A motif found in the alba amicorum. It derives from a woodcut illustration made by Hans Weiditz in Von der Artzney beider Gluck (Augsburg,1532), a German translation of Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortunae. The lover saws through a branch growing out of his heart; the branch bears a heart, a miniature Venus and a bearded male head [his own! As also on the glass pane & in Meisner– whereas in the album images the head seems to be that of a woman]. Radical surgery to cure the pangs of love!
I’m aware of 6 album miniatures dating from the decade a.1617-1628, but the earliest example is on a glass pane painted in 1610.
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from Von der artzney bayder gluck (Augsburg 1532)detail of PREVIOUSfrom the Trostpiegel … (Frankfurt 1572, 1584, etc.). The Latin and German epigraphs were copied by Meisner (next) and on the 1610 glass pane (below)from Daniel Meisner, Thesaurus Philo-Politicus (Frankfurt, 1624-6) Rintelia = Rinteln in Lower Saxony. As on the glass pane of 1610 [BELOW] the Latin and German verses are from the Petrarch detail of PREVIOUS
This is probably the earliest album example known to me, but I have no image of it — description above from the amazing, indispensable Repertorium Alborum Amicorum [RAA] https://raa.gf-franken.de/de/recherche.html
Curious! Official souvenir postcard printed to celebrate Leipzig University’s Jubillee in 1909! Even curiouser — I can’t find any record of a Melchior Eck or Eccius in RAA
from the album of Gottlieb/Amadeus Schwarz, page dated 1621. RAA entry
page dated [16]22. Evidently from the (no longer known) album of a Georgio a Cruce — his arms (top right), as commissioned by Jacobus ?Heller. Advertised for sale on Instagram by Sanctuary Rare Books of New Yorkfrom the album of Frans Rosenberg album, adjacent page dated 1620. Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, NKS 2090 h, 4°, f.249r.from the album of Johann Jacob Sparn, this page dated 1628. Stuttgart, WLB, cod. hist. oct. 183, f.204r. But such radical heart surgery comes with warning! The Latin label beside the image reads, Sic amor ex corde none sine detrimento [(to remove) love from the heart thus is not without harm]
Other media
painted glass pane dated 1610. Fribourg, Switzerland, Museum fur Kunst und Geschichte, Inv. Nr. MAHF 2451. The Latin and German verses are from the Petrarch translation (above)
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