FIRE, SMOKE AND VAPOUR. JAN BRUEGHEL’S ‘POETIC HELLS’: ‘GHESPOOCK’ IN EARLY MODERN EUROPEAN ART Christine Göttler Karel van Mander, in the ‘Life of Jeronimus Bos’ in his Schilder-Boeck of 1604, speaks of the ‘wondrous or strange fancies’ (wonderlijcke oft seldsaem versieringhen), which this artist ‘had in his head and expressed with his brush’ – the ‘phantoms and monsters of hell (ghespoock en ghe- drochten der Hellen) which are usually not so much kindly as ghastly to look upon’.1 Taking one of Bosch’s depictions of the Descent of Christ into the Limbo of the Fathers as an example, van Mander further notes that ‘it’s a wonder what can be seen there of odd spooks (oubolligh ghespoock); also, how subtle and natural (aerdigh en natuerlijck) he was with (cid:2) ames, (cid:3) res, smoke and vapours’.2 In the Schilder-Boeck, van Mander frequently uses the word ‘aerdigh’ to describe the aesthetically pleasing quality of small works or small details;3 here, ‘aerdigh’ refers to the natural and lively depiction of (cid:3) res. As it has been observed, van Mander’s list of Bosch’s painterly expres- sions echoes Erasmus’s often-cited eulogy on Dürer in the Dialogus de recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione (Dialogue About the Correct Pro- nunciation of Latin and Greek), published in Basel in 1528. According to 1 Mander K. van, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, from the (cid:2) rst edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603–1604), ed. H. Miedema, 6 vols. (Davaco: 1994–99) I 124f. (f. 216v): ‘Wie sal verhalen al de wonderlijcke oft seldsaem versieringhen/die Ieronimus Bos in’t hooft heeft ghehadt/en met den Pinceel uytghedruckt/van ghe- spoock en ghedrochten der Hellen/dickwils niet alsoo vriendlijck als grouwlijck aen te sien.’ Here and in the following, my translation is largely based on the one given in Miedema’s edition of The Lives; I use, however, a more literal translation of van Mander’s expressions. 2 Mander K. van, Lives I 124f. (f. 216v): ‘Noch is van hem op de Wael een Helle/daer de oude Vaders verlost worden [. . .] t’is wonder wat daer al te sien is van oubolligh ghespoock: oock hoe aerdigh en natuerlijck hy was/van vlammen/branden/roocken en smoocken.’ The painting has not been identi(cid:3) ed. See Miedema’s commentary on this passage in Mander K. van, Lives III 55–56 (f. 216v 25). 3 Miedema H., Fraey en aerdigh, schoon en moy in Karel van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck (Amster- dam: 1984) 21. For the use and meaning of the word ‘aerdigh’, see also Mander K. van, Lives II 233. GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 19 11/2/2007 3:27:49 PM 20 christine göttler Erasmus, Dürer is superior to Apelles, since Dürer expressed ‘in black lines’ and without the aid of colours ‘that which cannot be depicted: (cid:3) re, rays of light, thunder, sheet lightning, lightning, or, as they say, the “clouds on the wall”’.4 In the Adagia, published in Basel in 1520, Erasmus had given the meaning of the phrase ‘clouds on the wall’ as ‘something frivolous or vane’. Referencing the fourth-century Latin poet and rhetorician Ausonius, Erasmus further asserts in the Adagia that ‘a cloud is too insubstantial (inanior) to be expressed by colours’.5 Inanis, which literally means ‘containing nothing’ or ‘empty’, was commonly used in the sense of ‘fraudulent’ and ‘false’; inanis could further denote the ‘insubstantiality’ of the other world or the ‘incorporeality’ of the shades.6 Thus, while both Erasmus and van Mander include subtle, insubstantial things in their catalogues of artistic effects accomplished by Dürer and Bosch, respectively, the differences between the two lists are nonetheless striking. Van Mander explicitly praises Bosch for his exquisite painterly technique;7 no mention is further made by van Mander that the objects of Bosch’s imagination are at the boundary of what can be portrayed; and, perhaps most importantly, ‘ghespoock’ and ‘ghedrochten der Hellen’ are added to the (cid:3) res and (cid:2) ames, which in van Mander’s text exist in three different places and forms: in hell; in Bosch’s head; and in Bosch’s works of art. In this essay I shall further explore the aesthetic and cultural values associated with ‘ghespoock’ as well as the place of images of (cid:3) res, ghosts and spectres in the visual arts around 1600. 