Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 6
Masks, worn to falsify the faceAI-generated
Chascun veult faindre & colorer sa ruse.
Emblem VI. Everyone wants to feign and colour over his trickery.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
A rectangular woodcut framed by a black border showing four face masks arranged in two rows of two, each with long curling ribbons or ties streaming out at the sides. Top left is the mask of an aged, heavily wrinkled face; top right a smooth, round youthful face; bottom left a face with bulging eyes and a thick curly beard and moustache; bottom right a narrower smooth face with hair indicated by fine hatching. Loose loops and ends of ribbon fill the spaces between the masks.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
Masques seront cy apres de requesteAutant ou plus qu'elles furent iamais.Quand lon souloit faire banquet ou festeLon en vsoit par forme d'entremetz.Cheres seront par force desormais:Car à present n'est homme qui n'en vse.Chascun veult faindre & colorer sa ruse.Trahison gist soubz beau & doulx langage.Merueille n'est si tout le monde abuse:Car chascun tend à faulcer son visage.
TranslationAI-generated
Masks will hereafter be in demand, as much as or more than they ever were. When people used to hold a banquet or a feast, they used them by way of an entertainment between courses. From now on they will of necessity be costly, for nowadays there is no man who does not use one. Everyone wants to feign and give colour to his trickery. Treachery lies hidden beneath fair and sweet speech. It is no wonder if everyone deceives, for each man strives to falsify his face.
Iconclass
86(CHASCUN VEULT FAINDRE & COLORER SA RUSE)proverbs, sayings, etc. (CHASCUN VEULT FAINDRE & COLORER SA RUSE)41D283mask52AA6Falsehood57AA621Cheat, Deceit; 'Fraude', 'Inganno' (Ripa)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
41D283maskhighThe correlate text 'mask' (as a worn accessory) exactly matches the four hollow face-masks with eye and mouth openings and fastening ties shown in the woodcut.
31A2211facemediumThe correlate 'face' fits the four distinct physiognomies rendered by the masks — aged, youthful, bearded and young — which are the picture's whole subject.
41D2653border, ribbon, braidlowThe correlate 'border, ribbon, braid' could cover the loose ribbons or ties curling between the masks, though here they serve as fastenings rather than clothing trim.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- I vii 7 Non omnes qui habent citharam sunt citharoedi – essay quotemedium
Erasmus' essay cites Seneca's remark that some men 'prefer the mask (persona) to the face (facies)' — the face being what one truly is, the mask what one pretends to be. This is precisely the emblem's conceit of men falsifying their faces with masks to colour over their trickery.
- I viii 57 Melle litus gladius – thematic inventiomedium
The subscriptio's 'Trahison gist soubz beau & doulx langage' (treachery hidden beneath fair and sweet speech) restates exactly the sense of the honey-smeared sword, i.e. harmful intent concealed under sweetness of words.
- I ix 10 Flere ad novercae tumulum – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus closes this adage on feigned grief with the Publilian maxim 'Heredis fletus sub persona risus est' — the heir's weeping is laughter behind a mask — matching the emblem's masks as emblems of universal dissimulation.
- I viii 29 Altera manu fert lapidem, altera panem ostentat – thematic inventiolow
The adage describes those who flatter to the face while secretly harming, the same two-facedness the emblem figures in masks and in 'treachery beneath fair and sweet speech'.
- III iii 1 Sileni Alcibiadis – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus' Silenus-figures turn on the disjunction between outward face and inner reality; the emblem's masks apply the same topos in its negative form, the fair outside hiding the false within.
- I vii 6 Multi thyrsigeri, pauci bacchi – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus' catalogue of men who wear the outward insignia of virtue without possessing it parallels the emblem's claim that everyone now wears a mask to simulate what he is not.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem006
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem006
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00019