Skeleton Iconography (骸骨の図像学）
Skeleton Iconography, 2019
By Tadami Yamada
山田維史「骸骨の図像学」 ある医療クリニックのカンファレンス・ルームにおける講義原稿
Introduction
In 1973, to commemorate the founding of the Anthropology Research Center at the National Museum of Nature and Science, an exhibition called "The History of Japanese Anthropology - Transitions Seen from Bones" was held at the Odakyu Department Store in Tokyo, co-sponsored by the National Museum of Nature and Science and the Asahi Shimbun. It was quite an interesting exhibition for a department store. It displayed a large number of human fossils and skulls that showed the characteristics of each era, excavated from temple graveyards and construction sites.
For example, we refer to the "Jomon period" in general, but in fact it was a very long period of about 6,000 years. Therefore, if we look at the skulls, the faces of Japanese people have changed quite a bit during that time. We can line up human bones that have the characteristics of each era, such as the Tochihara man from the early Jomon period, the Hikozaki man from the early period, the Chidorikubo man from the middle period, the Ejima man from the late period, and the Sankanji man from the final period, and it is truly interesting to see these in person.
My interest may have stemmed from things like corroborating the images of people found in ancient documents, but I was also inspired by the skull cup described in Tanizaki Junichiro's Bushu-ko Hiwa (武州公秘話) and its original historical source, Shincho-kōki (信長公記), as well as the Buddhist practice of "corpse contemplation" in Tanizaki's Ashigari (蘆刈) and the associated picture scrolls.
But in terms of iconography, the most important passage for me was a passage from the following book: Takatsu Harushige and Saito Shinzui, Guide to Classical Greek and Roman Literature (ギリシア／ローマ古典文学案内；Iwanami Bunko Special Edition 4, published in 1963). Page 151.
〈According to Plutarch's Symposium of the Seven Sages, the Egyptians brought skeletons to banquets, which were completely out of place. However, if we keep in mind that we will all end up like this, the guests will not be too opposed to the human bones, as it will increase "friendship and affection" among them. This grotesque custom was welcomed by the Roman aristocracy, and mosaics like the one shown here became popular among them. Under the skeleton is written the Greek words "gnothi seauton." However, when this proverb is combined with a skeleton to decorate the dining room of an aristocrat, its meaning changes completely. Soon we will die, so drink, eat, and make merry while we still have breath. 〉
This is a rather long quote, but what caught my attention here is the fact that the meaning of the skeletons that decorated the Egyptian dining tables changed when they entered Rome. I saw this as a succinct explanation of the need for iconography.
This is when I started collecting skeletons, and I soon began to notice that the skeletons clearly reflected the trends of the times.
Chapter 1
Life on the Outside, Death on the Inside
The oldest image in my collection of skeletons is the Aztec (Mexico) statues of "Quetzalcoatl, King of Life" and "Quetzalcoatl, King of Death" from around 1000 AD. In fact, the two are one statue, with the "King of Life" on the outside and the "King of Death" on the inside. The face of the "King of Death" is a skull. If you look closely, you will see that even though they are two sides of the same statue, it is not simply a case of the inside of life being transformed into death. The size of the crowned heads is the same, but the height of the King of Death is small, only reaching up to the groin of the King of Life. It seems that the King of Life is carrying the skull-faced King of Death on his back, as if he were carrying a baby.
(Statue of Quetzalcoatl: Brooklyn Museum)
The region from present-day central Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula in the east, spanning Guatemala and Honduras in the south, is known culturally as Mesoamerica. Before the Spanish conquest that began in the early 16th century, the Olmec, Zapotec, and Mixtec cultures rose and fell here. According to Yuji Koike of the Tokai University Institute of Civilization, the people of Mesoamerica were tolerant of the gods of other tribes, and many syncretisms are suspected, with the origins of the gods in mythology being intricately intertwined.
The god Quetzalcoatl is said to have taught the inhabitants of Mesoamerica to grow corn and brought civilization to them, but it is also thought that at one time he was confused with the legendary tribal leader of the same name. He was originally a feathered snake god. In the Aztec creation myth, the age of the second "wind sun" was created by this god Quetzalcoatl. 676 years later, a violent storm occurred and humanity was wiped out, and those who survived became monkeys. Thus, the third and fourth ages were created by different gods and then destroyed. Currently, we are in the fifth age, and the god Quetzalcoatl has risen again, collected the bones of humans from the previous age, and sprinkled his blood on them to regenerate humanity. Human sacrifice in Aztec culture was a reward for the self-sacrifice of the gods. However, the misfortune for the Aztecs was that the armor of Hernan Cortes, who arrived at the head of the Spanish in the early 16th century, looked exactly like the image of the god Quetzalcoatl, whom the Aztecs worshiped. The simple people, who did not know about Cortes' cruelty, welcomed him with cheers, believing that he was the god Quetzalcoatl. As a result, 15 million Indies were massacred over the next 40 years, and the Indies were completely destroyed. The man who appeared to the Aztecs as "Quetzalcoatl, King of Life" was in fact carrying "Quetzalcoatl, King of Death" on his back.
