Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 81
Cupid grafting a tree in an orchardAI-generated
Le Dieu d'Amour, angoisse sur tous ente.
Emblem 81. The God of Love grafts the pear-of-anguish onto all trees.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
A square woodcut showing an orchard or garden enclosed by a low wattle fence. In the foreground two small winged putti work at a tree: the larger one, blindfolded and with large feathered wings, stands beside a slender tree, reaching up with both hands to its forked branches; a second, smaller putto crouches or kneels at the foot of the tree, holding or steadying something near the ground. Behind the fence stand several bare, pollarded or lopped trees with stubby cut branches, and a leafy bushy tree at the left edge. The ground at the right is drawn as a hatched mound; a distant row of small plants or hedging appears beyond the fence at the right.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
CVpido sçait Enter iusques au bout,Et se delecte en faict de Iardinage:Et que plus est, son Ente prend sur tout:Dont est produict diuers fruict & sauuage.Tousiours trauaille, & poursuyt son ouurage,Sur tous Vergers il obtient la regence,Il n'est iamais noté de negligence:Ne lascheté, au moins qu'on le cognoisse.Il est expert, & plein de Diligence:Mais en tout arbre ente poyre d'angoisse.
TranslationAI-generated
Cupid knows how to graft right to the very end, and he delights in the business of gardening: and what is more, his graft takes on everything, whence is produced various and wild fruit. He always labours and pursues his work; over all orchards he holds the rule; he is never charged with negligence, nor with slackness, at least so far as anyone knows. He is expert and full of diligence: but on every tree he grafts the pear of anguish.
Iconclass
86(LE DIEU D'AMOUR, ANGOISSE SUR TOUS ENTE)proverbs, sayings, etc. (LE DIEU D'AMOUR, ANGOISSE SUR TOUS ENTE)92D156other non-aggressive activities of Cupid25G3trees25G3(+22)trees (+ branch, stick)47I134slipping, grafting, cutting of plants47I15(SICKLE)agricultural implements: sickle41A54fence, wall, paling56F2(personifications and symbolic representations of) Love; 'Amore (secondo Seneca)' (Ripa)33C53match-making scene
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- IV v 15 Musicam docet amor – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus' essay says love 'stirs the mind to industry,' is the best teacher of the arts, turns the careless man into a conscientious one, and (citing Plato's παντὸς ἐπιχειρήτην) attempts everything; the subscriptio praises Cupid as a tireless, expert grafter who 'is never charged with negligence, nor with slackness' and is 'full of Diligence' — but whose industrious art yields only the pear of anguish.
- IV vii 91 Ut lupus ovem – thematic inventiolow
The emblem's point — that all Cupid's assiduous cultivation produces 'wild fruit' and finally the pear of anguish — matches Erasmus' moral that what is called love is really harm inflicted on the beloved, as the wolf 'loves' the sheep; the connection is conceptual only, with no verbal echo.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem081
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem081
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00094