Anagram in Honor of Charles III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar
Aegidius Sadeler II Netherlandish
Not on view
In a complex synthesis of text and image, this work by Aegidius Sadeler praises Charles III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar (1543-1608), a staunch defender of Catholicism during the French Wars of Religion. At the center of the medallion, within the circle formed by the snake eating its own tail, is Charles’s coat of arms, inverted from left to right. Although it is somewhat abraded, the rampant lions at lower center and the fleurs-de-lis and pair of fish on either side can be discerned. Inscribed on the double-cross from which the medallion appears to hang, also inverted and executed in the same combination of white gouache and black ink, are the names of Christ (IHS) and the Virgin (MARIA, the five letters intertwined). Woven through the medallion is a kind of acrostic poem. Beginning with the A at top center, and continuing clockwise and inward from the outermost ring toward the center, the capital letters in red read: "ARX DEDALEA CAROLI DUCIS", which can be translated from the Latin to “Duke Charles, Skillful Defender.” Each of these letters also forms part of one or more of the phrases, written in brown ink, that form a poem celebrating Charles’s leadership and resulting peace. The banderole below bears an inscription referring to the duke as an “impregnable fortress against the guilty French," referring presumably to the Huguenots and those who supported tolerance of Protestants in France; the text between the two strands of pearls encircling the medallion refers to the Dominican friars (predicants) of Brussels, conceivably the patrons of this drawing. Charles’s chief connection to Brussels was his niece by marriage, Isabella, Archduchess of the Spanish Netherlands from 1598. Sadeler, who left his native Antwerp in 1586, became, in 1597, court artist to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, brother of Isabella’s husband, Albert. Although tenuous, these connections may begin to explain the circumstances under which this unusual and intriguing drawing was created.
(JSS, 8/27/2018)
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
