Abstract

RENDERS, Helmut. Hieronymus Wierix´s emblem Homo moriens: Catholic iconography during the Twelve Years Truce. Franciscanum [online]. 2023, vol.65, n.179, pp.14-14.  Epub Oct 16, 2023. ISSN 0120-1468.  https://doi.org/10.21500/01201468.5929.

The article presented here is part of a systematic elaboration of iconographic styles and their respective iconological messages of Christian visual culture, with a focus on devotional religious art. The work in question is an interesting Flemish example of Catholic visual language in use a hundred years after the Protestant Reformation and created, probably, between the Twelve Years' Truce and the beginning of the Thirty Years' War[s]. The engraving Homo moriens by Hieronymus Wierix from the year [1609/1619] is studied. Formally, it is a classic emblem composed of an Inscriptio, Pictura and Subscriptio. The work is read through the iconological method of Erwin Panofsky. It can be concluded that if the tone of the visual narrative is not polemical or controversial, but pastoral and especially sensitive to the religious need of people who are on their deathbed. It is an “internal” visual discourse of the church, which lives up to the soteriological emphases established by the Council of Trento in a perspective of care, building certainties, in order to face the inevitable agony.

Keywords : Homo moriens; Hieronymus Wierix; emblem; visual culture; Catholic Reform.

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