Maerten van Heemskerck’s Heliodorus Driven from the Temple: Translatio and the Interrogative Print

Abstract

This chapter discusses the painting Heliodorus Driven from the Temple by Maerten van Heemskerck. Heemskerck's design for his print of the Temple purification episode from 2 Maccabees retains the composition of Raphael's Vatican painting of the same episode but revises myriad details. The print's departures from its Vatican prototype provided discursive loci for a diverse, interconnected audience and highlighted crucial relationships between European religious politics and visual and literary interpretations of scripture. The print thus goes beyond imitatio and emulatio to embody a multivalent translatio , the interrogation and revision of received authority. Heemskerck's Heliodorus neither 'reproduces' Raphael's painting, nor reinvents the same episode from Maccabees with a new composition. Finally, the print extols the visualization of biblical text via close looking and referentiality, analogs to close reading and typology. Heemskerck's Heliodorus Driven from the Temple interrogates the very nature of judicious exegesis. Keywords: 2 Maccabees; Heliodorus Driven from the Temple; judicious exegesis; Maerten van Heemskerck; Raphael's Vatican painting; translatio