Abstract
A few years after 1476, when the painter Hugo van der Goes had come to live in the Augustinian canonry of Rooklooster, in the forests south of Brussels, he suffered from a mysterious form of melancholy that almost turned into madness. Hugo’s fellow brothers had to keep the painter from injuring himself or committing suicide. The prior of Rooklooster was convinced that Hugo had fallen victim to the same delusions as king Saul in the Old Testament. Saul had shown relief when David played the harp. Therefore, the brothers thought Hugo would benefit from musical therapy as well.
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- 1.
Koster, M.L.: Hugo van der Goes and the procedures of art and salvation. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2008, 12–15 with an English translation of the relevant passages. Cf. Geirnaert, N.: Van Vlaanderen naar Brabant: Hugo van der Goes, lekenbroeder in Rooklooster. In In de voetsporen van Jacob van Maerlant. Liber amicorum Raf De Keyser. Verzameling opstellen over middeleeuwse geschiedenis en geschiedenisdidactiek, ed. R. Bauer [e.a.], 351–356. Leuven: University Press Leuven, 2002.
- 2.
On the Rooklooster library, Kwakkel, E.: De dietsche boeke die ons toebehoren. De kartuizers van Herne en de productie van Middelnederlandse handschriften in de regio Brussel (1350–1400). Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2002. Cf. Warnar, G.: Een sneeuwbui in het Zoniënwoud. Middelnederlandse geestelijke letterkunde ten tijde van Jan van Ruusbroec. Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 113 (1997): 101–115.
- 3.
Recent work on these questions include Hamburger, J.F.: The place of theology in medieval art history: Problems, positions, possibilities. In The mind’s eye. Art and theological argument in the middle ages, ed. J.F. Hamburger and A.-M. Bouché, 11–31. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006; and Melion, W.: Introduction: Meditative images and the psychology of soul. In Image and imagination of the religious self in late medieval and early modern Europe, ed. R.L. Falkenburg, W. Melion and T.M. Richardson, 1–36. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007 (as good introductions to the field of study).
- 4.
See in general Ott, N.H.: Word and image as a field of research: Sound methodologies or just a fashionable trend? A polemic from a european perspective. In Visual culture and the German middle ages, ed. K. Starkey and H. Wenzel, 15–32. New York [etc.]: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
- 5.
Bekaert, E.: The mystical dimension in Flemish primitive painting exploring the spiritual affinity between John of Ruusbroec and Rogier van der Weyden. Ons Geestelijk Erf 82 (2011): 333–392.
- 6.
Most detailed on the practices of reading in Rooklooster is Kock, T.: Lektüre und Meditation der Laienbrüder in der Devotio moderna. Ons geestelijk erf 76 (2002): 15–63. A survey of the manuscripts with Dutch texts in Stooker, K., and Th. Verbeij: Collecties op orde. Middelnederlandse handschriften uit kloosters en semi-religieuze gemeenschappen in de Nederlanden. Leuven: Peeters, 1997, II, 332–348.
- 7.
Ridderbos, B.: Hugo van der Goes’s Death of the Virgin and the modern devotion: An analysis of a creative process. Oud Holland 120 (2007): 1–30, especially, 5.
- 8.
On this painting Ridderbos, B.: Objects and questions. In Early Netherlandish paintings. Rediscovery, reception and research, ed. B. Ridderbos [e.a.], 4–172. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005, 124–133 and Ridderbos: Hugo van der Goes’s Death of the Virgin, 7–10, with full reference to earlier work. See for a recent interpretation of the painting within the context of Van der Goes’ earlier urban career and literary culture in Buskirk, J.: Hugo van der Goes’s Adoration of the Shepherds: Between ascetic idealism and urban networks in Late Medieval Flanders. Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 6:1 (2014) [http://www.jhna.org].
- 9.
See Moffitt, J.F.: The Veiled Metaphor in Hugo van der Goes’ Berlin Nativity: Isaiah and Jeremiah, or Mark and Paul? Oud Holland 100 (1986): 157–164.
- 10.
Koster: Hugo van der Goes and the procedures of art, 39–44.
- 11.
Ridderbos, B.: Objects and questions, 127: “The leaning pose of the foremost shepherd, parallel to the curtain in front of him, propels the eye toward the centre. This is balanced by a less dramatic movement from the right, initiated by Joseph and the angel behind him, whose bodies are approximately parallel to the other curtain. The two movements come to a halt in the manger, which, perpendicular to the picture plane and steeply foreshortened, occupies a special place in the scene. On it the Child is laid obliquely, naked, and fully exposed. He looks out of the picture, his gaze the only element that directly engages the viewer.”
- 12.
In addition to Ridderbos: Bussels, S.: Making the most of theatre and painting: the power of tableaux vivants in joyous entries from the Southern Netherlands (1458–1605). Art History 33 (2010): 236–247, especially, 249.
- 13.
For the first time and most extensively in Ridderbos, B.: De melancholie van de kunstenaar. Hugo van der Goes en de oudnederlandse schilderkunst. ’s-Gravenhage: Sdu, 1991, 181–200.
- 14.
See for the manuscript Stooker, K., and Th. Verbeij: Collecties op orde. Middelnederlandse handschriften uit kloosters en semi-religieuze gemeenschappen in de Nederlanden. Leuven: Peeters, 1997, II, 334 (nr. 998). See on the text Warnar, G.: Tleven ons heren Jhesu Christi: Female Readers and Dutch Devotional Literature in the Fifteenth Century. In Saints, scholars, and politicians. Gender as a tool in medieval studies, ed. M. van Dijk and R. Nip, 25–42. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005.