So, right from the start, we saw a statue that made us feel the weight of history. Since this is an ancient Mexican Aztec mythology that is not very familiar, it would be good to know just a little bit about it. I will say it, it was Spanish Christians who destroyed this culture.
There is a book called "A Concise Account of the Destruction of the Indies" by Las Casas (originally written in 1542 and printed in 1552). Spain began its invasion of South America in 1517. The author was sent to South America as a Christian bishop and saw the horrific atrocities committed by Christians with his own eyes. The figure of 15 million people massacred is stated by Bishop Las Casas in the book. As the title suggests, this book is a letter of advice submitted to the Spanish Crown to stop the cruelty. The bishop had previously written a letter directly to the king, but it was completely ignored, so after thinking about it, he printed it and dedicated it to the Crown Prince.
The book contains the following passage:
"The wars that the Indians waged against the Christians were always perfectly just. On the other hand, none of the wars waged by the Christians were just. Rather, they were all extremely cruel, extremely unjust, and more cruel than any tyrant on earth had ever waged. I am absolutely convinced of this."
How could the Spanish Christians of that time have done such a thing without a shred of remorse? By examining the following image, we may be able to get some clues to the question.
Chapter 2
The Thought of selecting people
This is not often said, but at the root of any religion, there is the idea of selecting people. When this develops into sects or denominations, the idea that lies dormant at the root takes the obvious form of distinction and discrimination. It is fair to say that the core of faith is good in any religion. However, when the idea of selecting people becomes intense, it takes on an aspect that can be called religious evil that brings about chaos that cannot be controlled from a global perspective. This is obvious when one looks at the history of the world, and to gloss over this unfortunate situation with a flourish is tantamount to despising the very existence of human beings.
I once asked a famous scholar of religion, "Are there any scholars in religious studies who are studying the so-called evil aspects of religion?"
The doctor's answer was, "No, there aren't. At least in Japan, there are no such scholars."
In other words, to put it bluntly, is religious studies a rather narcissistic field, one that believers do because they want to believe? What is frightening is that scholars who criticize religion have been murdered or stalked by murderers. If the murderer was the act of a single despicable individual, it may be considered on the same level as any other crime. However, when a statement condoning such acts is made by an authority in the relevant religion, it goes beyond words. Is the human mind ultimately nothing more than a prison for insanity? When we look at the Spanish conquest of South America, which began in 1517, we are left wondering why Christians were able to carry out such extremely cruel acts for over half a century without a shred of remorse. Bishop Las Casas's accusatory book, "A Concise Report on the Destruction of the Indies," is 172 pages long in a translated paperback edition. Almost every page is a detailed description of the atrocities. The fact that Bishop Las Casas was the only one to declare the conquest to be atrocious and to report the true scale of the atrocities suggests that it was the Christian faith in which Spanish Christians believed that clouded their minds.
The bishop wrote the following answer to my question, or at least a hint at the answer:
〈The Spaniards committed many atrocities, violence, and unpardonable sins against the Indians, and on top of that, they waged war against them, without realizing that the just cause they used was completely unjust, extremely wicked, and in violation of all laws. On the contrary, they considered the victory they gained by destroying the innocent Indians to be a gift from God, and actually said and reported it as such. In other words, the prophet Zacharias wrote in Chapter 11, "Feed the sheep destined for the slaughter; whoever buys them will kill them without punishment. Just like the outlaw thieves who say, "Blessed be the Lord who sells them, for I have made money" (Zechariah 11:4-5), they enjoy their violence, take pride in it, and give thanks to God, so their wicked war is just. (Translated by Someda Hideto, Iwanami Bunko)〉
In other words, for the Spanish Christians, the Indians were "sheep destined for the slaughter." They did not think of them as human beings. "We thought of them as dung," the bishop said.
The arrogance of thinking that they are absolutely good and that the rest are evil that must be repented, or "dung" that does not even need to be repented, actually stems from the idea of human selection, which is at the root of religion, as mentioned at the beginning.
The "Last Judgment," which was the core of the beliefs of early Christianity, clearly expresses God's selection of human beings. The idea is that after Jesus returns and rules for a thousand years (the Millennial Kingdom), all mankind will be judged, and the good will be blessed and sent to heaven, while the bad will be cast into purgatory as eternal punishment. Although the judgment is left to Jesus, there is no shortage of wise people who always think they are God's representatives. It seems that it is very pleasurable to label people as evil. The governing principle here is, frankly, to instill an image of "fear."
The essence of the "Last Judgment" idea becomes even clearer when compared with a famous passage from Shinran's "Tannisho (歎異抄).” It is the idea of "evil people being the right vessel."
