The Ideal Image: Studies in Writing for the German Court, 1616-1705 by Sara Smart
2007; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 102; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/mlr.2007.0463
ISSN2222-4319
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies on Spain
ResumoII72 Reviews In spite of thevery suggestive dialogue established with Dicenta's contemporaries as to thevalue and importance of his writing, thisvery useful book would have been furtherenhanced by amore complete discussion of the reasons why Dicenta's literary production was unjustly ignored and, therefore, forgotten.Although throughout the book we findglimmers of themotives underlying the critical rejection of his work, I would have liked to see a theoretical elaboration of the ideological or discursive tenets upon which the dismissal of his work was built. Nevertheless, Joaquin Dicenta is a valuable book which brings to the fore yet another important author who has been excluded from the canon of Spanish literature. UNIVERSITY OFWISCONSIN-MADISON ALDA BLANCO The Ideal Image: Studies inWriting for theGerman Court, I6I6-I705. By SARA SMART. (Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur, i6o) Berlin: Weidler. 2005. 370 pp. E52. ISBN 978-3-89693-441-3. The emperors, monarchs, princes, and nobility of earlymodern Europe worked hard on representing theirmajesty. Drawing on the imagination and literarymodels of antiquity (Virgil's Aeneid), on the heritage of themedieval era (whether Arthurian fantasies or Hohenstaufen realities), and emulating the entertainments of the Italian courts, northern European rulers refined the traditions and ideas of the past to fit theirpurposes. The Habsburg emperor Maximilian Iwas praised by humanist poets and portrayed by the likes of Durer. Munich witnessed itsdynastic wedding of the century in 1568, one visited byDr Faustus. Imperial Prague under Rudolf II shone ingrandeur fromhigh on a hill, and inStuttgart Nicodemus Frischlin and his brother elevated theirLutheran dukes by having Julius Caesar and Cicero laud the glories of their territory. Researchers in this fieldofKulturgeschichte work in amulti-disciplinary manner: theymust be as interested in theRingelrennen as inmusic and the ballet, as focused on projections of classical myth as on iconographic allegories, as knowledgeable about dynastic concerns as about specific political allusions. It is themanifold intricacies thatmake for themethodological challenge of such scholarship, and valuable studies have appeared in recent years,Mara R. Wade's Triumphus Nuptialis Danicus (Wies baden: Harrassowitz, I996) and Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly's Court Culture inDresden (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002) being but two standards of excellence. Sara Smart has a distinguished record of achievement in the field,but The Ideal Image trumps her previous work by virtue of itschronological sweep (i 6 i6-I 706) and territorial scope-the reader visits the courts of ducal Stuttgart, electoral Dresden and Heidelberg, ducal Braunschweig-Liineburg, and both electoral and royalBerlin. Each court is Protestant and each micro-history is by definition a contribution to Literaturgeschichte, since each is examined in terms of theHoffestbeschreibungen and panegyric texts of specific court poets-Weckherlin forStuttgart, Besser forBerlin. Typically, a chapter opens with a section on the socio-political or overall cultural setting of the court (e.g. 'The Stuttgart Court, theLutheran Tradition and Dynastic Prestige') followed by set-piece presentations and evaluations of particular texts (e.g. 'Besser's Depiction of Friedrich's Court and Residence in 1700'), which provide literaryexamples of 'the rhetoric of opulence' (p. 295). The reader shares inSmart's fascination and comes away impressed by thewell-researched insightsgained: she is as much at home in thearchives as she is familiarwith theextensive secondary literature. The book iswell written, even if the reader becomes exhausted by yet another explication of yet another mythological allusion. The reader might wish for a few illustrations as ameaningful embellishment, for they representmajesty asmuch as do MLR, 102.4, 2007 1 I73 the literary texts.The monograph makes an especially important contribution by its focus on theLandesmutter. Saxony's electress, forexample, is given her proper due (pp. 133-42) and Elizabeth Stuart, the consort ofHeidelberg's hapless duke, must have been the 'Princess Di' of the era, a 'Diana in der hellen Nacht' asWeckherlin called her (p. 62). The helpful excursus on Besser as court poet establishes a typology of sorts (pp. 234-48), one which is implicit in all the chapters, defining the early modern Hofdichter. Smart's work fulfilsthepanegyric imperative of the era: her text praises princes by analysing their ideal(ized) image once again. UNIVERSITY OFCINCINNATI RICHARDE. SCHADE Deutsche Liebeslyrik im I5. und i6. Jahrhundert: I8. Medidvistisches Kolloquium des Zentrums furMittelalterstudien der Otto...
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