Earthly Treasures: Material Culture and Metaphysics in the Heptameron and Evangelical Narrative

Chapter Three: A New Medium for a New Message: Evangelicals and Decorative Arts

77 Chapter Three A New Medium for a New Message Evangelicals and Decorative Arts In This World But Not of It: Evangelicalism and the Arts The presence of Lutheran theology in France during the 1520s and 1530s influenced Marguerite to develop an evangelical narrative . This new narrative form also encompassed certain trends in contemporary decorative and fine arts.1 Art historians recognize that “Fontainebleau was truly a school for the new culture in France. Fontainebleau also had an impact on the literary style of French culture.”2 For a new message, a new medium is required. Similarly, the Gospel urges that new wineskins be found in which to store new wine. Realizing that the translation of Gospel truths into everyday language warranted a new format and idiom, Marguerite presides over the marriage in narrative of theology and decorative arts, forging an innovative composition and technique. Evangelical artists of the period incorporated objects into narrative in order to illustrate the didactic and moral focus of a spiritual truth. The Lutheran Albrecht Dürer’s engraving of Knight, Death and Devil (1513), for instance, embodies concerns that echo those that Marguerite develops in her narrative. The Dürer image derives from a text, Erasmus’s evangelical Enchiridion, or Manual of the Christian Soldier, which, like the Heptaméron, relies extensively on objects and artifacts, delineates a landscape within the narrative, and is didactic in tone. Considerable interdisciplinary collaboration thus existed among evangelicals working in an array of artistic media at this time.3 Martin Luther also encouraged the use of anecdote for the teaching and discussion of biblical scenes.4 Art could be a vehicle for faith, abolishing what Calvin, among other 78 Chapter Three Reformed theologians, had seen as an art/faith dichotomy.5 The incorporation of daily-life artifacts in Marguerite’s prose therefore offered a legitimate technique through which to dramatize spiritual truths. By incorporating things of the world into her narrative, as well as by retaining a creative ambivalence toward them, Marguerite could obey the Gospel mandate to be both in this world yet not of it. Evangelicalism encourages reference to daily life,6 perhaps because of its emphasis on the priesthood of all believers and the vocation of the laity. Material objects associated with the exercising of one’s calling in the world could thereby have instrumental significance.7 The fifteenth-century ars nuova in Northern European painting prefigured this emphasis on dailylife experience. A shift in the focus of artistic activity occurred around 1500 north of the Alps: efforts centered increasingly on the production of artifacts, with heightened interest in illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, increasingly life-like sculpture , detailing on tombs, ornate pulpits, and jewel-inlaid devotional images. The stylistic alterations demonstrated by such artists were “based on a clear observation of the physical world … [with] more time and attention [given to] the particulars of their earthly existence … [increased] visual realism is evident.”8 Evangelicals borrowed from this focus and technique . Of necessity, to some extent, the new media crossed borders between belief systems; not all artists espousing novel approaches to textual exposition were evangelicals or Protestants . However, the contours of certain artistic developments put to service in the evangelical program began to appear. Evangelicals endeavored to articulate their version of truth and tried to find a particular voice and style fitting to evangelicalism ’s message. Interdisciplinary collaboration is a hallmark of this venture. In addition, the ability to display two levels or layers of meaning—earthly reality and heavenly ideal—is characteristic of evangelical artistic production.9 An example of prose that applied the Gospel paradigmatically to everyday experience is Willem van Branteghem’s Dat Leven ons heeren (Antwerp, 1537). This text, called a Gospel “Harmony ,” includes more than 200 woodcuts framed by a foreword instructing the reader in how to apply scriptural lessons to daily life. Its teachings are especially strong on the evangelical doc- 79 A New Medium for a New Message trines of sola gratia and sola fidei.10 Marguerite similarly benefits from the latitude implicit in the evangelical perspective ,11 concluding that things of the world in and of themselves are not flawed; rather, human lust for, and inappropriate use of, those things can render them problematic. Marguerite’s perspective coincides with, and profits from, productivity in the field of decorative arts.12 With this new emphasis on decorative arts came several new artistic...