〈Good people can attain salvation by the name of a good person, so how much more so can evil people? (善人名をもて往生を遂ぐ、況や悪人をや) Good people go to paradise as their name suggests, and evil people have plenty of room to change their ways, so there is no reason why they cannot go to paradise.)〉
Of course, Buddhism also has the idea of selecting "paradise" and "hell." However, like Shinran, there is also the idea of scooping up evil as it is. Moreover, heretics are not necessarily considered evil. In this respect, is it not quite different from Christianity?
Now, let's take an example of a skeleton image.
This is a painting of the "Last Judgment" from around the 12th to 13th century. It is a skull that represents the final appearance of those condemned to purgatory. Maggots or snakes are nesting in the hollow eyes. The meaning of skeletons in Christian art changed over the ages, but in later times, death was not represented in this way, in contrast to heaven, as in the illustration. Therefore, it could be said that this image is representative of the thought of the time.
"The Last Judgment", c. 12th-13th century, St. Mary's Cathedral, Florence
Chapter 3
The Iconography of Destiny
There is no need to explain Adam and Eve. The story is from the latter half of Genesis 2:4 to Genesis 3:23 in the Old Testament.
The story of how Yahweh God created Eve is written like this:
〈Yahweh God caused the man (Adam) to fall into a deep sleep. And he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And Yahweh God made the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man cried out, 'This is bone taken from my bone, and flesh taken from my flesh; I will call her Woman, for she was taken from the man.' Therefore a man will leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they will become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed of each other.〉
The image of Adam and Eve in European art history is probably familiar to most people. The early-to-mid-12th century sculptor Gisulebertus created an Eve for the church's architectural decoration in 1130, in which Eve is shown reclining beside the fruit of the tree of knowledge, but this may well be the earliest known depiction of Adam and Eve.
(Gislevertas, Eve, 1130)
Whether in the West or the East, art developed as an illustration of religious doctrine. Therefore, it is natural that illustrations of biblical stories began early in the history of European art, but Genesis did not necessarily seem to be a common motif. It began to appear quite frequently during the Italian Renaissance, from the 15th to 16th centuries. A representative example would be Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel murals (1508-12), which anyone can easily recall. Some may recall Masaccio's murals in the Brancacci Chapel of St. Maria del Carmine Church in Florence, which were painted about 80 years earlier.
In any case, many statues of Adam and Eve were produced. The appearance of works based on Genesis during the Renaissance was a prelude to the excavation of the Old Testament, so to speak, when illustrating the life of Christ in the New Testament. And in Catholic theology, the "fate" of Adam and Eve after their expulsion from Paradise was important as a prerequisite for Christ's crucifixion and subsequent resurrection.How many people would be able to answer if asked what the core of Catholic faith is? I'm sorry to say this in a very rude way, but do you know what on earth the Pope of Rome has been protecting for over a thousand years, even to this day, at all costs?
"Jesus Christ was crucified in the place of all people, died to atone for sins, and was resurrected" - this is the core of Catholic faith.
You may be thinking, "Huh?" Yes, that is right. The role of the Pope of Rome is to protect this "fact."
So, are there people who don't accept this? Yes, there are. That is Protestantism. Protestantism accepts the salvation of Jesus Christ, but does not accept that he was crucified.
Each has a completely different premise for their faith. In other words, for Roman Catholicism, the denial of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ means that the very reason for the existence of the Catholic Church, with the Vatican at its apex, will be lost.
Now, speaking of the theological relationship between the "crucifixion of Christ" and "Adam and Eve," we can say the following.
Adam and Eve, as "human beings" who were expelled from Paradise, had to work, give birth, and die. This is what is meant by "fate." The fate of humans to die is an attribute that was added to humans when they were expelled from Paradise. The English word mortal means "destiny that cannot avoid death," and means "human being." It is also synonymous with fatal. The story of Adam and Eve is found within this word.
In contrast, Jesus Christ died once and was resurrected, proving eternal life. This is the true meaning of the word immortal (immortal man, God).
In scenes depicting the crucifixion of Christ, these are orthodoxly depicted together as a pair. The place where Christ was crucified is said to be the hill of Golgotha, which was originally the site of execution by the Roman government. There is also a legend that it is the place where Adam was buried. Iconographically, therefore, it is correct that there is a skull at the foot of the cross. And in fact, the skull reflects the "fate" of Adam and Eve. This makes the crucifixion scene of Christ a theological essential.
Here I will show you an interesting image of Eve. It has an unusually long title: "The state of Eve as the feminine aspect of the original androgyny under the influence of the fear of death."
