargolisORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-687193 |
URL: | https://press.ici-berlin.org/doi/10.37050/ci-23/margolis_the-book-half-open.pdf |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-23_15 |
ISBN: | 978-3-96558-029-9 |
ISBN: | 978-3-96558-030-5 |
ISSN: | 2627-731X |
Parent Title (English): | Openness in Medieval Europe / ed. by Manuele Gragnolati and Almut Suerbaum ; Cultural Inquiry ; 23 |
Publisher: | ICI Press |
Place of publication: | Berlin |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2022/06/29 |
Year of first Publication: | 2022 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2022/07/06 |
Tag: | Books in paintings; Classical reception; Northern Renaissance |
GND Keyword: | Holbein, Hans; Buch <Motiv>; Terentius Afer, Publius; Andria; Rezeption; Erasmus, Desiderius; Adagia; Freundschaft; Humanismus |
Page Number: | 22 |
First Page: | 290 |
Last Page: | 310 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 497201569 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 7 Künste und Unterhaltung / 75 Malerei / 750 Malerei, Gemälde |
8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik | |
Sammlungen: | CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft |
CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / ICI Berlin | |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 |