ХЕЙРЕМАНС АЛИНА МИХАЭЛОВНА (Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики», Российская Федерация). Изображение пословиц во фламандском маргинальном искусстве XIII–XV веков
ALINA HEIREMANS (The National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation). Representation of Proverbs in Flemish Marginal Art of the 13th–15th Centuries
In my current research, I attempt to draw a link between marginal imagery found in Flemish illuminated manuscripts and medieval Flemish and French proverbs, proving that marginalia and folklore have many points of intersection.
A common motif, found in the margins of Flemish manuscripts, shows a man and a woman (or two women) fighting for the britches and most likely refers to the proverb “Whoever wins the britches gets the man”. The proverb is closely related to two 13th-century fabliaux, the “Fabliaux d’Estourmi” and the “Fabliau de Sire Hains et de Dame Aniense”; central to all of these is a competition between wife and husband for the man’s britches, which will verify mastery of the household. Many of the marginal images are associated with nudity and, more specifically, with the lower stratum of the body. A common inhabitant of the marginal realm is a nude, or a half-nude man pointing to his buttocks or often plugging his arse with a finger, which might allude to the saying “Plug your arse and you can’t shit” (“A resoun pert le chïer qe soun cul estope”) or could otherwise be the gesture of “mooning”, that is, exposing the buttocks at someone, itself being a sign of defiance or insult. Many images would refer to the sayings “It’s as true as the fact that an arse can sing” (“Il est vrai tout ainsi comme le cul chante”) and “He makes a thunder out of a fart” (“Hij maakt van een scheet een donderslag”), celebrating the “musical gift” of the arse. The musical butt is frequently encountered in the margins of Flemish manuscripts, and a bagpipe or trumpet appears to be its favourite instrument, as farting would often be compared to trumping in many sayings. A Flemish expression “He shits on the whole world” (“Hij beschijt de geheele wereld”), which became best known through Brueghel’s painting “Netherlandish proverbs”, is reflected in a marginal image of a man, defecating on a globe, is found in the 15th-century book of hours of Roland de Wedergate (MS 158). A Flemish saying “He shits eggs without shells” (“Hij schijt eieren zonder schalen”) might have inspired the recurring image of a man, sitting on the nest full of eggs.
The manuscripts mainly used in the study are the 13th century “Arthurian Romance” (Beinecke Rare Book Library, MS 229) and “Speculum doctrinale” (Openbare Bibliotheek, MS 251), the lavishly decorated “Romance of Alexander” (Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 264) and “Les Voeux du Paon” (Pierpont Morgan Library, MS Glazier 24), both completed in the 14th century, the 15th century “Hours of Mary of Burgundy” (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1857), “Hours of Joanna the Mad” (British Library, MS Add. 18852) and the book of hours of Roland de Wedergate (Médiathèque municipale Jean Lévy, MS 158).
Мarginalia, folklore, proverbs, Flanders
Маргиналии, фольклор, пословицы, Фландрия