In fact, Genesis does not state what Adam and Eve looked like. For this reason, it seems that not only artists but also philosophers and theologians have used their imaginations to their advantage. For example, they have speculated on various possibilities, such as whether they did not have navels. This is only natural, since Adam was created from dust, so he must have been somewhat different from us. This is where the image of the "original Adam" was born. The image of Adam and Eve as a sphere may have been influenced by Plato's idea that "those who loved were once one body," but in Neoplatonic philosophy, which inherited Plato's philosophy, the image of Adam as an androgynous being, if not a sphere, appears even more clearly. The image shown here is certainly influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy, and at the same time, the skull on the base represents the "fate" mentioned above. There are no skulls in the pictures of Adam and Eve that we are familiar with. In that sense, the example picture is an illustration of Neoplatonic philosophy rather than an illustration of the Old Testament.
( From "Miscellanea d'alchimla," 14th century. Courtesy of the Medici Laurentian Library.)
Chapter 4
Iconography of “Think about Death”
Memento Mori, Vanitas
European skeletal illustrations from the 15th and 16th centuries can be roughly divided into two trends.
The first is illustrations directly influenced by Christianity, called "Memento Mori" (Remembering Death), "Vanitas" (Vanity), "Transit" (Transient), or "Danse Macabre" (Dance of Death).
The other is illustrations that were included in anatomical books published with the development of medicine.
As mentioned above, God created Adam (human being) from dust and gave him the fate of death. For Christians, the body is nothing but dust, and this world is a "vale of tears," where the body will eventually return to the earth as mere dust, and the soul, which is the breath breathed into it by God, will escape the prison of the body and peacefully ascend to heaven to God. This was a very common belief. Death is rest.
Thus, the images of "memento mori" and "vanitas" do not reflect the fear of death, but rather express a desire and prayer for the salvation of the soul. E. Panofsky and others have said that in the Middle Ages, tombs represented a desire for salvation rather than mourning the dead (“Tomb Sculpture”).
( "Memento Mori" by Master IAM of Zwolle, c. 1485)
(Woodcut by Hans Wächtlin, Vanitas, 1520)
Transi
A little explanation may be necessary about "Transi (trãnzi; French)”.
This is the iconographic name of a unique type of tomb that appeared around 1400, meaning "transient", in which a decaying corpse is carved into the tombstone. The earliest example of this style is the "Tombstone of Cardinal Lagrange", originally located at the Saint-Martial Church in France and now housed at the Calvet Museum in Avignon. The whole is made up of three parts. On a coffin-shaped base are sculptures of the Virgin and Child, the Archangel Michael, and other saints, and underneath that is a reclining statue of Cardinal Lagrange in his clothes, and underneath that is a decaying statue of the cardinal.
The tombstone has the following inscription engraved on it:
"I have made a spectacle for the world. Men and women, young and old, look carefully at my appearance, and ponder your own fate. No one can escape death." "You wretches, why are you so arrogant? You are dust and ashes. You are filthy corpses like me. Food for maggots. You will return to dust."
Looking at this inscription, we can see that tombs are not just a way to mourn the dead, but are also ideal institutions for teaching ethical lessons. A good death is a ticket that will lead you to the heavenly kingdom at the final judgment. The strong belief that death is the beginning of a new life (rebirth) is embodied in the Transi tombs.
("Tombstone of Cardinal Lagrange (detail)" Died 1402. Collection of Calvet Museum)
Danse Macabre
The origin of the "Danse Macabre, Dance of Death" is very clear. In that sense, it is an extremely rare example in iconography. According to Professor Koike Hisako of Kokugakuin University, it began in 1424 at the Saint-Ginocene Cemetery in Paris. The mural was created over a period of about six months from August 1424 (it was destroyed in the 17th century due to road expansion work). It was later created in London and Basel, but both were destroyed in later generations and no longer remain.
It seems that the Danse Macabre cannot be seen only as a problem of artistic iconography. It seems that the dead people joined hands in a procession and danced to the cemetery, praying for the resurrection and asking for forgiveness for their sins. When they arrived at the cemetery, the preacher spoke something almost identical to the epitaph of Cardinal Lagrange mentioned above.
Koike states that the widespread dissemination of the image of the Danse Macabre and its successful preservation of its form are largely due to the fact that "Danse Macabre" published by Guyot-Marchand in 1485 became a best-seller.
("Dance of the Skeletons" from the Nuremberg Chronicles by Hermann Siedel. Woodcut, late 15th century)
Chapter 5
Science and Medicine
Medicine from the Middle Ages to the 15th century originated in Greece and developed in the Islamic cultural sphere. This means that religion did not exclude scientific thinking. To put it more simply, under Christian culture, which considered the human body a temporary container for the soul and placed higher value on the soul, medicine, which should have been scientific, was largely dominated by illusion. Medical texts used in European countries before the early 1500s were largely indebted to medieval Islamic medicine and its commentaries. These texts were translated from Greek to Syriac, then from Syriac to Arabic, and finally translated from there into obscure Latin, so that Islamic medicine was almost destroyed. In 1514, the works of the Greek physician Galen (c. 129-c. 200) were translated directly from Greek into Latin by Nicolo Leoniceno (1428-1524).