4 ‘Durerus quanquam et alias admirandus, in monochromatis, hoc est, nigris lineis, quid non exprimit? umbras, lumen, splendorem, eminentias, depressiones [. . .] Quin ille pingit et quae pingi non possunt, ignem, radios, tonitura, fulgetra, fulgura, vel nebulas, ut aiunt, in pariete [. . .]’ I cite from Panofsky E., “‘Nebulae in Pariete’; Notes on Erasmus’ Eulogy on Dürer”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 14 (1951) 34–41, here 36. Erasmus’s own text is based upon Pliny’s praise of Apelles (Naturalis historia XXXV 96). For the catalogues by Pliny and Erasmus and the signi(cid:3) cance of Erasmus’s text for sixteenth-century depictions of (cid:3) res, see Stoichita V.I., “‘Lochi di foco’. La città ardente nella pittura del Cinquecento”, in P(cid:3) sterer U. – Seidel M. (eds.), Visuelle Topoi: Er(cid:2) ndung und tradiertes Wissen in den Künsten der italienischen Renaissance (Munich-Berlin: 2003). 5 Erasmus, Adagia (Basel: 1520), 788 (4th chilias, 5th centuria, no. XXIX). I cite from Panofsky, “Nebulae” 39: ‘[. . .] signi(cid:3) cant, frivolum, ac vanum. Nam nebula res est inanior quam ut coloribus exprimi queat.’ 6 Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. P.G.W. Glare (Oxford: 2003) 860. 7 Mander K. van, Lives I 124f. GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 20 11/2/2007 3:27:49 PM fire, smoke and vapour. jan brueghel’s ‘poetic hells’ 21 Ghespoock In and Around Bosch’s Head Van Mander concludes the short vita of Bosch with his own slightly augmented Dutch translation of the Latin verses by the Liège humanist Domenicus Lampsonius that accompanied Bosch’s engraved portrait in the series Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris ef(cid:2) gies (Portraits of Some of the Famous Painters of Lower Germany). Collected by Lampsonius, the 23 ‘portraits’ were published by Hieronymus Cock in Antwerp in 1572: Hieronymus Bosch, what means your frightened face And pale appearance? It seems as though you just Saw all infernal spectres (cid:2) y close around your ears. I think that all the deepest rings of miserly Pluto Were revealed, and the wide habitations of Hell Opened to you – because you are so art-ful In painting with your right hand depictions Of all that the deepest bowels of Hell contain.8 Van Mander’s image of the ‘wondrous fancies’ (wonderlijcke oft seldsaem versieringhen) in Bosch’s head is here supplemented, in a witty and visually evocative manner, by the motif of the ‘infernal spectres’ (helsch ghespoock) (cid:2) ying at close distance around Bosch’s ears. In fact, ‘versieringe’ can mean both ornamental detail and mental image or conception. ‘Ver- sieren’ was often used synonymously with ‘dichten’, thus meaning ‘to devise’, ‘imagine’, ‘dream up’.9 The ‘infernal spectres’ whizzing past Bosch’s ears recall contemporary proverbs, moral tales and visual satires about monstrous insects and other devilish creatures that persecute the wicked, ridiculous, or mad.10 But the ‘wondrous fancies’ and ‘infer- nal spectres’ also expand on art theoretical notions that were, by the 8 Mander K. van, Lives I 124–27 (f. 216v–217r): ‘Ieroon Bos, wat beduydt u soo verschrickt ghesicht, | En aenschijn alsoo bleeck, het schijnt oft even dicht | Ghy al het helsch ghespoock saeght vlieghen om u ooren. | Ick acht dat al ontdaen u zijn de diepste chooren | Gheweest van Pluto ghier, en d’helsche wonsten wijt | V open zijn ghedaen, dat ghy soo constigh zijt, | Om met u rechter handt gheschildert uyt te stellen, | Al wat in hem begrijpt den dipsten schoot der Hellen.’ See Koldewij J. – Vandenbroeck P. – Vermet B., Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings (Rotterdam: 2001) 10f. 9 Verwijs E. – Verdaem J., Middelnederlandsch Woordenboeck VIII (’s-Gravenhage: 1916) cols. 2431–32. 10 Vandenbroeck P., “Zur Herkunft und Verwurzelung der ‘Grillen’. Vom Volksmythos zum kunst- und literaturtheoretischen Begriff, 15.–17. Jahrhundert”, De zeventiende eeuw 3 (1987) 53–84; Bredekamp H., “Grillenfänge von Michelangelo bis Goethe”, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 22 (1989) 169–180. GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 21 11/2/2007 3:27:49 PM 22 christine göttler beginning of the seventeenth century, commonplace in the humanist literature on Bosch and his works. Already the Spanish art critic and collector of Flemish paintings, Don Felipe de Guevara, in his manuscript Comentarios de la Pintura (Commentaries on Painting) of about 1560, views Bosch’s (cid:3) gural inventions in the tradition of the ‘comical (cid:3) gures’ and ‘grylli’ (crickets), which the Greek painter Antiphilus had elevated to a separate pictorial genre.11 Translated by van Mander, Lampsonius’s verses describe what can be called an effect of interaction or contagion.12 The interior experi- ence of the places of hell affects the expression on Bosch’s face; he is terri(cid:3) ed (verschrickt, attonitus) and turns pale from the blood’s withdrawal (aenschijn alsoo bleeck, pallor in ore). ‘Ghastly’ (grouwlijck) to look at, Bosch’s paintings in their turn ‘infect’ the beholders with corresponding emo- tions. Moreover, the monsters of hell (cid:3) nd their doubles in the ‘infernal spectres’ (helsch ghespoock), fancies, or dreams (versieringhen) in or around Bosch’s head. Finally, it was Bosch’s artfulness (const) that granted him access to the underworld and the habitations of devils and ghosts.13 The concept of a mutual attraction between an artist’s temperament and a speci(cid:3) c artistic genre lies at the foundation of van Mander’s biographical writing. In the dedication of the Netherlandish Lives, van Mander expands on Virgil’s dictum ‘that everyone is attracted to what pleases him’ (Dat yeder is tot zijn vvellust ghetrocken): For one (cid:3) nds that each person’s desire and inclination pleasantly attracts and draws him towards something besides the necessities of life, that is towards something which agrees with the form and being of his spirit and nature.14 11 Felipe de Guevara, Comentarios de la Pintura, c. 1560. Sánchez Cantón F.J., Fuentes Literarias para la Historia del Arte Español I (Madrid: 1923) 159. See Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia XXXV 144. 12 For the role of contagion and interaction, in particular the ‘contagion of laughter’, in early modern literature, see Betrand D., “Contagious Laughter and the Burlesque: From the Literal to the Metaphorical”, in Imagining Contagion in Early Modern Europe, ed. C.L. Carlin (Houndmills: 2005) 177–94. 13 For the interrelationship between artistic and demonological theories of imagina- tion, see Swan C., Art, Science, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Holland: Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629) (Cambridge: 2005) 123–56, and passim. 14 Mander K. van, Lives I 46f. (f. 197r 7, 10–13): ‘Want men bevindt, dat yeder Menschen lust en genegentheyt, beneffens behoe(cid:2) ijcke dinghen, ergen toe soetlijck aenghelockt en ghetrocken wort, te weten, tot sulcx, als zijnen geest en aert van gedaent en wesen zijn.’ The Virgil quote, ‘Trahit sua quemque voluptas’, is from Eclogues 2, v. 65. GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 22 11/2/2007 3:27:49 PM fire, smoke and vapour. jan brueghel’s ‘poetic hells’ 23 Desire is here explained as a natural inclination toward something that corresponds ‘in form and essence’ with one’s own spirit (gheest) and nature (aerdt). While Virgil’s dictum is referred here by van Mander to honour his dedicatees’ love for the visual arts – van Mander dedi- cated this part of the Schilder-Boeck to the goldsmith Jan Mathijsz. Ban and the wine merchant Cornelis Vlasman –, the same mechanism of attraction is proposed throughout the Lives to explain artists’ habits. In early modern art theory, preferences for speci(cid:3) c artistic styles, genres, subjects, or working techniques were often thought to reveal artists’ temperaments as well as these artists’ national and regional origins. In Italian art criticism, images of (cid:3) re, smoke and spectres were soon to be identi(cid:3) ed with the ‘maniera Fiamminga’, that is to say, with a ‘foreign’ manner distinct from the dominant regional styles of Italian art. Vasari, in his Lives of 1568, lists ‘fantasticherie, bizzarrie, sogni, imaginazioni’ with ‘fuochi, notti, splendori, diavoli’ as subjects in which Flemish artists excelled: Franz Mostaert, who was passing skilful in painting landscapes in oils, fantasies, bizarre inventions, dreams, and suchlike imaginings. Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel of Breda were imitators of that Mostaert, and Lancelot Blondeel has been excellent in painting (cid:3) res, nights, splendours, devils, and other things of that kind.15 The variety of airy, (cid:3) ery, or ethereal ‘subtle’ substances is here expanded through other evanescent qualities, objects, and states such as ‘fanta- sies’, ‘imaginations’ and ‘dreams’. In early modern usage, ‘spook’ could equally refer to a ghost, a phantom, spectre, dream, fantasy, or delu- sion.16 Similarly, ‘ghedroch’ or ‘ghedrocht’ meant a false apparition, 15 Vasari G., Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori, ed. Pergola P. della – Grassi L. – Previtali G., 9 vols. (Novara: 1967) VII 467f.: ‘[. . .] Francesco Mostaret, che valse assai in fare paesi a olio, fantasticherie, bizzarrie, sogni et imaginazioni. Girolamo Herto- glien Bos e Pietro Bruveghel di Breda furono imitatori di costui, e Lancilotto è stato eccellente in far fuochi, notti, splendori, diavoli e cose somiglianti.’ For the English translation see Vasari G., Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, trans. G. du C. de Vere, 2 vols. (New York: 1996) II 863. See also Guicciardini L., Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi, altrimenti detti Germania inferiore [. . .] (Antwerp: 1567) 98G: ‘Lancilotto mirabile nel far’ apparire un ‘fuoco vivo, & naturale, come l’incendio di Troia, & simile cose [. . .]’ I cite from Miedema, in Mander K. van, Lives II 246. 16 Grimm J. – Grimm W., Deutsches Wörterbuch IV (Leipzig: 1897) cols. 417f.; ‘Gespuke’; Verwijs E. – Verdaem J., Middelnederlandsch woordenboek II (’s-Gravenhage: 1912) cols. 1775–77; Kilianus C., Etymologicum teutonicae linguae, sive, Dictionarium teutonico-latinum (3rd, increased and revised ed. Antwerp: ex of(cid:3) cina Plantiniana, apud Ioannem Moretum, 1599) 515; ‘spoocke/spoocksel’ is translated as ‘spectrum, larva, phantasma’. GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 23 11/2/2007 3:27:49 PM 24 christine göttler vision, spook, or phantom17 and was often used synonymously with ‘tovernie’, sorcery.18 According to contemporary experts in demonology, demons enjoyed mingling with the gaseous and vaporous substances of the air in order to make themselves visible to human eyes.19 ‘Poetic Hells’ by Jan Brueghel the Elder At the centre of my subsequent discussion are the nocturnal (cid:3) res and hellish landscapes produced by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1624) from about 1594 to about 1608, within a period of roughly 15 years.20 Jan Brueghel the Elder is generally seen as the ‘last heir’ of a genera- tion of Flemish painters who worked in the manner of Bosch.21 His association with Bosch’s imagery followed a family tradition: Jan was the second son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30–1569) who, in his turn, was already during his lifetime called a ‘great imitator of the science and fantasies of Hieronymus Bosch’, and, consequently, a ‘second Bosch’.22 ‘Invented’ in the mid 1590s in Italy, the ‘branden’, ‘fuochi’, or ‘incendi’ by Jan