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Arranging ‘facts’ in ‘fiction’ – Presenting categories of knowledge in Antwerp prints and plays (1550–1565)
Author(s) -
Vandommele Jeroen
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
renaissance studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1477-4658
pISSN - 0269-1213
DOI - 10.1111/rest.12375
Subject(s) - rhetoric , theme (computing) , rhetorical question , humanity , the arts , art , literature , visual arts , history , sociology , linguistics , philosophy , political science , law , computer science , operating system
This essay examines the way the artes liberales – the seven disciplines that traditionally categorised the different fields of learning – were publicly envisioned in the commercial metropolis of Antwerp between 1550 and 1565. It will introduce the Antwerp Landjuweel of 1561, a theatre competition organised by chambers of rhetoric that had knowledge as its main theme. Through an in‐depths analysis of the allegorical plays performed during this Landjuweel , the essay shows that these plays had an encyclopaedic purpose. Their goal was to produce a structured system that categorised the various arts and sciences. To help internalise and deliberate the presented knowledge structure, the plays employed a fictional mode of discourse and used a visual language related to rhetorical strategies. Showing the similarities between the plays of 1561 and two print series published around the same time and composed by Frans Floris, an influential Antwerp artist who had strong ties to the chambers of rhetoric, it is argued that both media intended to aid citizens in navigating the existing knowledge system, while at the same time redefining the corpus of knowledge and its necessity, thus propagating their own view of humanity's place in the world.