It is surprising that in the 16th century, medical books from the 2nd and 3rd centuries were considered the best. Incidentally, Galen went to Rome and became Marcus Aurelius' personal physician.
And it's not just books from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The writings of Hippocrates (c. 460-c. 375 B.C.), the father of medicine, were also used in actual treatment at the time. Even medicine, which is related to human life and death, will be hindered from developing if the religion that dominates society only pursues illusions and is indifferent to life.
The most common treatment at the time, as described in these books, was "bloodletting." This is a method of removing "bad blood" from the patient's veins. Of course, there are some aspects of this that are acceptable from the perspective of modern medicine, but at the time, there were many deaths due to bloodletting. In fact, the frequent occurrence of such cases finally led to the development of a scientific perspective on human body observation. This was anatomy.
Medical students in the early 16th century naturally accepted Galenic anatomy. Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), who is now known as the father of anatomy, was no exception. Vesalius wrote:
"I have no substitute for my deep love and reverence for Galen. It is my pleasure to praise him."
Andreas Vesalius was born in Brussels, Brabant, central Belgium. At the age of 17, he moved to Leuven, Holland, where he began his academic career at the Collegium Trilingue, the most progressive school at the time, which was heavily influenced by the Neo-Humanism of Jerome Busleiden (1470-1517). The three languages were Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. At the age of 21, he went to the University of Paris, which had the greatest reputation and influence in northern Europe, but then moved to the University of Leiden and the University of Padua, where he studied new medicine and philosophy. It was at the University of Padua that he was awarded his doctorate in medicine.
Vesalius did not take a position against Galenism, but when Galen's descriptions of anatomy differed from his own observations, he would determine whether Galen was right or his own observations were correct, and then correct Galen's mistakes.
〈I have heard of hostility against me. That I despise the authority of Galen, the prince of medicine and teacher of all things; that I do not accept all of Galen's views indiscriminately; and that, in short, I have demonstrated the errors in his books. Such rumours are completely unfair. Against me. Against our science. And, in fact, against our generation! 〉
Social criticism of Galen, who was the theoretical authority in medicine for over 1,000 years, was probably close to faith. Moreover, religious people criticised dissection practice as a desecration of the repose of death. Vesalius and his medical students had to sneak into the execution grounds at night to steal corpses for dissection practice.
The great treasures of the Renaissance, Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543) and Epitome (1543), were born out of these efforts. The engraver of the excellent woodcut illustrations for this book was the Flemish Jan Stefan van Carcar. The question of who was the illustrator of Vesalius' medical books was debated from early on. It was said that the excellent illustrations were a blatant and flagrant plagiarism of the drawings prepared by Leonardo da Vinci for the anatomical collection of Marcantonio della Torre. It was only in the 20th century that it was discovered that Carcar had produced all of the illustrations for Vesalius. Vesalius met Carcar when Carcar was 28 years old. Vesalius had great confidence and respect for the work of this young artist. Regarding his Tabulae Sex, published in 1538, Vesalius stated that the first three illustrations were made by Calcar. When Vesalius was giving lectures to his anatomical students, he noticed that they were not able to understand (in other words, even if he explained while actually performing a dissection, if they were not properly trained, they would not be able to see anything), so he decided to publish illustrations. He then hired Jan van Calcar, an artist whom he had always respected, and the two began their collaboration.
From Vesalius's Anatomy. Woodblock print. 1543
(left) From Bruno Pavia's De Surgery. 1452.
(center) Leonardo da Vinci's Anterior View of the Skull. 1489.
(right) "Peripheral Nerve Tissue" from Charles Estienne's Anatomy of the Parts of the Body. Woodblock print. 1530-39.
It should be noted that Vesalius was active across a wide range of European countries. At the same time, it should be noted that the path that Vesalius paved to modern medicine was riding on the wave of great trends of the times.
For example, the illustration of the decayed, skeletal corpse depicted in Zwoll's Memento Mori, exemplified above, can be determined to have been drawn from observation of an actual corpse. The inward curvature of the arms and hands is "information" that can only be obtained by actual observation. The artist's eyes are not clouded by illusion. They are scientific eyes.
Bruno Pavia's De Surgery (1452), published 91 years earlier than Vesalius's Anatomy of the Human Body, still contains images that are still clad in vestiges of observational ideas, but as the title of the book suggests, it still shows a willingness to take a step forward in medicine beyond the old ways.
And we cannot forget Leonardo da Vinci's extensive anatomical findings. As mentioned above, there was a debate about whether the illustrators of Vesalius's books had plagiarized from da Vinci. Some of da Vinci's anatomical drawings, such as those of sexual intercourse and fetus in the womb, are not necessarily accurate, but at least the structures of the human body that he actually saw are drawn with the accuracy of a modern scientist. The cranial diagram shown here was created in 1489. Another work I would like to mention is "Anatomy of the Parts of the Human Body" by Charles Estienne.
