Otto van Veen (1556-1629): 'Amoris divini emblemate...', Antwerpen, Plantijndruk, 1660

4to.

Full title: 'Amoris divini emblemata, studio et aere Othonis Vaeni concinnata'.

Gilt spine with five raised bands. Printed by Balthasar Moretus. Title + 60 pl.

Otto van Veen (or Otto Vaenius ) was trained as a painter and humanist. He was born in Leiden in 1556. In 1572, because of the political situation, he fled to the Southern Netherlands with his family. In Liege he studied for a few years under Dominicus Lampsonius, then left for a five-year stay in Italy. After his return to the Southern Netherlands he stayed in Liege, Brussels and then settled in Antwerp. In each of these locations, he always tried to maintain favour with the Court. Until the return of his pupil Rubens from Italy, Vaenius was the leading painter in Antwerp. In his later years he turned to producing emblem books, notably Q. Horatii Flacci emblemata (1607), Amorum emblemata and Amoris divini emblemata. In 1612 he was appointed Master of the Archducal Mint. He moved to Brussels in 1615, where he died in 1629 (link).

The Amoris divini emblemata was published in 1615 (second edition: 1660). In the intro to the book, Vaenius  relates how the archduchess Isabella suggested his earlier love emblems (Amorum emblemata, 1608) might be reworked ‘in a spiritual and divine sense.’ After all, ‘the effects of divine and human love are, as to the loved object, nearly equal.’ Both books indeed look very similar. Formally, the emblems are very much alike in structure: on the left-hand page first a Latin motto, then a group of quotations in Latin, and finally verses in several vernacular languages, on the right-hand page the picture. The visual unity of Amorum emblemata, established among other things by the presence of the Cupid figure on all emblems but one is echoed in Amoris divini emblemata in the ubiquitous presence of Amor Divinus and the soul (conveniently identified as such in the second emblem, link).

Ref.:

- Praz, p. 526 note.

- Brunet V, p. 1025.

- Landwehr, Low Countries 702.