Jeroen Vandommele - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Books by Jeroen Vandommele
Papers by Jeroen Vandommele
"Un certain Holandois". Coornhert en de vragen van zijn tijd, ed. Jaap Gruppelaar and Jürgen Pieters, 2014
Book Reviews by Jeroen Vandommele
Paper presentations by Jeroen Vandommele
Conference: The Aura of the Word in the early age of print, Brussels 2012. In the summer of 1561... more Conference: The Aura of the Word in the early age of print, Brussels 2012.
In the summer of 1561 a theatre-competition was organized in the city of Antwerp. During one month fifteen chambers of rhetoric competed against each other, performing theatre plays, staging tableaux vivants and reciting poetry. The literary program of the ‘Antwerp Landjuweel, as the competition was called, has been characterised as innovative, emphasizing the union of the visual and the written, the interaction between the image and the word. An example of this interest is the use of the rebus. A rebus can best be described as ‘a visual riddle’: a collection of images, which are arranged in a particular order. Each image refers to a certain word or a concept. By uncovering the meaning of the separate images, a sentence can be constructed, explaining the rebus itself. At the Landjuweel, rebuses were displayed on large wooden boards during a pageant parade. Keen on involving the audience, broadsheets with the solutions to the riddles were distributed to the spectators. Although not unique to the Landjuweel, the Antwerp festival popularized the rebus, standardizing its visual language. In the next decades several Antwerp artists used the same rebus
imagery in Albums Amicorum, political prints, medallions and paintings. My paper will look at the interaction between word and image in these rebuses and will try to shed some light as to what attracted these poets and artists to this form of communication.
SHAC event, 26 October 2014: ‘The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: Willem Sylvius and John De... more SHAC event, 26 October 2014: ‘The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: Willem Sylvius and John Dee’, Museum Plantin-Moretus
9th Biennial Conference ALCS: Low Countries, Big Cities (2012) During the sixteenth century Antwe... more 9th Biennial Conference ALCS: Low Countries, Big Cities (2012)
During the sixteenth century Antwerp had to cope with a drastic change in socio-economic circumstances. Its regional and international commercial success turned the city into the marketplace of the world. As such, there was a common believe that commerce was the origin of prosperity and should therefore be celebrated and praised. However, the economic success of Antwerp did have its downside. Traditional community values were under severe pressure. The immigration flux together with commercial capitalism meant proletarianization for many artisans. With the growth of international trade and the development of a specialized merchant class who dealt with trading full-time, it became increasingly difficult for the individual entrepreneur to keep to the professional ethics preached by his fellow citizens. In order to keep up in the trade circuit, the merchants started using practices that conflicted with a morality that was in their eyes obsolete. This change in attitude concerning economic ethics outraged the rest of the urban community, who viewed the development of this new entrepreneurship as a radical break with traditional Christian values and as a fissure in the urban unity. Through text as well as image, attempts were made to develop a new macro-economical theory which catered to the prosperity of the entire community. My paper will investigate how rhetoricians and artists in Antwerp discussed and defined the roles of the rightful merchant and the useful worker and their value to society.
Paper presentation for Renaissance Society Conference, Berlin (2015) During the sixteenth century... more Paper presentation for Renaissance Society Conference, Berlin (2015) During the sixteenth century Antwerp developed into an international center for commerce. From early on the notion was developed that trade was at the origin of Antwerp’s recent prosperity, and should therefore be promoted. However, the economic success of Antwerp was also perceived to have its shortcomings. With the growth of international trade and the development of a specialized merchant class, new ideas about mercantile behavior put into practice that conflicted with traditional morality. The development of these novel views on economic ethics was criticized by other members of the urban community, who viewed the new forms of entrepreneurship to be a fissure in the urban unity and a danger to the promotion of general prosperity. My paper will investigate how artists and writers in Antwerp discussed and defined the value of commerce and wealth to society in their attempt to develop an economic vision that catered to the prosperity of the entire community.
Paper presentation for Sixteenth Century Studies conference, Brugge. During the sixteenth century... more Paper presentation for Sixteenth Century Studies conference, Brugge. During the sixteenth century Antwerp’s commercial success turned the city into the marketplace of the world. As such, there was a common belief that commerce was the origin of wealth and should therefore be celebrated and praised. However, honest mercantile values were not enough for sustained prosperity. In visual and textual sources of the middle of the sixteenth century, a certain work-ethos was also presented as key to prosperity. Work was strongly linked to community spirit. Every profession was honourable in the eyes of God, as long as it was practised devoutly. Central to this discourse on labour was the archetype of the toiling farmer. This paper will investigate the use of this archetype in Antwerp literature and how rhetoricians and artists in Antwerp discussed and defined the role the useful worker and his value to society.