Brueghel the Elder exhibit Bosch’s monsters and spectres as part of new pictorial inventions that met the taste for the strange and wondrous shared by the aristocratic and clerical elites of the day. So unique and distinctive were these hellish landscapes that, by the end of the seventeenth century, they were excluded from Jan’s work and ascribed to his elder brother, Pieter Brueghel the Younger 17 Verwijs E. – Verdaem J., Woordenboeck II col. 470f.: Kilianus C., Etymologicum 128, gives ‘ghedrogh/ghedroght’ as Latin ‘ludi(cid:3) catio, impostura, praestigiae, spectrum, phantasma. & Animalcula monstrosa’. 18 Verwijs E. – Verdaem J., Woordenboeck VIII col. 620. 19 Del Rio M., Investigations into Magic, ed. P.G. Maxwell-Stuart (Manchester-New York: 2000) 112. On this passage in Martin del Rio’s treatise, see the contribution by Sven Dupré in this volume. 20 The most complete discussion of the hellish landscapes by Jan Brueghel the Elder is by Ertz K., Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568–1625). Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog (Cologne: 1979) 116–136 (on hellish landscapes); 378–84 (on allegories of (cid:3) re). See also Ertz K. – Nitze-Ertz C. (eds.), Pieter Breughel der Jüngere, Jan Brueghel der Ältere: Flä- mische Malerei um 1600, Tradition und Fortschritt, exh. cat., Kulturstiftung Ruhr Essen and Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Lingen: 1997) 171–82, 503–506. 21 For Jan Brueghel the Elder as the ‘last heir’ of Bosch’s pictorial creations see Silver L., Hieronymus Bosch (New York-London: 2006) 391–97. 22 See Guicciardini L., Descrittione 100: ‘Pietro Brueghel di Breda grande imitatore della scienza, & fantasie di Girolamo Bosco, onde n’ha anche acquistato il sopranome di secondo Girolamo Bosco.’ GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 24 11/2/2007 3:27:50 PM fire, smoke and vapour. jan brueghel’s ‘poetic hells’ 25 (1564/65–1637/38), who was then dubbed ‘Hell Brueghel’ (‘helse Brueghel’), while Jan became to be known as ‘Velvet Brueghel’ (‘(cid:2) uwelen Brueghel’).23 There is, however, no doubt that the hells were invented by Jan; and that the invention was most likely motivated by some of Jan’s early patrons in Rome. The (cid:3) rst record of Jan Brueghel’s stay in Rome dates from 1593, when the artist, then in his twenties, scribbled his name as well as the year on the wall of the St. Domitilla catacomb, which had been discovered by the young antiquarian and archaeolo- gist Antonio Bosio (1575–1629) that very same year.24 The excitement these archaeological (cid:3) ndings caused among humanist and artistic circles sparked a general interest in the subterranean world. By 1593, Brueghel had already met Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564–1631) who would become his lifelong patron and friend; in 1595, when Borromeo was appointed Archbishop of Milan, Brueghel followed his extended famiglia to Milan.25 The protectors of Jan Brueghel the Elder also included the Cardinals Benedetto Giustiniani (1554–1621),26 Francesco Maria del Monte (1549–1629),27 and, most probably, Ascanio Colonna (1560–1608), the owner of one of the richest collections of books and manuscripts in Rome.28 Federico Borromeo, Jan Brueghel’s senior of four years, was the youngest among them. But why this renewed interest in the representation of (cid:3) res and spectres at the end of the sixteenth century, in a period characterised 23 Duverger E., Antwerpse Kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw XIII (Brussels: 2004) 64–65, and passim. 24 Bosio, however, believed it was the catacomb of S. Callisto. Hoofewerff G.J., “De romeinse catacomben”, Nederlandsch Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, fasc. 4 (1961) 193–230, here 224. 25 Bedoni S., Jan Brueghel in Italia e il Collezionismo del Seicento (Florence-Milan: 1983) 42, 48. For Borromeo’s biography, see Prodi P., “Federico Borromeo”, Dizionario bio- gra(cid:2) co degli Italiani 13 (1971) 33–42. On Federico Borromeo’s art patronage, see Jones P.M., Federico Borromeo and the Ambrosiana: Art Patronage and Reform in Seventeenth-Century Milan (Cambridge: 1995). 