0.8 Making the cognitive turn in art history: a case study  (Page 8/17)

Following his sources, Wernher’s first poem goes on to describe the situation of Anne and Joachim twenty years after the marriage ceremony. They are still childless, a failure that a legal scholar interprets as due to God’s curse and therefore justification for sending Joachim away from the Temple (Fig. 5). The miniature emphasizes physical responses that engage theory of mind to understand the emotions of the characters. Joachim recoils physically from the scholar’s gesture and glance and, it appears, the words on his banderole: “Go away from here—you are accursed. God does not want your offerings” [Strich uz du bist verfluochet. / dines opfers got nîene ruchet]. The motion of the banderole from right to left seems to push Joachim back; as Messerer notes, “the banderole itself says, ‘Out’. . . .” Messerer, 449. To read the words on the banderole, the reader-viewer must literally turn the book upside down, as if to enact the total disruption of Joachim’s life resulting from the rejection of his offering. Such manipulation of the book makes reader-viewers aware of their own bodies even as they engage with the bodily experiences of others; it ensures that the sensorimotor system stays actively involved in perception.

Anne interpreted Joachim’s departure as desertion of her and responded bodily: “The beautiful and good Lady Anne became pale and wan. Her bright color disappeared as her joy died” [do muse erbleichen danne / div schone vnd gute froe Anne/ ir liehtiv varwe uerdarp, / al ir frode erstarp; ll. 495-98]. In the miniature on folio 14r (Fig. 6), Anne, who has taken to her bed, accuses her maid of neglecting her. In a clash of banderoles that visualizes their lack of agreement, the woman replies, “It will be just of me to abandon you, for even your own husband spurns you” [Ich sol dih billiche lan. / dih versmahet ioh din selbes man]. Again the book must be turned, the maid’s upside-down words physically representing the inversion of the social hierarchy. Wernher’s presentation of this marriage offers to the book’s most likely owner—a noble laywoman—insights into both a marital relationship and the society within which it functions, as well as into the couple’s shame at infertility and joy when angels inform them that she has conceived. The poet and illustrator portray Anne and Joachim as eager to marry, marrying at the expected age in their society, and living in a normative marriage. They are sexually active and expect children, but are childless, for which they are rejected by their society until God intervenes and they have a daughter, Mary, whom they give to the Temple at the age of three. This extended portrait contrasts in significant ways with the next marriage the manuscript presents.

Wernher’s second poem begins with a description of Mary’s growing reputation in Jerusalem, as judged in physical terms: she “glowed like the sun” [erluhte sam div sunne; l. 1295]; “her face was so virtuous, her eyes so regal, her bearing so pure” [ir antlutze was so tugentliche, / ir ǒgen also kunchliche, ir gebaerde also reine; ll. 1297-99]. This text thus encourages the reader-viewer to actively perceive Mary’s large golden halo in the miniatures (Fig. 7) as visible radiant light indicative of the highest virtues, a perception that may be followed by understanding it as a symbol of saintliness. The poet continues to point out Mary’s visible bodily radiance throughout the poem, and the miniatures reinforce visually both her “high status” and her “exceptional powers.” Boyd (221) points out that epic poetry focuses on “highly memorable characters,” especially those of “high status or exceptional powers or both.” Both text and miniatures in the Cracow manuscript develop the character of Mary along these lines.