Quid est secretum?

Ralph Dekoninck is Professor of Early Modern Art History at the Université catholique de Louvain, co-director of the Centre for Early Modern Cultural Analysis (GEMCA) and member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. His research focuses on early modern image theories and practices, specifically in their relation to spirituality, on Baroque festival culture, on the relationships between art and liturgy, and on the iconography of martyrdom. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Ad Imaginem. Statuts, fonctions et usages de l’image dans la littérature spirituelle jésuite du XVIIe siècle (Geneva: 2005) and La vision incarnante et l’image incarnée. Santi di Tito et Caravage (Paris: 2016).Agnès Guiderdoni is a Senior Research Associate of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium) and a Professor of Early Modern Literature at the Université catholique de Louvain, where she is the co-director of the Centre for Early Modern Cultural Analysis (GEMCA). Originally a specialist of seventeenth century French literature, she more particularly studies emblematic literature and the field of figurative representations (imago figurate). She has published many articles on these topics, as well as on theoretical aspects of text-image relationships. Among her publications: in 2017, a co-edited special issue of the journal La Part de l’Œil on Force de figures. Le travail de la figurabilité entre texte et image, and a volume on Maximilianus Sandaeus, un jésuite entre mystique et symbolique in 2019, also co-edited.Walter S. Melion, Ph.D. (1988, Emory University), is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Art History and Director of the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry. He is the author of numerous articles and books on Northern art and art theory, including The Meditative Art: Studies on the Northern Devotional Print, 1500-1625 (Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2010).

• ContentsAcknowledgementsNotes on the EditorsNotes on the ContributorsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: What’s in a Secret?Ralph Dekoninck, Agnès Guiderdoni, and Walter S. Melionpart 1: The Spiritual locus of Secret1 In the Secrecy of the Cell: Late Medieval Carthusian Devotional Imagery and Meditative Practices in the Low CountriesIngrid Falque2 Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as Artisans of the Heart and Soul in Manuscript MPM R 35 Vita S. Ioseph beatissimae Virginis sponsi of ca. 1600Walter S. Melion3 Symbols and (Un)concealed Marian Mysteries in the First Litany of Loreto Illustrated with Emblems: Peter Stoergler’s Asma Poeticum (Linz, 1636)Carme López Calderón4 ‘Teach Me, Reveal the Secret to My Heart’: the Role of a Spiritual Guide in the Meditative Works of Marcin HińczaAlicja Bielakpart 2: Science and Secrecy5 Of Grids and Divine Mystery: Gerard Mercator’s RevelationLee Palmer Wandel6 What Did They See?: Science and Religion in the Anatomical Theatres of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesPeter G.F. Eversmannpart 3: The Secret in Matter7 The Sienese Goldsmith and the Secrets of Florentine DisegnoC. Jean Campbell8 An Open and Shut Case: On the Dialectic of Secrecy and Access in the Early-Modern KunstkammerMark A. Meadow9 Mysterious Noises: Orphic Strings, Rough Music, and the Sounds of Early Modern Ornament PrintsMadeleine C. Viljoen10 ‘Insettinghe’ and ‘yegelijcx conversatie’: Understanding of the Image on the Eve of BaroqueKoenraad Jonckheere11 Roger de Piles and the Secret of GraceCaecilie Weissertpart 4: Secrecy and Sanctity: Negotiating Secular and Sacred Registers of the Secret12 In Abscondito: Visuality and Testimony in Raphael’s TransfigurationXavier Vert13 Secrets of the Dark: Rembrandt’s Entombment (c. 1654)Alexandra Onuf14 Poussin and Richeome: Mystery and FigurabilityRalph Dekoninck15 Portrait or Parable?: Pierre Mignard and the Mystery of Madame de MaintenonEelco Nagelsmit & Lars Cyril Nørgaardpart 5: Secrets of the Ars symbolica: Emblems and Enigmas16 Secret est à louer: Secrets and Secrecy in French Baroque Cartography, 1580–1640Tom Conley17 Hidden in Plain Sight: Melchior Lorck’s Emblematized AdagesMara R. Wade18 To Hide is to Reveal: the Paradox of Representing SecretsAgnès Guiderdonipart 6: Challenges of the Secret: Publicity, Performance, and Play19 Getting to How-To: Chiromancy, Physiognomy, Metoscopy and Prints in Secrets’ ServiceStephanie Leitch20 The Answer Lies in the Eye of the Beholder: the Emblematic Ceiling Program in the Town Hall of GdańskMonika Biel21 Convents, Condottieri, and Compulsive Gamblers: Hands-On Secrets of Lorenzo Spirito’s LibroSuzanne Karr Schmidt22 Secrecy and the Understanding of Small Things in Early Modern ItalyBret L. RothsteinIndex Nominum