The Flamboyant Design of Jean Lemaire de Belge’s La Concorde des deux langages

The Flam boyant D esign of Jean Lem aire de B eige’s La Concorde des deux langages M ich ael R andall T H E A L L E G O R IC A L SY M B O L ISM o f “ rh e to riq u e u r” literature an d th e decorative exuberance o f flam boyant architecture have b o th been accused o f being decadent, m eaningless g ro w th s.' The very sim ilarity o f the criticism levelled at these tw o very d ifferent art fo rm s— literatu re and arch itectu re— points to an underlying dynam ic w hich m anifests itself in a parasitic guise in b o th stone an d w ord. This dynam ic can be m ore easily observed in literatu re, for exam ple, w hen its co m p arab le developm ent in architecture is kept in m ind. This is p a r­ ticularly tru e in the case o f Jean L em aire de Beiges w ho w as the “ M aster o f W o rk s” (construction fo rem an) fo r M argaret o f A u stria at the C hurch o f B rou in B ourg en B resse during one o f his m ost productive literary p erio d s.2 In this essay, I intend to look at how this “ degenera­ tive” process develops in the im agery o f L em aire’s L a C o n c o r d e d e s d e u x la n g a g es (1511). As b o th “ rh e to riq u e u r” an d p articip an t in the developm ent o f flam ­ b o y an t arch itectu re, L em aire can be considered as the literal an d fig u ra­ tive crossing p o in t o f one form to the o th er. H e is the “ lieu co m m u n ” o f the decadence Jo h an H uizinga so eloquently decried in his T h e W a n in g o f th e M id d le A g e s ? T he “ sym bolic excesses” (p. 207) o f the architec­ tu ral form seem to insinuate them selves in to the fo rm al aspects o f L em aire’s lyric poetry. T he plastic im age in the poem s appears to develop independently o f the sym bolic referent it is tied to , like flam ­ b o y an t tracery covering the stru ctu rally sym bolic surface o f a gothic cath ed ral. T he sym bol is “ crystallized” in to an au to n o m o u s im age covering the surface o f its host fo rm , feeding on it until all m eaningfully sym bolic connection has been consum ed. T he tw o m ain plastic im ages in L a C o n c o r d e d es d e u x la n g a g es— the T em ple o f V enus and the T em ple o f M inerva— provide am ple evidence o f the developm ent from sym bolic im age, fully integrated w ithin the allegorical process, to p ictorial im age independent o f all sym bolic ties. T his developm ent from sym bolic to p ictorial representation situates the VOL. X X V III, N o . 2 13 L ’E s p r i t C r é a t e u r poem astride a divide w hich P au l Z u m th o r has posited in the conceptual understan d in g o f the period: L a poésie des rh éto riq u eu rs a p p a rtie n t à une é p o q u e balancée en tre un e épistém è ancienne, do m in ée p ar un e vision...