Emblem 62

Emblem 62

Blindfolded Cupid playing the lute to a dancing donkeyAI-generated

Amour contrainct toutes gens estre braues.

Emblem 62. Love compels all people to be gallant.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut in a rectangular frame showing an open landscape with low hills and rocks. At the left a donkey rears up on its hind legs, forelegs raised as if dancing, with ears pricked and mouth open. Facing it at the right stands a winged, nude Cupid wearing a blindfold or band over his eyes, playing a lute-like stringed instrument held across his body. Scattered small stones and clumps of grass lie on the ground between them; clouds appear in the sky above.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 62 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

AMour apprend les Asnes à dancer,Et les Lourdaux faict deuenir Muguetz:Pigner les faict, farder, & agencer,Par le moyen de ses subtilz aguetz.Aux endormiz, il faict faire les guetz.Rusticité transmue en Gentillesse:Car sans cela, que de son traict les blesse,Leur vilanie il conuertit en grace.Cymon iadis en receut telle adresse,Comme lon lit aux escriptz de Boccace.

TranslationAI-generated

Love teaches donkeys to dance, and makes louts become dandies; it makes them comb their hair, paint their faces and adorn themselves, by means of its subtle ambushes. It makes the sleepy keep watch. It transmutes rusticity into gentility: for apart from this, that its arrow wounds them, it converts their boorishness into grace. Cymon long ago received such instruction, as one reads in the writings of Boccaccio.

Iconclass

86(AMOUR CONTRAINCT TOUTES GENS ESTRE BRAUES) proverbs, sayings, etc. (AMOUR CONTRAINCT TOUTES GENS ESTRE BRAUES)

46C13142(+7539) ass, donkey (+ other postures of animals, not meant or mentioned above)

43C9 dancing

92D156 other non-aggressive activities of Cupid

92D18(BLINDFOLD) attributes of Cupid: blindfold

48CC7522 one person playing string instrument (plucked) - CC - out of doors

48CC7323 lute, and special forms of lute, e.g.: theorbo - CC - out of doors

56F25 (personifications and symbolic representations of) Qualities of Love

51K1 Change

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

48C7323 lute, and special forms of lute, e.g.: theorbohigh

The correlate text 'lute, and special forms of lute' directly matches the lute-like stringed instrument Cupid plays.

48CC7323 lute, and special forms of lute, e.g.: theorbo - CC - out of doorsmedium

The same lute motif with the qualifier 'out of doors' fits since the scene is set in an open landscape with hills and sky.

48C7 musicmedium

The general correlate 'music' applies to Cupid's music-making, which makes the donkey dance.

92D151 Cupid disarming the strong; the Power of Lovelow

'Cupid ... the Power of Love' could capture the blindfolded Cupid whose playing compels even an ass to dance, though no disarming of the strong is depicted.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

IV v 15 Musicam docet amor – direct mottohigh

The emblem's whole conceit — 'Amour apprend les Asnes à dancer... Rusticité transmue en Gentillesse' — translates Erasmus's Μουσικὴν ἔρως διδάσκει, κἄντις ἄμουσος ᾖ τὸ πρὶν, 'Love teaches the arts, even in someone who was uncultured'; the closing reference to Cymon in Boccaccio reproduces the very exemplum Erasmus adduces in this adage's essay (the fabella Boccatii de Cimone, who polished himself in letters and manners for love of a girl).

I iv 35 Asinus ad lyram – thematic inventiomedium

The woodcut's pairing of a lute-playing Cupid with a capering donkey plays wittily on the proverbial 'ass at the lyre' (the brute insensible to music): here Love's music makes even the ass dance, inverting the adage to prove that amor teaches the arts to the boorish.