Subproject 2: Representations of love in the early modern period within the context of Baroque conceptions of symbolic art

This subproject offers new insights into representations of spiritual love by placing them within the context of early modern theories on spiritual intermediality. Drawing on figurations of Cupid and of the heart, the ubiquitous symbols of amor spiritualis in this period, the project aims to illuminate various intermedial representations of spiritual love, in particular those found in emblematic images.

It examines the origins, facture, and reception of baroque representations of love, focusing on central symbolic images and the combinations thereof as they appear in the emblem books of Alciato, van Veen, and others. The analysis is presented against the backdrop of contemporary theories on spiritual intermediality, particularly Jakob Masen’s Speculum imaginum veritatis occultae. Furthermore, the project aims to explore the way in which intermedial aesthetics shape the figure of Cupid, rendering it enigmatic and multifaceted, and allowing it to fluctuate between Eros, human emotions, and spiritual love. By considering the figure’s various facets, the project highlights the complex relationship between ancient tradition and an ‘interpretatio Christiana’.

In a similar vein, the heart – the embodiment of divine love and the inner self – is analysed in its various representations, ranging from a bodily organ to a ‘disembodied’ symbol of spiritual love. To better understand these complex phenomena, insights from early modern theories on the interplay of media, with Masen’s writings being a paradigmatic example, are essential. As the project shows, Masen ascribes explicit ethical-ascetic, mystagogical relevance to the use of allegories, most prominently in regard to the representation of spiritual love (caritas and amor divinus). The interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers in German studies, neo-Latin studies, and art history demonstrates that the intermedial correlation between text and images in representations of Cupid and of the heart serves as a point of convergence between horizontal and vertical spiritual intermediality. For the first time, strategies of Christian appropriations of the Cupid figure and the multifaceted motif of the heart are examined together, an approach that promises a deeper understanding of the way in which early modern practices and concepts of spiritual intermediality mutually enhance each other.

The members of the project closely collaborate with other subprojects (in particular subprojects 1, 3, and 4) to standardise and sharpen the research unit’s shared methodology.