26 For Benedetto Giustiniani, see Feci S. – Bortolotti L., “Giustiniano, Benedetto”, Dizionario biogra(cid:2) co degli Italiani 57 (2001) 315–25. 27 For Jan Brueghel’s clerical patrons, see Jones P., “Italian Devotional Paintings and Flemish Landscapes in the Quadrerie of Cardinals Giustiniani, Borromeo, and Del Monte”, Storia dell’arte 107 (2004) 81–104. On Cardinal Del Monte’s art patronage, see Wazbinski Z., Il Cardinale Francesco Maria del Monte, 1549–1626, 2 vols. (Florence: 1994). 28 For Ascanio Colonna, see Petrucci F., “Colonna, Ascanio”, Dizionario biogra(cid:2) co degli Italiani 27 (1960) 275–78. For his possible relationship with Jan Brueghel the Elder, see Ertz K., “Jan Brueghel l’Aîné”, in Bruegel. Une dynastie de peintres, exh. cat., Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Art (Brussels: 1980) 166. GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 25 11/2/2007 3:27:50 PM 26 christine göttler by artistic and religious reform? By the mid-sixteenth century, noc- turnal landscapes of hell featuring (cid:3) res and lightning were almost mass-produced and often signed with Bosch’s name, perhaps both as homage to the original inventor as well as with the aim of enhancing the aesthetic and monetary value of these artistic counterfeits.29 The art lover and connoisseur de Guevara, however, dismissed, with one exception, the imitators of ‘this kind of painting by Hieronymus Bosch’ who, motivated by greed, ‘fraudulently’ signed with his name. According to de Guevara, such imitations ‘are in reality the work of smoke and the short-sighted fools who smoked them in (cid:3) replaces in order to lend them credibility and an aged look’.30 The harsh judgement passed by de Guevera on these pictures reveals an increasing awareness about artistic frauds.31 But de Guevara’s description also points to the stylistic and iconographic features these compositions shared: these were paintings that needed to be viewed at close range; and, among other subjects, they also depicted (cid:3) re and smoke. From the mass-produced and often anonymous Boschian inventions by earlier Flemish masters, Jan Brueghel’s hellish landscapes were dis- tinguished in three ways. (1) Rather than painting his (cid:3) ery scenes on panel or canvas, Jan Brueghel the Elder adopted the practice of almost every Netherlandish artist working in Italy and used small-format cop- per plates. Applied on a polished metallic surface, colours appear with a certain lustre or glow; material and technique are thus well suited for the representation of (cid:3) re. (2) Characterised by a rich and diverse brushwork and a meticulous attention to detail,32 Jan Brueghel’s (cid:3) ery 29 Among the major contributions are: Silver, Bosch 316–98; Unverfehrt G., Hierony- mus Bosch. Die Rezeption seiner Kunst im frühen 16. Jahrhundert (Berlin: 1980); Gibson W.S., “Bosch’s Dreams: A Response to the Art of Bosch in the Sixteenth Century”, Art Bulletin 74 (1992) 205–218; Aikema B., “Hieronymus Bosch and Italy”, in Hieronymus Bosch: New Insights Into His Life and Works, exh. cat., Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, ed. J. Koldeweij – B. Vermet – B. van Kooj (Ghent: 2001) 25–31. 30 Guevara F. de, Comentarios I 159: ‘Ansi vienen a ser in(cid:3) nitas las pinturas de este género, selladas con el nombre de Hyerónimo Bosco, falsamente inscripto; en las quales a él nunca le pasó por el pensameniento poner las manos, sino el humo y cortos inge- nios, ahumándolas a las chimeneas para dalles autoridad y anitgüedad.’ According to de Guevara, Bosch’s art consists of much more than ‘monsters and various imaginary subjects’ (monstruos y desvariadas imaginaciones). I cite from Stechow W., Northern Renaissance Art 1400–1600: Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs: 1966) 19. 