Art, illusion, and recycled images in Johannes Pauli’s anecdotes on painters

Abstract

This article considers selected book illustrations that were published in the 1530s by Augsburg printer Heinrich Steiner. It compares Steiner’s choice of images for Schimpff und Ernst (1534), a popular anthology of entertaining and serious anecdotes compiled by the Franciscan preacher Johannes Pauli, with woodcuts that Steiner had previously employed in newly translated, moral–philosophical texts by Cicero and Petrarch. Although all three texts problematize the art of painting according to classical and medieval narratives, which urge caution in viewing lifelike images, each proposes diverse solutions for regarding illusionistic works of art. Whereas prior studies focus on the intentions of individual authors, this article highlights the printer–publisher’s agency. One image recycled in disparate works speaks to art’s multifaceted functions for upper-class, lay readers. This article argues that Steiner’s selection of images inserts Pauli’s chapter on artists and illusionistic painting into ongoing debates in Reformation-era Germany about the proper role of images in religious ritual. This cross-reading of image–text pairings in the early 1530s offers insights into the complexity of period attitudes towards visual art, the painter’s profession, and the beholder’s responsibilities.