Emblem 45

Emblem 45

Crows feeding on a naked corpseAI-generated

En tous endroictz flatteurs sont dangereux.

In all places flatterers are dangerous.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut landscape. In the upper part of the sky four crows fly with outstretched wings. Below, on sloping ground beside a hill, a naked human corpse lies stretched out on its back; one crow stands on the body pecking at the head, another large crow stands at the left pecking at the ground near the corpse, and a third crow stands at the lower right on the grass. A tree with leafy branches rises at the right edge of the frame; the ground is dotted with stones and tufts of grass.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 45 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

Flatteurs de court, font par leur beau deuis,Pis mille foys, que ne font les Corbeaux:Car le Flatteur deuore les corps vifz,Contrefaisaut propos mignons & beaulx:Mais le Corbeau ne cherche les morceaulx,Que sur corps mortz, ou puante charongne.Le faulx Flatteur tousiours le vif empoigne,Pour à la fin le rendre pouure & mince.De tel babil, & de si faincte troigne,Se doibt garder le bon & saige Prince.

TranslationAI-generated

Flatterers of the court, by their fine talk, do a thousand times worse than ravens do: for the flatterer devours living bodies, feigning charming and fair speeches; but the raven seeks its morsels only upon dead bodies or stinking carrion. The false flatterer always seizes the living man, in order in the end to make him poor and thin. From such chatter, and from so feigned a face, the good and wise Prince ought to guard himself.

Iconclass

86(EN TOUS ENDROICTZ FLATTEURS SONT DANGEREUX) proverbs, sayings, etc. (EN TOUS ENDROICTZ FLATTEURS SONT DANGEREUX)

25H1131 mound, verge

25F32(RAVEN)(+45) song-birds: raven (+ animals eating and drinking)

31E3 the corpse

31A236 lying figure

41D91(+7) man (showing himself) undressed, quasi-nude (+ worn or torn clothes)

44B152 royal household; courtiers, retinue, train

44B155 daily life at court

57AA6121 Flattery; 'Adulatione' (Ripa)

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.

25F32(CROW) song-birds: crowhigh

The correlate 'song-birds: crow' directly matches the several crows flying and standing on the ground that dominate the scene.

31E3 the corpsehigh

The correlate 'the corpse' matches the naked human dead body lying stretched out on its back in the landscape.

42E19 violation of the corpsemedium

The correlate 'violation of the corpse' fits the crows desecrating the unburied body by feeding on it.

42E191 mutilation of the corpselow

The correlate 'mutilation of the corpse' could apply to the crow pecking at and tearing the dead man's head.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.

II i 96 Ad corvos – essay quotehigh

The subscriptio's whole conceit — that flatterers are worse than crows because crows eat only corpses while flatterers devour the living — reproduces Diogenes' dictum quoted inside this adage's essay: 'Satius est ad corvos devenire, quam ad adulatores, quod hi et vivos et bonos etiam viros devorarent.' The woodcut of crows feeding on a corpse literalizes the κόρακες/κόλακες contrast.

I vii 15 Corvum delusit hiantem – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus' essay notes that the crow, like the vulture, always watches for carrion (cadaveribus imminet) and uses it of the legacy-hunter who preys on another; the emblem's image of crows on a corpse and the greedy flatterer impoverishing his living prey touches the same figure, though with no verbal borrowing.

I viii 58 Letale mulsum – thematic inventiolow

Another Diogenes-derived adage on flattery as something sweet that kills ('assentatione delectaret ... strangularet'), matching the emblem's warning that the flatterer's 'propos mignons et beaulx' ruin the prince; thematic only, no quotation.