31 Nagel A., “The Copy and its Evil Twin: Thirteen Notes on Forgery”, Cabinet Magazine 14 (2004) 102–105. 32 On Jan Brueghel’s painting method when using copper: Isabel Horovitz, “The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper Supports”, Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings on Copper 1575–1775, exh. cat., Phoenix Art GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 26 11/2/2007 3:27:50 PM fire, smoke and vapour. jan brueghel’s ‘poetic hells’ 27 landscapes were, in contemporary sources, primarily described as vir- tuoso exercises, particularly in the imitation of natural colour and the rendering of light and various forms of re(cid:2) ection – topics concerning painterly and representational techniques discussed both in Italy and the north. (3) While Bosch’s (cid:3) res are connected with the religious imagery of purgatory and hell, Jan Brueghel the Elder expanded the meaning and imagery of (cid:3) re to include mythological, historical and allegori- cal themes. Next to representations of religious themes – such as The Descent of Christ into Limbo [Fig. 1] and The Temptations of St. Anthony33 – Jan Brueghel depicted the most famous descents into the underworld undertaken by Orpheus [Fig. 2], Juno [Fig. 3] and Aeneas [Figs. 4, 5]. He made further pictures of burning cities showing spectacles of (cid:3) res but no demons, devils or ghosts.34 In about 1608, Jan Brueghel the Elder developed a series of allegories depicting the destructive power of (cid:3) re as well as the bene(cid:3) ts derived from (cid:3) re and craft, some of which are painted on panel [Fig. 6]. My focus here is on Brueghel’s depictions of descents into hell. While the theme of Christ’s Descent into the Limbo of the Fathers has a long visual tradition dating back to seventh-century art, and is, in sixteenth-century northern art, closely related to a Boschian imagery of monsters and ghosts as well as to Pieter Bruegel’s art [Fig. 7],35 pagan descents into the underworld were, up to Jan Brueghel the Elder, not a common subject for cabinet paintings. These visits to the underworld (cid:3) gured, of course, in illustrations of Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ovid’s Metamorphoses had an enormous impact on sixteenth-century Museum (New York: 1999) 63–92, here 81f. Generally on Jan Brueghel the Elder’s pictorial technique: Doherty T. – Leonard M. – Wadum J., “Brueghel and Rubens at Work: Technique and the Practice of Collaboration”, in Woollett A.T. – Suchtelen A. van (eds.), Rubens & Brueghel: A Working Friendship, exh. cat., The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Los Angeles: 2006) 215–51. On the choice of copper as painting support by Netherlandish artists in Rome: Cappelletti F., “Il fascino del Nord: paesaggio, mito e supporto lucente”, in Il Genio di Roma 1592–1623, exh. cat., ed. B.L. Brown, London, Royal Academy of Arts; Rome, Palazzo Venezia (Rome: 2001) 174–205. 33 For various versions of the Temptations of St. Anthony by Jan Brueghel the Elder, see Ertz K., Jan Brueghel der Ältere 131–35; Ertz K. – Nitze-Ertz C., Breughel – Brueghel 171–73, cat. 39 (Ertz K.); 506, cat. 191 (Wied A.); Silver L., Bosch 394. 34 For Jan Brueghel’s depictions of the burning Troy and the burning Sodom or Pentapolis, see Ertz K., Jan Brueghel der Ältere 130f. 35 Orenstein, N.M., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints, exh. cat., The Met- ropolitan Museum of Art, New York (New York: 2001) 210–12, cat. 87–88. For the iconography of the theme, see Lucchesi Palli, “Höllenfahrt Christi”, Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie II (1970) cols. 322–331. GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 27 11/2/2007 3:27:50 PM 28 christine göttler (cid:2) 6.2 gue. 2a r, H pee ph oT on cuis, 7, oil uritsh 9a 5M 1 o, (cid:3) b Lim ge: nto ma nt i 5. I ce 8 he Des inv. 2 Tr, uis, mesh mrit au ha nM e ottry Re s all nG a He d ur r anPict deal Eloy e R eghel thHague, rue Bh n T Jam. Fig. 1. 35.4 c GOTTLER_f3_18-46.indd 28 11/2/2007 3:27:50 PM