The Bird of Self-Knowledge. Der Vogel Selbsterkenntnis.

This is the (?Germanic) motif of the grotesque which is composed of a long-necked bird’s head which bends down to bite the nose of the (human) head in its breast. Weirdsville! The naming of the nose is important in the German verbal idiom, sich an die eigenen Nase fassen [to grasp oneself by the nose/to tweak one’s own nose]. In German the figure is known as Der Vogel Selbsterkenntnis [see the great Lutz Röhrich’s seminal Lexikon der Sprichwortlichen Redensarten]. The way in which this is to be understood is explained by the Italian proverbial couplet which captions the image in the Springenschmidt album (below) which may be translated as, “Don’t talk about me unless you know me well, think of yourself before you talk about me”. It is often accompanied by the injunction to ‘Know yourself’. Here again the album painters appear to be breaking new ground, their miniatures being now the earliest known examples of the motif (1619) — the fact that at least 5 examples antedate the earliest extant print of the subject (below), suggests the existence of an earlier print no longer known.

In other media one of the panels of the painted ceiling of the church at Martinjak near Cerknica in Slovenia bears our motif and, though evidently re-painted, is dated 1621 (see below).

from the album of Daniel Schelling, this page dated 1619. Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Stb 122, p.183

description of the album of Hans Heintze, dated entries 1619-22. Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Gerd-Bucerius-Bibliothek, RAR Pers / Heintze 1619

from the album of Ulrich Springenschmidt, dated entries 1615-29, adjacent page dated 1627. Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, ms Thott 417

from the album of Caspar Sagittarius, dated entries 1618-28. Jena, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Stb. 6, image 504

from the album of Burchart Grossmann, dated entries 1624-36. Den Haag, KB, 133 c 14, f.189

from the album of Christoph Felber, dated entries 1642-62. Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Stb 34

from the album of Abraham Regulus, this page dated 1647. Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Oct. Lat. 161, f.156r.

The above entry in the album of Abraham Regulus is signed and dated by the painter Heinrich Hieronimus Hercules who describes himself as Maller zu Rab, i.e. painter from Rab, the Slovakian name for the city of Győr in northwest Hungary. It is thanks to contributors to the Reddit/Kurrent forum I am able to say that the inscription is in Slovakian:

Wssem Se w Swetie Nezachowass
Neb Se dobře, Neb zle chowass.

and means ‘Whether you behave well or badly, you’ll still never manage to please everyone’.

entry by Pachelbel, the composer, in the album of an Altdorf student, dated 1676. private collection

from the album of Johann Septimus Jörger von Tollet, dated entries 1630-71. Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Stb 367, f.127r.

from the album of F.S. Bastein, this page dated 1748. Sold Koller auction, 22 Sept 2008, lot 2705

prints

This seems to be the earliest print version of the motif. This impression is in the GNM [HB23822] with no imprint information, but dated by the Museum “1640-50” — which looks rather too early by about half a century to me! And I see that Fraenger associated it with the Augsburg publisher, Joseph Friedrich Leopold, born 1668, so hardly likely to be publishing much before 1700.