- 15.
Ridderbos, B.: De melancholie van de kunstenaar, 201–205. On Herp Dlabacova, A.: Hendrik Herp: observant en mysticus. De «Spieghel der volcomenheit» (ca. 1455/1460) in nieuw perspectief. Queeste 15 (2008): 142–167.
- 16.
See Dlabacova, A.: Tauler, Herp and the changing layers of mobility and reception in the low countries (c. 1460–1560). Ons Geestelijk Erf 84 (2013): 120–152, 123–128, with references to the relevant literature on Tauler and his sermons.
- 17.
Men vint lieden die alsoe vele wonderlijke beelden hebben recht oft den Rijn doer hen vloyede,. ende en worden nemmermeer van binnen stille oft te rusten. Setten sij hen van buyten in rusten ende souden in stilheiden gheerne sijn, dan soe hebben sij van binnen soe veel beelden ende wercs als eene boem die vol bladeren is. Ende die sommeghe sijn alsoe werckelijc dat sij nemmermeer ledich en sijn. Ende dan hebben sijt soe wel voer ende aldus en connense nemmermeer gherusten (ms. Heverlee, Park Abbey 8, fol 4r-4v). See below for the reasons to choose this manuscript for the transcription.
- 18.
Niet en suldi meynen dat ic u alll [sic] beelden wil verbieden, want ic wil een beelde in u drucken. Ghi selt in uwer inwendicheit dicwijl u selven altemael verheffen opwaert in dat vaderlijke hertte, ende daer seldi nemen dat overbeelde beelde dat die hemelssche vader eeuwelijc uut ghebeelt heeft uut sijnen godlijken afgronde. Ende ghij selt noch bat in gaen in dat wilde afgronde ende sien dat mijnlijke beelde recht aen inden gronde na spijgheliker wijsen, op dattet alle dijnder sielen crachten doerdringhen ende doergaen moeten, etti, drincti, slaepti, waecti. Dit minlijc beelde en laet nemmermeer comen van desen ghebeelde naer weeselijker wijsen; ende na dat soe recht al u leven ende u wesen inwendich ende uutwendich. Ende doet recht als een maeldere [na een ander] die[ niet] met allen vlite aensiet alle die strekeen [sic] des beelden ende scrijfter na in sijn tafel. Ende aensiet alsoe dat mijnlike overbeelde beelde tot dattet na sijnder godliker natueren sonder alle onderlaet weder inkeerde inden godlike afgronde met alle dattet ye vanden vader ontfinct ende scrijft daer na u beelde. Oft siet ane dit lieflijc beelde na sijnder menscheit (ms. Heverlee, Park Abbey 8, fol. 5r-5v). The text in the manuscript is very corrupt. See for another version of the text Verschueren, L.: Invloed van Hendrik Herp. Ons Geestelijk Erf 6 (1932): 194–208, especially, 196–197.
- 19.
See on Tauler and image theory Hamburger, J.F.: The “Various Writings of Humanity”: Johannes Tauler on Hildegard of Bingen’s Liber Scivias. In Visual culture and the German middle ages, ed. K. Starkey and H. Wenzel, 161–205. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
- 20.
Dlabacova, A.: Tauler, Herp and the changing layers of mobility and reception; Mol, J. de: Een vreemde eend in de bijt? De teksten van Johannes Tauler, Jordanus van Quedlinburg en Alijt Bake in hs. Brussel, KB, 643–644. Ons Geestelijk Erf 84 (2013): 96–119; and Dierckx, H.: De overlevering van pseudo-Taulerpreken in het handschrift Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, 724b en de Bazelse Taulerdruk (1521). Ons Geestelijk Erf 84 (2013): 20–40.
- 21.
Kwakkel, E.: Ouderdom en genese van de veertiende-eeuwse Hadewijch-handschriften. Queeste 6 (1999): 23–40.
- 22.
Edition of the German version of the sermon in Vetter, F. (ed.).: Die Predigten Taulers. Berlin: Weidmann, 1910, 7–12. On its (disputed) authenticity, see Gnädinger, L.: Johannes Tauler. Lebenswelt und mystische Lehre. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1993, 140, note 44. The Dutch version of the sermon has not been edited. I have checked the text in the Heverlee manuscript (fol. 7v-11r). Significant differences are noted.
- 23.
Theisen, J.: Tauler und die Liturgie. In Deutsche Mystik im abendländischen Zusammenhang. Neu erschlossene Texte, neue methodische Ansätze, neue theoretische Konzepte, ed. W. Haug and W. Schneider-Lastin, 409–424. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2000, especially 413–415.
- 24.
Quoted after the English translation of the sermon in Campbell, K.J. (ed.): German mystical writings. New York: Continuum, 1991, 173–174.
- 25.
Vetter (ed.): Die Predigten Taulers, 9. English: Campbell (ed.): German mystical writings, 175–176.
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Warnar, G. (2017). Hugo van der Goes Reading Johannes Tauler? A Literary Context for the Berlin Nativity . In: Vassányi, M., Sepsi, E., Daróczi, A. (eds) The Immediacy of Mystical Experience in the European Tradition. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45069-8_7
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