Conference: The Aura of the Word in the early age of print, Brussels 2012. In the summer of 1561... more Conference: The Aura of the Word in the early age of print, Brussels 2012.
In the summer of 1561 a theatre-competition was organized in the city of Antwerp. During one month fifteen chambers of rhetoric competed against each other, performing theatre plays, staging tableaux vivants and reciting poetry. The literary program of the ‘Antwerp Landjuweel, as the competition was called, has been characterised as innovative, emphasizing the union of the visual and the written, the interaction between the image and the word. An example of this interest is the use of the rebus. A rebus can best be described as ‘a visual riddle’: a collection of images, which are arranged in a particular order. Each image refers to a certain word or a concept. By uncovering the meaning of the separate images, a sentence can be constructed, explaining the rebus itself. At the Landjuweel, rebuses were displayed on large wooden boards during a pageant parade. Keen on involving the audience, broadsheets with the solutions to the riddles were distributed to the spectators. Although not unique to the Landjuweel, the Antwerp festival popularized the rebus, standardizing its visual language. In the next decades several Antwerp artists used the same rebus
imagery in Albums Amicorum, political prints, medallions and paintings. My paper will look at the interaction between word and image in these rebuses and will try to shed some light as to what attracted these poets and artists to this form of communication.
SHAC event, 26 October 2014: ‘The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: Willem Sylvius and John De... more SHAC event, 26 October 2014: ‘The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: Willem Sylvius and John Dee’, Museum Plantin-Moretus
9th Biennial Conference ALCS: Low Countries, Big Cities (2012) During the sixteenth century Antwe... more 9th Biennial Conference ALCS: Low Countries, Big Cities (2012)
During the sixteenth century Antwerp had to cope with a drastic change in socio-economic circumstances. Its regional and international commercial success turned the city into the marketplace of the world. As such, there was a common believe that commerce was the origin of prosperity and should therefore be celebrated and praised. However, the economic success of Antwerp did have its downside. Traditional community values were under severe pressure. The immigration flux together with commercial capitalism meant proletarianization for many artisans. With the growth of international trade and the development of a specialized merchant class who dealt with trading full-time, it became increasingly difficult for the individual entrepreneur to keep to the professional ethics preached by his fellow citizens. In order to keep up in the trade circuit, the merchants started using practices that conflicted with a morality that was in their eyes obsolete. This change in attitude concerning economic ethics outraged the rest of the urban community, who viewed the development of this new entrepreneurship as a radical break with traditional Christian values and as a fissure in the urban unity. Through text as well as image, attempts were made to develop a new macro-economical theory which catered to the prosperity of the entire community. My paper will investigate how rhetoricians and artists in Antwerp discussed and defined the roles of the rightful merchant and the useful worker and their value to society.
Paper presentation for Renaissance Society Conference, Berlin (2015) During the sixteenth century... more Paper presentation for Renaissance Society Conference, Berlin (2015) During the sixteenth century Antwerp developed into an international center for commerce. From early on the notion was developed that trade was at the origin of Antwerp’s recent prosperity, and should therefore be promoted. However, the economic success of Antwerp was also perceived to have its shortcomings. With the growth of international trade and the development of a specialized merchant class, new ideas about mercantile behavior put into practice that conflicted with traditional morality. The development of these novel views on economic ethics was criticized by other members of the urban community, who viewed the new forms of entrepreneurship to be a fissure in the urban unity and a danger to the promotion of general prosperity. My paper will investigate how artists and writers in Antwerp discussed and defined the value of commerce and wealth to society in their attempt to develop an economic vision that catered to the prosperity of the entire community.
Paper presentation for Sixteenth Century Studies conference, Brugge. During the sixteenth century... more Paper presentation for Sixteenth Century Studies conference, Brugge. During the sixteenth century Antwerp’s commercial success turned the city into the marketplace of the world. As such, there was a common belief that commerce was the origin of wealth and should therefore be celebrated and praised. However, honest mercantile values were not enough for sustained prosperity. In visual and textual sources of the middle of the sixteenth century, a certain work-ethos was also presented as key to prosperity. Work was strongly linked to community spirit. Every profession was honourable in the eyes of God, as long as it was practised devoutly. Central to this discourse on labour was the archetype of the toiling farmer. This paper will investigate the use of this archetype in Antwerp literature and how rhetoricians and artists in Antwerp discussed and defined the role the useful worker and his value to society.