In medieval European society, where Christian doctrine did not value the body as a temporary container for the soul, the development of truly scientific medicine was hindered. However, once an opening was made, it could be said that "scientific" medicine, which developed the theory of mind-body separation, was favorable. Descartes, who appeared in the 16th century, made this theory of mind-body separation definitive. From there, the theory of man as a machine was derived, which was the path that led to modern medicine.
Currently, scholars in the fields of religious philosophy and religious psychology are particularly critical of Descartes' philosophy. Due to unfounded fears about modern cutting-edge medicine, especially organ transplants and cyborgs, they point out that the philosophical roots of modern medicine are in Descartes' theory of mind-body separation, and they want to invalidate Descartes. I would venture to say that this is ignoring the trends of the times too much. If we are to reject Descartes, we must also reject Vesalius, who came before him. We would have to deny Leonardo da Vinci as well. It's ridiculous. You can't deny history. It would be much more effective to create a new philosophy than to try to deny the clear trends of thought (philosophy) from over 400 years ago. If you use your brain a little, you will understand that truly new ideas are not necessarily connected to academic traditions.
Chapter 6
The Influence of Spiritual Practice
When Andreas Vesalius published "The Structure of the Human Body" in Basel, Switzerland (1543), memento mori (remembering death) images were widely painted in Catholic countries in Europe, and the Transi tombs appeared, the Reformation was being called for in Germany, and the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, which resisted and attempted to roll back, was progressing at the same time. This overlaps perfectly with the Italian Renaissance that began around the beginning of the 15th century. Religion, science, art - the spiritual history of Europe was truly a century of "flowers and storms."
There is no need to mention the Reformation. Martin Luther (1483-1546), who went to Rome as an envoy from Germany, faced the irrationality of the authoritarian papacy. In 1517, he submitted a 95-article opinion in protest against the Pope's sale of indulgences. Luther's argument was that faith alone is the way to the Kingdom of God, that the way is shown only by the Bible, and that there is no need for the authority of the Pope.
Let me explain the main points of the Reformation a little more.
The basis of the Catholic Church and the papacy at that time was the mysticism of scholastic philosophy. The Reformation meant, first and foremost, liberation from such a church and papacy. In other words, it meant obtaining a state and civil society, and turning one's eyes to nature and reality. Faith was not forced upon one by the authority of the church, but rather required each individual to have autonomy and self-awareness to think, and asserted a purely human right founded on one's own conscience and one's own conviction. This meant that salvation must also take place within one's own heart, and that one must atone for sins and be purified by oneself. This rejected what had previously been done by priests under the authority of the church.
Luther established a Protestant church to rival the Catholic Church, and the light of Reformation quickly spread throughout Europe. The issue was settled in Germany by the Peace of Augsburg in 1559, and in France by the Edict of Nantes in 1598.
However, for those of us who are examining the iconography of the skeleton, it is necessary to look at the Counter-Reformation.
In order to regain the foundations of its lost authority, the Roman Catholic Church held several religious councils called the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563. The main agenda was the clarification of Catholic theology. In parallel with this, Ignatius de Loyola (1491-1556) established the Society of Jesus, with the Pope at its head, and trained scholarly monks while also embarking on rigorous missionary work. Loyola's goal was to achieve unity with God through rigorous training. He called it spiritual exercises, in which one escapes from the everyday world, purifies oneself, and becomes one with God as a vivid soul. He also wrote a book called "Spiritual Exercises," which was approved by Pope Paul III as a sacred book of the Church in 1548.
This book describes "meditation on death" as a method of escaping the everyday world. Monks would actually practice "meditation on death" by placing a skull nearby. In Capuchin monasteries, when a monk died, his bones would be piled up in a crypt or bone chandeliers would be made to decorate the chapel. In Rome, there is a temple called the "Coffin Temple," where several thousand skeletons are piled up. Tourists can now view it.
Apart from the iconography of memento mori, images of saints meditating while gazing at a skull became popular after Loyola advocated spiritual exercises.
(left) Albrecht Dürer, "St. Jerome in his Study," 1514
(right) Albrecht Dürer, "St. Jerome," 1521
(left) Caravaggio, "Meditation of St. Francis," circa 1606
(right) Giuseppe de Ribera, "St. Onuphrius," 1642
(left) Bartholomeus Spranger, "The Penitence of Mary Magdalene," 16th century
(right) Capuchin Monastery (Roman Crypt)
Chapter 7
The Century of Fantasy
Vesalius's anatomy marked the decisive step of medicine in the direction of the separation of mind and body. This dualistic relationship between mind and body ushered in a new era in philosophy, when Descartes's philosophy of no presuppositions was accepted. This was the 17th century.
