VAN VEEN, Otto.

£1,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Amoris divini emblemata. Second edition of the earliest collection of devotional love emblems. Van Veen adapted the traditional love emblem to a religious context, illustrating the interactions between divine love, depicted as a cherub, and the human soul, as a young girl. Each image is paired with a biblical or patristic quote (mainly Augustine), a Spanish epigram, and a Dutch or French poem.The humanist painter Van Veen is perhaps best known as the teacher of Rubens. This work, first published in 1615, is a spiritual counterpart to his earlier Amorum emblemata (1608), a collection of over 100 licentious allegories devoted to profane love. The artist created it at the request of Archduchess Isabella, the dedicatee, and many emblems refer back to the earlier publication. Van Veen designed the illustrations and composed the Dutch verses; the French epigrams were written by Carolus Hattronius, the Spanish ones by Alonso de Ledesma, and the engravings were made by Cornelis Boel. This work had a major influence on the subsequent religious emblem book tradition.

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