Descartes's dualism of mind and body can be briefly described as follows:
The essence of matter is extension, and the essence of the mind is thought. If the two have nothing in common, the combination of mind and body is merely mechanical. Humans should be considered as sophisticated automatons made from clay by God. The mind lives within this body and is closely connected to the body, but the two are not internally connected. The mind and the body are independent entities. The body is itself a complete machine, and the mind merely causes certain movements in the machine. The only point where the mind comes into contact with the body is the pineal gland in the center of the brain. Because the brain is paired, if the seat of the mind is placed in the entire brain, the mind will perceive the object twice, which is bad. The pineal gland in the center of the brain is the seat of the mind.
It makes me want to laugh, but this is one of the great achievements of humankind.
Humans are truly pitiful creatures, and cannot live by instinct like other living things. They are creatures with broken instincts. In other words, all other living things live to preserve their species, and that is what they call instinct, but in humans this is broken, so they have to construct concepts of principles of action and thinking that replace instinct. Otherwise, human life will be in a bind. This means that depending on how these concepts are constructed, it could result in the destruction of humanity. Humans are creatures that are always barely surviving on the brink of such destruction.
Well, try thinking like another living thing for a moment, philosophers are really stupid from the perspective of other living things. They are struggling because they don't know how to live. The more they think, the more they sink into a deep hole, piling illusion upon illusion, and getting their head stuck in a tangled web that is suffocating them. This fool---this is what a human being is like. Ecce Homo (look at this man).
Anyway, Descartes was influenced by the ideas of the previous century, but in terms of verbalizing those ideas as philosophy, he created a completely new concept. Thus began the 17th century.
In his theory of Mannerist art, The World as Labyrinth, Gustav René Hocke wrote, "In the 17th century, 'deformities' became fashionable."
"The denial of normal form and its distortion in visual absurdity. Rather than being determined by illusion as in expressive Mannerism, it is now determined solely by physical calculations. To that extent, of course, it is still 'abstract.' In these experiments, people experience the poetry of geometric abstraction.' He goes on to say that this trend has formed a European tradition that has continued for several centuries to the present day. 'What is celebrated is mystical perspective and the magic of deformed forms. The automaton also emerged from anti-naturalistic perspective, namely the robots of Dürer, Ehard Schön, and especially Braccelli, the live dolls that were so popular in the early 20th century. The European anti-naturalistic classical tradition, with its splendor and tragedy, has continued to form an anti-quasi-classical humanist group for several centuries.”
Although René Hocke does not point this out, the robot-like human bodies depicted by Ehard Schön and Braccelli that he gives as examples, are clearly a reflection of the philosophy of human machine theory. It would be no problem to see it as being influenced by these theories of human machine. And not only is this the gene of 20th century artists such as Georges de Chirico and Fernand Léger, it is also connected to our modern popularity of robots and the issue of medical cyborgs.
We are considering skeleton drawings, but before looking at 17th century skeleton drawings, let us also take note of the robotic human body drawings that were influenced by these theories of human machine. René Hocke's statement that "deformities" were popular in the 17th century is expressed in skeleton drawings as a form of intellectual play. We will examine this again in another issue.
Erhard Schoen (c. 1491-1542) "Diagram of the Human Body"
Giovanni Braccelli (1584-1650) "Soldier and Dancer"
Chapter 8
The Skull of Nihilism
Needless to say, anatomical drawings with an academic character are separate from religion and ethics. In other words, the skeletons in anatomical drawings do not have the intense struggle between life and death seen in spiritual training. The intellectual sensibility based on observation is inherited by the character of the Baroque style, which was popular from the early 17th century to the mid-18th century. In particular, compared to the fancifulness of the Mannerist style, which was popular in the 17th century, the Baroque style emphasizes realism even more. Compared to the fancifulness of the robot-like human body representations mentioned above, the realism is immediately obvious.
As for skeleton drawings, the theme of "vanitas" (transience, vanity) reaches a certain height of prosperity, but this is not for the purpose of meditation, let alone for a strict questioning of the issue of life and death. In the Baroque, death (skeleton) was an aesthetic object. Skeletons are perfect models for still-life paintings, no different from objects that symbolize transience and vanity. It is fair to say that skeletons depicted in still-life paintings are not tasked with deriving lessons about life and death.
So what exactly is there?
There is the phenomenon of death. Disappearing, breaking down---such a phenomenon exists. This is calmly observed and perceived as beautiful. A view of life and death that adapts to this phenomenon.
Meditation on death in spiritual training in the last century was extremely serious, denying this world, affirming the next, and striving for rebirth. Gazing at and touching a skull had its own effectiveness. Paintings of saints meditating on death preached the victory of death and had a practical effect in repenting for sins in this world.
However, skeletons as still-life paintings in the 17th century are far from the practicality of such meditation; in fact, they deny it. Nihilism - yes, this "Vanitas" is proof of the nihilism of the century.
Pieter Claes, "Vanitas," 1625
"Vanitas," print of the original by Crispigjn van de Passe (1565-1637)
"Vanitas," Rembrandt (1606-1669)
(left) Jan Grossart, "Skeleton from a Two-panel Painting," 1517, Louvre Museum
(right) Hendrick Goltzius, "Who Will Become?", 1594
Chapter 9
Illusions of the Century of Light
The 18th century, a seemingly glamorous century considered the Rococo period of Baroque. Excessive curves swirling like foaming waves. Flower decorations and arabesque patterns with a golden glow, contrasted with light, spring-like pale colors. Musical tunes such as Rameau and Couperin that flow sweetly and gently. And it was also the age of intellect and rationalism, known as the "Century of Light." It was the age of Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire, and Goethe, who wrote the preface to the Encyclopedia, Herpesius of "On the Mind," d'Holbach of "System of Nature," Buffon of "Natural History," and Casanova of "Memoirs."
At the same time, according to Marcel Brillant, it was "an age in which magic, pseudo-mysticism, and a strange level of supernaturalism were actively rampant." In other words, it was the age of Piranesi and Goya, who peered through the darkness of night into the depths of human consciousness.
The 17th century Baroque skeleton images did not have the drama of an intense struggle between life and death. Skeletons as still lifes may have a slight melancholy, but they do not teach the lesson of "remembering death." This seems to have been carried over into the 18th century Rococo style. It's as if they are telling us to release the burdens of our hearts and celebrate life instead of contemplating death.
But is this really the case?
It may seem that I have given this example by chance, but why was it painters who "stared through the darkness of the night into the depths of human consciousness"?
In fact, we could add the name of the Marquis de Sade here. The cruel characters in Sade's novels revealed this by injuring and tearing the female body. It is exactly the same as what can be pointed out as the uniqueness of the works of Goya, Piranesi, Gautier Dagoty, who painted strange anatomical drawings, and Jacob Scheuerke.
In the academic anatomical drawings of the 18th century, and therefore in the skeleton drawings, strange fantasies emerge along with precise scientific observation. A supernaturalism suddenly appears in rationalism.
Let's take a look at the paintings.
A copperplate engraving by Jan Wanderaer (1690-1759) for Bernhard Siegfried Albinus's Muscular and Skeletal Structure of the Human Body. It's fine for a skeleton to pose as if it were alive, with its skin peeled off (though I'm irresponsible for saying why that is fine), but what on earth is that hippopotamus in the background? The skeleton still has its ligaments, tendons, and diaphragm. It's a proud, almost aristocratic pose. The left hand is held out generously, as if to train the hippopotamus. The smooth muscles contrast with the hippopotamus's thick, rough skin. But there's nothing to explain the relationship between the two. It's just a strangely well-balanced "picture."
The skeleton in Gautier Dagoty's Illustrated Anatomy also holds out its right arm gracefully. It stands alone, facing the wall. The light coming in from the rear left casts the skeleton's black shadow onto the wall. This shadow. Or in Jacob Scheuerke's "Physica Sacra," light shines from the sky onto three skeletons standing on a rock by the sea. This light.
These abnormal ideas. Tragic humor. What is depicted here is no longer just death. Death is not equal to nothing, but a grotesque illusion that some action continues and sensations are retained even after death. The more academically and scientifically the human body was dissected, the more these creative artists with special talents encountered the mystery of life. What they painted was a picture that was not related to oppressive preaching, and was not about death as a phenomenon, but was an exploration of what life is.
A copperplate engraving by Jan Wanderaer, included with Bernhard Siegfried Albinus's
"The Muscular and Skeletal Structure of the Human Body."
(left) "The Skeleton and its Shadow" from Gautier Dagoty's "Illustrated Anatomy" (1759).
(right) From Jacob Schoeckser's "Physica Sacra" (1723).
Elensky, who compared Sade's protagonists with Gautier Dagoty's anatomical drawings and studied their similarities, said the following about Gautier Dagoty's paintings:
"They stand like monks in front of a background that is so ordinary that they are friends only with their own shadows, revealing the senses of a human being without skin, and unconsciously convey an atmosphere of loneliness, fear, and despair. However, it was two centuries later that these kinds of emotions appeared in literature and art." (From "Sous l'eccorce de l'home," translated by Otsuro Sakazaki)
The supremacy of cruelty in Sade's protagonists may be pathological, but there is nothing pathological about Gautier Dagoty's. It is difficult to understand from the perspective of a medical book, but the fact that this eeriness is expressed in a truly tranquil presence is almost astonishing. If this is called a fantasy painting, it may be said that the fantasy is expressed unintentionally. It was this spirit like Dacoity's that, in the midst of the century of light, sought to see through the darkness into the depths of human consciousness.
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